The Elijah Family Vision
Sermon: GRF November 3, 2007
00:00 Alright we do have uh-uh a sad announcement to make internationally, from time to time we are forced to do this. It’s our unfortunate duty to mark Adrian Davis, a deacon from the Ontario, Canada area. According to Romans 16:17 you should avoid him, by announcing this we wish him no ill will, rather we ask that you pray for his repentance.
00:31 And so that this “Won’t happen to you we have the class Doctrines of the Philadelphian Church of God second semester that will be offered on line this Spring that have already been going through this ten commandments that we heard that sermonette. This is from the HWAC registrar: The course is a detailed study of the doctrines of the Philadelphia Church of God, paying special attention to the Ten Commandments and 18 restored truths and other foundational doctrines. It will be taught again by evangelist, Stephen Flurry. You may enroll in this class even if you missed the first semester, however, you will not be able to take it for credit unless you have successfully completed the first semester for credit. We are also pleased to announce that the one semester course, Lessons From the Life of Herbert W. Armstrong, will be offered online this spring. This course will be taught by evangelists, Stephen Flurry and Alec Harrison. If you are interested in taking the 3 hour a week Doctrines of the Philadelphia Church of God course or the 2 hour a week Lessons From the Life of Herbert W. Armstrong course, please register at the following web address: http://my.hwacollege.org
And, that deadline for both enrolling and paying for these courses is February 2nd, 2008. However, please be aware hat classes will begin on Feb. 14th. Again the web address for registration is http://my.hwacollege.org
I think that’s all the announcements today. We’re gonna forgo the letters. We’re gonna have soprano
02:40 Greetings everyone. Welcome to all of our special guests, but I guess we’ve already said that but we always enjoy very much having you here with us. We all enjoyed that music. Shows how our students are making a contribution in this work and we’re very happy about that. And, I also thought the sermonette tied very well into what I wanted to talk to you about today. So that’s good, but first before I get into that I thought I would give you a little update on the um Jerusalem Dig. This is uh-..sniff… from a message that Dr. Mazar will be giving uh this coming week. I think it’s on Thursday to in-in-in the it-ah be to the her sponser, Roger Hertog, who’s funding the palace ex-uh excavation. In-this-she’ll be saying this-after dismantling part of the northern tower previously believed to be Hazmanean, on the eastern side of our 2005 excavation area. It can be seen now that the step stone structure and the large stone structure of the palace are actually one structure. Huge. Of course, this will all be due to a lot of those people. The rich assembly of finds coming out from under the tower date to the early post-exilic period, 538 to 445 BCE up to Nehemiah’s time. One of the extraordinary finds coming from this assemblage is the seal. The seal in inscribed with the Hebrew name Tmk, the name of one of the families who were servants in the temple and were sent into exile in Babylon after the destruction of the first Temple. Their name is listed in the book of Ezra 2v52 and Nehemiah 7v55. It’s one of the families returning from exile. On the seal we see two priests standing facing an altar on it and above it the crescent moon, the symbol of the god Syn/Marda. An an here’s what Edwin writes to us: “Dr. Mazar believes the seal to be on the same level as the special find as a‘Jeka kol boah’ that was found in the first season. Not only because of the individual value but because it was found in context of that exact period. As for the new excavation area on the western side, we have gone down about 9 feet and expected to see a continuation of the walls previously exposed in the first and second excavations seasons. That is again what Dr. Mazar said. And, then uh he writes, “We did have uh a staff meeting on Thursday and Dr. Mazar bought out something interesting regarding material under the tower. She said it looks like we have now pass the material from the time of Nehemiah and have hit a layer with less pottery. The next layer is expected to reveal a time before the Babylonian captivity. Or, in other words, the first Temple period. Which is pretty exciting. It looks like we find- we might find the actual destruction layer of the palace when the Babylonians came. Dr. Mazar is always hoping to find another i-uh-ionic uh capital, a beautifully decorated pillar, wall, top-stone like the one Kathleen Kinyon found right next to our area and was put on the 5 shekel coin.
So, uh, we’ll be able after this she makes those comments to write what we want about that and we’ll uh get more information on what she says and be able to tell you more about what’s going on over there.
06:56 I might also mention that we we have hired Aaron Eagle into the work full time. Aaron is a graduate of uh Ambassador College, Pasadena. And, he’s almost been working full time for us any how. But, I also believe his wife…eh, went to Ambassador College in Pasadena for 3 years.
07:22 I’ll remind you also that uh the campaign in Washington D.C. will begin uh week from tomorrow and uh we’ll uh keep you updated on that if the President or Congress members come we’ll certainly tell ya. I really do wish that the presidential candidates would come because I have some good material for them. (laughter)
But, it is Washington D.C. it’s uh it there is different than any town anywhere. And so, I uh it’s it’s always nice to have some kind of a presence there.
08:06 When Neil Armstrong landed on the moon he said, “That’s one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind.” The interesting thing about that is that the whole world was watching that event and many people were applauding all around the world in different nations. And some of them even made the statement in other countries, “We did it.” And it was really a kind of magical moment as as we say in this world when it really wa- it really -there was a time when the whole world sort of united there for what we were able to lift up our minds and our eyes on this earth and look out into at least a part of the universe. Never really a moment like that before that I know of on this earth. And I suppose the next day they all came back down to earth and began to get involved in their selfish way of life and hatred and fighting of each other. But, for a moment there it really did lift up their eyes and see something other than what’s going on on this earth.
09:21 Mr. Armstrong delivered a message to this earth that is in fact going to unite this world. It’s going to unite the world and maybe we got a little tiny insight into that when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. But this message that Mr. Armstrong talked about certainly lifts peoples minds and eyes, let’s say, to lift them up and look at what God has in store for all of mankind.
09:58 Notice Malachi 3v1 I think these 3 verses certainly ought to make anyone in the ministry sit up and take notice and realize what a calling we have and what a responsibility we have. Whether we reach a point with and we don’t li- even if we don’t like it. Still have been given a responsibility by God. But notice what God did. And this has already come and gone.
v1 Behold I will send my messenger and He shall prepare the way before me and the Eternal whom you seek shall suddenly come to His Temple even the messenger of the covenant whom you delight in. Behold He shall come says the Eternal of Hosts.
So He’s gonna come. Christ sent a messenger in this end time just before He comes and He says two times “I am going to come.” He wants that emphasized to all of us, Christ is about to come. Elijah His messenger has already come and gone. And so you know we have to be very close, extremely close to the second coming.
The message has already come and gone though and notice what God says immediately after that or inspired.
v2 But who may abide the day of His coming and who shall stand when He appears? For He is like a refiners fire and a fuller’s soap. v3 And He shall sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver and He shall purify the son’s of Levi, that’s the ministry. Those who were taught by Levi, or Elijah. Levi being the chief Levite, or the chief priest. And he shall purify the son’s of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer an offering to the Eternal in righteousness.
So this refiners fire is going to be extremely hot, that’s uh the furnace, the fire to remove impurities in these metals, gold and silver. And it has to get extremely hot to do that. It it isn’t something it it’s nothing mild will do the job, it has to be er as hot as it can be to im to remove the dross and the impurities. And then v3 talks about the sons of Levi immediately that God is going to purify them.
Why would God need to purify them? What did they do? What did they do? Where they needed to be purified? Well we know that they’re gonna go into the tribulation and know that 50% of them are gonna die forever and 50% will suffer as never before and maybe that we’ve heard that so much we’re almost lulled to sleep.
But every Laodicean congregation in this world, let’s just say like this one today. You can just take it and split it right down the middle here in the aisle, let’s say, and 50% of them are never gonna make it back to God. That’s a lot of people. Many of them we know who are never, ever going to make it into the family of God. That’s something that certainly ought to sober all of us.
14:02 They’re going into that fiery furnace, but what I think is most interesting about this is in v1 God says He’s gonna send that messenger and then you get on into v2 verse’s 2 and 3 and He immediately says “I gonna plunge those ministers into a fiery furnace because they didn’t carry on with the Elijah message.” They didn’t continue the message that I sent with my messenger and I am going to plunge them into a fiery furnace. It’s all that will save them and even that won’t save 50% of them. So, it must be very evil brethren to not get this message of God out to the world. To not continue the Elijah message and that has to be sobering to the PCG ministry as well, all of us, myself certainly included in that. We have to continue this Elijah message as just before the Day of the Lord is much closer now that the Elijah has come and gone, but here we still have that message that God gave to his Elijah. And He is going to take it personally if those He chooses don’t deliver it.
15:43 So that’s serious and it’s vital that we all get behind that message. I think you can see how serious that is and perhaps this is about the harshest warning in all the Bible. But it’s addressed to the ministers specifically. That’s what the whole book is addressed specifically to the ministers and, of course, it will apply to the most part to those who follow those ministers.
16:10 So Elijah had a message for today and I’m gonna talk to you about uh big the really foundational part of that message. I think there has been some confusion about Malachi 4v5-6, even in the ministry and perhaps that might be partly my fault because I haven’t made it clear enough, so I’m gonna try to make it clearer today than I have before. Let’s go to..well, hopefully more clearer than that before.
Mal 4v4 Mal 4v4 Here is an introduction to the Malachi’s Message. “ Remember you the law of Moses, my servant.” You heard about that in the uh sermonette. “ Remember you the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and the judgments.” So Mt. Horeb, the Mt. Sinai’s in Mt. Horeb that whole uh that area. So He’s talking about the Ten Commandments and He says there’s also statutes and judgments, and of course that also tells you it’s the Ten Commandments because there were no judgments with the rituals and sacrifices, but with the Ten Commandments and statutes there are judgments. We have to make judgments about the Holy Days, we have to make judgments about the Ten Commandments and counseling and so on. So God is talking about the Ten Commandments here and He’s introducing Elijah. So obviously Elijah is gonna be teaching and keeping the Ten Commandments and the statutes and there will be judgments that he made a multitude of. They will be there.
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18:26 So a man will be on the scene. A man who will teach the Ten Commandments, then this man, this Elijah, will (?) the government. Then after Elijah is come and gone, obviously, they continue teaching the Ten Commandments, which we teach all the time and there is that same government. The same government will be passed on to the people who deliver this foundational part of the Elijah message.
19:01 Notice v5 See what happens to after Elijah uh were as part of the Elijah work that will continue after he is gone and he really is even in this context because this is this whole book is about the Laodicean era. But God still wants this message in that Laodicean era. He wants us to teach this message in the Laodicean era, to the Laodiceans, to the world, to anybody we possibly can because this is the future.
Behold v5 behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. A dreadful day is coming, a fiery furnace is coming. 95% of God’s people have turned away, but this is talking only about in the church it’s this message of Elijah is to a much bigger audience than that. But who is going to teach it? Who is it brethren that’s going to teach this message? It’s going to be people who submit to the Ten Commandments that you heard about so powerfully in the sermonette and He the Government of God that teaches those Ten Commandments. Those are the only people who will deliver this message, the only people God will even give it to are people who have that law and the government. So there is a little remnant here on the scene just before the Day of the Lor- the Lord, just between the Elijah and the Day of the Lord. And they are here and they have to deliver that message and they’re onl- the only one that really will submit to God’s Law and submit to His Government and deliver this message and God says if we don’t deliver it, we minister’s are going into the fiery furnace. And 50% of them don’t come out of that furnace. Gone forever. It’s pretty serious, pretty serious warning isn’t it brethren? A very serious warning and yet it’s eh- at the same time it is the best news we can possibly hear because concluding all that is the return of Jesus Christ and it’s getting oh so close. Cas we’re well into our message, Elijah has come and gone and we’re well into our message. I would certainly say right at the lu- the l-last end of the last end! That’s where we are today.
22:02 So this is good news. And you can see why we have to prophesy again because it is about the dreadful day of the Lord. Dreadful. When God says it’s dreadful, it’s dreadful. And we have to prophesy about that, prophesy again about that. Now notice verse 6 of Mal 4. And He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to the fathers lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Now this is Elijah’s Family Message, that’s what I wanna talk about today. Elijah’s Family Message, which is really the foundation of that message. And see how God punishes people who don’t deliver it.
23:00 Now really is a serious responsibility. First of all to the ministers and to the people who follow those ministers whether they be Laodicean or Philadelphian. So much is at stake. I mean the stakes are just as high as they can be in this calling that God has given us. I hope you’ll ponder that statement because it really is so important. I want to use some of the material I used in my TV program because it, I was just trying to get my mind on this subject as much as I could. Now I’ll make it here a quote from um Conspiracy Against Fatherhood. Katleen Parker wrote in the Sunday Oklahoman July 5th, 1999, “Now is the time for all good fathers to come to the aid of the family. In the June issue of the American Psychologist, published by the American Psychological Assoc. Here in their article, Deconstruction of the Essential father, researchers Louise B. Silverstein and Carl F. Hourbach challenge one of the core institutions of our culture. Well, not not really one of the core institutions. THE core institution according to God’s own word and according to Verse 6. THE core institution of this society, any culture.
24:34 “More or less,” she writes, “fathers as we’ve known and loved them are obsolete.”
Now, that’s uh, that’s uh, that’s an amazing statement that these psychologists would make and they would print in one of their best magazines.
Basically, she says the researchers say that fathers are essential to the wellbeing of the children. Now, that’s just about as diabolical as it gets. Fathers are, well, they’re obsolete, or they are not essential to the wellbeing of the sons and the children of the family. They’re nonessential; they’re just well, what are they really; (to me it sounds like a cut here from HQ) what is their value? I guess they just beget the woman and that’s it, or beget the child and the woman and that’s it.
But that is so terribly wrong. It’s much like what Mr. Armstrong said, it’s the – it’s uh that teaching is the greatest threat there is to humanity, more so than weapons of mass destruction. It’s that deadly.
These fathers are trying with all their might to just destroy the (?) family. Well, it really isn’t of a psychologist, it really isn’t them; it’s Satan, the devil, that wants to destroy this foundation-foundational message of Elijah, about the Elijah family message. They want to destroy anything like that.
26:28 Now, it goes much deeper than that, because Mr. Armstrong you-you see where Satan leads people –say, well look, it’s uh even the fathers not essential anymore in the family, and it is easy for Satan to go on to the Laodiceans and say, “Well, look, uh-I know,” as they say, that Mr. Armstrong was a spiritual father of the Church like uh Paul was in the Corinthians; but, look, you-you don’t need any fathers for the-the-the Church today. You don’t need that. They’re he-he’s not essential to the family, to the children, to the-to the spiritual sons,” and that’s what Satan says.
27:16 The Elijah family message teaches us the opposite of Satan’s psychology. And that’s how brazen and blatant the devil is, trying to destroy the only truth that can cause the people in this world to lift up their eyes and realize that God wants to make them eternal sons in His family forever, and that’s a hard message to get across in Satan’s world.
And, oh, Brethren, he hates it, he hates it so bad now because he’s da-cast down, he’s in a rage, and he’s going all out to destroy the family, (so is GF !) and that family message that-that Elijah brought to this Earth, what is more important than that? Let me read Verse 5 again, then I’ll read both of these to you together:
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and dreadful Day of the Lord, and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the Earth with a curse.”
Now, this is, as I said, to the Church primarily. And the curse here means utter destruction. Earth means inhabitants of a regions or inhabitants of a Church or inhabitants of the world. It-it is dua-dual, now and I’ll show you that as we go along but it does not mean that we have to work-do the work or God destroys everybody. It doesn’t mean that.
29:09 First of all, Mala-uh-uh the Malachi is addressed to the ministry. It-it’s addressed to the ministers. And then of course those who follow the ministers. And if they don’t proclaim this-this Elijah Family Message. God says they’re gonna receive THE CURSE. He’s gonna blot their names out of the Family forever if they don’t preach this message this Elijah Family Message… they’re history! It’s over for them!
29:46 Now that’s the first part of this duality in this v 6. You can read Malachi 4 verses 1-3 where it talks about there’s gonna be neither root nor branch left. They’re gonna be ashes under the saint’s feet. And that’s what He’s talking about brethren that God is after all laying it on the line. He is full of mercy and he’ll teach n teach n teach but we have to realize that this IS the way it is. And this IS dangerous knowledge and it is something that we must take very seriously. And I wanna show you something that frankly I haven’t understood before until God showed it to me but I KNOW this is what God is thinking. (baby cry) Where it sa-sa-says children. I think you can see the depth of this beginning to build as God shows us what He wants us to see. But where- where it says children there it should be son so we teach- He wants to turn the father to the sons or the son and the sons to their fathers because if you’re ever going to make a family work there are Laws here and God says you better take the father and he better teach the son how to be a husband and how to be the head of a family. Because look at this crazy world, almost nobody knows that. God has a long ranged plan in mind here. You fathers better think about teaching that son to know how to conduct himself in his family and teach his sons to lead the family!
31:32 Now that’s just the beginning of it and the wife fully supports that. She must but she has a key role as well. And God says, brethren, and we’ll see this more in the other part of the duality, but if you don’t do that the nations are not gonna survive. The world is gonna blow itself up, which is about, wh-what it’s about to do. Now that doesn’t mean that the the man is some tyrant. He doesn’t have a license to be a tyrant as you know it says Eph 5:21 that we are to submit to one another…in the fear of God. God doesn’t-He’s not trying to exalt one human being over another one. He’s trying to get us into the family of God and we both have to submit to each other in the fear of God or according to this book- according to this book. Now if-if you just think about this it implies: Well, what is mom gonna be doing? What is gonna be her goal? Let’s say…uh-uh certainly uh great portion of her job is gonna be well ok mom, now you show your daughter and you se- you set the example for her as the husband does for the son and show them how to conduct themselves each one of them, one of them as uh- is uh husband and a father and one of them as a mother to just show the daughter how to do it! And teach her how to do it. I mean there’s a lot at stake here. The whole world and the survival of humanity is at stake. That is what God is talking about. And both the mom and dad LOVE IT!! IF THEY DON’T, SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH MOM AND DAD !! Let’s be frank. We have to love the institution that God has established to get us into His family…forever. And that’s a big, big job for anybody.
But the physical fa- the father, the physical fathers main job, I’ll show ya in a moment is-is not to-to just look and just delve into the physical family, but it’s to get the whole family focused on the father, of all things. Not just God, but the Father who’s gonna head the family for all eternity. The Father is gonna do that, not Christ, see that’s where religion goes….whacky in this world. That’s- it’s the FATHER, it’s a FAMILY and the Physical family was one-is a God planed relationship that prepares us for the spiritual family. Now I don’t of anything that’s more profound than this subject. I don’t know of anything in the Bible that’s more profound. This is the Gospel. God says “Look, we’re either gonna get this right or we’re gonna be cursed…cursed…and you can look at that two different ways, but I’m looking at it right now as a … as an eternal curse if we don’t get it right but again brethren it’s not negative as people tend to think. All you have to do is reverse it. (laughter) Reverse the ending(?) here and it’s aaallll, it’s the blessing. It’s THE blessing. If you want the ultimate joy, and the ultimate happiness, get yourself in synch with this spiritual family. Even if you don’t have a physical family..and you’ll still be getting more happiness and joy out of life than any other way. And we all surely want that.
36:07 Malachi is about God’s own church turning away and-and turning away from this Elijah Family Message..and…they’re in danger of the greatest curse there is…there isn’t anything worse. This is the core value of the church OR the world. It’s both. The core institution. It-this-this will determine the quality of your life. How blessed you are, how happy you are, how unhappy you are, how cursed you are. This will be it. Because this is a law. It’s hard to get the world to see that this is a law. It’s based on the ten commandments. That’s why I talked to you about verse 4. But you see, well I, they don’t like for a man to tell them what to do, but God does nevertheless have a man to tell them about the ten commandments and that’s what Mr. Armstrong did, but they don’t, weeeelll they don’t like a man telling them what to do but then that just means they don’t want to hear about the ten commandments. It’s not really a man telling them what to do any how. But that’s the way it is in the Laodicean church. Why is the father in charge of the family? What is his main goal?
37:46 Notice Malachi 1 and verse 6, it tells you right here, it tell where the Laodiceans have failed……. “A son honors his father and a servant his master. If then I be a Father where is My honor?” Now that’s a questions that God has the right to ask, isn’t it? The Laodiceans are rejecting that teaching in verse 6 of Malachi 4 and they are not honoring their father. We all are striving to get our families to understand about the God family. Father, the father is going to be the head. It even says in Matt 5v48, Become you therefore perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. That’s what God has called us to do now 95% of God’s people have broken down right here. This is a family message and notice, let’s just read a couple of other verses. Verses 10 and 11 of Malachi 1 It is not just for the family though. It-it’s for the whole human family. Notice v10 Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for naught? Which is what God has done to the Laodiceans. He didn’t shut it for nothing. He shut their doors for eh-door for uh-good reason, cas they’ve stopped teaching that Elijah family message.
39:36 But any how neither do you kindle fire on my altar for naught, I have no pleasure in you says the Eternal of Hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand, that’s IF, I won’t even listen to you. When it talks about doing God’s temple service, or the Work, I won’t even listen. v11 For the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same My Name shall be great among the Gentiles. My family name among the Gentiles and it and that’s aaallll the world. Great among the Gentiles and in every place license, excuse me, incense shall be offered unto My Name and a pure offering for my name my name shall be great among the heathen says the Eternal of Hosts. You see God has a very big goal here. Is to get this message to the whole world and if we don’t do that we don’t understand what this is all about, what our commission is. We don’t understand Malachi 4-eh 4 and v6. That is to all of humanity starting with the church, but there is another level here I’ll talk to you about in a moment. It-it besides eh- or after the church and that, of course, has to do with getting the message out to the world and that’s where the second part of that duality comes in.
41:08 But brethren this is not about a man being over a woman or a son being greater than a daughter. That’s nonsense. It’s about getting people to focus on God the Father and He IS greater than the Son. He-the Son said so. And so we focus on the head of the family and God wants us all in that family and this is the only way we’re going to get there. We can get into all kinds of crazy human reasoning, but it doesn’t get us anyplace. It’s just a waste of time. We really have to get involved in this family work. And think about it brethren, that this is is the family of God and God tells us that He wants us to be hospitable and have each other into our homes and… socialize with each other and fellowship with each other and really come close together as a family… with all of the love of God himself. Now that’s quite a family. And not one of us can sit back and say, “Well I’ve attained I go ..we all, when we really think about it, have to be a little embarrassed that we haven’t done more, right? We need to think about that as we head toward Passover. Think about well how can I get more deeply involved in God’s family and honor my Father and Jesus Christ who gave His life for me? We’ll hear about that at Passover, died and was butchered and was savagely beaten and cruelly treated so that we might be able to be in the family. How’s that for love? How’s that for having a loving message? This is your family forever. I mean forever. That’s what God is trying to get us get our focus on. To lift up our eyes out to the whole universe, not just the moon , certainly not the earth.
43:45 So, let’s look at the second part of that duality. The first part is to God’s church and the second part are Mal eh- is the same part of Malachi 4v6 applies to the world. It is a message to the world. And it is a message that if they don’t build a Godly family structure whether yur-wur we’re talking mainly on a carnal level here now. If they don’t get this family structure the way Elijah taught it, but at least on the letter of the law level, They Are Under THE Curse. Did you ever look hard and see do you think that is a blessed marriage? Or is it Cursed?! In in some ways. Now God knows, doesn’t He? God knows what’s going on our families. He knows and He says “I’m showing you a way to be blessed in that family, but the husband and wife BOTH have to be in support of it TOTALLY or it won’t work. Not like it should. It won’t work. But, what a blessing brethren when we make it work. What a blessing. The family structure in Mal 4v6 applies to every human being on this earth and God says look if they don’t do it, if they don’t live according to this family structure the way Elijah taught they’re going to be under The Curse. And it’s gonna end up destroying everybody.
Mat 24v21-22 that’s where it leads. I mean this world is MAD. And they HATE each other, and they want to KILL each other. And they’re AALLL FAMILY, God’s potential family. And they’re trying to KILL each other instead of LOVE each other the way God loved them. This is the love of God you see that we-that we had that same love that He had for us. And that’s some love. Now on the carnal level if you don’t keep this Family structure then you’re under a curse. You know, if you know very much about families … that if-if if families don’t survive , nations don’t survive. And if you-if you have a family that has uh let’s say children with drug problems, getting into crime, or divorce an-an remarriage, an they’re not well educated and all that you know something is wrong with the family, right? Something is wrong with the family.
(Tape turn- repeat of last paragraph)
47:20 Now on the carnal level, if you don’t keep this family structure then you’re under a curse. You know, if you know very much about families … that if-if if families don’t survive , nations don’t survive. And if you-if you have a family that has uh let’s say children with drug problems, getting into crime, or divorce an-an remarriage, an they’re not well educated and all that you know something is wrong with the family, right? Something is wrong with the family.
When Charlie Manson, this demon possessed guy, that killed and bullied adel- a-, I don’t know, about 18 women, I guess, that followed him around or what, I don’t know how many it was. But the, it it seems like at that almost always that uh to me…that the media duh treats uh uh men, well not always but a lot of the time, I think they treat men that way. But, they made it look like well Charlie Manson was just this demon, he was the blame for all of this and those poor girls just, well, they were just taken advantage of…but, Those Girls were Outright Rebels and came from Dysfunctional Families and were Hateful and Despiteful and it Wasn’t Charlie’s FAULT !! (laughter) Poor guy has enough problems without being blamed for that!
Somebody in Their Families didn’t know how to TEACH Them or Didn’t Care and they were VULNERABLE to the DEVIL ! And look what he did to them. Look what he did ! I mean that’s awful to think about. That’s just the opposite of Mal 4v6.
49:26 The greatest blessing in life comes from the strong family. The greatest curse in life comes from the weak family or we could say the upside down family. And I’m speaking pretty bluntly brethren but I know we still have at least a few people that’s that has some still have some pretty serious family problems. Now we must solve them. See the Laodiceans, well they didn’t want to tackle that. “Ahhh, I don’t like that I-I-I don’t want it, I don’t want that! I don’t want all that responsibility and I don’t want to, certainly don’t want to look to God the Father and I don’t want to be so responsible in my family, I want some freedom.” And look where they are today, just LOOK at where they are today and what’s happening in their lives. It’s just repugnant to think about. But is there a more profound verse in the Bible than Malachi 4 and v6? I doubt it. You could say, brethren, when you look at this that family, family is everything. Now Mr. Armstrong said well, “Government is everything.” Well, it is. (laughter) So is family. What is the Gospel? The Gospel is the Good News of the coming Family of God which will administer the government of God. So, government is everything and Family is everything. It’s everything.
51:13 Now we’re out there and I’m out there teaching on television, these campaigns and that, about this this family structure when you know what this is evil society today really talks about most of all, it seems to me anyhow and I don’t think I’m exaggerate, they want to talk about SODOMY. SODOMY ! When they oughta be talking about FAMILY, FAMILY, FAMILY according to God’s Word. Isn’t is amazing how satan can get their minds So Twisted that they would ….dare….promote such an evil?! That they would dare do that. And you know where what people are gonna think our message, even ahead of time.
Here’s the way it often happens. Here is it the Jewish translation they handle it this way (chuckle), “As it is contrary to Jewish custom to conclude a book of scripture with words of doom..” that’s the way they look at Malachi 4v6, well wait whatdaya mean words of doom? Well, that’s only if you don’t get it right! It’s-it’s a message of how to turn the-the-uh about turning the heart of a son to the father and so on, but then it says v23 it’s repeated several repetitions are found at the end of Isaiah, Lamentations, and Ecclesiastes. They just will not end a book with a message with words of doom as they look at it. So they repeat v23 er v5, excuse, well they call it 23 themselves and say behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great dreadful day of the Lord. A great and terrible day of the Lord is the way they want to word it. So, that’s the end. Now you see they don’t NEED to end there. They really NEED that strong ending about telling you, you people in the world “If you don’t get this right, You’re going to be under THE Curse. It’s going to be AWFULLY bad in this world. You better GET it!” Well, they don’t want to end it there so they put the previous verse as the conclusion. I mean let’s-let’s hide from this harsh reality. Let’s not, let’s not be so harsh, let’s let’s kinda show God how to temper things and administer some mercy. Now it is an atta there is an attitude in that. This kind a uh thinking well we’re let’s kinda hide from the reality. I mean we can all do that.
54:05 You young people can do that in your dating,…… just like adults can do it in a number of ways but if you’re going out, let’s say, we te- you, teach here to the young people, the students and all of our young people to date. To keep the dating pure and righteous the way God is, but it is- it is for them to…well…kind of uh…sneak off into the darkness and try to hide something, is if God somehow cannot see. It is human nature and that’s the danger, and that’s gonna cause lots of problems. It’s even caused a few students to shut their..er- to to uh have a short career at college.
55:04 It’s hard to learn the lessons of God sometimes… I ….didn’t read this book but I noticed it on a bookshelfs..uh uh..biography of Ava Gardner. I think she’s dead (chuckle) I’m not kept up on it, but I believe she’s dead now…. And uh…she was probably one of the most beautiful women that ever went to Hollywood and also one of the most promiscuous women that ever went to Hollywood. And so in that biography they they I forget the title of it but anyhow the subheading is was and it’s her quote from her, “Love is Nothing.” I mean she had it all, as this world would view it. I mean she had it all the many men she wanted, all the money she wanted, and she took advantage of those in uh in uh carnal way, traveled all over the world and had all kinds of men everything you could imagine and at the end of the day she said Love is Nothing. Well now she wasn’t really talking about love and we know that, but she WAS telling us is Lust is Nothing! I mean when you add it up at the end of the day it’s a Curse! And that’s not fun! Well maybe it’s fun for a couple of months or maybe nine months or what ever but not very long…is it? It leads you into a very unhappy life and she ended up being well… financially dependant, alone and bitter. I guess she was ma-angry at God because He didn’t give her happiness in all that lust. I mean she just glutted herself with it, so much so that finally she came to the conclusion that it’s nothing… it’s Nothing! …It’s just adds up to be nothing. And she had it all which most people would look at it.
57:11 Now you could remember, I don’t know very much about Jane Austin, probably some of you ladies would know more about that than I do, but I the-the thing that I-I-I’m just uh little I’ve read about her and seen here and there is uh …well the mainly she’s getting more popular today. And Jane Austin wrote wrote about marriage and and really in uh- in uh I’g a comparative day quite a beautiful way about marriage and it-it wasn’t a big deal. Marriage was a great event in the lives of young people and old people back in her time and when when Britain was exalting marriage as a great event they were a great nation. They don’t do that today. They exalt Sodom and Gomorrah. They’ve even brought one of there stations over here, for the U.S., to uh to promulgate their homosexual marriage uh well homosexual life, excuse me. They marry and everything else. But the same is true in America. You know something brethren? That’s really true in the Church as well. When you think about marriage, I mean again, you kin you can function just fine without marriage (chuckle) Jeremiah did.
58:45 But marriage, if you’re gonna get married it is a great event and it’s a precious event and when it ceases to be so this Church will cease to be great. It won’t be much at all, because there is a marriage covenant there that you make with God ! With God !! Yes ! I will do this and Yes! He will do this and she will do this and they covenant with God! And that is THE Ultimate blessing in a man and wife’s relationship. And I think today people are getting back to Jane Austin because some of them are just sick to death of this ugly, evil, sick, sick society…that knows nothing about the beauty of marriage and family and where it’s leading them. Of course, it’s tough, of course it’s difficult it’s preparing you for the kingdom of God. Of course, it’s there are trials, you put two people together that want to go their own way and God says NO, Both of you go the same way. That’s tough…at times. (chuckle) But, it’s what a wonderful experience it is. Now God says and it just gives you His opinion, you want, eh-I mean you can look look at Peter, you can look at Jude and He says if you choose Sodom and Gomorrah I’m gonna put you through the fiery furnace and nothings coming out. That’s what He’s gonna do to Israel, that’s what He’s about to do to them. You love Sodom and Gomorrah? Fire is coming down from heaven! It’s coming down very soon.
1:01:00 Look when you get married you know, you know this brethren, it changes the course of your whole life. You choose this person it’s gonna be a greeeaat, it’s gonna have a greeeaat influence on your life. How could it not be that way? Choose another person, well, it’s gonna be quite a bit different (chuckle) maybe better, maybe not. I don’t know, but I tell you one thing I DO know, I would really want God leading me and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I wouldn’t have it and I wouldn’t want a-a mate that didn’t want it take way, because this is oh so serious, it’s about the greatest blessing in life or the greatest curse. That’s what it is really about. We used to just guard our families so much more than we do today.
There was a movie, I hope and pray to God you didn’t see it (laugh) This is number-SAW#4. This is the 4th movie they’ve made about SAW, you can imagine what it’s about and it says here’s that it’s a #1 movie in Ameri-America made last week came out. And it made 31.8 million dollars. Let me read you what it’s about in the movie review: Sequences of grisly, bloody violence and torture throughout. And for language. How-how about that? Would you let-would any—family that had any sense at all go to see that ar-ar let their children go to see that when it’s TORTURE OF HUMAN BEINGS ALLTHE WAY THROUGH?! THEY’RE JUST SITTING IN THERE WATCHING IT AND ENJOYING THE TORTURE. SO GOD IS GONNA LET THEM EXPERIENCE IT. But that’s what it’s about, it’s hardening their minds, if it’s especially if they are young it will really harden them and watching that grisly, bloody violence and torture all the way through the movie!! And it’s the #1 movie in America. Not exactly in the Jane Austin category. And that’s how we’ve degenerated, that’s how the family has degenerated and those people, I tell ya, their minds are on the edge. How could it not be that way? Here is God’s potential family and oh how hard they are getting and how satan is hardening their mind making God’s job a lot more difficult. Even when those movies first started, see I guess it was the early 30’s or the late 20’s. When they first started, they would’ve never allowed something like that. Not even consider it. They wouldn’t even have considered it. Because they even then understood a little more about Malachi 4v6 and other scriptures.
Notice 1John2 John was writing about a growing danger and it’s-he thought it was for his time, but it’s for our time and he was concerned about God’s people. 1John 2v18 And there were real problems developing in society like you heard in uh a very good Bible Study last night that where a treasurer of Australia is saying we’re facing a financial soo-uh tsunami. And I wrote in one of my booklets, I forget which one it was, about Morgan Stanley, the investment firm, and they-their chief economist, Steve Roach, says that the United States has no more than a 10% chance of avoiding economic Armageddon. Here’s an economist in one of the top investment firms saying that. I don’t hear many people repeating it but he said it. He knows that it’s-it’s-it’s over. (Chuckle) It’s eh,-there was a, Thursday, there was a 300, over a 360 point loss in the stock market, people were pretty nervous. But did you know brethren in-uh- in the last 7years the dollar has dropped 40% that isn’t exactly a freefall but it’s not far from it. 40% today, I mean I can just ‘member just short time ago eh-we’d get just so much more for our dollar but in Canada now their dollar is worth more than ours. Is that-that would you say that we’re going down fast? And our standard of living is going down-down-down exactly the way God’s Elijah said it would?
People are buying gold, it’s over $800 an ounce cas they want gold, they don’t trust the dollar. Well, who-who-who eh who would should trust a dollar? An one oil expert said that if there was a real crisis we could be without oil in a week. Now he may have been exaggerating a little bit, but I’ll tell you this, it would take much more than that to create a real crisis in this society. Environmentalist won’t let us dig in Alaska where probably have a lot of oil up there..most people think, because they’re afraid we’ll wound a moose or something like that. Instead they take a chance, I mean really are on the edge.
1:07:24 And it wouldn’t take much at all with the dollar going that to just plunge just right over and and we’re facing chaos it is gonna happen, it’s just a matter of when. And it’s just like we’re waiting for the event to happen an and it’s coming oh so fast. They won’t let us dig for oil in almost any place in our country, around our country even China and Cuba are just beginning-gonna begin right off the coast of Florida, because we won’t do it, and we won’t stop them, but they won’t let use the coal, because, and we have all kinds of coal, that’s abundant. But they won’t let us dig because well that’s unclean. It’s just too dirty. And they let criminals come across our southern border and I’ll tell you, there’s some commentator’s out there that are beginning to scream pretty loud. Their job is to say that we need an independent uh person to run for President. Neither party is paying any attention to people, they won’t listen to the problems about the border or these other problems. We need somebody who’s independent but, of course, that persons not gonna come on the scene. If he did, they wouldn’t vote him in.
But I tell ya brethren we-these are aaalll prophecies that Elijah talked to us about. All of them, the prophecies he talked about and you re- you read about Elijah and what he was-every time he was commenting the scriptures about Elijah he-he almost never says God, he always says The Living God, I mean he ( ? ) he wanted to know that God was ALIVE and He SEES what we’re doing no matter where we may uh if we do try to HIDE it, He SEES and Elijah knew that. And he wanted to keep Him ALIVE in his mind…and so….should we.
1:09:29 verse 18 though in-t 1st John 2 Little children it is the last time and as you have heard that Antichrist shall come. That Antichrist. Even now there are many Antichrists, oh yes there are, that won’t, that keep Sunday and reject the Sabbath, but here is one inside the church and he’s called That Antichrist. V19 Well excuse me, let me read the rest of that. Uh, even now there are many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time, or the last hour, it Should read.
The Last Hour, it’s-it’s here. V19 They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they were of us, they would no doubt continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all OF us. They weren’t OF us. You know, the-I wrote this in the -in the uh Last Hour booklet. The Anchor Bible states: It is perfectly possible that the Antichrist, the and the Liar and the Iniquitous One, or the Lawless One, were the current titles for the anticipated opponent for the Last Hour, or Last Times, it means The Last Hour. Even scholars in the world can see that this is discussing an evil person to come on the scene in the last Hour, INSIDE GOD’S CHURCH and WHO COULD THAT BE?! I mean even the carnal minded men in the world can see that it’s talking about THAT ANTICHRIST. SOMEBODY SITTING IN GOD’S OWN CHURCH, FIGHTING AGAINST CHRIST AND GOD’S PEOPLE CAN’T EVEN SEE IT!! THEY CONDEMN ME!! MORE THAN THEY DO HIM!! That’s quite a paradox. And they condemn me only because I teach and we teach that ELIJAH FAMILY MESSAGE. AND THEY DON’T LIKE IT AND THEY DON’T WANT GOD TO RULE THEM and that’s what they have to come to see. Do you want God to rule you brethren? With His government? With His Law? Do you love it? Really want it? Because if you don’t then you’re vulnerable. Some Charles Manson will come along and there you’ll go if you’re not loving this law and government, I’m speaking spiritually, of course.
I’m also gonna have to rush along. I’ve got too much material here, but uh, what I don’t use here I’ll probably use in the campaigns, so and you’ll get some of that on TV so you get it either way so whether (laughter) whether I-I’ve got it I sort of have you trapped in that way. But notice v13, back up just a little in 1John 2v13 I write unto you fathers because you have known Him that is from the beginning. Some of them knew Christ personally, that’s what he means. And I write unto you young men because you have overcome, or conquered the Wicked One. You young men have done that and my think our young men have done that and the young women but we do stumble from time to time, now don’t we? “I write unto you, little children, because you have known the Father, the Father. See you’re not gonna be able to conquer satan unless you know the Father. You’re not gonna conquer him. He says you ‘have’ known the Father and I think in this case he meant that they–they ‘have’ known Him, but they didn’t at that time. They didn’t know at that time. Then in v21-22 of the Revised Standard version reads, “ I write to you not because you do not know the Truth but because you know it and know that no lies of the Truth. Who is the Liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ, this is the Antichrist; he who denies the Father and the Son! Know anybody out there who denies the Father and the Son and a lot of God’s people, most of them follow along. Just follow along and revel in The Curse. How sad.
1:14:26 Well, I’m gonna have to uh figure out just what to cut out here, if you’ll excuse me a moment. Had quite a lot of material that I wanted to get into (?) time into the INR last weeks and this weeks. I mean there’s so-just some powerful material there. So I’ll skip that and just get into this part and conclude here.
1:15:06 Let’s turn to Dan 8v11….Dan 8v11 reads “Yeah, he magnified himself, even unto the prince of the Host and by him the daily sacrifi, or the-the daily, the Work was taken away and the place-uh-place of His sanctuary was cast down. Uh here’s what I wrote in the booklet on Daniel, “It also says He cast down the place of His Sanctuary, not the Sanctuary itself, note this is verse 14, it says the Sanctuary itself is cleansed, that refers to God’s people, the Church, the word ‘place’ in v11 however refers to a physical place. Strong’s calls it an abode. The International Critical Commentary says, A construction that was built or a dwelling it’s so used especially of God’s abode. God’s abode. Where God lives. That-that’s a physical place.
1:16:17 And when Mr. Armstrong wrote the letter, when-when he said he was gonna build God’s House, he made this comment: “This is a commandment direct from God, it’s not for us to question. Brethren, this message from God, to build a house for Him to dwell in is His command to you as much as to me.” I mean he went to God’s people and said I’m telling you brethren we’re going to build a house, God is commanded, we’re gonna build a house for God to dwell in on this campus, in spirit of course, but we’re gonna build a place for God to live. The God of Elijah, as we know. This is about the ff-the-the Elijah Family Message! And he really wanted a house for God right there at HQ’s. And we’re facing the Day of the Lord and we should want the same. We should want the same thing.
You can read in uh ISA 30 I’ll just paraphrase it where they caused God, these lying sons, caused God to leave that church. It told those who wanted to prophesy that you’re not gonna prophesy. Don’t prophesy. They-and it actually they caused God to leave that house. It’s still there but God isn’t there. But in Spirit God LIVED in that HOUSE. He and Christ LIVED in that campus and NOPLACE ELSE ON THIS EARTH! AND HE WANTS ANOTHER PLACE TO LIVE.
But can you imagine what a horrendous sin that is to drive God right out of His Own HOUSE? Course, God allows it today, but they just drove Him OUT. SAID YOU’RE NOT GONNA PROPHESY, WE’LL NONE OF THAT ANY MORE, BUT THEY HAVE A LONG HISTORY THERE WITH GOD’S ELIJAH AN THAT FAMILY MESSAGE AND THEY DIDN’T WANT THE FATHER…AND JESUS CHRIST TO LIVE ON THAT CAMPUS. THAT-IS-WHAT-THESE-SCRIPTURES-TELL-US!! But a little remnant fought for it, a little remnant.
1:19:04 You can read ISA 40 where it’s really talking about three messengers in-tha-they all have one thing in common they all deliver the Elijah Family Message.
And I think it’s interesting that after all they’ve done to God, the first people God says to go to is, I want cha to go to Zion. I mean these people have kicked him out of the church, they’ve spit upon Him, they’ve condemn Him they’ve fought against Him, they’ve shamefully treated their Creator. Yet God says I wancha to go and deliver this message to them, they’re my family and I wanna see how many of them I can get into My family. Take this message and deliver it to them. I mean humanly we’d probably say, “Hey I-no way. I don’t wanna deliver that message to those guys, look what they’ve done to you God!” But He also tells us to cry out to the cities of Judah, and one of those cities is where Christ was so brutally beaten..and CRUCIFIED!! AND THE FATHER HAD TO WATCH IT AND STILL THE FATHER DIRECTS US BACK TO JERUSALEM! TO THE CITIES OF JUDAH!!! WHERE HIS SON WAS SO-SO SHAMEFULLY TREATED!!
You talk about love. God has love beyond what we can imagine sometimes. And of course, Jerusalem is there as well and we go to the, that’s really to the whole world. Where is the God of Elijah? We’re here to build a house for Him brethren and deliver His Family message. And that house-house will have a lot to do with that, delivering that message. Just building a beautiful house says a lot about what we think of God, by the character and personality of that house. Some of the greatest music in the world will be going out from there. And it will-it’s aaalll about giving. It’s aaalll about giving and most of the people that-that come in contact with that message won’t really ‘get it’ today, but God says that there’s gonna be a great multitude. They’re gonna get the message enough to know that when they’re in the fiery furnace it’s time to do something about that message they heard before the fiery furnace first came upon them.
That’s the message, but it’s gonna be gotten an our greatest harvest will be then. How much though do you think that God’s message will impact the Laodiceans. Maybe it will, certainly in the tribulation make them have memories of what it was like in God’s house before they got to the point when they told them you don’t even call it God’s house. Just call it the Auditorium. But maybe those memories will come back when they think about the PEACE that God gave in that house and the JOY and the HAPPINESS and they’ll REALIZE THAT GOD REALLY DID HAVE-DOES HAVE ANOTHER HOUSE ON THIS EARTH AND HE DID BUILD ANOTHER HOUSE BEFORE THE TRIBULATION. AND THOSE PEOPLE WA-ON THAT ARMSTRONG COLLEGE CAMPUS REALLY EMBRACED THE FATHER!!! AND WANTED THE FATHER RIGHT THERE WITH THEM, IN HIS OWN HOUSE!! ALONG WITH THE OTHER HOUSES! And not only for HQ’s, but for AAALLL the CHURCH BECAUSE it is the-the HQ’s of ALL of God’s people in the Philadelphia Church.
It’s all about family and looking to the Father and the Son and having them right in your front yard (chuckle) and your backyard right there where you do your work from headquarters and it-He’s right there in spirit. That’s something to get excited about. How much is that house going to impact you brethren and me? It’s gonna to build our faith and I tell you I believe we could see already I didn’t get to talk with Mr. Locher about this but I think I can already see a growth in websites, income after that fabulous Feast of Tabernacles and all the wonderful offerings we got there.
1:24:07 And, if you see, we have a challenge like that and we have our minds on God’s house where He’s gonna live right here with us, it surely has to help our faith to grow. It means we’re going to have more growth, more healings, more blessings, there just gonna to be everywhere, for us to see and hopefully a lot of people in the world. And that building will be like the crown…of all of our buildings. But think about this brethren: God, the God from that third heaven is gonna come down here and He’s gonna live here in spirit. And He’s gonna get our minds focused more on Him and what is coming, and I mean coming oh so fast.
What happens when the dollar really does go into a free fall? I mean you and I couldn’t even imagined a few years ago the dollar losing 40% of it’s value in seven years. We couldn’t of valued- we couldn’t have imagined that, that Mr. Armstrong said that is precisely what’s gonna happen. And they’ll need that new currency that they’ve made in Europe, which God inspired them to create because He’s putting it in their minds to punish Sodom and Gomorrah. It’s God’s doing. It’s His idea.
It-ooooooh we could think about human beings to come here and live, but what about have God the Father and Jesus Christ here. How much does that physical-is that physical house going to affect our spiritual house? How much is it gonna impact uh impact our spiritual lives? Joe, Jr said the AICF had nothing to do with the Gospel. Course that-the music, the entertainment and all that was only a part of the message going out of that building. But I tell you that the message going out of that building embodied the Gospel, the good news of the coming family of God, which will administer the government of God, it show the people in this world how to have joy and happiness and THE BLESSING, THE BLESSING. The greatest possible blessing that they can even imagine. Why should that seem remote or maybe impossible to some? God gives us NEW REVELATION ALL THE TIME!!! HE’S SPEAKING TO HIS CHURCH!! THAT’S GOD DOING THAT. GOD IS SPEAKING TO US GIVING US HIS MESSAGE AND NOW WE’RE GONNA HAVE THE HONOR TO BUILD A HOUSE for God to dwell in on this campus. And I tell ya brethren, that certainly bodes well for the future of this great work of God and let’s all realize and thank God for the honor of being a part of it.
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You don’t need any “special revelation” to read and believe the Bible that clearly shows God’s House on Earth has always been in Jerusalem – not elsewhere like Mormons and others mislead.
Gerald Flurry foolishly attempts to spiritualize everything away when it comes to the holy temple of God that will be built in Jerusalem. The least he could do is encourage the Jews to fulfill their responsibility to build God’s House – the Embassy of the Eternal – in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount and stop equating Edmond with Jerusalem! What chutzpah! What madness!
Third Temple
Where’s the Temple On the Temple Mount?
Third Temple Coming Soon to Jerusalem!
The Temple of God in Holy Jerusalem
Herbert W. Armstrong 