(NB Headings are not part of original, but are added for clarity)

Prophecy Part 1

By Herbert W Armstrong

7 July 1984

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Brethren, nice to be back and again we had quite a trip. I’m not going to try to fill you in on the trip except just one or two little points perhaps. But I think Aaron Dean will have it in the 'Worldwide News' and he’s describing most many of the details, so you can get it there.

But let me see, I did speak the first Sabbath in Belgium and the second Sabbath I believe was in Salzburg, Austria. In Vienna we met the President of Austria in one of the old palaces that had been occupied by the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, and had a dinner with him. He gave us the box seats to the Presidential box at the Opera; I think that was on Sunday night. We were privileged to hear the Vienna Philharmonic - which has also performed on this stage here - in their auditorium. It’s quite different from this auditorium. I will say the acoustics are not as good. It’s longer, I think a little more narrow and it had several big chandeliers right through the auditorium over the seats of the people. Then at Salzburg we had a meeting in one of the old palaces in a building 800 years old.

And then on to Jordan. The next Sabbath we had a meeting with students that had been in Jordan for several months working over there. And they were leaving the next day for Jerusalem or later in the week I guess it was; anyway they were in Jerusalem the next Sabbath where we had another service in Jerusalem.

Now in, well while in Jerusalem I had a meeting with the President of Israel and I met, let’s see, I had met him once before, but that was before he was president. And I think this is the first meeting since he became president; they shift around over there once in a while, same as other countries.

In London the economic conference was on while we were there; that is the summit conference of the major powers. And I can tell you now that I learned things while in London that have alarmed me very greatly. And I can see now the event that is going to trigger the formation of reunification in Europe; the resurrection of the Medieval Holy Roman Empire that we’ve been looking forward to that is prophesied to come. Something has been holding it back and a year ago when Dr Arnold Van Hapsburg was here - he’d come over here to see me on July the tenth last year, just about a year ago. He couldn’t understand why they aren’t able to get this unification through sooner. Something is causing it to lag and to hold it up. I said to him; “I’ve been wondering about the same thing.”

Getting Ready (PLAY FROM 4:35)

But I believe that some event is going to happen suddenly just like out of a blue sky that is going to shock the whole world and is going to cause the nations of Europe to realize they must unite. Well, he said he believed that would have to happen too. Well, now I think I can see what may be the very event that is going to trigger it and that is the economic situation in the world. In the future I’ll have a great deal to say about that; I don’t intend to speak on it today. But let me just remind you of one or two things. This world started with Adam as you’ve heard me say again and again and again. And it started on the philosophy of get instead of God’s philosophy of love which I translate into the simple little three letter word or four letter word of give.

And as nations developed, specialization came along and instead of man raising his own food, building his own home, he and his wife making their own clothes; he’d make the shoes for his own family. Pretty soon perhaps he started a shoe factory, someone else started a clothing factory, others began to raise food on a large scale and then they began to exchange these things. One man would make shoes for dozens and then hundreds of others. Devote his entire time to that, so they had to have a medium of exchange instead of just exchanging goods and so money was invented. And money came to represent goods or services and material produced out of the ground. Then nations developed and today it’s grown into many, many different nations.

Now we had to have an economic system as specialization progressed. And to handle money and the transfer of money from one person to another a banking system was originated. Now today you’ve been born into a world where you take banks for granted. There’ve been banks for now hundreds and hundreds and even I guess thousands, thousands of years perhaps. But banks have to deal with one another and as transportation has increased and some people live in different parts of the nation or the world they transfer money by checks. And you have to have a system whereby someone writes a check, for example in Philadelphia and yet he has an account in the bank here in Pasadena. That check has to get somewhere, somehow from Philadelphia where he cashes it in the store or something there to come here and the money has to come out of his account in this bank and be transferred back. And so a correspondent bank system was invented and has been going since long before I was born.

Now the largest correspondent bank in the United States through which all these checks flow and they do flow through certain major banks the way the system works. The largest one in the United States was the Continental Illinois Bank of Chicago. I’ve had relations with the President of that bank when I was a young man living in Chicago. Fact, I went to him occasionally for advice while I was a young man in the early twenties. I had known him in Des Moines, Iowa where he’d been President of the Des Moines National Bank and I’d had an account in that bank before I went to Chicago. And that’s the bank that you’ve read in the newspapers in the last, oh two or three months now, that came into a near crash. It was, when I was in Chicago, the second largest national bank in the United States - and I think the second, about the third largest bank in the United States - and it’s still perhaps third or fourth in the United States; a very large bank.

When a bank of that size collapses and people begin to lose confidence in the bank and there’s a run on the bank; everybody tries to draw their money out. The bank never has as much cash on hand as it has deposits that it owes to depositors that have deposited their money with it. And they could bankrupt a bank when they start a run on it. And so that bank is so large it would affect and if the banker’s bank and banks all over the United States have to keep money on deposit in that bank for the clearing of checks. And that would upset the whole banking system in the United States and so the government had to come to the aid of that bank.

Now it had made some very risky and very bad loans to nations and the governments of nations in South America and Latin America. And now it begins to look like those nations are not going to repay what they owe. And it runs into billions and billions of dollars. Also the United States Government has loaned money to those nations. And now it looks like some of the South American nations may in the near future just decide they are not going to pay. They are just going to let it go into default and it amounts to so much money it will cause a great deal of trouble.

Banking Structure (PLAY FROM 11:12)

Now let me go further. The whole banking structure in the United States is a network all joined together, but not only that, one nation has to deal with other nations in imports and exports. And so they have to have a means of transferring money from one nation to another. And so the banking structure is international and interwoven. Things started out with the first man Adam rather simply. God’s things are usually simple. Man wants to make everything complex, intricate, and in such detail that the human mind can hardly keep up with it. And so the banking system has become very complex. And one nation is pretty much tied to other nations in its banking or monetary system.

You can read in the newspapers how the dollar has a certain value in relation to the British pound or the Jewish shekel or the Japanese yen and they go up and down. And so the whole world is tied up in a banking structure. Now, money represents getting, and this world is devoted to getting; do you get the point? That’s why God says in the Bible the love of money is the root of all evil (I Timothy 6:10). Not that money is - money can be a very, very valuable thing if it is properly used, judiciously used. But lust or love of money, desire to get and to have more and more and more and more and never have enough, is what is possessing the world that is based on a type of living and a lifestyle of getting and everyone wanting to get more and get more and get more; and one nation wants to get more from other nations. Now when the financial structure breaks down, all civilization is going to break down.

I just wanted to say that much maybe you can begin to see how serious this thing can become!

Now there was an economic conference of the leading ‘have’ nations or the developed nations - United States and Canada and Japan. And incidentally I had a very nice meeting with the Emperor, not Emperor, I mean the Prime Minister Nakasone of Japan, in London - the second meeting that I have had with him. He hasn’t been in office too long now and I’ve had meetings with every Prime Minister of Japan in about the last fourteen years. Also I had a meeting with the Foreign Minister, the minister for foreign affairs of Japan who was in London for this conference and the man immediately under him, who is one of my 'Japanese sons', and has two of his sons that may be in this auditorium just now, because he’s going to school on our campus, or that is two of his sons. And they want me to start projects in a few other nations that they can back up with Japanese government funds; that they would like to fund.

Well that’s another story that involves our operations with the Ambassador Foundation; it may be important. But I just wanted to mention that I could see the handwriting on the wall. Now other nations that were involved in this conference; President Reagan was there and as I say Prime Minister Nakasone, the Prime Minister of Canada, and of course Mrs Thatcher of England, and the President of France and the President of Italy and so on and the, let’s see, he’s not a President or they do have a President in Germany, but the man who runs the government is the Chancellor. They were all there. I only met the one from Japan, however, myself.

Holding Things Back (PLAY FROM 16:01)

However, we had an invitation to participate through the Ambassador Foundation in UNESCO. So we flew on over to Paris and I had a meeting with the managing or the, I guess he’s the Managing Director, at least the head of UNESCO. They wanted us to participate and I have decided we should not for various reasons we may make plain to you later. However, the situation is simply that, I think God has been holding the winds of war and of nuclear war and the final crisis back for at least fifteen or twenty years now. When it seemed like it was due back in the late nineteen sixties. It seemed like it was going to be due in a few years and it had not happened. Now I can see where things can come to a head and it is just like on the front cover of I believe it was 'Newsweek' or else it was 'Time Magazine.' It’s the gathering storm that is taking place right now getting ready for the grand smash crisis that’ll bring about the end of this world.

Now you might just remember the testing case of months ago since the atomic scientists moved the doomsday clock forward one more minute from four minutes to only three minutes to midnight. And midnight is the doom of all civilization, the end of this world. Not the end of the earth - the world is merely the civilization and the system of human beings. But the important thing is, and I think we’ve been overlooking it until now, that all of the relationships internationally, one nation with another, one human being with another, are regulated in this world’s system of wanting to get, are all involved with money. And there is a money crisis now.

Now these heads of government that were there didn’t come out with any solution, Do you know why? It is to their interest that Mr Reagan be re-elected and an election is coming on in a few months here in the United States. And if they had come out with it and made the real plight public it might have hurt Mr Reagan’s chances; as of now, if the election were held today undoubtedly Mr Reagan would go in with a pretty big majority.

And so politics enters into it and politics will enter into it and I can see where it is going to cause Europe to unite and turn against the United States. And if you want to know what will happen go home and read the last chapter in the book ‘United States and Britain in Prophecy.’ Now you may have read it, go home and read it again. Brush up on it and refresh your mind on it, because we’re coming to the time when it is going to happen. Bible prophecy says it will happen and everything says it will happen. So I am going to get back to speaking on prophecy a little more from now on. I think we need to get back to that subject.

I’d like to start a little bit on the book of Revelation today. I don’t expect to go too far today, but in Revelation one for example; now I didn’t bring a Bible with me. I have a lot of pages here and I’ve had to have the passages that I want to read to you retyped on a larger typewriter; larger type on a typewriter and then blown up larger and blacker, and then it requires a magnifying glass because none of the Bibles that I’ve been able to get with larger print, are visible to my poor one eye that I’m seeing out of now. And I’ve had to come to this and I don’t know what I’m going to do if I have to just have the passages I want to read always written out this way. It’s going to be a little awkward. And I don’t know what I’m going to do on the telecast, but I’m having to do that and have the last few telecasts had to use this same system.

Revelation of Christ (PLAY FROM 21:12)

But Revelation one and verse one, you’ll find over the caption of the Book of Revelation in your Bible - some Bibles - it’ll say the Revelation of St John the Divine. Now men wrote that. That is not part of the Bible; it’s just a title that men wrote in over the book. It isn’t the revelation of St John the Divine and John was not divine anyway. It is the Revelation of Jesus Christ not of John. So it starts out:

"The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him [you’ll notice He is not the author, God is the author; Jesus Christ is the head of the church but God is the head of Christ], which God gave unto him to shew unto his servants… [something]" (Revelation 1:1)

Now His servants are those that He has called and that are serving Him. Those that have surrendered to Him. In other words those that have His Holy Spirit and are obeying Him and have been converted and belong in the church; the true Church of God.

So this is not for the world and the world does not understand the book of Revelation. It doesn’t show anything to them. They cannot understand it because most of the book is written in symbolic language. But the one who reveals it; 'revelation' means revealing - opening up - not closing. But it is a book that has remained closed to the world and they can’t understand it at all.

Now the Protestants have various interpretations of the book of Revelation and they couldn’t be more wrong I think. The Catholics keep silent about it because it says too many things about them they don’t want people to know.

"The Revelation of Jesus Christ… to shew unto his [Christ’s] servants things which must shortly come to pass;" (Revelation 1:1)

Now that is what the book is all about. But the one who does the revealing is Christ and it is not really revealed in the book because it’s in symbols and until the symbols are made clear and someone tells us what each symbol represents, you don’t know what it’s talking about. Now coming to verse ten you find the subject of the whole book; where John, who is writing it... you see God gave it to Christ,

"...he sent and signified it...to his servant John who bore record [and that is, he wrote it in a book]... of the things he saw and of what he heard [and so on]." (Revelation 1:1-2 (paraphrased)

Now the things that he saw were all symbols and someone has to reveal what it means and Christ is the only one who can reveal it. Now John goes on and he says in verse ten: "I was in the Spirit." Now ‘in the spirit’ means in this case, he was in a vision; it’s just like a very unusual dream; in a vision. He might have been wide awake but in his mind, his mind was taken to see things that were not on the Isle of Patmos where he was physically in the Mediterranean Sea.

"I was in Spirit on the Lord’s day," (Revelation 1:10). It would be more proper if you would say ‘into’ the Lord’s Day if they had translated it that way out of the original Greek. You see I’m reading the English translation, this is written in the Greek language. But the Lord’s Day is the Day of the Lord and the Day of the Lord is a time that is just ahead of us now. Now that ‘I’, needs to be made plain.

The whole book of Revelation is about the Day of the Lord and that is a time in human society that we have not reached yet, but we should reach in this generation, and perhaps we shall reach it. We could begin to get to these events in just one to five or six years now. I don’t say we will - I just say we could. So don’t misunderstand and go around saying Mr Armstrong said we are going to get into all of this in a year; I didn’t say that. But I have been misquoted just like that before and I have to be very careful.

The Day Of Satan (PLAY FROM 26:20)

Now, we have been for six thousand years, you might call it the day of man, but actually it has been the day of Satan. The day of Satan the Devil. Satan the Devil is a former archangel who was placed on this earth. And he was placed here over many angels who inhabited this earth before any human being had ever been created. He was placed on a throne and God put him on that throne to administer the government of God over those angels.

Now the government of God is based on a law that can be summed up in one word, love. L-O-V-E. And that is love toward God which means obedience of God as well as love toward God. And it means also love towards your fellows. In that case, in his case towards other angels. And God’s whole government is based on that principle.

But this Lucifer was so brilliantly beautiful that his beauty went to his head and he became vain, filled with vanity. And he thought, “Well look how great I am. And there’s God up there but He has more real estate that I do; I just got this earth and He has all the rest of the universe.” So he said, "I will ascend, I will exalt my throne above God and all of His angels..." (Isaiah 14:13-14 paraphrased). He had angels under him down here.

Now it might have taken him millions of years to get his angels converted from obedience to God to rebellion against God. But he did succeed in doing it and how it happened and how long it took is not recorded in the Bible. If God ever wants us to know that, He’ll reveal it to us someday but not yet.

They were organized into an army to try to pull a coup on the government of God over the whole universe. They swooped up to heaven to knock God off His throne, they found that the Creator was greater than all that He has created and they were sent right back down to earth and this archangel Lucifer who sat on that throne was changed into Satan the Devil. And 'Satan' means adversary, enemy, and the angels who were with him became demons. Their minds were distorted and twisted. Lucifer had been perfect in all his ways as God created him, until iniquity was found in him as you read in the twenty-eighth chapter of Ezekiel.

But now the government of God had been disrupted on the earth and a different government had supplanted it. Now government is always based on a law and a law is simply a way of human conduct or a way of conduct or life; the rules that regulate performance. I’ve said that the rules of a baseball game or a basketball game could be called the laws of that game. Because the rules regulate the conduct as they play the game, how they play it and about the conduct and there are always penalties if they violate it - the law - the law has penalties. Always law does.

Now every government is based on a basic law. The United States Government, for example, is based on the basic law which we call the Constitution of the United States.

And now this world was ruled over by Satan on a throne where God placed him on the earth and it was ruled by Satan’s law, which is vanity. ‘I love me more than you’. Selfishness, self-centeredness the way of get and take instead of give and co-operate and share and be lovingly concerned for the good of others.

So there was a government here on earth.

Adam On The Earth (PLAY FROM 31:13)

Now just this morning while I was preparing what I would say this afternoon something came to me and I scribbled it down; I, I have it here. I can read it, I think you can almost read it down there; I have to make it this large in order to read it.

Adam now was created by God on the earth after all this happened. God decided to create human beings and He started with one man; Adam was created out of the dust of the ground. And so Adam came into or onto this earth by creation; into a world of Satan, with Satan sitting on the throne ruling it. And ruling it with a government, which is his government, his way of life which is the law of rebellion, of competition and strife, the law of hatred, the law of destruction instead of construction or creating - just the opposite of God’s way - of self-love, self-desire. Now Adam was created and he came into such a world.

I’ve said that you’d seen movies and you come in when it’s well along and you don’t know what went before and you don’t know how it got the way you see it at the time. And you don’t know what’s going on, you can’t make - well the old saying you can’t make head or tail of what you are seeing. Well that’s the way it must have been with Adam. He came onto the earth when there was a law being administered on this earth and the law was one of hatred, of rebellion, of self-centeredness, of vanity, of all of those things.

Now God created him and God put him into the Garden of Eden and there were two symbolic trees in the Garden of Eden and I’ve said this so many, many times and I probably shall continue talking about those two trees.

One was the tree of life. Now God did not make Adam immortal. Satan and all of his angels who became demons were made immortal. They’re spirit beings, they cannot die, they will live forever. They don’t have to breathe air; they don’t have any blood circulating that could be spilled out so that they would die. But they have gone the wrong way of life. And here is the earth ruled that way. And Adam was put on the earth.

Now God explained a little to him. I don’t think that there was enough time there - that God could have taken more time, but He didn’t - to go into more detail, I don’t think Adam knew too much about it, but he saw that there was two ways of life. One is represented by this tree of life.

To have taken of the tree of life, well let me see how I wrote it down here. Think I’m going to have to have a magnifying glass. He had temporary existence only, but he was offered immortal life if he would choose God’s way of life or God’s law which is love instead of the way that was on the earth under Lucifer. And if he would choose God’s way of life, God would have let him take over the throne instead of this Satan. But if he had chosen that tree that meant that God would have put His spirit in Adam. That would mean the mind of God; which a mind is an attitude of love toward others. It is an attitude of love to God and obedience to God. It is an attitude of love and loving concern for the good and welfare of others.

Now God intended this Adam to reproduce and have children until there would be many people on the earth. And part of that law is to have love for all of the other people. As well as first of all love toward God that would mean obedience to God and God’s way, which is the way of love, the way of giving, the way of co-operating and helping and so on.

Now the other tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represented him going along with the mind that he had. Now he had a mind and to have a mind at all required a human spirit in him to empower a physical brain to think. To empower a physical brain to have knowledge and to store up that knowledge and to utilize this and that and the other little point of knowledge and put them together in a process we call thinking and reasoning. And to have attitudes of either good or evil. Now he already had that. He had the chance of having attitudes of either good or evil, but this spirit he had was only a human spirit.

Levels Of Spirit (PLAY FROM 37:26)

Now let me say at this juncture that there are at least three levels of spirit and one differs from the other. Highest of all is the Spirit of God and God is a spirit as you read in John 4:24. There is another type of spirit of which angels are composed. They are made out of spirit but it is a type of spirit that is not on the same level as the Spirit of God. Now there’s a third kind of spirit that God put in man that is not on as high a level as the angel spirit. And that gave man a mind that is not of the same level or equal to the mind of angels or of this Lucifer. And of course their minds are not equal to that of God. And the basis of all mind is the spirit anyway.

If he had taken the tree of life he would have chosen to have God’s mind injected into him by God’s spirit which meant an attitude, an attitude of love - of obedience to God - of God’s way according to God’s LAW. Now, he chose the other tree which was the tree of self-good and evil. And with it came the influence of Satan, because he rebelled against God when he disobeyed God and took what God commanded him not to take and God said the penalty would be death.

And he did follow Satan, who deceived his wife, and he followed his wife in taking of the forbidden fruit from the forbidden tree, which meant he became captive to Satan. And Satan had kidnapped him and injected a little bit of Satan’s evil into him as well as whatever human good he might have, but a lower level altogether than the good of God.

And so what happened? God then thereupon when Adam made that decision closed off the tree of life, until Jesus Christ the second Adam should come. Now we find prophecies about the second Adam coming in Isaiah 7:14 and 15 and in Jerusalem a week ago I read this because we had some Jewish people there. And especially one was a lady who is teaching Bible in the Hebrew and that means the Old Testament to them and I wanted her to know about these passages. One was Isaiah 7:14-15:

"A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and [they would] call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14), which meant God with us. A human being born of a virgin woman and would be God in the human flesh, and that is in their Bible. And I’m sure that she, she was whispering to the one next to her saying, "What are those passages, jot them down I want to know". I don’t think she’s changed any though.

Then I had, I had Mr Dean read these for me because I couldn’t read them. Isaiah 9:6-7, that again the Messiah would come as a baby and would grow up and the government would be on His shoulder. And He would grow up from a child. And He would be called the Mighty God and Wonderful and Counselor and wonderful names like that. And He would then take over the government over the whole earth and rule for ever and ever.

What are the Jewish people who reject Jesus Christ going to do with passages like that in their own Bible? Well, all I can do is give the passages and just, it’s up to her what she does with it; between her and God and not between her and me.

Then the next was we read the first five verses in Isaiah 53, if you want to jot it down and study it when you get home. There it talks about the Messiah coming and having to bear our sins, and how He was beaten. A man of sorrows acquainted with grief and all of those things. Well, I wanted some of the Jewish people there to hear that and they were in the audience last Sabbath.

Now civilization was started in this Adam and it was influenced by Satan and God had shut off His spirit or any eternal life, and the mind of God was shut off from humanity. And so along came the first two boys that were born. Adam and Eve had first two sons - the first was Cain and then came Abel. And the first son became a murderer and a liar and killed his brother even after God had spoken to him and warned him.

However when God closed off the tree of life - I want you to put this in your mind and keep it - GOD CLOSED UP SALVATION AND SHUT OFF SALVATION FROM ALL THE WORLD, UNTIL CHRIST WOULD COME. THERE WAS NO SALVATION OFFERED! Ask the average protestant who says ‘this is the day of salvation and the only day’ and ‘God’s trying to save everybody’. What was God doing before Jesus came? When did salvation start? And you’ll find they can’t answer. They’ll say, "Well I never thought of that". No they never did, because they couldn’t be more wrong than they are. Salvation was shut off from the world.

Now God still talked to people in the world that they would live right even though they didn’t have His Holy Spirit. He warned Cain to do the right thing instead of quarreling with his brother, but he went ahead and quarreled and killed his brother. And then he didn’t show a right attitude, he didn’t repent, he just griped and said God wasn’t fair. His punishment was more than he could bear; he accused God.

Civilization Continues (PLAY FROM 45:18)

And so civilization went on. Now it wasn’t very long about 1500 years; that’s not very long in God’s sight. Of course Adam lived 930 years, that’s getting close to the first thousand. And then approximately a 1500 years all humanity had gone the wrong way, except possibly the one man, Noah. And for Noah’s sake and to keep humanity alive, God took Noah, his wife, their three sons and their wives in the ark and drowned everybody else on earth.

But God had already appointed, it was appointed to men once to die and after this the judgment (Hebrews 9:27). And so what God knew then that as in Adam all were going to die; in Christ who was to come later, all should be made alive ( I Corinthians 15:22). The same all - beginning with Cain and Abel and Seth and all of those people drowned in the flood. They are all going to come back to mortal life - not immortal life, just ordinary mortal life once again just like they were and be judged. But when they are they are going to be sentenced to death. And when they are sentenced to death they will find their death penalty has already been paid by Jesus Christ, but it can only apply to them if they will repent and if they will start to live God’s way as they should have done in the first place. And turn away from sin which has brought this penalty on them.

So that is the way of God’s master plan. God is going to save the world or most of it. It doesn’t mean everyone in it.

Well after that they came to the tower of Babel. And Nimrod had started the city of Babylon and then Nineveh, Accad, Calneh, other cities. And later nations developed; first they had city states, then later nations including several cities. Then there came a world empire six hundred years before Christ that had been formed by the King Nebuchadnezzar of the Chaldean Empire. And it was the world’s first empire. And a world civilization had developed and it included this financial system as it developed that I mentioned at the beginning this afternoon.

Now there was a prophecy that God made to this Daniel. And I’m going to read it now and it has to do with the thirteenth chapter and the seventeenth chapter of Revelation, which are inset chapters and we come to them later. But let me read some of that to you.

Daniel, the second chapter, this King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. He had fortune tellers, sorcerers, astrologers, and so on, so he called them in and he challenged them to tell him what he dreamed. Well they said no man could tell him what he dreamed, if they would tell him what the dream was, they’d try to tell him what it meant. Course they could make that up. He wanted them to even tell him what he dreamed. And they said that no one could do it; only God could do it. So Daniel was called and Daniel said that the God of Heaven would reveal the secret - and did through him - of what was going to happen in the latter days of this whole earth’s civilization, of this world.

So Daniel came in to the king; he said:

"Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image [and then that’s in verse 31 in the second chapter and verse 32]… This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms were of silver, his belly and his thighs were of brass. His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest [said Daniel] till that a stone was cut out without hands [in other words supernaturally not by any human], which smote the image upon the feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them in pieces. {1} Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold [that formed this image], all broken to pieces together, and became as the chaff of the summer threshing floor: and the wind carried it away that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain [and here mountain is a type and is used throughout the Bible in symbolic language to represent a nation, a great mountain would be a great nation], and filled the whole earth. This is the dream: and we will tell the interpretation thereof..." (Daniel 2:31-36 paraphrased)

Now Nebuchadnezzar knew that that was the dream, so now he could believe that Daniel was telling the truth about the interpretation. He knew that no one but God could have revealed it.

So he continued: "Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory." (Daniel 2:37)

God Rules And Gives Kingdoms To Whom He Allows (PLAY FROM 51:53)

So this was used to show the first world emperor that God rules, that God gave him the kingdom, that God was greater than he and ruled over everything. Now God was still ruling over the earth, but He allowed this Lucifer whom He placed on the throne of the earth to continue there and Satan is only still there to this day because God allows it. Now God could have intervened He just never did. He has a purpose and He is going to work that purpose out and that purpose would have been defeated if He had removed this Satan at that time.

Now he continued in verse 41: "And whereas thou sawest the feet and [the] toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided;" (Daniel 2:41)

Now you see that represented - that part of the image - represented a kingdom. He had said that Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold and that another kingdom would come after him, which was to be the Persian Empire, and then the Greco Macedonian Empire, and later the Roman Empire. So the final kingdom being the Roman Empire was represented by this iron. 'The kingdom shall be divided' The two legs showing - and there was - and they had a capital in Rome and capital in Constantinople. The kingdom had two capitals even.

"... but there shall be in it of the strength of iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay." (Daniel 2:41)

But it was not going to stand. I won’t read those other verses right there but coming to verse 44 now.

"And in the days of these kings [those toes which represent a nation to be formed as I told you in Europe when they go together. Now they’re trying to form that now and this economic crisis may be the thing that’ll plunge them into it]. And in the days of these kings [that’s the ones that may be will rise up in the next year or two or three or whatever] shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom [in their day God will set up a kingdom which will be of course the Kingdom of God], which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms [that’s the kingdoms that’ll be in Europe and that are on the earth today], and it shall stand for ever." (Daniel 2:44)

Now that’ll be the Kingdom of God and the whole gospel of Jesus Christ was about the Kingdom of God; that was His gospel. So His gospel started out in a way in advance in the second chapter of Daniel.

Now, let me see. Next, Daniel had a dream himself. So I want to come to that next. In the seventh chapter of Daniel; Daniel’s dream and he saw virtually the same thing but adds a point that’s very important. Well he saw four great wild animals or beasts coming up from the sea different one from the other and the first was like a lion, the king of beasts; and verse 5.

"And behold another beast, a second, like a bear [and that was the Persian Empire as we’re going to see later; and then verse 6]… After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had on the back of it four wings [representing speed of flying through the air faster than you can go on the ground]; …the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night [that was the Greco Macedonian Empire. And] after this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth [that represents the iron of the legs which was the Roman Empire with its two divisions]: and it had ten horns." (Daniel 7:5-7 paraphrased)

Now Daniel continues in verse eight;

"I considered the horns, and behold, there came up another among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots:" (Daniel 7:8)

Now later we’ll see that he identifies the lion as the Chaldean Empire, the bear as the Persian Empire and so on.

Now among these came up this little horn and that was the Papacy or the Roman Catholic Church. And it's coming down to the time in the Roman Empire when the first four of the horns representing stages of government were plucked up by the roots and that was the Heruli, the Ostrogoths, and the Vandals.

"...and, behold, in this horn were the eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.” (Daniel 7:8)

That’s referring to the Papacy; now continuing in verse seventeen.

"These great beasts, which are four, are four kings [or he uses the interchangeable between kings and kingdoms or governments], which shall arise out of the earth. But the saints [now this is the point I want you to get that is added here, it adds the idea of the Roman Catholic Church coming and now], the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever." (Daniel 7:17-18)

Christ The Stone To Smite The Image (PLAY FROM 59:22)

Now Christ is the stone that will smite the image on the feet but when He comes and destroys all of this the saints are going to take the kingdom under Christ. Daniel 2 shows Christ coming, Daniel 7 shows the saints taking the kingdom with and under Christ.

Now God had prophesied in Joel the second chapter and the twenty-eighth verse that:

"It shall come to pass afterward [now it had been, if you read the verses just before this in the context, it had talked about up to the second coming of Christ and the Kingdom of God and meaning after Christ’s coming; that is exactly what it’s talking about if you get the whole context], …it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy [and], your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:" (Joel 2:28)

So there was a prophecy that God would later, and of course the time is after the second coming of Christ, ahead of us yet, pour out His spirit on all flesh. Now that has not happened yet. I’m going to show you how God has poured out His spirit on those that God has called into the church; now we have to come to that.

So in due time the second Adam did come. And Jesus Christ, born like a baby, as was mentioned in the prophecies of Isaiah 7 and Isaiah 9, and Jesus said, "I will build my church." (Matthew 16:18) Now church comes from the Greek word ‘ecclesia’ and it means ‘called out ones.’ The church are those that are called out of this world which is going to crash and be destroyed. And all of those nations are going to be destroyed at the second coming of Christ. The saints are going to take and possess the kingdom.

So the church also are called the firstfruits of God’s salvation. God has not saved people yet. He made an exception and did give His Holy Spirit to the prophets of the Old Testament because they were part of the foundation of the church, born way ahead of time. But otherwise ancient Israel did not have any salvation. The prophets had to have the Holy Spirit to write part of the Bible for the church - to teach the church. So the church in due time can teach others at the second coming of Christ when the Kingdom of God is finally set up.

Now Jesus when He came was the second Adam and He was born with the Holy Spirit, the first Adam was not. The first Adam had to make a choice, the second Adam didn’t have to make the choice, He already had the Holy Spirit, He was born by it and born with it. And He had the Spirit of God and the mind of God as well as the human spirit giving Him the human mind, now He had with it the mind of God from the time He was born.

Now He came to start God’s world, another world, another civilization altogether. And so the church was the firstfruits of God’s salvation. God had shut salvation up when Adam made his choice six thousand years ago. You read that back in Genesis third chapter verses twenty-two to twenty-four. And the Holy Spirit is still shut up from the world. It is opened only to those in the church, those that God has called. Now Jesus said in John 6:44:

"No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him:" (John 6:44)

They have to be chosen and we are a chosen generation. The rest of the world is not.

Now we get back to the book of Revelation again and coming to the second and third chapters, it is a prophecy about the church. The second and third chapters show the church in seven epochs or seven different eras of time. And we are in the sixth era of that time now - the Philadelphia Era. The seventh I will tell you about later. I think we’ll have time, let me see how the time is going.

John's Vision (PLAY FROM 1:04:50)

Now Revelation four and five, that’s chapter four and chapter five, John shows his vision up in heaven. And there is one sitting on the throne, which is God the Father. And in His right hand is a book which is this book of Revelation, telling what’s going to happen. But no one is able to open the book. Now books in those days were rolled up like a scroll.{2} Instead of pages like we have in books today. But it was sealed with seven seals so you couldn’t unroll it or open it up. And no one was found worthy to open it up; in other words no one could understand it. No one could open it up to understanding, and then there is One in front of the throne and that was the Lamb of God, and that of course was Jesus Christ. And He and He only, was found worthy to open the seals so you could read and to explain and reveal the meaning of the book. And the book was to show us things shortly come to pass in these last days.

And the whole theme was the Day of the Lord when God will intervene. Now we’ve been in the Day of Satan. I’ve been showing you that all the way through. Adam was taken captive by Satan. Jesus came and paid the ransom price, but the people didn’t want to turn back to their potential Father or God. They preferred to stay on with Satan’s way of vanity, of lust and greed, of self and selfishness, rebellion and destruction, envy and jealousy against other people, trying to get revenge and to hurt and harm, to destroy instead of to build up and the world has been going on like that. Now there is good in the world, along with evil, but the good is not as good as God. It’s a good on a lower level altogether.

So now we come then to Revelation six. Jesus had come and taken the book out of the right hand of God the Father in Revelation 5. And now He is able to begin to open it up, but even when He opens it up we see things that He still hasn’t revealed. Now we come to Revelation 6 and we now need to come to the first eight verses, so beginning with verse one.

"And I saw [John is writing it] when the Lamb [which is Jesus] opened one of the seals, … And I saw [verse two], and behold a white horse [the first thing he saw was a white horse with someone sitting on it]: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown [now notice he had a crown] a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer." (Revelation 6:1-2)

Who was that on the white horse? Doesn’t tell you here, but remember that Jesus Christ is the revelator or the revealer and Jesus has to reveal it and He didn’t reveal it here in this book, but He did in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 and Luke 21. So we’ll come to that in just a moment. But let’s read the other seals first.

"And when he had opened the second seal [John looked] ...And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword." (Revelation 6:3-4)

In other words the sword kills - taking peace away, in other words a time of war. So then second thing was war.

"And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I saw [this is what John saw in his vision], and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand [what could that represent? - a pair of balances in his hand] And I heard a voice out of the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny; and three measures of barley for a penny [in other words scarcity of food, denoting famine]; and see thou hurt not the oil or the wine. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto him over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth." (Revelation 6: 5-8)

Now, let me see, let me get this all together. We’ll go back now to Matthew 24 where Jesus begins to explain what those symbols mean. In Matthew 24 and we begin with the first verse:

"And Jesus went out [He’d been in the temple - He went out] and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple [now they’re outside the temple looking at the buildings]. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all of these things [that is the buildings of the temple]? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon the other, that shall not be thrown down.” (Matthew 24:1-2)

And later now as He sat on the Mount of Olives the disciples came to Him - now Mark shows that there were four of the disciples that came to Him saying:

"... Tell us, when shall these things be [what things? He’d shown them the buildings of the temple and said they would be destroyed. When shall these things be]? and [they ask something else] what shall be the sign of thy coming, and the end of the world?" (Matthew 24:3)

Now the temple was to be thrown down and destroyed in 70 AD but the end of the world was not to come for 1900 years later, but they didn’t know that. The disciples thought when you read it in other places in the New Testament; how they thought the Kingdom of God would immediately come in their lifetime. So they ask Him, they put it together and they ask Him about the sign of His second coming.

"And Jesus answered and said unto them [now this is not for you and me this is what He said to them then], Take heed that no man deceive you [this was to them way back there in 31 AD]. For many shall come in my name, saying I am [the] Christ; and shall deceive many." (Matthew 24:4-5)

They would come preaching a gospel about the person of Christ saying that Jesus was the Christ. You see in the early stages the Jews rejected Jesus and said He was an imposter. That He was not the Messiah or the Christ, Christ means Messiah. And the twelve apostles - their first preaching had to be to prove that He was the Messiah because they had been living three and a half years and then after He was killed they had been with Him for forty days after His resurrection. And they were eye witnesses to the fact that He was the Messiah because God had raised Him from the dead. And He said after three days and three nights He would rise again and that’s exactly what happened. Now:

"For [He said] many shall come in my name, saying [that] I am Christ; and deceive the many. And you [those disciples back then] shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye, ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” (Matthew 24:5-6)

Now they’d asked Him about the time of the end and the end of the world and He said it wouldn’t be in their lifetime then. They didn’t know that, they thought it would be. Now He plainly told them it would not be.

"For [now at the end] nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:" (Matthew 24:7). It wasn’t nation against nation then, the Romans occupied it and they came into their own territory to destroy the temple of Jerusalem and they’d ruled over the Jews. It wasn’t nation against nation at that time, but at the end it was going to be and that is what’s happening today in our time.

" and there shall be [now coming and leading up to that time] famines [now there the war ‘nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom’ that was the red horse the second horseman. The third horseman the black horse was famine, now notice], and there shall be famines, and [next] pestilences..." (Matthew 24:7)

That was the pale horse, pestilences as a result of the famine killing people. Now we’ve already had foretastes of that, but the real thing is yet to come and it’s going to be terrible when it does and it’ll come at the time as part of the Great Tribulation. The main part of the tribulation will be nuclear war.

"All these are the beginning of sorrows [now]. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and you shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets will arise [and they’ll be saying that Jesus was the Christ and deceiving people], and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." (Matthew 24:8-13)

Now it begins to talk about the end. "And this gospel of the kingdom..." (Matthew 24:14)

The gospel He preached about the Kingdom of God. Now in the meantime they weren’t preaching the gospel of the kingdom. They were preaching merely that Jesus was the Christ, that’s all - and that’s been going on for 1900 years. It started as you read in the first chapter verses six and seven of Galatians, they’d already turned to another gospel. Not the gospel of the kingdom, but a gospel about Christ. Not the gospel of Christ.

And it’s precisely 1900 years later - that is one century of time cycles - God opened up the most powerful radio station on earth to me, which was radio Luxembourg in the heart of Europe and the true gospel of the kingdom began going to all the world. Now you read here:

"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations [only as a witness]; and then shall the end [the end of the world] come." (Matthew 24:14) And the second coming of Christ.

"For then [when we get down to that time] shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved [alive]: but for the elect’s sake [and the elect are those God has called, the church, the firstfruits, that’s this church, for the elect’s sake] those days shall be shortened." (Matthew 24:21-22)

Now let’s look on ahead just a minute here: Immediately, in verse 29:

"Immediately [in verse 29, immediately], after the tribulation of those days [will come a time when] the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars [of heaven] shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall there appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” (Matthew 24:29-30)

Now that’s where Jesus was explaining about those seals. The first seal, the white horse, were the false prophets. The red seal was the war that was to come at that time and later near the end it would be nation against nation - wars; then great famine and as a result of the famine, pestilence. And now at the end time just before that, the gospel of the kingdom would be proclaimed. And this Church has been doing that and it did not go out until this Philadelphia Era of the Church had been born. And God has raised it up and He raised it up for that purpose and also to prepare a people for Christ’s coming to be among the saints that shall rule with Him and take the kingdom forever and even forever.

Now we go back and read in Revelation six beginning with verse nine.

"And when he had opened the fifth seal [now the first four, you know, were the false Christ with the false gospel, and war, and famine, and pestilence and now came the Great Tribulation, so now notice here - and when he had opened the fifth seal - that’s the next one after the four horsemen], I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God [in other words the martyrs]...And they cried with a loud voice [now they’re already dead but they seem to be crying out], saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth [those were the martyrs that were killed back in the time of the apostles and in the middle ages]? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season [and that was in their graves, where they were resting, dead], until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were,” (Revelation 6:9-11)

That is those here at this last time. There’s going to be another martyrdom of saints and it will come during the Great Tribulation.

"And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal…"

Now I said in the sixth seal after the Great Tribulation what was going to come? They were going to see the Son of man in heaven immediately after the tribulation and then that would result in finally the sun and the moon would be dark and then Christ would come. Now notice here in Revelation the same thing.

"And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became [as] black as [the] sackcloth... and the moon became as blood [they didn’t give their light any longer, that’s to happen yet]; And the stars of the heaven [just exactly as Matthew 24 had it]… And the heaven departed as a scroll [as it was] rolled together; and every mountain and every island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men... and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;" (Revelation 6:12-15)

Down to the rocks to fall on them and hide them from the face of Him they saw sitting on the throne. This is the time when they see up in the sky and even see the sign of the coming of Christ just before He comes.

Now that brings us down to the seventh chapter of the book of Revelation. I want to read just a little of that and we won’t have time to go on I think any further, but I do want to read a little bit of the seventh chapter of Revelation. And I still have time.

"And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that they should not blow on the earth, neither on the sea, nor on any tree." (Revelation 7:1)

Now these are the trumpet plagues, the time of the trumpet plagues is come as you read on, if you read on past this. And you blow on a trumpet so these winds represent the winds that blow on these trumpets and they are plagues that are to come at the beginning of the Day of the Lord. That’s what the book of Revelation is all about, the Day of the Lord. And at the very beginning God holds back these plagues. Now the plagues come from God; the Great Tribulation really is a result of Satan’s wrath and anger. The Great Tribulation came because of the sins of the world, but the plagues that follow, God is going to send. Now I want you to notice what is going to happen now just before God’s plagues come; the Great Tribulation is all over now.

"And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice [saying] to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea [these plagues had hurt the earth and sea rather than people], nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." (Revelation 7:2-3)

Now I want you to notice they were already the servants of God. That is the church and it is the Philadelphia Era of the church. And there are two other passages in the book of Revelation in the twelfth chapter and also in the third chapter of Revelation that shows that the church and that this era of the church is to be taken to a place of protection and safety from the Great Tribulation. Will not have had to go through and suffer in the Great Tribulation, but they are the servants of God; which shows it’s the church that is serving God.

"And I heard the number of them which were sealed [and it was]: an hundred and forty and four thousand..." (Revelation 7:4) And we won’t take the time to read all of that, but it was twelve thousand of each of the tribes and Dan was left out, but Joseph had the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh so there are still twelve tribes.

Now "And after this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all [the] nations, and kindreds, and people, and [languages], stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes... (Revelation 7:9)

Now that is the righteousness of saints. Now this is other people that are righteous and they are going to be protected from God’s plagues just like the children of Israel were protected from God’s plagues in the days of Moses back when the plagues were coming on Pharaoh of Egypt.

"...and palms in their hands" (Revelation 7:9). Now I won’t read every verse and skipping down now to verse thirteen.

"And one [let’s see] And then one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in [the] white robes [this innumerable multitude and where did they come from]? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest [in other words John who is writing this didn’t know, he said to the angel you know]. And he said to me [John is writing], These are they which came out of [it says great tribulation in the King James, but others say] the great tribulation." (Revelation 7:13-14)

They were converted during the Great Tribulation - an innumerable multitude. Brethren I want to tell you: all the time every little while I meet people who have listened to our radio program for years and I meet others who have read the 'Plain Truth' for years and we have never heard from them. They’ve gotten this truth; they haven’t done anything about it. There are millions that we are reaching! The 'Plain Truth' goes out six, no seven million copies every month now in seven different languages.

Now surely at least two people read every copy and most magazines estimate that four people read every copy. And if they do with other magazines, I’m sure they do with the 'Plain Truth.' Millions are hearing and doing nothing about it. But when these things happen and the Great Tribulation does come that I have been prophesying and nobody else has been foretelling it. But our telecast and our broadcast and the 'Plain Truth' magazine and we’ve been telling millions of people about it and when it actually happens many of them are going to do something about it. And that’s this innumerable multitude.

Now you can’t find any other explanation, the hundred and forty-four thousand are the twelve tribes of Israel. Now you go back and read in the New Testament and you find that in the eleventh chapter of Romans all of the ancient Israelites are broken off of the Israel tree and no longer{3}...are like branches of a wild olive tree and grafted in to the Israel tree. And so those in the church that have the Holy Spirit are spiritually Israel. And the hundred and forty-four thousand merely represent the church. Now to say that it’s exactly twelve thousand out of each tribe and to state that literally, the book of Revelation is in symbolic language and you have to see it symbolically. God isn’t going to take it and then refuse after the twelve thousand, refuse the twelve thousand and first one - he can’t get in! So it merely represents a complete number. Twelve is a number of beginnings and completeness. And consequently it does represent the church.

And then another innumerable multitude. Now they naturally come into the church but that will be the Laodicean Church - the seventh and last era of the church. Now they are people that will finally come because they are frightened into it. And I think you will find that half of them will maybe receive the Holy Spirit, but they won’t stick. And half of them their oil will go out of their lamps. In other words I’m referring now to the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew {4} and the ten virgins.

Just before the second coming of Christ that has to be the Laodicean Church. They’re lukewarm as the Laodicean Church is. They come in because they are frightened and scared; but half of them are going to get through and then the doors are shut into the kingdom and half of them are left out. Then it comes beginning with verse thirty-one in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew of the time of Christ sitting on His throne and all nations will be before Him and He’ll divide them as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats and to those on His right hand the sheep He’ll say ‘come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom’. They will inherit the kingdom of God and that’ll be in the beginning of the Millennium.

So I’ve given you just a quick bird’s eye view from the beginning clear down into the Kingdom of God and the time of the Day of the Lord. We’ve been in the day of Satan for six thousand years. There’s so much more in the way of prophecies to be filled in I won’t take any more time at this present time. But I think we’ve got to get back and study a little more now in the prophecies. I think I shall probably go back into prophecies a little more on the air on the television program. Because things are going to begin to happen very soon now I feel. I think that God has delayed things in order that this message can get out, but I think the time of that delay is about up.

And remember there’s not much time and we are the ones who have got to inherit that kingdom and we are called as the firstfruits to learn and not just to get us into the kingdom, but that we can then rule and teach. We’ll be kings and priests and they shall reign on the earth. We are the saints that will take the kingdom and possess it when Christ comes.

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