The World Tomorrow

Jeremiah 2

by Herbert W Armstrong

(PLAY FROM START)

Did you notice the newspaper this morning? Well I did, and the news is not good, and that's the way it is. And there's no peace in this world now, and this world is going to go through a lot of troubles in the next few years. Now, as I read the newspaper this morning, you know what I read? Well I'll tell you, I read what has happened, mostly within the last twenty-four hours. It's already happened, it's news. Of course, they - each paper or each news service tries to scoop the others by getting the latest news first and all that sort of thing, but still it's news that has already happened.

But you know, there's another - I don't think you could called it a kind of newspaper either - but where you can see the news headlines, of not only tomorrow but next year and five years from now and ten and twenty years from now. You don't need to go much further than that ahead. You go up about that far ahead and we're going to have this utopia, we're really going to have it. Yes, in your lifetime and mine but in the meantime, we've got a lot of lessons to learn. And in the meantime I want to tell you that frightful things are going to happen on this earth. Do you know what they are? Why wait and read about it after it happened? And maybe it's going to hit you and you won't be around to read about it when the morning newspapers come out. But you can read about it before it happens in advance. And you can find the way you can be protected so it won't happen to you. Now that would seem to be good sense, wouldn't it? But there's only one place, because no human being knows what's going to happen.

Let's see, was it not, way back in World War I and President Wilson or was it President Roosevelt in World War II, who said that we never know what a single day may bring forth. Yes, in war time, we begin to realize we don't know what a single day may bring forth. But we think we're in a time of peace now - we're growing rather dreary and drowsy and rather stupid too, and dull and so we're not paying much attention. But let me tell you, my friends, it's only a quietude on the surface. Underneath there are things brewing. Underneath there are plots being laid right now. Underneath there are men that haven't come into the public limelight yet that are going to be big men, big villains in the world within the very next few years. They're already here but we don't know who they are yet because they haven't appeared in the public big news headlines as yet. And, terrific terrifying things are going to be happening. And you can read all that news in advance Now that ought to be important, and it's in the biggest seller in all the world. A book that is in more homes than any other book, that more people buy than any other book, year in and year out, and one-third of that book, the Holy Bible, is devoted to telling you what's going to happen, next year, five years, ten years, fifteen years from now. Why aren't you concerned about it?

Well, you say, who can understand Bible prophecy? Yes, that's true, who can? They certainly didn't understand it. They never have understood it but as I've told you so many times, the prophecies have been closed and sealed until now and we can understand them now. But do you know of any church denomination that will say, "Well, when we were founded back here a hundred and fifty, two hundred and fifty years ago or whatever it was, that we couldn't understand the prophecies then but they're open now and we will accept them". Why, you know, I've talk to heads of church denominations and they feel - they're human men - and they feel they would be afraid to make such an admission because then people would say then, "Well, then you weren't teaching all the truth before. You admit you've got something that you didn't understand then. Well, we have lost confidence in you." They're afraid that's what people would say. Well, I not afraid if anyone will say that about me, I admit that I don't know it all.

You know if Jesus Christ were here today, would He be just one of the ministers or evangelists or something in one of the great church denominations? Would He join a denomination? And which one would He join? You know, when He did come to the earth 1900 years ago, there were a number of denominations in Palestine. There were the Sadducees, and the Pharisees, and the Essenes, and the Samaritans and some others. Yes, they had their denominations then. Which one did He join? Why, not any of them. And they all attacked Him and they all called Him an independent. Now, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He hasn't changed. And He'd do the same thing today, wouldn't He? Of course. Did you ever stop to think about that? But, my friends, God's time has come to reveal hidden secret mysteries.

Bible Meaning Hidden (PLAY FROM 05:25)

One third of your Bible that has had a lock on it, a padlock that no man could get in and see and explore. Of course, men have been able to read these words, the words have been here all the time. But they have been in such language, and couched in such language that men could not understand them until now. Why even when Jesus was here, He spoke to the multitudes in parables. The miracles He did were noised abroad and the people advertised them around. Jesus told them to go and tell no man, He didn't try to broadcast what He had done at all. He did it as a ministry of love, He didn't do it to bring a crowd. But nevertheless, the people went and told other people and the people began to come in great throngs, thousands of people. And at one time, there must have been at least 10,000 or more because when He fed the 5,000 it said there were men beside women and children and so assuming that there were an equal number of women and children at least there would've been 10,000 there. It takes quite a big auditorium or a pretty big tent today to seat 10,000 people. There aren't very many of them in the United States, I tell you. That's a pretty big auditorium and Christ spoke to that many.

You know, if they all heard Him, did you ever stop to think what kind of a voice He had? He didn't have a microphone. I don't have to have a terrific voice. And I don't have a voice that will even compare with the voice my father had. We're degenerating and we don't realize it. I've got a part of my father's voice, he bequeathed a little of it to me. I'm glad I've got what I have so that you can hear, but my father had a much better voice than I. And he could sing way down to low C, loud enough to fill an auditorium that would seat 5,000 people without any microphones. Now, I couldn't even reach low C, I believe, and yet I have sort of a baritone bass voice at that, but I can't sing that low. And so what a voice Jesus Christ must have had? Why, He could talk to 10,000 people and they heard Him out in the open air. Just think of it. Well, that's something to think about, incidentally.

But He spoke in parables, do you know why? He Himself said, He spoke in parables so that they would hear but not understand, not understand. He spoke in parables to cloud and to hide the meaning so they couldn't know what He was talking about because He didn't intend them to understand it. Now there is a lot that God did not intend humanity to understand until our time. Jesus said to His disciples, blessed are your ears for they're hearing things that even the great prophets of old desired to know about but they couldn't know (Matthew 13:16-17). But now the time has come and you can hear these things in your ears are blessed for hearing things and your eyes for seeing things, your minds for comprehending things that were not revealed to them.

Well you know, that there were a lot of things were sealed until now and, my friends, if you would open your ears and if you'll open up your mind - things can come to you, that have been secret, that the prophets of old desired to know, that the apostles desired to know, and couldn't know. We can have greater knowledge than they. Don't you think that we're their equal as human beings and characters or anything, because we're not, we're degenerated. I know a lot of you don't believe that, you've been hearing a different story but it's been a story too, I want to tell you. But, we'll all get out eyes open someday. But nevertheless, we're privileged to know these things.

Alright now, let's go on with the prophecies here in this book of Jeremiah. I've decided to go through that. We're going through a number of the books of prophecy now one at a time. One-third of your Bible is devoted to prophecy and ninety percent of that are events that going to happen in the very next few years. And I think that you'll see that I knew what I was talking about too when the time comes. Because it's going to happen here and you're going to live through it. If you don't understand the identity of the United States, my friends, if you don't understand where we're mentioned in the Bible prophecies, above all things, you must read our booklet, 'United States in Prophecy'. My friends, you can't understand Bible prophecy unless you have that key. That is a veritable key to an understanding of the prophecies. That key is the definite knowledge of the true identity of the American and the British peoples in biblical prophecy.

Write in for that booklet 'United States in Prophecy' which explains where we're mentioned in the prophecies. Now, I'll just have to tell you, my friends, and a lot of you aren't going to believe it and a lot of people sneer at the idea and ridicule it. Oh how, they can ridicule it but they won't open their minds to look into it and check honestly, to see whether it's true. And, maybe they think they're honest, I suppose some of them do, but they're deceived. And do you know, when you're deceived, and when your mind is filled with prejudice it's a barrier to the entrance of truth. And so, it may be that some of these people are not dishonest at all, but just unable to see because of prejudice and all of that sort of thing and deception. But nevertheless, it is true, that there were the two ancient nations in the twelve tribes of Israel. One called the house of Israel, the other the house of Judah. The house of Israel had their capital in Samaria, the house of Judah that came to be known as the Jews, or the Jewish people, with their capital in Jerusalem.

The Lost 10 Tribes (PLAY FROM 11:09)

Now, they were divided into two different nations. The house of Israel had been taken captive 721 BC. They had been driven up to the southern shores of the Caspian Sea by Assyria. And by the time Jeremiah wrote, the Jewish people were being taken captive, about 130 thirty years later. And Jeremiah was among them and was an emissary among them, a sort of a go-between, between the kings of Judah and the King of Babylon who took them captive at that time. But I want you to remember that this was a 130 years - when Jeremiah was writing - after the House of Israel had gone out and been taken captive, oh, for a few years and it might have been 10, 20, 30 years they lived up there as slaves and as captives of the Assyrians. But then they began to escape and to migrate northwest over in toward Europe and there they were lost sight of. But, my friends, the very beginning of the British people and the nations of Northwestern Europe that we find - we find them coming from that very point where the ten tribes were lost sight of. And by prophecy we find that they were to be in the islands due northwest of Jerusalem, the islands in the sea.

And you take a map or a globe and you measure exactly, precisely northwest of Jerusalem till you come to islands in the seas and you come to the British Isles. And then, some of them finally were to come over here to America and be the United States. And so we are, actually now, the descendants of the ten so-called Lost Tribes - they are no longer lost. I know that's ridiculed, it's jeered at, but you can't understand your Bible unless you know that's true. Write for this booklet, 'United States in Prophecy'. Check up honestly with it and get rid of prejudice and see if you could have been mistaken - if this could after all be true, this thing they love to call fanaticism or they love to call it anything because how many people do you know will accept new truth? Do you know why they won't accept it? Well, I've been disillusioned, I've found out why. Now, you be the judge of what you believe and believe what you find in your Bible. Get this booklet, look at it in your own Bible and believe what you find there.

In Northwestern Europe (PLAY FROM 13:28)

Alright, now I'm going to precede with the assumption of what I know to be true and which you can prove to be true if you will, that we are then, the House of Israel in this day. Now, a lot of things are said here by Jeremiah about us, a lot of things. Now, here we are in this first chapter of Jeremiah and we've gotten into this prophecy. Now in the very fourth verse of the second chapter, just to show you that - well, Jeremiah in the first chapter was made a prophet to the nations, that's Israel and Judah. Now, he was in Judah. He was commissioned to tear down the throne in Judah - to root it out, to tear it down, but he was also commissioned to build and to plant. To build and plant what? Why, the very throne that he tore down in Judah. And so, he was to build it up into Israel as other prophecies say, I think that's in Isaiah, I believe it is, and you'll get that in this booklet 'United States in Prophecy' . Now then, he was a prophet then to the House of Israel, as well as to the House of Judah. Now he says here, beginning in the second chapter, and the fourth verse:

"Listen to The Eternal's word, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel." (Jeremiah 2:4 Moffatt translation unless otherwise noted)

That's not the Jewish people.

That's the people that at the time were in the British Isles and northwestern Europe up there. Some of the them Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, and in Holland and in Belgium and in the British Isles. Now then coming to the seventh verse, second chapter, of Jeremiah's prophecy. Let's see what these prophecies are saying. Now one of the keys is, that we are the house of Israel, and another of the keys is duality. That in the prophecy, it speaks of things that pertain literally, to happen then to one of the nations. But antitypically, that was only a forerunner. The big event, the main event that this prophecy is for, is for us today that's going to happen in the next few years. Now, there's another key without which they couldn't understand prophecy. It's because they didn't know these things, that they didn't understand prophecy fifty years ago, a hundred years ago and all that time but today we can know. Now let's get into tomorrow's headlines today. Here they are, listen, God continues here, and He says, beginning verse eleven,

"Has any nation ever changed its gods, (gods that were no gods)?" (Jeremiah 2:11)

In other words, idols that are not actually gods but they called gods. Did any Gentile nation ever change its gods and take over a different kind of a god? No. Now, just think of that for a moment. There is no record in history of a nation that as a nation, had some kind of god, think of all of the gods of these nations. There was Jupiter and the gods of the ancient nations and many names that they had. Actually they were only names for the ancient Nimrod, that you read of in the tenth chapter of Genesis, and his wife Samiramis. But they were named different things. There was Easter, it was spelled I-S-H-T-A-R in Assyria and the ancient Babylonian name was A-S-T-A-R-T-E, but it wasn't pronounced Astarte, as you might think in sounding it out in English, it was pronounced Easter, as we call it today. And Easter, believe it or not, celebrates that old goddess Easter.

Now, the pagan nations never changed a god or goddess, when they had one. They never gave up their religion or changed their god. It was never done. But God says, "...my people have changed their Glory for a useless thing!" (Jeremiah 2:11)

They had the real God, the Living God, the Creator God, the God that created force and energy and every power and that rules the universe by that very power. Because He sets at the controls of the whole universe in His high heaven. And yet, because God hides Himself - He does not reveal Himself visibly, so you see, you can't reach out and touch Him. No, God wants us to learn the lesson of faith, and so you have to receive Him by faith.

And, because they had made a god of their own making, out of stone or wood or marble or clay or something, they would worship something they could see, but they never changed that god. But the people of Israel did change their God, for one that was no god at all. And actually, they changed Him finally for the devil - another invisible god - and they still got an invisible god, but they've got the wrong one! And they call him God, and not Satan. You know, that's something to think about, and if you start thinking along that line, and you start investigating and you'll examine, you're going to be startled and dumbfounded. You're going to stumble on some information that will just shake you to your foundations. Have you the courage to accept that challenge and begin to look into what kind of a God is actually being worshipped mostly, and even in these United States? You read in your Bible that the people are deceived, absolutely deceived. And deceived people are honest, they're sincere, they think they have the right thing but they have a counterfeit. A person that takes a counterfeit twenty dollar bill is deceived, he wouldn't take it otherwise, if he knew it was counterfeit. It looked genuine, he thought he had the right thing?

Born Again (PLAY FROM 18:56)

How many of you have thought you had the right thing? You think you've had a 'born again' experience, you don't even know what it is, a lot of you. Now, I'm trying to get you to examine these things, I'm trying to shake you up a little bit. But look, if you examine it, and you look for the real proof instead of assuming and taking for granted so many things as you have - if you are right, the more proof you get the more it's going to verify it, it isn't going to hurt you. You can't lose, but if you are wrong, you ought to want to know it. I know I did, and it came as a great disillusionment when I found the truth and found that I had been reared in a superstition thinking it was Christianity. Well, now God says here;

"Well may the heavens be appalled and shudder; for my people have done a double wrong, they have forsaken me, the reservoir of fresh water [now here He uses simile and compares Himself to a reservoir of fresh water, and the fresh water is the Holy Spirit of God, of course, that gives us eternal life, and have], ...hewn out cisterns for themselves, leaky cisterns, that cannot hold any ...water!" (Jeremiah 2:12-13)

They don't have the true water, the life giving water, the Holy Spirit in the first place. And what they do have, it leaks. So we have empty lives today - yes, and there's a reason. Now, "Is Israel a defenceless serf?" He's talking of Israel now, not Judah. Jeremiah is a prophet to Israel as well as Judah.

"Is Israel a defenceless serf, a home-born slave, that he should be plundered, and his towns laid waste?" (Jeremiah 2:14)

Why, my friends, they had been plundered and laid waste a hundred years before Jeremiah wrote, a hundred and thirty years, but he's talking of a future invasion of Israel. And, this never happened from that time till now. You know why? Why the whole thing is this, it's a warning for us today, it's going to happen within the next few years. It's going to happen to us, my friends, within the next few years. And you'd better wake up to who we are. Do you want to be stupid, you just want to go on in blindness, you don't want to know until it hits you and it's too late?

When I was a boy, eight years old, I remember I used to catch rats. We lived in a small town in Iowa, we had moved into a place that I guess my father must have rented. He'd bought a hardware store and he'd gone into the hardware business up in that little town. And anyway, I think it was an old house as I remember, and there were a lot of rats out in the barn. And I got one of these great big cage traps, you know, and you put the bait inside, cheese or something, I guess it was, and there's a little opening, a hole where they go through and they drop down to get that cheese and then they're trapped, they can't get out. Why, I used to get all kinds of those rats. I'd have four or five of them every morning when I'd wake up. And, I'm not going to tell you what I did with them because I was a mean little fellow! But, nevertheless, those rats didn't know, they thought it looked good and if anyone would have told them "Look out, that's a trap!" Oh no sir, that looked good, they wanted to go in that way.

Will Come As A Snare (PLAY FROM 22:00)

A lot of you people think this world looks pretty good. You're satisfied with it, nothing is going to happen. Oh, it's going to be perfectly secure. You're going to find you're like a rat in trap some day. I didn't say you were a rat, now don't anybody get me wrong, we're using that only as a comparison. But, actually, Jesus Christ Himself said that, like "...a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the earth" (Luke 21:35 KJV). And its going to spring like a snare springs on these little animals that it catches. Now Jesus said, if we would "Watch [and wake up and heed], and pray always [we can], be accounted worthy to escape all these things that [are going to] come to pass..." (Luke 21:36 KJV)

Now, "Is Israel a defenseless serf, here, that his town should be plundered and laid waste? Young lions roar at him, growling aloud; they lay his land desolate, empty of inhabitants; Men of Memphis and Daphne will strip you to be slaves. Have you not brought this on yourself, by abandoning your God?" (Jeremiah 2:15-17 paraphrased)

Do you realize, my friends, this nation has abandoned God? We don't let God rule us. We want to believe in God, we want to believe and profess Christ, we want to proclaim the name of Christ, we want to receive Christ but we don't want to obey Him. We don't want to keep the Ten Commandments. Oh no, we would rather listen to the siren song 'they were nailed to the cross' and done away and we get angry if anyone says anything else. "Your own wickedness will punish you," says God, and that's a message to you people of the United States of America here and now.

"Your own wickedness will punish you, your apostasy will chastise you. See for yourself how sore it is for you to abandon me [says God]." (Jeremiah 2:19)

Now, I want you to notice some of this. "Long ago, you broke your yoke, and snapped your harness, you said, 'I will not serve thee'; and on every height, under every green tree, you wantoned like a harlot" (Jeremiah 2:20). He says, of our people. Now, that happened long ago by our forefathers.

Baal Worshippers (PLAY FROM 24:12)

Look, verse twenty two,

"You may wash yourself with lye and plenty of soap, but I see your sin of deepest dye, says the Lord Eternal. How dare you say, 'I am not stained, I have not sought the Baals'..." (Jeremiah 2:22-23)

Isn't that what we say in America? Why, my friends, most of you that have heard me saying this - you say why that's not true! We haven't worshipped Baal, we worship Christ! We believe in Christianity! That's what you been saying. Why yes, God said that's what you'd say, God says that He sees your sin of deepest dye! "How dare you say [says God], that I am not stained, that I have not sought the Baals'." (Jeremiah 2:23)

That is Baalism, which is sun worshipping and it's here in the United States only we don't call it by that name. We call it by Christian names. We call it part of the Christian religion today, things you can't find in your Bible. You want to know what I mean? Have you the courage, my friends, to face up to the truth? Write for our booklet, 'The Plain Truth about Christmas' and where it came from. Write for our booklet, 'The Plain Truth about Easter' and where it came from. We have Christian names on these things. We think they're Christian institutions. Write and see if we're serving Baal or if we're serving the true God. And look in your Bible and see what it says and look into history and get the facts. You can prove these things. I ask you to look at the proof, I don't ask you to believe me! I asked you to quit swallowing these things and just believing what you're told. I asked you to search and look for the proof and research and go into it. You know, 'research', I never thought of that before, it means search and keep searching and search again, doesn't it? You know, research - it means search all over again. We talk about research a great deal, we use that word carelessly. I wonder if we realize what it does mean. You know, God told Adam and Eve, "Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth..." (Genesis 1:28 KJV). Did you ever think it meant plenish again or in other words build up and populate all over again? That's back in the first chapter of Genesis. Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Well, you'd better see what some of these words mean.

Now, God continues, "Do not run your feet bare, your throat dry. But, 'It is no use to talk [that's what we're saying]: I am in love with foreign gods' you cry,' and after them I hie.' Like a thief caught and confounded, so shall Israel's house be confounded," (Jeremiah 2:25-26)

Now that's future, so shall Israel's house, the house of Israel. Why they were up in the British Isles when Jeremiah wrote this. There has never been a captivity since he wrote this. This has never happened yet and it's to our people. My friends, it's a message for now, if you can see.

So, here it is, Israel's house shall be confounded. "calling a pole 'my father' calling a pillar, 'my mother!'..." (Jeremiah 2:26-27)

That refers to obelisks. Now, we don't have so many of those in the United States - you go over to Britain and you'll find a lot of them. And you'll see a lot of them down in the city of Rome. Obelisks, that were - the real original ones - that were worshipped in the land of Egypt. And many have been moved up to Rome today. And the guides there will tell you about it. And you'll see them over in England too.

"...They have turned their backs to me, [says God] and not their faces; and yet they cry when trouble comes, 'Arise and save us'!" (Jeremiah 2:27)

They appeal to God. How many of you are like that? When you get into trouble and you cry out to God. 'Oh, God, have mercy, save me, heal me, save me from my troubles'. When you're in trouble, but when everything is going good, you don't have anytime for God, that's the way it is.

"...Have I been a desert to Israel [God says], or a land of gloom? Then why do my people say, 'We please ourselves. We will not come to thee'... Yet, you say [God says], 'I am innocent; [verse 35] surely His anger [God's anger] is over' [God says]. I will condemn you for saying 'I have not sinned' [and then it shows that we're flying to foreign allies and relying on them in verse 36] but....the Eternal [it says] has rejected those you rely on, and nothing will you gain by them." (Jeremiah 2:31,35-37)

In the last verse, of the second chapter, and that closes the second chapter of Jeremiah, that's the way we are headed.