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

The Meaning of Atonement

By Herbert W Armstrong

20 September 1980

(PLAY FROM START)

Well, greetings everybody; here we are once again! Hello there, everybody! And before I start the message today I want to say I’ve just been watching you. I’ve been enjoying the service with you, enjoying Mr. LaRavia’s sermonette. I hope you had a really big offering and I hope he really moved you to put a little more in while he was about it.

And I want to send greetings to Mr. and Mrs. Silcox; I saw you sitting there with Mrs. Horne. And I just saw Mr. McNair sitting down with his wife. And I’ve seen Mr. Rod Meredith, Mr. Herman Hoeh - of course, Herman Hoeh was giving the opening prayer. And I’ve seen Mr. Helge there; and I want to say, “Hello, Mr. Helge.” He sent greetings to me last Sabbath; so I send greetings to you right back, Mr. Helge. And hello to every one of you.

So this is now the second of our live television transmissions from my studio and office here in Tucson, Arizona over to you in the Auditorium and, also, in the Gymnasium auditorium in Pasadena. I hope you’re having a good festival there; I hope you’re all good and hungry. But you’ll wait till sunset before you get something to eat. And, by the way, the sun sets about an hour earlier over here, so I’m going to beat some of you a little bit to it. And I have a 6:30 appointment at a restaurant with the loveliest girl I know, my own wife. And so we expect to be there - it’s sunset by that time here now - and we’ll be good and hungry by that time.

Well, I hope you’re all holding up very well, today. This is the second of the fall festival seasons. And, as I just heard coming in from you over there, that “festival fever” is running high as Mr. LaRavia was talking about it. And I wondered why Mr. LaRavia wasn’t here. He’s always here. He comes over here, usually on the Sabbath when we do a Bible Study. And it’s recorded and goes to Bible Studies to churches all over the United States and Canada and, perhaps, England and other places. And I missed him a little bit, but I was listening in and seeing all of you. I think this is a marvelous thing. And it shows how, in this materialistic, mechanical world, things are improving. Now some of them can be put to good uses. The trouble is too many are being put to bad uses and to wrong uses.

God's Purpose Here Below (PLAY FROM 2:55)

Now these festivals, as I mentioned ten days ago, have very great meaning for us. But the thing we need to realize is that each festival has its own meaning. But they are not separated one from the other. God has a great Master Plan. I mentioned ten days ago how Winston Churchill was speaking to the United States Congress in Washington and how he said that "there is a great purpose being worked out here below." And there is; God is working out that purpose. Most people are totally unaware of it; they know nothing about it. But God has a master plan for working out His purpose. There are seven successive steps in that master plan.

Now that plan has a spiritual purpose, of course. The physical man began with the first Adam, but the spiritual creation of God, in humans, begins with the second Adam, who’s Jesus Christ, and He is called, in the Bible, the second Adam. And so these festivals picture the beginning with Christ.

The first festival, the Passover, showing the crucifixion of Christ, in other words, that was His death for us. He took on Himself our sins, and one of the things that we should see today, especially if you read back in Leviticus 16 - and I’m not going to read that today. There are so many other things I want to read and so often we do go into Leviticus 23 and Leviticus 16 - about the scapegoat in Leviticus 16. Now that is a wrong translation, it shouldn’t be scapegoat. It’s Azazel or Az-ah-zel; I don’t know how you pronounce Hebrew words. That is the Hebrew word and it really means, “The devil.” And it was the putting away of the devil. The one thing that that makes plain is this, that the lamb was recognized which represented Christ, in the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus, shows that Christ did not take the devil’s sin. He only took human sin. But the real villain, the real one who is guilty of your sins and mine is Satan the devil. And too often we lose sight of that fact.

Instinct vs. Mind (PLAY FROM 5:20)

We were born in this world as little tiny babies knowing absolutely nothing. Lately, I’ve been comparing the birth of the human baby, in some things I’ve been writing, I’ve been comparing the birth of a little baby a little bit to the birth of a calf or, for that matter, you take any other animal.

A little calf will get up and, in less than five minutes, usually - I think it might be one or two minutes in some cases - he will struggle to get on his legs and his four feet and he will soon be up on his four feet and the little calf, then, he starts to walk. And he knows where to go. He knows he goes for his dinner, first thing. He knows where it is. And his mother, the stupid old cow just stands there, stupidly, and vacant mindedly - only she doesn’t have a mind. She has a brain, though, but there’s not much in it. She just stands there, waiting. She doesn’t have to tell the calf what to do.

But a newborn baby doesn’t know how to eat; he doesn’t know where to go; he can’t walk for about a year. And he doesn’t know much to start. He has a mind that is actually unfilled with knowledge. But you’d be surprised how much that baby learns the very first year.

Acquiring Material Knowledge (PLAY FROM 6:49)

You know that every one of you learn more the first year of your life than you have learned in any other year since. Now you learn more the second year than you’ve learned in any other year since that, too. And you learn more the third year than you’ve learned since that.

And you might begin to think I’m saying that, “Well, you knew more then than you know now.” No, no, not at all because the third year you added what you already knew the first year and the second year. And you also added by the tenth year what you learned the first nine. Knowledge is cumulative and as we get a little older we add each year to what we knew before. And even though you learn a little less each year, a very, very little less, it all depends on your mind, too. Some people learn faster than others; some apply themselves more and apply their mind.

I was just thinking this morning, if I can just talk awhile, instead of getting down to the lesson here in my notes, I was just thinking how young people, and up until they get into the mid-twenties, at least, they like to do physical things. They want to be physically active; they’re just jumping around. Notice little kids, why, you’d think they’d get tired and wear themselves out, little kids: one, two, three, four years old. No they don’t; they just keep going all day they’re so active.

But when you get to be my age, I’ll be in my ninetieth year by a year from now. I can’t realize, I can’t believe that, I don’t think you can, either. But, nevertheless, I’ve never reached middle-age yet, anyway. I sort of skipped that. But people tell me I’m older now. But I’m not so much interested in how fast I can jump around in physical movement. But I like to use my mind more.

Now the trouble is so many people want to stop using their minds. And they stop that when they’re - well, they think education is something you go to college, or go to school, to get. You get a certain education in the earlier grades and in high school. But, if you want to get a more adult education, you go on to college.

It’s like buying something - like a loaf of bread; you go to the grocery to buy a loaf of bread. They don’t like to bake bread at home anymore, so they go to the grocery and buy it. When you go there, you pick up a loaf of bread. It’s already wrapped and they may wrap it again in another piece of paper. And you pay your money and you take your bread and you walk out with it.

Well they think that’s the way you get education. You go to the college, the university; you pay tuition; you’re there so long; you walk out; and they give you an education. And, you know, that’s precisely what does happen.

I’m reminded that seven years before ‘The Plain Truth’ came out, that was during the year of my conversion back in 1927. 1927, I think that’s before most of you were converted, that I had ‘The Plain Truth’ in mind. That’s when I thought of the magazine, ‘The Plain Truth.’ I had a professional letter artist draw up a front cover for me. And ‘The Plain Truth’ still has a front cover almost like he designed then, seven years before the first issue of it ever came out.

Then I began to wonder, how would I ever publish a magazine; where would I get the money to have it printed; where would I get circulation; how would I get people to read it? And I knew, being God’s minister - I wasn’t God’s minister, yet. But I was converted by that time. I knew that such a magazine I could not put a subscription price on; I could not sell advertising. And I’d been, for twenty years, an advertising salesman. And boy I always got the full price; I never cut my rate, never cut the price in advertising. I said, "If it isn’t worth this, it isn’t worth anything. And I will work with you to make it worth it." And I always did. That’s why I made surveys and things to help my advertisers make their advertising worth more to them than the money they paid to me. And, in nearly every case, it was. But it’s nice to think back at those things.

False Education (PLAY FROM 11:12)

Anyway, most people go to school to get an education. I was thinking about - I wrote an article for that first issue of the Plain Truth in 1927. Now that article has never been published. I don’t know what happened to it. If I had it, I’d get it out and, maybe re-write it, or not. I don’t know that it would need any re-writing. But I would look at it again. And I would publish it. But I had an artist draw a sketch. Now it was a pen and ink sketch, not in color, just in black and white, pen and ink. But it showed a schoolroom and children sitting at their school desks, about seventh, eighth grade, something like that, maybe ninth or tenth grade, but just kids in grade school. And in each child there was a funnel stuck in his head, stuck right down into the top of his head. And the teacher had a great big pitcher. And on the pitcher it was labeled, "Ready-made Propaganda," or, “Untruth.” And she was pouring that down into the funnels in each kid. And each kid was getting what was poured into his mind, and a lot of it was not true.

Now that made me think about the time one of my own grandchildren was in, oh, I don’t know, maybe the sixth, seventh, eighth grade, something like that - maybe the fifth grade. The teacher asked him to recite before the class. She said, "Larry, tell us, who discovered America?" Why he said, "The Indians, of course." She said, "Why Larry, you know better than that; you know Columbus discovered America!" Well he said, "Well no ma’am, I don’t; I don’t know that. Weren’t the Indians already here to welcome Columbus when he arrived?" What do you think happened to Larry? He got flunked! Because he was supposed to memorize what was stuck into his head; it wasn’t true at all. Columbus didn’t discover America; the Indians were already here.

And so much of what is taught in education today is wrong. And what has been taught this world is wrong! And I want to say something about that as we go along. And that has something to do with the meaning of this day when we understand it.

Now one thing I wanted to mention is that in God’s Master Plan there are seven main, general stages. There are many other little parts of the plan in between, you know, but there are the seven major steps in the plan. And they are in direct sequence and one has to do with the other. They follow in a time order.

First was the crucifixion of Christ and that was to square us up to the penalty that hangs over us because every one of us has sinned. Now why have we all sinned?

Alright, I’m talking a minute ago about a little baby born without anything in his head. But he learns more in the first year than he’s going to learn any year in school, later. Believe it or not that’s true. And we had a lecturer at Ambassador College, one of the first years of the college, and I didn’t believe that, but this was a man with a Ph.D. - a doctor of philosophy degree - and he proved - Herman Hoeh was there at the time, he may remember that. It was in an assembly. We only had a few students at the time - but he proved that some of the students like Herman Hoeh and others that were students at the time, maybe Raymond McNair was there by that time, and then he questioned them and then he questioned faculty members that had doctor of philosophy degrees. There was Dr. Taylor and a woman, Dr. Smith, in the English department and they were much slower on the triggers to understand and their minds didn’t work as rapidly as Mr. Hoeh’s and Mr. McNair’s and some of those early students. And there was my son, Dick, and there were some others at that time. And he proved to us that, really, you learn more when you are younger than you do when you are older. But it is cumulative, as I said, and so you add to one year you add what you had learned the year before.

Satan's Broadcast (PLAY FROM 15:45)

Now then, during that first year of life, there is an invisible Satan. I’m going to come to that a little later. He is "the prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2). And he is a spirit being; he is a very powerful being, very powerful! He just simply surcharges the air with an attitude of hostility, an attitude of selfishness, self-centeredness, of vanity, but also of lust and greed, of coveting, of wanting more, wanting to get more - like politicians. They want to get more power. And they have a feeling of competition or hostility against others. They’re very selfish. And Satan begins to get that into a little child’s mind the first year before they’re even one year old. That was gotten into your mind, every one of you, before you were a year old; and into my mind, too. We’re all like that.

And, consequently, we become selfish. We begin to say, "I love me; I don’t care about you." We may not say it, but that’s what’s in our minds. It’s the way we, it’s an attitude we have. It is an attitude. Satan doesn’t broadcast, as I’ve said so many times, he does not broadcast in words, in sounds, in music, or anything like that. He broadcasts, merely, in attitudes, just in attitudes. You don’t hear it; you don’t see it with your eye; you don’t hear it with your ear. You can’t taste it, smell it, or feel it. But it gets in to your mind. And the result is that that is the way of get. And that is the opposite of the way of God’s Law.

God’s Law is the way of love, which is give. God’s Law is outgoing, love toward the other person. That is, "loving your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18). But it’s "loving God more than yourself," above all, "loving God with all your mind, heart, soul, and strength" (Deuteronomy 6:5 paraphrased). That is the law of God!

And what is sin? "..sin is the transgression of the law" (I John 3:4). And every one of us has transgressed that law because Satan began putting that attitude in our minds that very first year.

Now that has something to do with the meaning of this festival, today. But now let’s get back to what I have here in a certain little outline I made up. And I want to keep myself on the track. Otherwise I’ll scramble all over the lot, here.

Why this particular festival? Now the second festival after the crucifixion of Christ - we all had the penalty on us. And Satan is the real guilty one. Remember that. He is the one that God holds guilty, but God holds us guilty, too. And our penalty is death. Satan’s penalty is not death. He has even a bigger penalty I have to say. I don’t think most of you realize what that is, but that’s true.

However, Christ took the penalty of all human beings. But it doesn’t apply until after God calls us and God grants us repentance and we come to be willing to repent and we come to believe, not only in Christ, but we believe Christ and we believe God, that is, we believe what they say. We believe the Word of God, the Bible.

Now the second festival is the seven days of Unleavened Bread. And that is to teach us to put sin out of our lives and quit sinning, once our sins are forgiven. We must start a new kind of a life. But, of ourselves, we can’t do it.

So the third festival comes, usually in June, and it’s seven weeks later. And that third festival we call the day of Pentecost. But actually, in the Old Testament, it’s called the Feast of Firstfruits. That is the first group harvest that God is calling out to give the Holy Spirit in the first group to be converted to become the Bride of Christ, later.

Now we come to the fourth feast which we had just ten days ago, Thursday of last week. And that was the seventh day, or the first day, rather, of the seventh month. And that was the Feast of Trumpets. That pictured the Second Coming of Christ.

Now last time I went into quite a lot of detail about the Church. And the Church is that first group that God has called to put His Spirit in us.

Now the spirit of Satan started coming into us before we were one year old, every one of us. And we are, well it gets to be, really, not just second nature, they say it becomes ‘second nature’, but it becomes what we call ‘human nature.’ But it’s what Satan inoculates. If in college they inoculate things into your mind, some of which is true and some of which is not true, Satan inoculates things in your mind and nearly all that is not true.

Spirit of God (PLAY FROM 21:06)

But when we come to God, and God calls us, we had been filled with that human nature. That’s that antagonism; that is that self and self-glory and the spirit of competition and feeling against others. And then we receive the Spirit of God that is the "love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" (Romans 5:5). But also it is the Spirit of God that opens our mind to understand His Word, the Bible. And God begins to show us His way and that’s the way of love toward God and love toward neighbor, that’s the law of God. And we have to "grow in that grace and [the] knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (II Peter 3:18)

Now, when Christ comes, His Church will have made itself - herself - ready (Revelation 19:7). We went into that ten days ago.

But, why this festival? Let’s go into this now, today. And I’m not going to go, as I said, back into Leviticus 16 and Leviticus 23. I want to get to the meaning of it. The purpose of these festivals is to bring to our minds, and our ministers should preach every Holy Day the meaning of that day as a step in the great overall plan - Master Plan - of God to work out His purpose. And what is His purpose? He is reproducing Himself. He is taking out of little babies born with a mind that has great capabilities, but nothing in it much, yet - that is no knowledge in it. Knowledge begins to come in after birth. And He takes human beings, as we grow up, and those that He has called, God takes and remakes.

Lump of Clay (PLAY FROM 23:02)

Well, we are like a piece of clay and He is the Master Potter. And He takes that to mold us, fashion us, change us from the way Satan has made us into His own character until we become like Him. We inherit and we receive His character into us little-by-little until we have it. We don’t have much of it when we are first converted. It’s a growth. Of course you can be converted when you receive the Holy Spirit, but you haven’t grown very far, yet. You’re a ‘babe in Christ.’ You don’t know much; you haven’t got much of the Holy Spirit, yet, not like Christ had.

But, Christ is making out of us GOD BEINGS! We’re to be God Beings, just like God is a God Being, just like Christ is now very God! And we are children of God. We’re only begotten children, now, in this life; we’re still made of mortal clay.

You could cut that hand of mine off right there and I wouldn’t have it anymore; it would just be gone. I hope no one ever does that. But once God makes me a God Being, I’ll be composed of spirit; a knife going through it wouldn’t harm it a bit. And when you and I are made spirit beings we will have self-containing life, we’ll be composed of spirit. We won’t have to breathe air to get our life. We won’t have to eat food and drink water to live; we won’t have to refuel ourselves all the time and keep breathing air. We will just have everlasting life. You know we won’t even need to sleep at night?

I felt I needed to get a good night’s sleep last night so I could speak to you, today. Well, I had a partly troubled night. I was driving my automobile last night in my dreams and I was quite troubled. I was having a lot of problems, a lot of trouble with it - you know I haven’t driven a car in about seventeen to eighteen years since my right eye went out. I don’t see out of my right eye. You can’t tell that; it looks the same to you. I can’t see out of it except just a little bit, way over on the side. You can’t make out very much of that. And so I quit driving a car. I found out that with one eye I can’t see moving objects ahead. I couldn’t see a car coming in on the crossroad; at least I couldn’t gauge its speed, or a car coming the other way...(1)

Day of Atonement (PLAY FROM 25:29)

Well now let’s get back to this. Why this particular festival, this Day of Atonement? It’s to remind us of the reason for the world’s conditions today and to remind us of how soon we’re going to have utopia and to remind us of the CAUSE of all of the troubles in the world today. Not only what are those troubles, but what is the CAUSE of the troubles in the world today and HOW is God going to end it.

Now if you ask me to sum up the cause of all the troubles in the world today, I could sum it up with one word, ‘get.’ People live the way of get. It’s a violation of God’s law, that’s what it is. Or I could sum it up in two words, ‘human nature.’ And human nature is what Satan starts inoculating into the human mind during the first year of every baby’s life. THAT’S SIN THAT IS IN US! Paul says that "sin dwells in me" (Romans 7:7). He said it’s the law, another law, dwelling in him (Romans 7:23), Paul says, the apostle Paul. And that’s what it is.

We’re here, today, to learn how that got there. And to learn why we have been sinners, how we came to be, and how God is going to make it possible to call the whole world to Him, how’s He going to change that human nature, and when, and all about it.

Now this is a very important day, today, and I want you to get the meaning. I’m not going back to read about the ‘scapegoat’ or the one that really means Satan the devil. I’m going to go on with the main meaning of this festival, today.

Most of us fail to realize the condition this world has gotten into; we just fail to realize it. Nations are being overthrown at the rate of about one a month. And many nations are in the process of being overthrown right now. There’s trouble all over; violence is everywhere. There’s been trouble in Central America. Not very long ago there was a great deal of trouble in South America. There’s been less trouble in different places in Africa, all kinds of different places in Africa. There has been, there’s trouble in the Middle East. They’re trying to get together, but they’re not making it. They’re not getting together, and they’re not going to, they’re just not doing it.

Now we’ve got trouble. We’ve got a presidential election coming on in this country. And it’s just fight, fight, fight. It’s a case of "who is a racist and who isn’t." So now they get up and apologize to each other and say, "No, I didn’t mean the other guy’s a racist." Well, that’s what he did mean, but he says he didn’t mean it. Anyhow, it’s each one against the other. Each one wants to get that power of the oval room in the capital, or rather, in the White House, in Washington, D.C.

But we’re going to come to an absolute utopia and there’s something standing in the way of that. And that’s what we’ve got to know about, today. That is the purpose of this festival, today. That’s the message God wants me to give YOU today. God wants this message, it’s "meat in due season (Matthew 24:45). He wants this message to go to you.

If I look at you, I look away from the camera and you don’t see me looking at you, now I look at you. I like to take my eyes away from the camera so you think I’m looking at you and I like to look at you as I see you. I see you right on my big television screen right here in Pasadena while I’m talking to you.

Family in Trouble (PLAY FROM 29:17)

Well, as I say, there’s trouble all over the world. Perhaps the most significant trouble in the world, of all of the troubles, is the breakdown in the family unit and in the marriage custom that God, Himself, introduced.

Now why; why is there so much trouble in breaking up marriages and breaking up homes and families? I want to give you some statistics on that in a moment. The family unit must be trained in the ways of God because God is a family; God is the divine family. And we are to be children of God and born into that family and we have to learn to live as a family. We need to learn to live as a family. That’s why God gave us the family relationship: a husband and a wife become a father and a mother, and then the children. And you know kids are not together with their parents; and parents are not together with their children. Parents don’t teach their children anything.

I’ve been working over on a revised edition of my book on ‘The Missing Dimension In Sex.’ Kids need to know about sex, do you know that? They need to know. And here’s the way it is. It’s like a little boy, he was about six years old, his mother thought he’s getting so bright and he needed to know something about sex. And she talked to his father and she said, "You’d better take our son and talk to him about sex a little bit because he’d better get it from you before he gets it dirty out from the other kids. And you’d better get ahead of the other kids." Well, he was pretty embarrassed, but his wife insisted. "You’ve got to do it; I can’t do it. You’re his father. It’s up to you to do it. And when our daughters come along, I’ll teach them. But you’ve got to teach him."

So he called Johnny and he said, "Johnny." He was quite embarrassed, boy, was he embarrassed. He hated to talk about that subject to his own son. "Johnny," he said, "you know I think you and I had better have a little talk about sex." Johnny said, "Well, fine, Pops, what would you like to know?" The kid would tell dad anything he needed to know about sex; he already knew all about it. But he got it from other kids and he didn’t get it the way he should get it.

So I’m going to offer this book once again to help parents how to teach their children the way they ought to teach them.

Well, there is a family unit. And that’s the thing people don’t realize. And any book you pick up hasn’t anything to do with that. And it’s like one article that got into ‘The Plain Truth.’ And I’m sorry, it came and, I had a manuscript of that article, a couple or three weeks before it went to press, but I was just overloaded with work and I never got to read it. And I did read it after it was printed. And it did say that sex is wholly just a carnal, physical thing and just for sensual pleasure. That is wrong! I would never have let that get into the ‘Good News’ magazine. I’m sorry, but that was wrong. And anyone who reads my book will find out it’s wrong.

God gave us sex to be a giving of love in marriage, and don’t you forget it! That’s what it is, a giving of love and affection and tender care and a feeling for the good and the welfare of the other one, instead of selfishness. It’s not a selfish thing, not in God’s eyes. It wasn’t supposed to be. So it’s another thing where we misuse it. Anyway, God’s great overall purpose is reproducing Himself and it gets in to the family relationship.

Modern Origin of Sexual Sin (PLAY FROM 33:29)

Now look at some of the facts today in this regard. The seed of the sexual revolution was sown by a man named Freud. He was the founder of what we call 'psychoanalysis' or 'psychology'. I don’t mean 'psychology' but 'psychiatry'. And that was around the turn of the century. And a few followed him, but it didn’t get to the world, yet. It didn’t get to the world until after WWI. Then, after WWII, it really began getting to the world.

I was married before we got into WWI. And at the time I was married I found that my wife had had no sex education whatever. I found she just loved children; we wanted to have children. But my wife didn’t know much about sex; she didn’t know what she needed to know.

I see someone right there, Miss Radar - HWA laughs - Excuse me, I have to look into the screen to see you once in awhile while I talk. Well, she’s not Miss Radar any longer. I performed her wedding and I married her and she’s not Miss Radar any longer. I should have remembered that. Well, anyway, she’ll forgive me for that, I’m sure.

Look at the facts today. Now that gained impetus especially after WWII. And in the sixties it really gained impetus. In the seventies it doubled, the sex evils doubled in the seventies. And now it is predicted that by the end of the eighties that a virgin standing at the altar to be married will be a very rare thing, indeed, probably not one out of a hundred. That is the situation we are very close to, today.

Marriage Soon Obsolete (PLAY FROM 35:41)

Marriage, as such, is on the way out. And we have all kinds of definitions of the family, today: a group, two men, two women, a mixed group, any kind having sex any way they wanted. This world is rotten! I want to tell you it’s filthy and rotten to the core! We’re way down beneath the gutter; we’re down beneath the cesspool!

Right now, one-half of all marriages are ending in divorce. One-half! Ten or fifteen years ago it was about one-third in many parts of the United States. And some places only about one-half, I mean, no, about a third were ending in divorce. And then it got to be a third. But today it’s about one-half - one out of two weddings are going to result in divorce.

Today there are two and one-half million United States men and women that are living alone, unmarried. Now they may be having a lot of sex, but they’re not married. Two and a half million United States men and women are living unmarried today; they’re all adults. Only thirteen percent, - that’s only a little more than one out of ten, only a little more than one out of ten! United States families have a working father and a stay-at-home mother and children. Thirteen percent have a real family relationship! And all the rest of them are gone today! That’s the world you live in! That’s what Satan has done by what he began to put into the minds of little infants the first year of their life!

And yet parents aren’t teaching their children what they need! They need teaching before they get to school! And when they get to school they get education based on God’s, or Satan’s, lie of evolution!

That’s the kind of world you’re living in today. They call that 'modern enlightenment.' Put quotes around that word, 'enlightenment'. It’s anything else, it’s gross ignorance. And yet people think that’s okay. Why do they think it’s okay? You talk to the average young teenager and then the late teens. You take a girl even today - girls aren’t like they were when I was a young man dating girls. If a girl would ever have a sordid sex relationship she’d thought she’d lost her honor; she was damaged goods; she was ruined for life. She felt that way and her conscience hurt her. And everybody else, if they knew about it, looked on her that way.

Teach Your Children (PLAY FROM 38:37)

Huh, that’s out of date today. And today the idea is if society has changed and looks at things differently, whatever people want to decide and want to accept makes it right.

That’s what Satan has been inoculating into the minds of all of us from the time - SATAN KNOWS you learn more the first year than any year of your life, the second, the third, and the fourth year, and that’s when he’s busy inoculating into the minds of our little children. AND YOU PARENTS: are you teaching your little children those first two, three, four, five, six years, before they even go to school? And you need to teach them more when they’re in school to counteract a lot of the lies being fed to them in school, if they're in a public school.

And so people are blinded. And people don’t realize these things. And if I would talk to the average girl, let’s say between eighteen and, oh, twenty-six or twenty-seven, they think I’m very old-fashioned. They say, "Well that’s old-fashioned. They don’t think that way anymore." And of course the way they think they think that’s right. Why? Their minds have been blinded; they don’t see the truth. They’re blind to it; they can’t see it. Why?

World is Blinded (PLAY FROM 39:57)

Well right here in I Corinthians - II Corinthians - the fourth chapter and the fourth verse, II Corinthians 4:4 it’s talking about the god of this world.

"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world [which is Satan] hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God [the true God], should shine unto them. But we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord [and so on]." (II Corinthians 4:3-5)

Satan is the one who has blinded the eyes of the people.

So the thing is people today, the average person - now realize this, brethren, because we come to church on the Sabbath; we read the Bible; we have this knowledge; you read the things that I write and the other ministers and what the local pastors preach and so on and you may know these things. You know that the average person out there on the street and in the world just simply does not know these things at all. They’re totally blinded to them; they’re ignorant of them. Why? In the first place, they are not consciously aware of God.

I said to a woman not too long ago, "You don’t believe in God." She says, "I do, too, Mr. Armstrong, don’t you ever dare say anything like that to me again! Don’t you dare say I don’t believe in God!" Now that’s the way a lot of people feel. But she probably hadn’t been thinking about God for a long, long time. Most people think that way off somewhere is God, but He’s gone way off somewhere. And God is in the great recesses of their mind, way in the background of their mind and they, consciously, do they think about God from the time they wake up in the morning until they go to bed at night? Never. Are they aware of God and the presence of God, that God is real, that God exists? No! They have heard that God is there. They think you got to believe in God or you’re ignorant. Of course, what’s her name, Mrs. Murray, I don’t think she’d think that, but a lot of people do.

Now, on the other hand, they are just as ignorant and unaware of Satan. People don’t realize there is a Satan! They don’t know how real Satan is! They don’t realize what he’s been doing to them ever since they were less than one year old! They don’t realize!

Now you read in, for instance, the sixth chapter of Ephesians, we are not having, wrestling in our troubles against other physical or material people or things, but "against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12), - against Satan the devil and his demons! And his, uh, he is still sitting on the throne of the earth! He is not administering the government of God; he did away with the government of God. The government of God is being administered in God’s Church only, today. But Satan is still there and Satan still has the POWER; he still has that power! And the people just don’t understand.

Now the purpose of today’s festival is to cause us to realize that power of Satan and what God is going to do with him and how it came and how we’re to be delivered from it and what is going to happen.

Alright now let’s begin a little farther back; let’s go clear back to Job in the thirty-eighth chapter. It is speaking here of the very creation of the earth. We begin in verse one:

"Then the [Eternal] answered Job out of the whirlwind and said [now Job had been discussing things with his friends for several days. He was covered with boils. Satan had been striking him. Job had his ideas. And his three friends all had their ideas. And God says now, verse four - Job] where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth [where were you when I created the earth]?" (Job 38:1,4)

Job had laid the foundations of great buildings, the greatest building that had ever been built on the face of the earth and the greatest building that had ever been built, the tallest building that had ever been built, until the Woolworth Tower in New York had been built. And that’s a long time ago.

I went up to the top of the Woolworth Tower in New York in 1920 even. It’s the, uh, the Empire State Building wasn’t built yet in 1920, but the Woolworth Tower, down just off of Wall Street, was already there. And I thought it was something to go up to the top of that. That was the first building that had ever been built higher than the Great Pyramid.

And Job designed and built the Great Pyramid for the Pharaoh of Egypt. He was not a Pharaoh of Egypt. He was just someone the Pharaoh employed to do it, but he was a very great man and he had built that building and he thought he was pretty good. And, of course, he had his own righteousness that he maintained.

So God continued. He had created the earth. He says: "Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened [the foundations of the earth, “I created the earth," God says]? Or who laid the cornerstone, thereof?" (Job 38:6)

Of the whole earth! He laid the cornerstone of the building, at the top. Now look, this is talking about a building where the cornerstone was the last stone laid. Usually a cornerstone is laid in the foundation before the superstructure is ever built, before the building rises up. This is speaking of a building where the cornerstone was the last building laid - the last stone, I mean, laid. And as a matter of fact, apparently, that cornerstone was never laid on this particular building, which was the Great Pyramid, in 1920 even. How do I know? I just read it to you. Do you believe it? "Well I don’t know if I believe that." {2}

Sons of God, that God had created, they weren’t born or begotten sons of God, but they were created by Him. AND THEY SHOUTED FOR JOY! They existed before the earth was created.

How do I know? I just read it to you. Do you believe it? "Well I don’t know if I believe that. That’s your idea, Mr. Armstrong." Oh no, it’s not my idea. That’s God’s idea. I just read it to you. Maybe you don’t agree with God. You know, people say, "Well [that’s your], what’s your opinion, Mr. Armstrong; what’s your opinion?" I don’t have an opinion. I just get what God says. And I KNOW! I don’t guess; I know!

So, there we find the beginning of the creation of the earth and angels were there and angels were put on this earth. And it was created for them and they were so happy about it they shouted with joy.

And so, before there was a single human being ever created, angels were put on this earth. Now that may have been a million, a billion years before Adam, I don’t know. And no scientist knows. There’s no way you can know, at all. But God set a throne on earth and He put a super archangel on that throne.

Origin of Satan the Devil (PLAY FROM 47:32)

Now I think we’ve turned to that a good many times, but I think we’d better turn to that again today. Turn to Isaiah fourteen and just notice. This archangel’s name was Lucifer. And we begin now in the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah and in verse twelve:

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer [I can explain it better if I go back to the beginning and read everything, but I’ve done that before. I don’t need to do that for you people today]. O Lucifer, son of the morning [in other words, 'shining star of the dawn,' that’s the meaning of the name, Lucifer. And that was his name]! How art thou cut down to the ground that didst weaken the nations [or, 'thou who didst weaken the nations, how are you cut down to the ground,' is the way that should’ve been translated], For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven [you see his throne was on the earth], I will exalt my throne [so he HAD A THRONE! And his throne was under heaven, on the earth, and he said], I will exalt my throne above the stars [or the angels] of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation [that’s at the very throne of God]. In the sides of the north [that’s where God, and the only place in all the Bible that gives you any idea, or any hint, as to where God’s heaven is]. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds [so he was under the clouds; he was on the earth]. I will be like the Most High [Well he thought he was going to make himself the Most High, that’s all. That’s what he was going to make himself]. (Isaiah 14:12-14)

Now, how great and how, just how great was this Lucifer? We turn next over to Ezekiel twenty-eight and I’d like to have you notice beginning with verse fourteen where it speaks of him again and it says:

"Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so." (Ezekiel 28:14)

God set him there; He set him on the throne. Now there were two super archangels whose wings spread out and covered the throne of God. You find that in a design of the tabernacle that God had given to Moses, back in the writings of Moses, if you want to refer to it back in your Bible (Exodus 25:19-22). Now in verse fifteen,

"Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created... [God started him out alright and he was living perfectly to begin with. It doesn’t say how long that was, whether that was; he’s an immortal being. He didn’t live seventy years and die; he will never die. He’s been living ever since he was created and always will. But he was perfect] ...till iniquity was found in [him]." (Ezekiel 28:15)

Iniquity is lawlessness. He began to break God’s law instead of enforcing it. Now in verse seventeen it says,

"Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty and you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your own brightness. I will cast thee to the ground," God says. (Ezekiel 28:17 paraphrased)

So there is the description of Satan the devil. He had angels under him; he led them into hostility against the government of God.

Now God’s government is based on the law of God. All government is based on a constitution or a basic law. And the basic law of the government of God is simply the way of love: an outgoing love toward God and toward neighbor - outgoing love - love toward others, not toward your own self. And sin is the transgression of that way or that law.

Now Satan transgressed it. Satan believes in vanity, self-exaltation. He believes in hostility toward others. He believes in all of those things. And so the government of God became inoperative - no longer operating. The government of God was not here any longer. But the throne was there; Lucifer was still there; and his name was changed to Satan and Satan still sits on that throne! And he still has power! But it’s not the power of the government of God because the government of God was gone from the earth! And the only place God has set that government is in His Church! And the people that would have been hostile in the church and some have gone out of the Church of God and said, "I don’t want any more of that government of God in the Church!"

That’s what God is working toward; that’s why we have the Church! We are trained to be governed by the government of God so we could be helping Christ to govern with the government of God when He makes us into God beings! Oh God help us to understand that. Well, Lucifer became Satan.

Sin of the Angels (PLAY FROM 52:43)

Now, as a result of that sin, the earth became waste and, well, in a state of decay; and waste and emptiness. And so you turn back into Genesis and you read of that in the very first chapter of Genesis that:

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was [or it had 'become.’ It should be 'became' instead of 'was'. And the same Hebrew word is translated, 'became' in other places in Genesis] without form and void [that’s tohu and bohu]. And darkness was on the face of the [earth]." (Genesis 1:1-2)

And the tohu and bohu are Hebrew words that mean, "waste and empty and in a state of decay." It became that way as a result of the sin of the angels. They were supposed to improve the earth, physically even. Even though they’re spirit beings, they were to improve the physical earth and they didn’t. They ruined it.

Man was given the chance. And what has he done? Man has polluted every physical thing on this earth! Man is physical, himself. He’s polluted himself; he’s polluted himself morally. He’s polluted his water; he’s polluted the air we breathe; he’s polluted the soil that must produce us the food we eat. That’s what man has done.

A Physical Renewal (PLAY FROM 54:00)

But now we turn to one of the Psalms, the one hundred and fourth Psalm and verse thirty where it is just speaking about God. It says:

"Thou sendest forth thy spirit [the Holy Spirit of God, now, is sent forth. And that is the power that God uses to do what He does], they are created [been created by the Spirit of God, you see] and thou renewest the face of the earth." (Psalm 104:30)

God renewed the face of the earth! A lot of people don’t know that’s in the Bible - that the earth had become waste and decayed and God renewed the face of the earth for man!

Now we go right back to the first chapter of Genesis again, and you find the earth, as Satan left it:

"Darkness was on the face of the deep [It was all covered with water. And it was waste and empty]. And the spirit of God moved upon the water [now He sent forth His Spirit to begin to create, or renew the face of the earth]. And God said, Let there be light." (Genesis 1:2-3)

The first thing He did was to produce light where Satan was in darkness. Darkness will hide sin and evil. Light will expose evil. But light also reflects beauty so you can see it. You see, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (I John 1:5). God believes in beauty. I believe in beauty.

I have been criticized, even condemned, for the beautiful auditorium in which I see all of you sitting right now. The most beautiful and the most fine auditorium on the face of the earth today. I’ve been condemned for that. But let me tell you, God caused that to be built; God provided the money for that to be built. And I didn’t start to build it until there was enough money to finish it - and it’s been finished. And you are sitting in it, finished, now. And you’re able to enjoy it. And people from all over Southern California have been able to enjoy it in things that are good for them. There are some things in this world that are uplifting and good and we bring some of those things there for the public, even, because we have to serve the public, too. But we don’t harm them in any way. And all of the money that comes from all of that is given to charity and not for ourselves.

Well, Satan is still sitting on that throne, remember that.

Now, God created man in His image. And the twenty-sixth verse you find after He made cattle after the cattle kind, dogs after the dog kind, and elephants after the elephant kind, and all of that. Now we come to the time when God says: "Let us make man after our image, in our likeness" (Genesis 1:26). In other words, "Let us make man after the God kind".

Now a little calf is made after the cow kind, or bull kind, whatever it is that kind. But we are made after the GOD kind. We’re to BECOME God! We’re to receive the Spirit of God that impregnates us and puts eternal life - temporarily and in a begettal sense - in us until we become the children of God now in this life, but not yet born.

All this 'born again' stuff is going on right now, and a lot of 'born again' people getting into politics, so I wrote something on that I think maybe some of you have read that I wrote the other day. This last ‘Newsweek Magazine’ had a picture of a minister on it. He preaches just before I do on local television here in Tucson every Sunday morning. But even on the television and so they have that there.

Well, now God created the first man, Adam. Adam was like a newborn infant, a child when he was created, in the sense there was no knowledge in his head. But he had a full, adult mind, not a little infant mind. He had a mind that was capable of receiving knowledge (3) as an adult. How old was Adam when he was created? Of course a few minutes old, or a second old, or something like that, whatever. But I would say that he would’ve appeared to be either about twenty years old or about thirty years old. And I would say, more likely, about thirty. But he was created as a thirty year old man, suddenly created and nothing in his mind yet. And so God began to teach him.

He was created late on a Friday afternoon. The Sabbath was coming on. And as the Sabbath came on that evening, until after sunset, God began to teach him until time he should get to bed and get a little bit of sleep. I don’t know if they had any beds. They probably just slept right out in the beautiful garden where the earth was warm and beautiful there, anyway. And so God talked to them until the time for them to go to sleep. And then the next morning, when they were awakened, God talked to them on that Sabbath day. And He told them the truth. And He told them about His government; and He showed them how the government of God was gone. And He showed them about His law. And that the penalty for breaking that law is death. And He said, "If you disobey you will surely die!" (Genesis 2:17 paraphrased) He couldn’t have said that if He hadn’t told them about the law that was going to inflict that penalty on them. So I know that He told them about His government.

You don’t find all of that in Genesis. It only gives you just a little skim through of a little tiny synopsis. But he knew it and he knew he could have rejected the way of Satan, accepted the way of God’s government, and God would’ve put him on that throne, and he could have ruled.

Adam's Choice (PLAY FROM 1:00:16)

Adam had to make a choice for his children that would come. Adam was the progenitor of all of his children. And his children are simply the world that have come from him. We’ve all been born from Adam. And Adam was the progenitor, and he had to make a decision for THE WHOLE WORLD that came from him!

Now in the tree, in the Garden of Eden, I should say, were two trees. The one is the tree of life; the other was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The tree of life represented the Spirit of God. He could freely take of that, which means that the Spirit of God was opened to Adam and Eve.

Also, there was the tree of taking to themselves the knowledge of good and evil, instead of believing God on what is good and what is evil. In other words, God tells us by His law what is right and what is wrong. God’s law tells us what is sin. Would Adam obey the law of God? Or would he reject the law of God and say, "I’ll make up my own law and decide for myself what is sin and what is righteousness." Adam had to make that decision.

Family Government (PLAY FROM 1:01:30)

Now part of the law of God that God, I’m sure, explained to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is that the husband is the head of his wife. You see that’s out-of-date today. Not many people believe that today, that the husband is to be the head of his wife. But how is he to head his wife? I heard a man say, "Well come on, hen," to his wife. He just called her a 'hen'. He was the 'rooster' I guess. No, a husband is to love his wife. And God’s teaching, as Paul gives you in the fifth chapter of Ephesians. {4}

"Husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it." (Ephesians 5:25)

That’s how much Christ loved the Church. That’s how much a husband is to love his wife. But God has made him the ruler.

Look, women today say, "I want to live 50-50". YOU CAN’T DO THAT; THERE IS NO '50-50'! Anytime a wife is going to go 50-50 she’s going to 'wear the pants' and rule her husband!

Now we’ve got a lot of women today, they believe in the ERA [Equal Rights Amendment]. Up with women, down with men! Who was the founder of the ERA movement; do you know? Well, I’ll tell you, mother Eve was. Eve knew, Adam knew the man was to be the head of the family. But he was to do it in love and out of consideration and concern for his wife. But he didn’t want to do that.

So, now they had been instructed. Satan is pretty clever. He got to Adam through his wife, Eve. So he found Eve and we come to the third chapter of Genesis and Satan came to Eve. And he didn’t say, "Look, worship me instead of God." He didn’t say, "Believe my way instead of God’s way." He started saying, "Look, God isn’t quite fair, is He? Did God let you have all of the trees in the garden?" "Well, no," Eve said, "No. He said all but one tree; all but one tree. But He said, of course, if we touch or take of that tree, we’ll surely die." He said, "Well now look, you can’t believe God. You can’t believe what He said. You won’t surely die. You’re an immortal soul; you’re not going to die. And look, why don’t you take of that? Look at the mind you have; look what a wonderful mind you have! And you take knowledge to yourself. And you be God, yourself. Why don’t you be God? God is selfish!"

You see that’s what Satan taught from the beginning. God gave him this earth and he said, "Look, God’s got all of these others - God’s got Jupiter; He’s got Mars; He’s got Saturn; He’s got all these other planets; He’s got all the other galaxies and all of the other places outside of even our Milky Way galaxy and God keeps all that to Himself. He only gave me this little earth."

Now he says here to Eve, he says, "God didn’t give you all of this, did He? He was selfish." He tried to make her resentful; he tried to get her in a hostile spirit against God and said, "You decide for yourself."

"[So] when she saw the tree was pleasant to the sight and she thought it would be good for food and desired to make one wise [it appealed to her mental, intellectual vanity] she took of that tree and did eat [and took to herself the decision of the knowledge of what is good and what is not good, and what is good and what is evil, in other words, what is sin]. And she gave to her husband with her." (Genesis 3:6 paraphrased)

She took him by the nose and led him along, and he just, poor weakling, he went along and let his wife lead him to the slaughter. And wives are trying to do the same thing today. Now they got the ERA movement today.

Well, then we come to what actually happened over here in Genesis, you read through the third chapter of Genesis, and remember that Satan is still on that throne. And so finally here’s what God said after Adam and Eve had made their decision. Adam had made the decision for the whole world, not just for himself alone. And now the Eternal God said, this is Genesis three, verse twenty-two, near the end of the third chapter of Genesis:

"The [Eternal] God said, Behold, the man is one of us, to know good and evil: and now, LEST he put forth his hand, and take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever [lest he do that]: therefore, the LORD God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life lest he go back, or his children after him, and take of the Spirit of God and live forever in sin." (Genesis 3:22-24 paraphrased)

Man had decided to take himself the knowledge of what is right and what is wrong. In other words, he rejected the law of God and he elected to go the way of breaking the law of God and of sin. And, lest man live forever, there’s a penalty of sin!

A Loving Punishment (PLAY FROM 1:07:07)

Listen, my brethren. Why did God drown ALL HUMANITY in the days of Noah except just Noah and his family? GOD DROWNED ALL HUMAN BEINGS! Why? Wasn’t God terrible; wasn’t that awful?

God wasn’t cruel. That was the kindest thing God could do because they were only bringing misery and suffering and unhappiness on themselves! And God took away all that suffering! And He’s going to resurrect them all right back into life more than a thousand years from now. And when He does, Satan won’t be there.

Satan was leading them; Satan was instilling all of this in their minds when they were little children - less than one year old. Satan was bringing them up when the world was filled with violence; it was filled with every sex evil, just like it is today.

Sex is one of the main things. And men were taking to them wives of all they chose, instead of the way God said. And God had forbidden interracial marriage. A lot of people don’t like that, today; they don’t like the ways of God! "I WANT TO DO WHAT I WANT TO DO!" You go the way you want to go and you will end up in death; you will end up in pain and suffering.

God doesn’t deny anything that is good for us. God only denies the things that are going to harm you because God loves you! God loves me. Oh and I know how much He’s blessed me.

You know before....I pray for all you people and if I don’t think to do it in the daytime, I do it before I go to sleep at night. And I find I’m getting drowsy I’ll say, "Well, God, remember all of our brethren and all of our ministers and remember everything I pray", when I’m so drowsy I can’t sleep any longer.

But listen, first, before that, I thank God for God, that He is God and that He does exist, and for His love and what that means. And that there is One so wonderful, so filled with love, and Who has all of the power. After all, the Supreme POWER is in the One who is good and who is love. And that’s the way it’s all going to wind up someday. And God is calling you and me to help wind it up that way and I hope that we will.

Well now Adam is the progenitor of the human race. And he made a decision for the human race and he chose for the human race.

Now, I got way ahead of some of my notes, here. Anyway, God made that decision on the whole world and God cut mankind off. He drove man out; He barred re-entrance to the Garden of Eden, lest they get of the Holy Spirit and gain eternal life. God was cut off - God cut the Holy Spirit off until the government of God could be restored. And that required the second Adam to come and do what the first Adam failed to do, which was to resist Satan and to accept the government of God and restore the government of God based on the law of God! And sin is the transgression of that law, so it would be the way of righteousness instead of the way of sin. And, until that government is restored, mankind is cut off from God!

A Calling to Jesus Christ (PLAY FROM 1:10:38)

Now God has called you and me to be part of the Church that, we are to be trained under the government of God that is in His Church, now, so we could help rule with the government of God that is ruled in love and teaching the way of love, when Satan won’t even be here anymore. And then He can call other people to be converted. And all who have ever died, all those that died in the Flood, all of ancient Israel who died and God never gave them the Holy Spirit, they’re all going to be resurrected more than a thousand years from now. And I hope you will be reigning there with Christ, with me, on His throne, and ruling in the ways of God at that time.

Now Jesus backed up everything that I just told you that God did and showed you back there in Genesis, the very last of the third chapter.

We turn now into the New Testament to John, the sixth chapter of John and verse forty-four where Jesus said: "NO MAN CAN COME TO ME"! (John 6:44)

Now Billy Graham says I preach this just to our own church, you people that I see there, I don’t want to say things like this to the public. I don’t want to say anything that might be construed against someone like Billy Graham. Maybe Billy Graham’s entirely sincere and believes what he’s doing. I’m not his judge and I’m thankful I’m not. So I don’t judge him one way or the other. But he says, "Whosoever will may come, just come up and confess Christ, tonight."

Jesus said, now do you think this is true; or do you think Jesus lied? Maybe Jesus didn’t know what He was talking about? Jesus said this; here it is; "NO MAN CAN COME TO ME"! Billy Graham says, "Come on to Christ, tonight." Jesus said, "No man can come to me, except the Father which sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44)

Predestination (PLAY FROM 1:12:50)

Brethren, to understand that, you need to understand all about predestination; which is in two different places in the New Testament. Predestination has to do with who God is calling, when, and not with whether you’ll be saved or lost. It has nothing to do with whether you’ll be saved or lost. It does have to do with who is going to be called and when they’re going to be called. It does have a lot to do with that. BUT ALL HAVE BEEN CUT OFF FROM GOD! AND NONE CAN COME TO CHRIST, except God the Father calls them!

Alright, now after the Flood - and God had called Noah at the time of the Flood - and before that, all I we know is that Abel is called, ‘righteous,’ by Christ. And Enoch walked with God. And Noah was a man who was righteous, but he was perfect in his generations by race and did not intermarry. And you need to read what I’ve written recently on that.

And, however, finally God began His Church with Abraham. Now you say, "The Church?" Yes, I mean the Church. Abraham will be in the resurrection. You bet you! And He called Abraham. Then He called the other prophets. He called the nation Israel, but He didn’t give the nation Israel the Holy Spirit, except just the prophets. And the New Testament Church is on the foundation of the apostles that Christ called, and made His apostles, AND the prophets - and the prophets that are the foundation of the New Testament Church are the Old Testament prophets.{5} YOU DON’T BELIEVE THAT? Let me tell you, research your New Testament. You will find only four prophets mentioned.

One was a lady up in her eighties when Jesus was an infant. She blessed Him and that’s all she had to do with it. She probably died after that; we don’t know. There’s nothing more said about her.

There was a prophet called, Agabus. And he simply received a message, apparently from God, that if Paul went into Jerusalem he was going to get in trouble. And he delivered the message to Paul. But he didn’t put any truth into the Church; he didn’t put any doctrines into the Church. He held no administrative office in the Church. He was not a preacher or an ordained elder in any way.

Now there are two more and they were told, along with another man, to lay hands on Saul and Barnabas, and Saul’s name had been, at that time, changed to Paul, and send them off as apostles.

That’s all; that’s all they did. They had nothing to do with the running of the Church; they had nothing to do with preaching; they had nothing to do with putting God’s truth into the Church. But the prophets did and the truth came through the apostles and they drew a lot of truth from the writings of the prophets of the Old Testament. And the prophets of the Old Testament are going to be there in the Kingdom with the Church because what you find of where Jesus was in the transfiguration shows you that the Old Testament prophets are going to be there in the Kingdom of God. (Matthew 17)

Now mankind has been cut off for 6000 years, until the government of God is restored, all except those that the Father {6} has called. Now He called Abraham, the prophets, and He’s called His Church. The Church is the firstfruits in the sense we’re the first body that has been called to receive the Spirit of God and will be the first group, or body, the body of Christ, as a group to be born into the Kingdom of God - the first harvest, the firstfruits, or the first spiritual harvest of God’s harvest.

Bride of Christ (PLAY FROM 1:16:57)

Now why did God call Abraham; why did He call the prophets; why did He call the Church? I preached to you that just ten days ago. It was to prepare a bride for the family of God, to prepare us in living under the way of God and obeying God and the law of God so that we can administer the God - the law of God, I mean - and the government of God in the Kingdom with and under Christ.

But why? The answer is: God is reproducing Himself. Now God is a family. The Kingdom of God is simply the God Family that will be ruling with the government of God and ruling over the whole earth. And Christ will be sitting on that throne where Satan is sitting now, the throne of the whole earth. Christ will then be sitting, but He says, "If we overcome," and that’s overcoming Satan, overcoming yourself, overcoming this world, and if we overcome, we will be sitting with Christ on His throne, or in His throne. It’s ‘in’ in the Bible. Maybe we should say, ‘on,’ whichever. Now this means that Christ, with some of us, is going to replace Satan on that throne, going to replace Satan on that throne!

Now, where does that leave us, today? Well, if you will turn with me now into the book of Revelation, the twelfth chapter of Revelation, to see where are we right now. The Bible, one-third of the Bible, is prophecy, telling what is going to happen in unfolding all this plan of God into the future. Revelation 12:7. It’s a time when: "There was war in heaven [and that’s now near our time] Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels." (Revelation 12:7)

Now just as Lucifer went up to heaven once before, long before Adam was created and was sent back down, he was to go once more. And this was a time just before the second coming of Christ. He’s going up there for one last battle! But Michael is given power; Michael is an archangel of the same power. And he and his angels are going to conquer Satan and his demons.

"And [Satan and his demons] prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan that deceives the whole world [he was cast out. Now notice verse twelve]: Therefore, rejoice you heavens, and you that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time." (Revelation 12:8-9, 12)

That’s where we are, today. The devil knows that he has but a short time and I think he’s already come down.

You know the first time that the Church, as a whole, has been persecuted was when the Attorney General of California brought this action against the Church of God! Now I was sort of accused of things, so was Mr. Radar. I was going to guess, so was Mr. Helge, our lawyer. But we were not accused of one thing, legally. We were not on trial.

The whole work is on trial as to whether we belong to the state or not, and whether the state can own what we have and run and manage the Church. The only thing was that they put a receiver in to receive all of our money and he was going to get a whole lot bigger money than either of us ever got. And yet the whole thing was that we were supposed to get too much money. But the receiver was going to get a lot more than we did. And the first time that we have ever been persecuted by government was a year ago, January the third.

Now you go back and where did persecution come from; who was persecuting Christ? It was the Roman government. Who persecuted the early Christians? It was the Roman government. And government never persecuted the Church as a whole. Individuals have been persecuted. I’ve been persecuted; I’ve been opposed, yes, but not the Church as a whole until that came. And I think that does show the wrath of Satan. And so that might be part of what is here in the twelfth chapter of Revelation. I just say it might be; I’m not definitely saying that, definitely.

Well, now ten days ago in the Feast of Trumpets we pictured the Second Coming of Christ. We’re at the time when His coming is very near. That was pictured last Thursday.

Removal of Satan (PLAY FROM 1:21:55)

Now, what is being pictured now? When Christ comes, He comes to a world where Satan is still on the throne; where Satan is still inoculating little babies in the first year with the whole attitude of get instead of give, of hostility toward others instead of love, of carnal mindedness, of material mindedness, of selfishness. And how is Christ going to rule the world; how is He going to sit on the throne with Satan there? He can’t really sit on the throne and start re-organizing the government of the whole world until Satan is removed. So, here’s what this pictures, today.

Now we come to the twentieth chapter of Revelation. And I want you to notice now what is pictured, today. We come to the first verse; take the first three:

"And I saw an angel come down from heaven." (Revelation 20:1)

In the nineteenth chapter it shows the Second Coming of Christ. Let me just go back a little and read that as I did ten days ago.

"Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him [that is the nineteenth chapter and verse seven]. And give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready." (Revelation 19:7)

And it shows - and then it shows Christ coming. And He’s: "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” [and coming to rule the whole earth]. (Revelation 19:16)

Now the twentieth chapter follows right after that (the coming of Christ). And here it says:

"And I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years." (Revelation 20:1-2)

Now first Satan is only going to be bound and taken away from us for one thousand years. Later, after that Satan is going to be taken away forever. But first he’s going to be taken away for a thousand years.

"And [the angel] cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up [and whatever that bottomless pit is, it doesn’t describe it here]. And he shall not deceive the nations anymore till the thousand years shall be fulfilled: and after that he will be loosed for a little season only." (Revelation 20:3 paraphrased)

Now you go on and read in the twentieth chapter and it goes right on and here it says:

"I saw thrones, and they sat on them [Christ will sit on that throne, but many of us will sit on thrones with Him]. And judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them who were beheaded for the witness of Jesus [that were martyred because of Satan] and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads [those that will be converted and saved in the Laodicean church after the Great Tribulation. That hasn’t even come, yet]. But the rest of the dead will not live again until the thousand years are finished. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. They’re going to live and reign with Christ a thousand years." (Revelation 20:4-6 paraphrased)

Now then it comes to something that’ll happen after the thousand years and we’ll have to picture that later. We’re coming to the great Feast of Tabernacles which pictures that thousand years.

But before the thousand years, Satan is to be taken and thrown into the bottomless pit and taken off of that throne so Christ can sit on it. And this Day of Atonement pictures that and pictures Satan being sent away! And you read of it, if you will read back in the fourteenth, or the sixteenth chapter, rather of Leviticus, how he’s taken away to a land desolate and uninhabited, picturing the taking of Satan away.

And the Kingdom will be ruling over all living so that they, then there will be no Satan and we can all be, in the whole world can then be AT-ONE-MENT with Christ.

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