HomeARC ML 2211 3
WHAT IF?--Part 3! DO 2211-3 6/86
--I May Live Through the Tribulation!
1. WHEN I GET SUCH AN AMAZING BIT OF NEWS FROM THE LORD I WANT TO TELL ALL OF YOU TOGETHER! Well, I've got a lot to figure out yet. The Lord gives you something in a flash & then you have to start putting the things together. PTL! You may find out that this is an historical morning! I'm wondering if you're going to be able to stand what I have to tell you! I'm wondering if you're going to be able to take it! I believe this morning it's urgent, & enough of an emergency & a revelation to call you together to drop the bomb, to shake you up & wake you up to realise how little time we have left! You're looking downright scared now! Don't be afraid, it's good news!
BIBLE TRANSLATIONS!
2. I THINK WE CAN SUPPORT EVERYTHING WE TEACH BY THE BIBLE, INFERRED OR OTHERWISE! And if not, then it's a modern revelation. What I'm going to tell you about this morning, I believe the Bible supports it! I believe by interpretation we can get that meaning, that that's what it means, or could mean. But I'm not going to be dogmatic about it.
3. YOU CAN BELIEVE THIS OR THAT OR THE OTHER, or what this guy teaches or what that guy teaches or what this group believes, you don't have to take my opinion! But this is my opinion, although I can't prove it so conclusively to you from the Bible, & you can't actually read it in plain language right out of the Bible. And there's a lot of Bible Prophecy especially that requires interpretation.
4. HOW MANY OF YOU UNDERSTOOD BIBLE PROPHECY BEFORE YOU GOT IN THE FAMILY & HAD IT INTERPRETED FOR YOU? Very few people, very few Christians, very few church people in the World understand it at all! I'll have to say that the only reason you Catholics didn't get basic Bible Prophecy is because you didn't read your Bible! Because at least in both the Confraternity, which is the new Paulist Bible, & the old Douay Catholic Bible, you got Bible prophecy pretty straight! I've used both to compare notes when I was studying Bible Prophecy & trying to learn what it meant. Naturally I would read up on everybody that ever had anything to say about it or even taught about it at all, or gave some idea or some interpretation!
5. THE OLD DOUAY BIBLE, THE OLDEST BIBLE OF THE CATHOLICS, WAS THE PREDOMINANT BIBLE WHEN I WAS YOUNG. They still hadn't published the "Confraternity of Christian Doctrine" edition, which was a modern version.--Which, by the way, was very evangelical & really talked about genuine Salvation & had lots of notes to explain things. Even Daniel & Revelation were beautifully explained, the basic teaching the same as I've taught you, believe it or not, the basics about the Image & the Beast etc. being certain governments & past governments, etc.
6. BELIEVE IT OR NOT, THESE HAVE BEEN STANDARD CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES THROUGH THE AGES! These interpretations of Daniel & Revelation & Matthew have been standard, basic doctrines. I'm talking about the basic central doctrines of the Empires of Daniel 2 & 7, & the Coming of the Lord of Matthew 24 & the various Endtime events of Revelation etc. These have been basic doctrines that you can find the interpretation of in the old Douay Bible! First it was actually a French translation & was then translated into English later. But it was a French translation of the old Bible called the Latin Vulgate, clear back in 400 A.D. or so!--Which was the first Bible actually in the language of the common people, the Latin Vulgate, meaning the vulgar language of the common people, Latin, the common language of the Roman Empire!
7. UP TO THAT TIME THE ONLY BIBLES THEY HAD WERE GREEK & HEBREW--Hebrew first--& then finally some smart Greek scholars got together, 70 of them, in Alexandria, Egypt, & decided that the World during the Greek Empire--this was even before the Christian era--needed the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament. They needed it in Greek, not just in Hebrew, because Greek was the World language, the international language. So these 70 Jewish-Hebrew scholars, got together & translated the Bible into Greek! Now I'm getting off into a Bible Knowledge class here, but you've got to understand some of these things because we're talking about Bible interpretation, Scriptural interpretation, prophecy.
8. THEREFORE THAT GREEK BIBLE, THE FIRST REAL INTERNATIONAL BIBLE EVER TRANSLATED FROM THE HEBREW INTO GREEK, THE OLD TESTAMENT, WAS CALLED THE SEPTUAGINT, from the 70 scholars. Any of you who know anything about Latin know that that signifies 70. The Septuagint simply meant it was interpreted & written by 70 scholars, it stood for 70. That was the first international Bible in any other language besides Hebrew, & that was back in the Alexandrian period, somewhere that far back, two or three hundred years before Christ.
9. ISN'T THAT WONDERFUL THAT THEY HAD A BIBLE THEN, AT LEAST IN GREEK, the common language of all the people, the international language of the civilised World of that day, like English is today! They already had the Scripture at least in Greek, not just Hebrew.
10. THE NEXT MAJOR TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE AFTER THAT WAS GUESS WHAT? You know your Empires, what was the next major Empire that ruled the World after the Greek Empire? (Fam: Rome.)--Rome! What was their language? (Fam: Latin.) But mind you, the Bible was not translated into the common international language of the common man, Latin, until the Latin Vulgate Bible, about 400 years after Christ!
11. I HAVE A BETTER MEMORY FOR HISTORICAL EVENTS & DATES THAN I HAVE FOR PEOPLE'S NAMES, SAD TO SAY! When I first meet people I'm so busy studying their face & analysing their personality & discerning their spirit, that the name doesn't even sink in! It's their face, their spirit, their personality that sinks in! And in the spirit I analyse them, who they really are, what they really are! The name is not important to me.--Sad to say! That's a fault! I should be more careful about the name. Because right after I've met'm, somebody could ask me their name & I wouldn't remember it. But I can remember their face & their personality & sense their spirit from then on!
12. BUT I THINK YOU'VE FOUND I DO HAVE A PRETTY GOOD MEMORY FOR DATES & FIGURES, especially figures like yours & yours & some of yours!--And events of history, etc., because it was my favourite study, I really soaked it in! And it was important, because in order to understand Bible Prophecy you must know history. Otherwise you don't know whether the event has already happened or is still yet to happen! You don't know whether it's fulfilled or it's unfulfilled! So you've got to know history!
13. WHEN READING THE BIBLE, I'D WONDER, "HAS IT ALREADY HAPPENED OR IS IT YET TO HAPPEN? That prophecy that the Prophet uttered against that empire or Israel or whatever, did it already happen?" Of course, some of them obviously haven't happened yet because they were cataclysmic Endtime things! But to find out if they'd ever happened I had to go back in history! So I just ate up history, ancient history, World history, & you have to have that & know that to understand. This is sort of like a class in the review of Biblical prophetic interpretation, because this is a major thing I'm about to drop on you this morning!
14. BUT THE VULGATE BIBLE WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT OF THE LATIN TRANSLATIONS. It was the first general complete Bible translation into Latin for the common people. Just think, the Roman Empire was in power when Jesus was born, & yet the poor Romans never got the Bible in their language for 400 years! Only the elite, the educated, the professionals & the officers knew Greek, the language of culture, the language of art, the language of music, the language of philosophy, the language of religion, & could read the Bible in Greek.
15. JUST THINK, THE ONLY BIBLE WHICH THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH WAS ABLE TO USE WITH THE LATINS, THE ROMANS, WAS A GREEK BIBLE, & ONLY THE EDUCATED COULD READ IT!--Except, of course, the Jews, who had their Scriptures in these huge scrolls that were cumbersome & bulky & which they practically worshipped & they couldn't very well carry around in their hip pocket & go out witnessing!
PROPHETIC INTERPRETATION!
16. THERE ARE THREE MAJOR SCHOOLS OF PROPHETIC INTERPRETATION. I have to go back into this to help you understand, from A to Z, Genesis to Revolution! It's a Revolution! Now I'm talking about prophetic interpretation. I went into all that to talk about the Latin Vulgate & the Douay Bible by the Catholic church, & that all of these basic central fundamental interpretations of Bible Prophecy were right there for hundreds of years in the Douay Catholic Bible! They teach, in fact, straighter than the fundamentalist Evangelicals today. They teach that the Antichrist & the Tribulation are going to come first before the Coming of Christ!
17. THEY TEACH A SECOND COMING & THEY TEACH THE MILLENNIUM, THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON EARTH! They teach about the Antichrist, they're strong on that, teach about the Tribulation, they're strong on that, & that Jesus is going to come & save the Church out of the Tribulation & set up His Kingdom of Christ on Earth through them. Of course, they think that's going to be the Catholic church. You've got to kind of sift out some of their interpretation from the central truths. But at least they're that straight & there are very few Evangelical denominations today that teach that.
18. THE BASIC PROPHETIC INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLE, THE MAIN IDEAS, HAVE BEEN IN THE SCRIPTURE, in the church, & been there for centuries. Of course, if you understood, they were even in the old Hebrew Bible. They even teach about the Antichrist etc.
19. BUT IN HISTORY THERE WAS A GUY, ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES, A SYRIAN WHO CAME DOWN & CONQUERED ISRAEL & BEFOULED THE TEMPLE & THE ALTAR. He tried to blaspheme the Jews' religion & their God, so that in order to really offend them he sacrificed a sow on the altar, a pig, which was to them the abomination of abominations! In fact, they called that the Abomination of Desolation! And they call him the Antichrist because he temporarily stopped Jewish worship & sacrifice & polluted the altar!
20. WELL, HE WAS CERTAINLY A TYPE OF THE ANTICHRIST, A LITTLE PROTOTYPE OF THE ANTICHRIST. But good night, you cannot possibly fit all the prophecies there in the last part of Daniel to Antiochus Epiphanes, who was clear back in the days just following Alexander the Great! But the Jews in their commentaries are pretty much convinced that he was the Antichrist, & that that's all history now.
21. IN FACT, THE HISTORICIST SCHOOL IS THE LARGEST SCHOOL OF PROPHETIC INTERPRETATION, amongst what you might call the modernists or the old-line established churches, even the Catholic Church. Much of them believe that all of that is passed. Not only the empires are passed & all those things are passed, it's all historical, it's already happened.
22. EXCEPT FOR THE CATHOLICS, GIVE THEM CREDIT FOR THAT, THEY STILL BELIEVE THE ANTICHRIST IS YET TO COME, along with the coming of the Tribulation & the coming of Christ & the Millennium! God bless'm, they're straight on that! But you didn't know that, did you? They never taught you that, did they? They never taught you anything about Bible Prophecy. Isn't that sad? But that's your fault, you didn't read your Catholic Bible, because it's right there! The interpretation & all the footnotes are right there to tell you who each of these characters are.
23. OF COURSE, THEY GET A LITTLE BIT OFF HERE & THERE, YOU KNOW, LIKE THAT GUY IN THE INSANE ASYLUM. The guide took them around & explained everybody's problem & what their illusion was, what their dementia was. They said, "You know, this guide is one of the inmates." They asked, "What's the matter with him?" They said, "Oh, you'll find out!" And he finally got to this other inmate & he says, "Can you imagine? This guy here thinks he's Napoleon! But how could he be Napoleon when I'm Napoleon!"
24. AND THAT'S ABOUT THE WAY IT IS WITH SOME OF THESE DENOMINATIONS! You go along reading & think, "Boy, this is great, they've really got it all straight!" I used to read the Catholic Bible, I used to read the Seventh-day Adventist literature, Jehovah's Witnesses literature, & they've got lots of things great, straight! Especially the Seventh-day Adventists, they've got the Tribulation & the Antichrist coming soon & then the Lord's going to save us out of it by the Second Coming, the real genuine Rapture! They've got the whole thing straight! And they believe in the Heavenly City too! They sure gave some awful poor representations of it, though, in even their beautiful colour art, Bible & all that stuff. Nothing like ours! We've got the real thing & I still believe in it, that's not going to change this morning!
CHANGES IN DOCTRINE & SCHOOLS OF INTERPRETATION!
25. WITH WHAT I HAVE TO TELL YOU THIS MORNING, REALLY I'M NOT CHANGING ANYTHING BASICALLY, I'M JUST PRESSING THE FAST BUTTON! Our kids are so technologically trained nowadays that they speak in the language of the video machine or the computer. They speak in the language of the machinery they've learned to use!
26. WELL, WE HAVE FOUND THAT SOMETIMES THESE GROUPS ARE STRAIGHT ON THE BASICS, BUT WHEN YOU COME TO LITTLE THINGS like how could he be Napoleon, how could Caesar have been the Antichrist when Napoleon was the Antichrist, they're a little off! And later Hitler was the Antichrist or Mussolini was the Antichrist or Antiochus Epiphanes was the Antichrist! They've been trying to pinpoint the Antichrist for I don't know how long!
27. OF COURSE, WE KNOW WHO THE ANTICHRIST IS! At least you think you know! We don't know the actual person yet, but we know all the characteristics & the prophecies about him & how he's to rise & how we're to recognise him & know him & the time of the Tribulation & all of these things, we really think we know it all!--Till all of a sudden the Lord drops a bomb & He's pressed the fast button & He's skipped a whole lot we don't need to know & plunged us right into something new which is a lot more clear & shows us more, clearer than ever before!
28. HAS HE DONE THAT WITH SEVERAL THINGS WE USED TO BELIEVE? I warned you about this when I started the classes on Bible Prophecy last year. I said, I warn you, be careful you don't bring some of your icons of our traditional interpretation into this class & find out they're going to get all busted up! Because God's given us more recent revelations, more up-to-date revelations, & a wise man is wiser tomorrow than he was yesterday! You'd better be open-hearted, open-minded, willing to accept new truth that supersedes the old truth! You may have to run your video back a little bit & start a new recording that will erase the old one! We've done that on two or three basic doctrines.--Nothing fundamental, really, they're minor details. Of course, they affect us so much since we're living in this day, so they're pretty important!
29. ONE OF THE PROPHETIC SCHOOLS OF INTERPRETATION IS THE HISTORICIST, THAT CLAIMS THAT NEARLY ALL PROPHECY HAS BEEN FULFILLED ALREADY. They even claim a lot of stuff in Revelation is already fulfilled. Well, some of it we know is fulfilled, especially some of those first chapters which give the whole sweep of history. The Historicists are also called the Preterit, which you know means past tense in English grammar. Schools had different names for the same thing & it was really confusing! Well, denominations & Bible teachers do that too.
30. BUT YOU'VE GOT TO GET YOUR BASIC IDEAS STRAIGHT, & I THINK YOU'RE ALL PRETTY STRAIGHT ON THE BASICS, BACK TO THE BASICS! I don't think any of our changes have destroyed your basic beliefs. Our first basic change was waking up to the fact that the Jews were no longer God's chosen people & Israel was not the Promised Land, but you weren't all that crazy about the Jews even before you joined the Family, it's just that I was! And you can find it in some of my old talks. We kind of weeded it out & tried to scrub it up & clean it up in some of my old "Bible in Pictures" lessons, etc., where I was still gung-ho & wild about the Jews! We had to kind of clean up some of that stuff! But anyway, the Lord sure cured me of that!
31. THAT WAS A MAJOR CHANGE FOR ME, NOT FOR MOST OF YOU! How many of you were in a church that taught that the Jews were still God's chosen people & Israel was still the Promised Land?--A few of you who were in more-or-less Evangelical churches or Fundamentalist churches. Of course, most of the rest of you never went to church anyhow! See, we didn't have to [EDITED: "teach"] too many of you folks about the Jews & about Israel! But that was a major change for me because I was all gung-ho for the Jews & Israel & I was on my way there & I got there too!--Much to my dismay! But thank God, it took a trip to Israel to cure me & I soon saw that was no Promised Land & those people were anything but God's people! (See ML #66.) So I think that was the most basic change I ever had to go through.
32. I THINK PROBABLY THE MOST BASIC CHANGE IN DOCTRINE THAT YOU FOLKS HAVE HAD TO GO THROUGH IS ONLY FAIRLY RECENT, WHEN WE JUST MOVED THE ATOMIC WAR OFF A LITTLE BIT FURTHER. Well, we haven't said the Atomic War is not going to happen, we've not said it's not going to happen the way it says it's going to happen & to whom it's going to happen, how it's going to happen & why it's going to happen! But the Lord has just changed our date on the timetable a little bit & shown us that there are a few other things that have to happen first!
33. SO YOU'VE NOT HAD TO MAKE ANY BASIC CHANGE IN DOCTRINE, such as, for example, the Historical school, who say it's all been fulfilled. It's also called the Preterit school. Then there's the Futurist school, & that's Scofield. They say Revelation's all in the future, all yet to happen, nothing's happened yet! He does teach about Daniel & the history of the Empires, that's fulfilled in the past, but Revelation is all future. They're called the Futurists.
34. WE ARE A SENSIBLE COMBINATION OF THE TRUTHS OF BOTH SCHOOLS! We see the Bible as it is & what it says, & we take literally what can be taken literally, & we only interpret what cannot be taken literally. We only interpret spiritually what it is impossible to interpret literally. And my advice to you has always been what?--Always interpret literally whatever you can possibly take literally, even those locusts of Revelation & those monsters & all the rest! Well, why not? Why can't they be literal? My goodness, now you can see them on TV in all these horrible animations for children, teaching them about all these demonic monstrous fiendish horrors! They're horror stories for kids! No wonder they have nightmares, they're living in horror already! And that's another point that I'm going to bring out today, Lord willing.
35. THERE'S ALSO ANOTHER SCHOOL OF THOUGHT, THE LITERALISTS, which interpret the Bible pretty much the way we interpret the Bible, & even the way Scofield interprets the Bible, even the way he interprets Revelation, that it's literal, it's going to happen that way, but he puts it all in the future. I don't know why he thinks the Lord should have told so much about that period when he doesn't expect to be here! Of course, he's not here now, he knows better now. He's Up There restudying Revelation! Ha!
36. I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF MAYBE HE'S THE ONE THAT HELPED ME GET IT STRAIGHTENED OUT! Because he was dead long before I really started to get deep into Bible Prophecy. Maybe he has used me to help straighten you out & some of the churches out! Of course, most of the churches haven't received it. But some of them have, & you will hear more teaching today of a post-Tribulation Rapture! What does that mean? (Fam: After the Tribulation.)--After the Tribulation, which is our doctrine, which is a Bible doctrine. How can they be right when we know we're right!--Ha!
37. IT'S GOOD TO TAKE YOURSELF WITH A LITTLE BIT OF HUMOUR! Don't get too dogmatic, don't get too dead-set on one little interpretation, especially something minor, some tiny little detail. We've got some complex, deep, hair-splitting prophetic interpreters around who write me long letters on some of these details that really keep me on my toes.--Mostly one guy who I have to forgive since he's working on the Endtime Bible & really needs to get some of these things straight! I mean, he's really got a mind, terrific! He's brilliant, analytical, & he knows the Word!--Every jot, tittle & little word etc.! And every now & then he jerks me up on my chronology & jerks me up on this or that, or "It can't be because that has to be," etc. But thank God he does it!
38. WHEN PEOPLE ASK YOU QUESTIONS, THEY HELP YOU TO GET DOWN TO BUSINESS & REALLY STUDY UP ON IT TO ANSWER'M! And recently he wrote me this long one-page letter that nobody's supposed to write me, you're only supposed to write me little notes this big, one side of the paper. His letter was this long, side-to-side, a full typewritten sheet! But I don't blame him, it was a heavy subject, & would be a major change in our prophetic interpretation, especially our chronological interpretation of coming events. (See "What If?", No.2211.)
39. AND HE WAS TRYING TO SHOW ME THAT MAYBE THE TRIBULATION WAS NOT GOING TO BE AS SOON AS WE THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO BE, according to the interpretation of some of the prophecies the Lord had given us, & the "70-Years Prophecy" the Lord gave my Mother, that the 70 years would pass, which later the Lord showed meant the years of my life. (See No.156.) At least that's the way I interpreted His revelation of those spirit knocks, in which the Lord knocked seven times seven on the side of the bed in which I was lying!--49 years, plus 21 years = 70.
40. I'VE ONLY HAD TWO EXPERIENCES LIKE THAT IN MY WHOLE LIFE--ALMOST LIKE A OUIJI BOARD, ONLY THAT'S OF THE DEVIL--IN WHICH MY HANDS MOVED AT THE IMPULSE OF THE SPIRIT. The other one was when my hand wrote in the dark a message about the FBI, wasn't it?--Something about J. Edgar Hoover being sort of the end of an era or something, & now the wicked U.S.A. would be turned over to its corruption & the Communists & all that sort of thing. I've forgotten just what it was. (See No.162.)
41. I FORGET THEM QUICKER THAN YOU DO, BECAUSE YOU READ'M! I'm so busy getting new ones & writing them down, I don't have time to read the old ones. Maybe it's just as well, because I get new ones that sometimes vary a little bit from the old ones! Then some say, "See, he's a false prophet! He said it was going to be so-&-so & now he's got a new idea & it's all changed & it's going to be something else!" It's not all changed, usually only some little infinitesimal detail, some little tiny little variation in chronology. That's not any basic change! It may be basic for you, it may be tremendous for you because you're living & you're going to be here & you are experiencing things like that now, but it's not important to the overall interpretation & the basics of Bible Prophecy which you know by heart & you teach & read & study.
LITERALISTS!
42. SO BOTH THE HISTORICISTS & THE FUTURISTS ARE ALSO CALLED LITERALISTS, WHO BELIEVE IN A LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLE.--Except that one school believes these events are all past, the other school believes that most of them are yet to happen! But there is another school they also nickname the Mauroists.--Not Maoists, after Mousy Dung! Nobody laughed! Mousy Dung & Chew-&-Lie were the two main leaders of the Maoist movement of Communist China. (Mao Tse-Tung & Chou En-Lai) Now all that stuff's been chucked out, but they still honour him & he was a great man.
43. EVEN AFTER KHRUSHCHEV CHUCKED OUT STALIN, THE RUSSIANS ARE FINALLY GETTING AROUND TO RECOGNISING HIM AS NOT JUST A ROTTER & A BAD GUY, BUT EVEN A GREAT HISTOR-ICAL CHARACTER OF RUSSIAN HISTORY. One of these days they're even going to recognise leaders like Marcos of the Philippines, for example, as having been a great historical figure! They even now recognise that the Czars were great kings of Russia!
44. WHEN THE CULTURE OF THE NATION GETS OLD ENOUGH TO BECOME MATURE & GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE, even though nobody's perfect & everybody has done some wrong & a lot of these guys were rotters & some of them were really bad, they begin to see that they did some good & that they occupied their prominent space in history. They can't even deny that Hitler existed & what an influence he had on history! They have to recognise history! The more they hate him & the more they go after the Nazis, the more they recognise him!
45. LIKE I'VE SAID ABOUT THE [EDITED: "ACS"], THEIR FAVOURITE CUSS WORD IS "JESUS CHRIST!" Every time I'd hear it, & every time I heard it in the army especially, I said, "Praise the Lord! He causes the wrath of man to praise Him!" (Psa.76:10) Every time they said "Jesus Christ" they were recognising that Jesus Christ existed & influenced history, even though they hate Him & don't believe in Him & they made Him a curse word!
46. SO A LITERALIST MEANS SOMEBODY WHO TAKES EVERYTHING LITERALLY! Now if you take everything I say literally, if you don't know the difference between when I'm funning & joking & being sarcastic or ironic or cynical or whatever you want to call it, then you're really going to come out of here with some terrible quotations! A lot of times I'm putting in quotes what other people have said or are saying or what they say about things & I'm poking fun at'm!
47. I HAD A GUY WHO GOT UP & STOMPED OUT OF ONE OF MY CLASSES ONCE UP IN NEW YORK because I said, "You've all gotten those little tracts on the streets, 'Do you want to go to Heaven?' You know what? You & I are not going to go to Heaven--Heaven's going to come to us!" Of course we are going to go to Heaven for awhile first & go back & forth & all that. But he wouldn't stop to let me explain. "Oh, this is heresy! This is false doctrine!" He got up & shouted & stomped out of the house! "This guy's a false prophet! He said we're not going to go to Heaven!" I don't think he even let me get as far as "Heaven's going to come to us!" I said, "You know what? You're not going to go to Heaven!"--And he got up & stomped out, he wouldn't listen to the explanation, he wouldn't stay long enough to hear the rest!
48. IF YOU TAKE EVERYTHING I SAY LITERALLY AS THE LETTER OF THE LAW & JUST ACCORDING TO THE LETTER & you don't get the humourous inference or the irony or the sarcasm or the quote, just putting it in my mouth long enough to show you what they believe or what they teach or what they say, you're going to come out of here with a lot of false doctrine! Because I'm just telling you what others have said & what others say & the false doctrines they teach! I sometimes quote'm & maybe it's a little hard for our poor typists to know what's in quotes & what isn't! Sometimes I have to add the quotes to show that I'm not saying it myself, I'm quoting somebody else!
49. POOR MAMA, SHE'S BEEN HAVING TO GET ALL THOSE PROPHECY LESSONS READY FOR PUBLICATION & SHE'S REALLY HAD A TOUGH TIME! God bless her, she's wading through'm, though, she's knocking'm out along with all our typists, editors & proofreaders. You ought to see, we've got a stack of GNs we haven't published yet with that whole course in Bible Prophecy! It's coming! But you here have already had it, you got the jump on the whole Family, just think! You had all those new interpretations & new revelations a year ago, & they're just now getting'm! Think of that! You have a certain privilege being here, you have a certain advantage, you get the news first! You get it hot from the horse's mouth!--Not hot off the press, but right here & now!
ARE YOU WILLING TO RECEIVE NEW TRUTHS?
50. BUT AS I TOLD YOU IN ONE OF THOSE CLASSES,YOU MUST NOT BE SO CLOSED-MINDED & SO DOGMATIC & SO ALMOST DICTATORIAL! (See No.1934, "Leave Yourself Open!") In fact, some of you critics in the Family are almost dictatorial, you fire back at me & try to dictate to me what I should be saying, "Because what you're saying now is not according to Hoyle, it contradicts what you said before, Dad! How can that be true?" Well, if it contradicts what I said before, so be it! I'm wiser today than I was yesterday & I've had more clear revelation today than I had then! I was seeing the best I could through a glass darkly at that time, but now the Lord has shown me more clearly & I see it more clearly & understand it better! (ICor.13:12)
51. ARE YOU WILLING TO RECEIVE NEW TRUTHS?--Not if your mind is closed & made up so you don't want to be confused with the facts! That's the easy way that most church people, most Christians, most Bible Prophecy students & teachers are stuck in, they've gotten settled in a rut & they don't like to be disturbed. That's why they don't like revolutions, they don't like new cults & isms, they don't like new interpretations, new concepts, new ideas, some of them don't even like our pictures & Posters! Because they challenge their previous interpretations of Heaven & Bible Prophecy, etc. "It's not what my church taught me, it's not what my Pastor said the Bible meant!" They don't want new truth, they want to stay stuck in their rut! They don't like the disruption, the upsetting, sudden confrontation with something new that contradicts what they already believe! And you're that way too! We're all that way!
52. WHEN THIS BEGAN TO DAWN ON ME, I DIDN'T LIKE IT! "My Lord, how am I going to explain that to the people?" It's really a minor thing. "How can I possibly shock'm like this?" Well, you know me, you know Aquarians, we love to shock people! We love to change the World! We love to jolt you out of your rut! We love to revolute! We do! Right?--Otherwise you'd never learn anything new! There would never be any new inventions or hardly anything if it weren't for Aquarians, & some of the rest of you entrepreneurs, in case you know that French word that's so popular! They use that all the time now. I don't know why they always get hung up on some new fancy word. I think people just want to show off that they've got something you don't understand, they've learned something you don't know, therefore they're superior to you. They know what "entrepreneurs" are, because they know the French word.
53. IT DOESN'T MEAN A DAMN THING EXCEPT THE OLD-FASHIONED INVENTOR OR PIONEER, OR A COMBINATION OF THE TWO, A PIONEERING INVENTOR. It simply means somebody that's got the pioneering spirit to get a vision of something new & faith to believe it & the gumption to try it & be the first, to initiate it, & the guts & the courage to try to see it through until they've suddenly got a great big new business!--Because they tried something new & it worked!
54. THAT'S NOT COUNTING ALL THE MILLIONS OF TIMES INVENTIONS DIDN'T WORK, experiments didn't work & the pioneering didn't work & the adventure didn't work & the exploration didn't find it, of which there are millions! You don't always hit it. But thank God, with a few they do. I think they're usually anointed, inspired by either God or the Devil!
55. I THINK MANY NEW MODERN INVENTIONS ARE INSPIRED BY THE DEVIL, INSTRUMENTS WITH WHICH HE'S DESTROYING THE WORLD, destroying the minds of men, destroying the hearts of children through things like television. But you see how God can turn around & use it for His glory? The Family uses it, we even make television, videos of the Family!
56. DON'T TELL ME THERE'S ANYTHING IN THIS WORLD THAT GOD CAN'T USE! Some churches throw out the piano & the organ & everything & don't have anything but vocal music because they say the Devil uses pianos in honky-tonks & bars, & organs in theatres & therefore they shouldn't have those things because they're used of the Devil! They don't have those in their churches, in the Free Methodist churches, by the way. They don't believe in that sort of thing. I understand lately they're getting a little more modern & a few of them have introduced organs.--Probably because they don't have theatres that play organs any more!
57. WHEN RADIO FIRST CAME IN, A LOT OF PASTORS PREACHED AGAINST RADIO, that it was a sin to have a radio in your house because it was the voice of the World & the Devil! Now those preachers are preaching on radio. In fact, now they're preaching on television! When TV first came in, you don't even remember that, I do! The preachers would preach against it! "Oh, it's the Devil! Not the voice of the Devil alone, now the sight of the Devil & all the World & worldliness! I wouldn't have one of those squawk boxes in my house! It's a sin!"
58. I'LL TELL YOU, I THINK PREACHERS HAVE BEEN MORE OBSTACLES TO PROGRESS THAN ALMOST ANYBODY! They really hate to change! They've been teaching something else all their lives & all of a sudden something comes along & contradicts them & they just are ashamed to admit they were wrong, too proud to admit it!--So they keep on!
59. THAT'S WHY MOST PEOPLE DON'T CHANGE, THEY'RE TOO PROUD TO ADMIT THAT THEY WERE WRONG OR TOO PROUD TO ADMIT THEY DIDN'T KNOW EVERYTHING! Something new comes along, God's new revelation, God's new Family or something else, & they say, "It can't be of God, it must be of the Devil! Because I never learned that, I never did that, I didn't know that, I didn't teach that, I didn't preach that, our church doesn't stand for that!"
60. THEY KICKED MY MOTHER & FATHER OUT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH BECAUSE HEALING WAS NOT ACCORDING TO THE STANDARDS & PRINCIPLES & THE DOCTRINES OF THEIR CHURCH! They didn't literally kick them out, they just as good as said, "Well, we'll give you another pastorate if you'll not talk about healing." Well, they couldn't possibly hold a pastorate & teach people & not talk about healing when my Mother's conversion was a result of her healing, or her healing was a result of her conversion!
61. THE CHURCH DIDN'T LIKE THAT MESSAGE EITHER ABOUT BEING BORN AGAIN & SAVED! They said all you had to do was join a church, joining the church would save you, not a personal experience with Jesus Christ. So what could my Mother & Father do? They didn't have to kick'm out, all they had to do was try to shut their mouths & tell'm they couldn't preach the truth, so they just left!
62. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WHEN I CHALLENGE YOU WITH SOMETHING NEW? If it really shakes you up & really kind of shakes your previous rut & some of your previous conceptions & convictions & things I have taught you, strictly, definitely, "This is gonna be that way & that's gonna be thus & so," & all of a sudden Dad has got something new!
63. I'LL SAY THIS FOR YOU, MOST OF YOU HAVE BEEN ABLE TO TAKE IT! We've had a few people that have been shaken & some have even gone back over some of our new revelations, especially FFing! Boy, that flushed them out better than anything! We really got rid of the cowards & the people who really wouldn't receive it & receive the Word, & who then called me a false prophet!
64. THESE THINGS THAT SOME PEOPLE CAN'T TAKE, THE NEW WINE, WELL, LET'M BURST! They're no good anyhow! If they can't take it, if they can't contain it, if they can't pour on to others, they might as well bust!--Go bust & go back! They're no good if they can't stand the new wine, if they can't stand new revelations, if they can't stand new things the Lord has to tell'm! Oooh, wait'll I tell you what I've got to tell you this morning!
65. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF I WOULD GIVE YOU SOME CHALLENGE THIS MORNING TO REALLY SHAKE YOU UP & say something drastic & contradictory that really cracks your old icon? I'm an iconoclast, I destroy idols, & if you've got a pet prophetic doctrine that's become your idol & you can't change it, God's just apt to come along & smash it just to show you He is God & He has a right to even change His mind! If He's got a right to change His Own mind, which He's done quite a few times in the Bible, He's certainly got a right to change your mind, & He's got a right to change my mind! And if He has a right to change my mind, I have a right to try to change your mind! "Boy oh boy, what is Dad talking about this morning?" Shall we dismiss now? Haven't you had enough? (Fam: No!) Are you sure you want me to go ahead & tell you? (Fam: Yes, Sir!)
CRITICS & A/Qs!
66. WELL, I MUST SAY THAT THESE PEOPLE WHO HAVE SENT IN THEIR LETTERS TO ME ABOUT, "SOME OF YOUR INTERPRETATION MIGHT BE WRONG, DAD, & MAYBE IT'S THIS WAY INSTEAD", GOD BLESS'M! They did their work! Mama knows how annoyed I get sometimes. But then I have to face it, because I have to answer it. I just can't sweep it away & say, "Forget it, you're a nut & a nincompoop & who are you to challenge my teaching? Who are you to throw doubt on what I've told you? I am the authority!" No, I have to try to give them a good answer that will satisfy them, I try to answer their questions.
67. WE USED TO HAVE A COLUMN ON THAT, "ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS!" I don't know whatever happened to that column, except I did say that I didn't want to have to answer any more questions that were already answered in the Letters! I said, "From now on I want you editors to answer the questions from the Letters, I've already said it! I don't want to answer any more questions that I've already answered! It annoys me!"
68. PEOPLE WERE DOING JUST LIKE THE KIDS USED TO DO IN MY CLASSES IN HIGH SCHOOL, they didn't want to take the trouble to read the textbook, they didn't want to read the chapter, they wanted it the easy way! They'd wait till they got to class next time & ask me the questions! "What about it, Brother So-&-so, what is the answer to this & that?" I said, "What's the matter with you, didn't you read the chapter? Why can't you read the chapter? You lazy galout! You want me to answer all the questions! You don't want to read it for yourself & find out! Nothing doing, I'm not answering, you read the chapter or else!"
69. SO SOME OF THESE GUYS ASK QUESTIONS FOR THAT REASON, BECAUSE THEY'RE JUST TOO LAZY TO DIG OUT THE ANSWERS! And we try to make it easy for them, we've got an index & a concordance & all kinds of things to try to make it easy for them to find these subjects & to find out the answers. My Lord, I've already spoken millions of words!
70. I'M NOT IN THE GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS, but somebody already figured out that I've already written more than the guy who has the record for writing more prolificly than any other man on Earth!--Because they wouldn't count me, they've probably never heard of me anyhow, because the World loves its own. If you were of the World, the World would love you, the World would love his own. But because you're not of the World, the World hateth you! (Jn.15:19) I'm not a bit disappointed that I'm not in the Guinness Book of Records, the less they know about me the better! Because to the unbelievers, it wouldn't matter if I rose from the dead, they wouldn't believe me! (Luk.16:31) I'm going to do it one of these days too, so are you! PTL!
"SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES", "THE SHEPHERD SMITTEN!"
71. SO DOES IT LESSEN YOUR CONFIDENCE IN ME WHEN I COME OUT WITH A NEW TRUTH THAT KIND OF SHAKES UP THE OLD? (Fam: No!) I'm going to say to you like Jesus said to the Scribes & Pharisees, "Search the Scriptures & see if these things be so!" (Jn.5:39, Acts 17:11) Why should I have to do it for you? You're not little kids in Sunday School or sitting at my knee hearing these things for the first time, you guys are eschatologists! You know the science of Bible Prophecy! In fact, you probably know more about it than anybody else on Earth outside the Family!
72. SO ALL I'M GOING TO DO THIS MORNING IS DROP THE BOMB! Are you willing to let me drop the bomb? Are you willing to have former interpretations challenged?--Not basic interpretations, not basic obvious doctrines of Biblical interpretation of Bible Prophecy, nothing basic has changed.
73. THE LORD SAID THROUGH MOTHER THAT IT WOULD BE GIVEN ME TO KNOW THE NUMBER OF THE YEARS, LIKE JEREMIAH, & the only number of the years that Jeremiah prophesies was 70 years, that the children of Israel would be what? What was the 70 years about? (Fam: They would be in captivity.) They would be in captivity for 70 years & then would be able to return. Imagine, there's a specific prophecy! The Jews knew exactly how long they were going to be in captivity, or should have known if they read the Bible, read Jeremiah. Of course, a lot of them didn't accept Jeremiah. They were such sticks in the mud they stuck him in the mud up to his armpits, the king got so mad at what he was preachin'!
74. WE'RE NOT THE FIRST CULT & ISM THAT'S BEEN DESPISED & CONTRADICTED & VILIFIED & PERSECUTED! Nearly every Prophet of God was a new cult & a new ism as far as the established religion was concerned & was rejected & persecuted & nearly all of them stoned to death or crucified or executed! If I get by without going through that, I'll be very thankful, but I'm not too sure that I'm going to get by! We've had a few prophecies that sound like I'm going to get it in the end--I don't know which end, but anyhow, praise the Lord!
75. WE HAD A PROPHECY A LONG TIME AGO, "I WILL SMITE THE SHEPHERD & THE SHEEP WILL BE SCATTERED!" (See No.117A:37.) Well, we could say that's already happened! I've been smitten several times, called up against the law, or the law's been called up against me & I had to run, & I fled, & the sheep were scattered! But thank God they were scattered further every time till they've gone now into all the World to preach the Gospel to almost every creature! PTL! I guess you could say almost completely by radio, television, etc.
76. THE CHILDREN & I WERE STUDYING THE OTHER DAY ABOUT GOD'S CREATION, HOW GOD'S CREATION TELLS ABOUT GOD, preaches God, preaches faith in God & teaches you that God loves you just by looking out there at His creation, & therefore that you ought to love Him! Right? So my goodness, "Their line has gone out through all the Earth, & their words to the end of the World!" (Psa.19:4) Our line has gone out through all the Earth, our Words have gone to the end of the World! We now already have printed 12 million copies of the Posters! Remember when I said "millions for the billions"? Some of you probably thought, "The way Dad exaggerates, he means evangelistically speaking!"
77. THIS YOUNGER GENERATION IS SCEPTICAL! An evangelist was pastor of the church where I taught school during the week. He ran the church & we were just a kind of a side show. Originally our kids weren't under him at all, the church was pastored by another man who sold the building to this new evangelist who had a lot of funny new doctrines & whatnot & he was quite an exaggerator, "evangelistically speaking." And one night he talked about "the thousands of people here tonight," he was speaking on the radio, you know, to the radio audience, "You should come, there are thousands of people here!" And my kids went out & counted the seats & came back & reported to me that there weren't even 2,000 seats in this auditorium, so how could there be thousands of people? They were of the literalist school, literal interpretation!
78. SO YOU SAY, "DAD, YOU'RE ALWAYS KIND OF BLOWING IT UP, LOOKING ON THE POSITIVE SIDE, seeing the donut instead of the hole & speaking optimistically, euphemistically!" Well, I do! I could say I talk that way by faith! PTL? It's taken a lot of faith to do some of the things we've done & tell you some of the things we've told you, to show you some of the things we've showed you in our Posters etc., to really believe what God has shown us & to put it down on paper, say it & teach it!
79. FIRST OF ALL I'VE GOT TO BELIEVE IT! I get the vision & I have to believe it. And I'll tell you, some of them have been shockers & have been hard for me to believe, but I finally had the courage & the faith to tell you. I have to have the faith & I have to tell you, & then you've got to have the faith to believe it!
80. SHALL WE QUIT? It's almost 11! (Fam: No!) Are you sure? If you've got to go to the toilet, go! I don't blame you. Nobody's going to think something's wrong with your kidneys or your bladder or something. I don't want you to sit there till it bursts & runs all over the chair! If you have to go, go! I don't want you to get constipated either. I did call you on kind of short notice. I'm trying to show you that I have a little compassion for you & I'm not going to feel bad if you walk out to the toilet & come back! But I would feel bad if you didn't come back! Are you sure you want me to go on? (Fam: Yes!) Because all I'm going to do is drop the bomb! I'm going to leave it to you to pick up the pieces & put it back together to see if I'm right!
SPIRITUALISERS & OLD TESTAMENT BELIEVERS!
81. NOW THERE'S ANOTHER SCHOOL OF INTERPRETATION WHO ARE NOT LITERALISTS, THEY ARE THE SPIRITUALISERS, THE MAUROISTS, as I began to tell you earlier, followers of a man by the name of Phillip Mauro. And although the church had been taking many of those prophecies literally for hundreds of years, & as I say, the footnotes & interpretations are even in the Catholic Bible, not very long ago Phillip Mauro, he's probably of my Grandfather's generation, following some former teachers, came up with a new style of interpretation of Bible Prophecy. I have mentioned this to you before, about the spiritualisers who spiritualise it all. "It doesn't really mean what it says, but it has a spiritual significance, it's merely symbolic. The Holy City of Heaven is not literal, it's the Church. The foundations bearing the names of the different Apostles means that they were the foundation of the Church," etc.
82. THIS IS VERY APPEALING TO INTELLECTUAL INTERPRETATION. They say, "The gates of the City bearing the names of the 12 tribes of Israel, you don't really believe those are actual pearly gates that big & all!" This is what they tell you! I hope this is not going to shake your faith! I think you're old enough & strong enough in the faith by this time that it's not going to get you. Well, it'll make you think about it.
83. THEY SAY, "THOSE GATES MERELY SYMBOLISE THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL through which everyone has found faith to come into the Holy City, the Church of God, built upon the 12 Apostles! And those colours & those measurements, they're merely symbolism showing the magnificence & the beauty & the enormity of this great Kingdom of God! And therefore the Kingdom of God on Earth in what the Literalists call the Millennium, is not a literal Kingdom, it's a spiritual Kingdom, & it's already here, it's you & me!"
84. YOU SEE, THERE'S A CERTAIN ELEMENT OF SIGNIFICANT TRUTH IN THIS, BY WHICH THEY CAN CAUSE PEOPLE TO STUMBLE & get mixed up & say, "Well, that's right, He did say the Kingdom of God is within you & it's already here, the Kingdom of God is nigh, & the Kingdom of God is already come to you. And we are the Kingdom of God, we are the Church of God, the Church of God is His Kingdom & it is built of living stones!" They teach that all those stones in the Holy City, all that sort of thing, all that's symbolic, it's all spiritual.--That you are already the Kingdom of God on Earth & this is the Millennium! If this is the Millennium, God deliver me from the Tribulation! See, they go to the opposite extreme, they spiritualise it all!
85. OF COURSE, SOME OF THE LITERALISTS LIKE SCOFIELD & SOME OF HIS ILK GO TO THE OPPOSITE EXTREME & THEY LITERALISE IT ALL! Nothing is symbolic, it's all literal. You have to have enough wisdom, & even childlike discernment, especially as you read the Book of Revelation, to try to realise what is literal & can be literal, could be literal, & what cannot be interpreted literally at all, that which has to be spiritual, has to be symbolic.
86. I'LL HAVE TO BLAME IT ON THE CATHOLICS THAT THEY TOOK THE 12TH CHAPTER OF REVELATION, FOR AN EXAMPLE, & THEY INTERPRETED IT LITERALLY.--That that woman who had the Moon as her footstool & a crown of 12 stars was Mary! They gave it a literal interpretation. Of course, since they glorify Mary, naturally they would have thought of her as being the Queen of Heaven, & there's the literal interpretation. When of course you & I know by what it says in the Chapter etc. that it couldn't be Mary, it has to be the Church, because she's driven into the wilderness & all that sort of thing. They say, "Well, it has to be Mary because she gave birth to the child & the child was obviously Jesus."
87. WELL, HERE'S WHERE YOU HAVE TO AGAIN BALANCE THE LITERAL AGAINST THE SPIRITUAL, OR THE SPIRITUAL AGAINST THE LITERAL. Because of what it says later on in the chapter, you know it has to be the Church, not Mary, because Mary's long gone, she's not going to be in the Tribulation! She was tribulated, she was persecuted. She & her baby & husband had to flee down to Egypt to get away from Herod, so they experienced many tribulations & persecutions very similar to what we will experience in the Tribulation, etc.
88. BUT YOU SEE, YOU'VE GOT TO TAKE THE WHOLE SCRIPTURE & ALL OF WHAT IT SAYS about that Woman--I'm just using this as an example--in order to really understand who that Woman is! And she can only be you, the Church! You say, "Well, we didn't give birth to Jesus." Oh yeah? Maybe you didn't, but the Church did! "What do you mean? She was a Jewess, she was a Jew! There wasn't even any Christianity yet, no churches! How could the Woman be the Church? It must be Mary, the literal Mother of Jesus!"
89. WAS THERE NO CHURCH BEFORE THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH? I can even give you a Scripture from the Old Testament, or the New Testament speaks of* what in the wilderness with Moses? It uses in the New Testament the word ... give it to them! Oh, come on, I thought you guys knew the Bible! I can't give you the references, like Mama mentions in one of the new GNs, but I can sure give you the Scriptures! (See "Memory Work Made Simple," No.2195:47.) I'll tell you, I've heard them all my life & even if I never read the Bible, I bet I could quote more Scripture than most people! *(Acts 7:38)
90. IT SPEAKS OF THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS, NOT ONLY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, NOT ONLY IN THE 12TH CHAPTER OF REVELATION. You mean the Lord had no Church before the Christian Church? He had no body of believers? He had no Bride?--Of course He did! Most of those Jews were old rotters, but there were quite a few of them who were real believers who really loved the Lord & obeyed Him & believed in the prophecies of a future Messiah, & therefore they believed in advance in Christ, & therefore they were saved!--Including Abraham, the Father of faith & salvation!
91. DON'T YOU THINK PEOPLE WERE SAVED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT? As far as God was concerned, Jesus was the Messiah from the creation of the World, the Universe! It even speaks of Him as being slain before the foundation of the Earth! (Rev.13:8) In the mind of God it was already done. Salvation was already accomplished before Adam & Eve were ever put in the Garden. The plan was already figured out, already planned. And when God plans something, it's just as good as already happened, because it's gonna happen!
92. SO ALL THOSE OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS WERE SAVED BY LOOKING FORWARD!--To them at least it was looking forward to Christ, it was already done in the mind of God. Jesus was going to be, therefore He was already crucified & had died for our Salvation & already saved them & us. So the Church was already in existence since the very beginning. And the first believer was whom? (Fam: Abel.)--Very good! Because he believed God & he obeyed. And therefore it says it was accounted unto him for righteousness! (Heb.11:4) Was he saved? (Fam: Yes!) It was accounted unto him for righteousness! Righteousness was written down on his account, he was saved!
93. BUT HIS BROTHER CAIN THE MURDERER WAS NOT, BECAUSE HE DIDN'T BELIEVE & HE DISOBEYED & he made another kind of sacrifice, & he became so jealous, proud & furious that he killed his brother, righteous Abel who believed! Now we're getting into another whole doctrine! My goodness, I can't go back that far! I'm trying to deal with the End, not the Beginning! But some of you sound like you never heard this before. Well, it's there & I have said it some time. That's why I say search the Scriptures & see if these things be true. I'm sure it's there somewhere!
94. AT THE BEGINNING OF LAST YEAR I SAID DON'T HAVE A CLOSED MIND! You're not going to survive these classes unless you be of an open mind & are willing to change some of your thinking about some of these dates & periods & manifestations & ideas of chronology, etc. I'm almost done, I'm about ready to drop the bomb!
95. THAT'S ONE THING I CAN GIVE MY DEAR CRITIC CREDIT FOR, THAT HE TRIED TO DROP A BOMB ON ME! But as you've seen in the movies & even on the news nowadays, they grab the tear gas cannisters & throw them back at the cops!--Or in the movies they grab the grenade before it explodes & throw it back at the enemy! He was dropping a bomb, & he was really trying to be helpful, don't misunderstand me. But he was trying to show me, "Now Dad, maybe the Tribulation's not going to be as soon as you think. Doesn't it look to you..." I mean, he was very tactful about it & very polite & very respectful.
96. HE WAS JUST TRYING TO ASK ME IF IT WASN'T POSSIBLE THAT THE TRIBULATION WAS GOING TO BE DELAYED A LITTLE BIT because Grandmother's prophecy said that the 70 years would pass before the end of desolations. That's the prophecy. What 70 years? As the Lord definitely showed me later, it meant the 70 years of my life! The Lord had knocked 49 times, in seven sevens: (Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock! Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock!)--And He went on like that seven times, seven knocks. And then there was a pause.
97. I WAS ASKING HIM AT THE TIME, WE WERE PRAYING & THINKING ABOUT WHAT COULD THE 70 YEARS MEAN, WHAT DID IT MEAN? There was a pause after the 49 knocks, seven times seven, then came: (Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock!)
98. (TONGUES:) HALLELUJAH! TYJ! "HEAR YE THE WORDS OF THE LORD THAT I HAVE GIVEN UNTO MY SERVANT DAVID, that thy Father has prophesied unto thee these things which are to come to pass, that thou shouldst rise & believe & proclaim them before the people, that thou shouldst hear the Words of thy Father!" Hallelujah! TYJ!
99. I'M NOT A VERY GOOD INTERPRETER. I'm such a failure! I'm such a poor interpreter, it's just pitiful I don't get more for you! But anyhow, that's the gist of it. The Lord wants you to hear & believe, even though it may be a hard saying for you.
"EAT OF MY FLESH & DRINK OF MY BLOOD!"
100. ONE TIME WHEN JESUS SAID, "YE MUST DRINK OF MY BLOOD & EAT OF MY FLESH OR YOU CANNOT ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN," CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW THAT SOUNDED TO THE JEWS, who were strictly forbidden to eat human flesh or to drink any kind of blood? And here He was saying, "You've got to eat My flesh & drink My blood or you can't be saved!" (Jn.6:53-58) He wasn't speaking of literal cannibalism, was He? He was saying that "If you want to be saved you've got to partake of My blood by faith & its efficacy as a substitute for your sins & as a payment for your sins. And if you want healing for your body, you've got to partake of my flesh. You've got to believe that I suffered for you so you wouldn't have to suffer. But I took your stripes for you, I took your punishment for you." And it was a prelude to the meaning of Communion. Every time we take Communion we partake of His blood. He said, "Eat, drink, this is My body which was given for you. This is My blood shed for the remission of your sins." (1Cor.11:24-25)
101. THERE'S AGAIN A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LITERAL INTERPRETATION & SPIRITUAL! The Catholics take that literally. They believe that in the Holy Eucharist the bread actually turns into the very flesh of Jesus Christ, & the wine actually turns into the blood! So did Martin Luther! What was it he said in Latin? "Ecco mi corpo!" When he was being called on the carpet that he was teaching false doctrine, etc., they also questioned him whether he believed in the eucharist like the Catholics did, that it was really the very body of Christ & the very blood. And he just quoted the Scriptures, "This is My body, this is My blood!"
102. SO THE LUTHERANS ALSO BELIEVE TO THIS VERY DAY THAT IN THE EUCHARIST, as they call Communion, they believe in what is known as the doctrine of transubstantiation, that the wine actually turns to blood, & the bread actually turns to the flesh of Jesus Christ! But did He really mean that? There's where the Protestants split up & some believe in consubstantiation, another hair-splitting doctrine.--Not quite transubstantiation but sort of like it.
103. BUT WE BELIEVE IN ACTUALLY THE DOCTRINE OF SYMBOLISM, that Christ was using these as symbols of His blood & symbols of His body, that in partaking of them you are witnessing what you have already done in the spirit. It's like an illustrated message, it's like a skit, it's like a drawing you give the children or some little illustration. You're illustrating it with concrete objects to explain spiritual truths. So that's the way we believe. But if the Catholics want to believe it's really the flesh & the blood of Jesus, well, that's up to them, & the Lutherans!
104. ANYHOW, I DON'T CARE WHAT THEY BELIEVE AS LONG AS THEY GET SAVED, as long as they believe it's Jesus' blood that saves them!--Although there are very few that you hear say that it's Jesus' body that heals them, which is what we teach. Why else was He beaten? Why else did He suffer stripes? Why else did He suffer physically without dying? If it was only His blood that was necessary to save us, why didn't He just die & why did the Lord let Him go through all that suffering? "By His stripes we are healed." "This is My body which is broken for you!"--Not to save us, but to heal us! (Isa.53:5; 1Cor.11:24) It's in the atonement, praise God! Hallelujah!
105. WELL, IT'S ALREADY BEGINNING TO FEEL LIKE SUNDAY!--HA! The only thing is, if I don't quit pretty soon, it's going to be Sunday! Well, I'm almost done, believe it or not! I'm kind of softening you up, preparing you. I'm like a lawyer, I'm making my case, & I have to go all around Robin Hood's Barn to make it! Savvy? Is everybody okay? These kids are the best kids I ever saw! I never saw kids in my life that sat through such long sessions & actually acted like they're listening!--I think maybe they are!
"PSALM 68" IN 1968!
106. SO THE PROPHECY SAYS, "70 YEARS SHALL PASS BEFORE THE END OF DESOLATIONS." And dear Hart said, "Dad, maybe that 'before the end', maybe that means before the Antichrist arises! Maybe that means you'll die before the Seven Years begin!--Not just before the Tribulation, not just before the last 3-1/2 years." Now I don't want to give that whole talk again, it's already recorded & transcribed & in the process of publication, so you'll all have it to read in detail very shortly, Lord willing. (See "What If?"--No.2211.) You get rush previews here, thank the Lord, & you help us proofread it. If you find anything wrong with it then, that's your chance to contradict me or try to correct me or set me straight.
107. FIRST I WAS ANNOYED! HOW COULD HE CONTRADICT OUR TRADITIONAL INTERPRETATION, OUR SET TRANSLATION OF THESE TRUTHS? How could he, when I've always thought it meant that my 70 years would pass before the Tribulation, not before the Seven Years, not before the Antichrist appeared! So then I had to try to prove it!
108. WELL, THE FIRST THING THAT KIND OF WOKE ME UP WAS THAT I HAD JUST TAKEN IT FOR GRANTED THAT "BEFORE THE END OF DESOLATIONS" MEANT "BEFORE THE TRIBULATION." I couldn't really find anything to prove that I was going to die before the Tribulation, but that certainly didn't sound to me like it meant before the Antichrist! So I wrote Hart, "The only place you find that word desolation--desolate, desolation, desolator, abomination of desolation, all of that--is in connection with the Tribulation. So to me it still means, dear brother Hart, that the 70 years are to pass before the Tribulation, that I'm not to die until just before the Tribulation, before the end of desolations, & that that's when the 70 years will pass & supposedly I will die." At least that's the way I've interpreted it & the way I got it in several different other places & interpretations & things about the 70 years & "Saul & Michael" & "The Watch" & a few other things all put together.
109. OH, BY THE WAY, ABOUT THE KNOCKS, THE 49 YEARS WAS THE EXACT AGE I WAS! Did you notice how the Lord divides the 70 years of Daniel 2 into certain periods which were very significant in Jewish history?--Such as the time when the wall would be built, etc. He divides it into several different periods that make up 70 sevens, remember? Well, in the same way He was dividing my life into these periods. And 49 years is exactly how many years passed until I began the Family in 1968! 1968 was really the first year of the Family. Of course, it began long before that in some ways, & we even use my birthday for a better date!
110. BUT 1968 WAS WHEN WE ACTUALLY FOUND OUR CALLING & WHAT WE WERE GOING TO DO & BEGAN GETTING DISCIPLES INTO A NEW FAMILY, a new religion, in a sense, a new group--which is actually nothing but the religion of Jesus Christ, the old one, the one that should be! I was 49 years of age when that began in '68. That was when we began the Family. I had my 49th birthday in February of 1968, & that was just about the time that we were sitting on Grandma's floor, I didn't keep a good diary then, but it was just about synchronised with that date. We'd arrived at Grandma's Christmas night of 1967, & we were still in her cottage & trying to do things & failing to get bookings in churches & wondering what we were going to do, down to our last penny in '68!
111. I THINK GRANDMA WAS ALMOST GETTING FED UP WITH US BECAUSE WE WEREN'T DOING WHAT SHE ASKED US TO COME THERE TO DO, MINISTERING TO THE HIPPIES! We were trying to get bookings in churches so we wouldn't be such a burden on Grandmother & we could get some offerings to help pay for the groceries & the bills & the rent & things like that. That was worrying us, you know. Instead of being dependent on this poor old lady 85 years of age, we wanted to earn our salt & not just be a burden but a blessing! So we were putting it off, "We'll do that later, Grandma, after we get going here & we earn a little money & we get a little ministry, & then we'll work with the hippies!" But that wasn't God's way!
112. WE JUST ABOUT GOT DESPERATE! It was just about the time of my birthday, as I recall now. We'd been there just about two months from Christmas, January & February, & we got desperate & we were kneeling or sitting on the floor of her little livingroom & she was sitting over there in the chair in the corner & we were all praying & asking the Lord to reveal to us what we should do. We were desperate, because we hadn't gotten any bookings.
113. CALIFORNIA'S GOT EVERYTHING! They've got 600 preachers lined up in one denomination waiting for pastorates, in the Alliance alone! Everybody wanted to come to California, everybody wanted a nice big fine church in a lovely climate in a nice parsonage in California! You can see what the preachers & the churches are after! "Here am I, Lord, send my sister to the mission field, I want a nice church!"
114. AND MOTHER FINALLY SAID, "HO, THE LORD WANTS YOU TO OPEN THE SCRIPTURE & READ WHATEVER YOU TURN TO." And he opened the Scripture, & what did he turn to? Do you remember the story? (Fam: Psalm 68.) (See ML #83.) That's almost significant! I never thought about that before! It was Psalm 68 & that was 1968, & I was 49, the first seven sevens of knocks! Seven times seven is 49.
115. AND THEN THE OTHER THREE SEVENS WERE TO BE THE REMAINING 21 YEARS OF MY LIFE! 49 & 21 is 70. I never realised I was divided up like that. What Scriptural numbers, what Godly numbers!--Seven sevens & three sevens! Seven & three are the two most important numbers in Biblical numerology. Two of the other most important ones are 12 & 40, & there are a few others. Of course, 666 is a very important number too, but we don't like it very much! But it's still important, the number of a man, in fact, 7 being God's number. All these numbers have various significance, we don't have time to get into it now.
116. BUT THAT WAS VERY SIGNIFICANT THEN THAT THE LORD WAS CONFIRMING THAT THE NUMBER OF MY YEARS WAS TO BE 70 YEARS! I hope I don't disappoint you & go & die too soon or too late or something, but anyhow, that's the way we interpret them. I could be wrong, but I still believe it. I still believe it even if I'm wrong. I still believe I'm Napoleon, even if you think you are, even if you think you know what's right!--Ha!
THE END OF DESOLATIONS!
117. SO I BEGAN TO STUDY UP ON THIS QUESTION HART ASKED ME & PRAY ABOUT IT & ASK THE LORD, "Come on, Lord, let's get specific, I've got to answer this guy! He's got to have some kind of a mathematical answer to satisfy his analytical mind!" So I really prayed & really thought, & the answer that I got I gave in more detail the other day in "What If?" (See No.2211.)
118. SO THAT WAS THE FIRST BOMB THE OTHER DAY! Do you want to hear the next bomb? (Fam: Yes!) I'm going to drop another one, are you ready for one more? I'm going to push it even a little further!
119. THE PERIOD WHERE THE DESOLATIONS & THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION ETC. IS SPOKEN OF IS THE TRIBULATION, RIGHT? But what follows the Tribulation? (Fam: The Rapture.) But what follows that here on Earth? (Fam: The Wrath.) What does that sound like? Doesn't that sound like desolations? Boy, you just read it if you don't believe it sounds like desolations!
120. SO MAYBE THE WORD "DESOLATIONS" ISN'T JUST LIMITED TO THE END OF THE TRIBULATION, IN FACT, IT EVEN SOUNDS WORSE AFTER THAT! It sounds to me more like the end of desolations is the Wrath of God! And the 70 years shall pass before the end of desolations! The desolations don't actually end until the Battle of Armageddon is over!
121. NOW SOME OF YOU ARE GETTING ALL EXCITED & THINKING, "OH DAD, ARE YOU GOING TO STAY HERE AFTER THE RAPTURE? Are you going to go through the Wrath of God? We knew you were going to go through the Battle of Armageddon, but certainly not the Wrath of God! Aren't you going to be raptured? Are you going to stay behind & be a real Prophet of the Endtime?"
122. NO, I KNOW I'M GOING TO GO UP IN THE RAPTURE, BUT THAT SHEDS A WHOLE NEW LIGHT ON THINGS! If the end of the Tribulation is not the end of desolations, the desolations continue, don't they? The desolations do not end until the end of the Battle of Armageddon! I could go right on straight through the Tribulation with you to the Rapture! All I can think of is poor Apollos, how's he going to patch this one up? Poor me! How am I going to patch it up with this Story we've already written!
123. YOU KNOW, WHEN YOU GET NEW REVELATIONS THERE'S A GREAT TEMPTATION TO HUSH UP! "Well, you don't have to tell'm that, after all, it sort of contradicts some of the things you've already said & written, therefore it's going to be embarrassing to your pride & your veracity & your credibility! There's going to be a big credibility gap now, they're going to wonder, if he can be wrong about that & his 'Heaven's Children' Story & the time of his death that he thought was going to be before the Tribulation, & here Apollos has been writing all about it, how Dad's already gone & everything, how are you going to jive that with all that you've already written & already said?"--Which were merely our interpretations, our theories.
124. IT SUDDENLY DAWNED ON ME, I HAD NEVER PROVEN THAT I WAS ACTUALLY GOING TO DIE BEFORE THE TRIBULATION, THAT'S JUST WHEN I WANTED TO DIE! I said several times, "Well, I hope that means before the Tribulation," that's the way I said it. You go back & read the Letters! "I hope that means before the Tribulation, I think that means before the Tribulation." But now I'm convinced that it doesn't mean that, because it doesn't say that!
125. AND I'M GOING A BIT FURTHER THAN I WENT THE OTHER DAY WITH YOU GUYS, IT DOESN'T NECESSARILY EVEN MEAN BEFORE THE END OF THE TRIBULATION! Because the desolations do not end with the end of the Tribulation! Peter's sitting back there thinking, "My God, Dad, where are you going to end? Where are we now?" Well, I haven't told you yet the bomb I got this morning on the toilet! That was only bomb number 2, that I could still be living right through the Tribulation & go up in the Rapture, because the desolations are not over with the end of the Tribulation. In fact, the biggest desolations occur after that when the Wrath of God begins to pour out on the World!
126. IT SAYS, "THE 70 YEARS SHALL PASS BEFORE THE END OF DESOLATIONS."--Now what does it mean to you? 70 years of my life shall pass, it will end, before the end of desolations. That could be any time before the end of the Battle of Armageddon! Except we know I've gotta go up in the Rapture, I'm certainly not going to be left behind, unless I get some new revelation on that! That sounds to me more like, if you're talking about the end of desolations, my goodness, the end of desolations is even after the end of the Tribulation! So therefore, I could live right on to the Rapture!
127. THE END OF THE TRIBULATION IS NOT REALLY THE END OF THE DESOLATIONS. Things keep on getting more desolated all the time through God's Wrath & to the end of the Battle of Armageddon! So hallelujah, thank You Lord, I could even live to the Rapture & that prophecy still be fulfilled! Because I'd be finishing my 70th year, still finishing it before the end of desolations, even if I was caught up in the Rapture! That's still before the end of the desolations!
128. WE TEND TO INSIST ON THINGS, & I WAS INSISTING WITH HART, THAT THE TRIBULATION HAS GOT TO BE THE PERIOD OF DESOLATIONS, because that's where the word is used the most, "abomination of desolation" & desolation in all these chapters, it's always used in reference to the Tribulation period, so I thought it's gotta be that! I was telling him I don't necessarily have to die before the Tribulation, but only before the end of the Tribulation.
129. BUT THIS MORNING THE LORD WAS TELLING ME, "WELL, YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE SO DOGMATIC ABOUT THAT EITHER! The desolations aren't over with the end of the Tribulation. You can still live until the Rapture!" The Lord was sort of putting it to me like a question, like a conundrum, like a puzzle: "What makes you think you couldn't live to the Rapture? That's still before the end of the desolations!"
130. WELL, I HAD THE FAITH TO TELL HART, "WELL, HART, I'M SORRY BUT I CAN'T AGREE WITH YOU THAT WE'RE GOING TO PUT IT OFF ANOTHER 7 YEARS YET & put the Tribulation off to where I die before the Seven Years begins so that we've got an extra 3-1/2 years," which he was hopefully hoping to have to finish the job. I think he was concerned about his Endtime Bible & he was trying to postpone the Tribulation as long as possible! Instead it made me sit down & pray & study & buckle down to have to answer him, & the first thing I saw was that I couldn't find anything to prove that I had to die before the Tribulation! It only said the 70 years would pass before the end of desolations!
131. THE FIRST THING I DID, I SAID, "WELL, THAT COULD MEAN BEFORE THE END OF THE TRIBULATION, NOT BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF IT, & that, dear Brother Hart, instead of postponing your Tribulation, moves it up!" But he said, "That can't be, because they've got to sign the Covenant & he has to take over the World first. We'd surely know about that!" And I've often said that it seems like to me we certainly would know if such a pact were signed & if the Antichrist were ruling the World.
132. YOU KNOW, SOMETIMES YOU BELIEVE CERTAIN THINGS BECAUSE YOU WANT TO BELIEVE THEM! I've always been hoping at least we'd know when he signs the Covenant & when he takes over the World. But what if the Covenant was already signed secretly? The Protocols were! The plan for the World takeover was signed nearly 150 years ago, secretly, & they still claim it doesn't exist!
133. WE KNOW THAT THE ANTICHRIST, IF HE'S EVEN GOING TO COME AT THE LATEST WE FIGURED, MUST BE ALIVE TODAY! He must be alive now! And if he's alive at all, even if he's some kind of a superchild like they had in some movies, some kind of an angelic superboy or supernatural superchild, he would have to be already in existence now! Right? Then if he's already in existence, why couldn't he have signed the Pact secretly?
134. THERE HAVE BEEN MANY SECRET TREATIES IN THE WORLD'S HISTORY THAT WERE NEVER KNOWN ABOUT UNTIL IT WAS ALL OVER YEARS LATER. We're only beginning to find out some of the details about the treaties signed between Churchill, Stalin & Roosevelt, etc., & Truman & Stalin. We're only beginning to find out some of that now, all the secret deals & arrangements they made to divide up the World between them!--Churchill & Roosevelt secretly agreeing exactly how to divide Europe. It was never known until years later that they just arbitrarily gave Poland to the Russians, who didn't even want to be under the Russians! The Poles started a whole war by not wanting to be under Germany, much less the Russians! But it was all secretly done, agreed together in secret by the top World leaders!
135. HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT THOSE WORLD LEADERS AGREED TO AT SOME OF THOSE RECENT SUMMIT MEETINGS? How do you know what even maybe Reagan & Gorbachev agreed to at that recent summit meeting when they met private-ly? How do you know what they might have agreed to or signed? How do you know what might have even been signed before that? How do you know that the Antichrist is not already running the World from behind the scenes? Boy, it sure looks like it to me! I've even proposed this possibility to you before! Are you sure you want to hear the last bomb? (Fam: Yes!) To me, this is good news, this is encouraging!
136. I FINALLY SWALLOWED THAT LAST BITTER PILL & THE LORD CONVINCED ME THAT "IT COULD MEAN THAT YOU COULD EVEN LIVE TO THE RAPTURE, for the 70 years to pass before the end of desolations!" The end of desolations is not the end of the Tribulation, the Lord was showing me clearly. The desolations are not over until the Wrath of God is over & the Battle of Armageddon is over. Talk about desolations, so many people killed they can't even bury them in Israel alone for 7 months! (Eze.39:12) Isn't that desolations?
137. SO I'M HERE TO PROCLAIM TO YOU THAT THE LORD HAS NOW CONVINCED ME THAT I COULD LIVE TO THE RAPTURE! But I'm also here to proclaim to you that it's later than you think & the Rapture may be going to occur a lot sooner than you thought! This is the one that's going to shock you, & the one I got this morning.
138. YOU SEE, IF YOU ARE OPEN TO ONE TRUTH & THE LORD IS ABLE TO GIVE YOU THE FAITH TO RECEIVE SOMETHING HE SHOWS YOU & YOU OBEY & YOU RECEIVE IT & YOU ACCEPT IT, THEN THE LORD IS WILLING TO GIVE YOU MORE! But if you reject the first truth, He'll shut you off & He won't give you any more! You've got to believe the first, in order to have enough faith to believe the next, & for the Lord to even be willing to show you the next, knowing because you obeyed & you had enough faith to receive this first truth, that maybe He could trust you with the next one! Can you accept that & believe that maybe I'm going to go up in the Rapture? (Fam: Yes!) Aha, now are you ready for the next one?
(Continued in Part 4!)
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
