The World Tomorrow

Russia - Part 2

by Herbert W Armstrong

(PLAY FROM START)

Now once again, what is prophesied to happen - not only to the United States - but to Russia? Where does Russia enter into prophecy? We've been going through a chapter that very few people would ever think to look into to see what going to happen to Russia. And yet there is, perhaps, about as much in this one chapter, as any place in the Bible about Russia, except perhaps the thirty-eighth chapter of Ezekiel which is really referring to a later time. Now, if you want to know about Communist Russia, here it is.

First, as I've been showing you, in many, many broadcasts, the prophecies show a resurrection of the ancient Roman Empire in the approximate territory of the old Roman Empire. Remember, there was no settled definite geographical boundary line, because it continued to shift and to change through the years. The Roman Empire, as such, existed officially from about 31 BC until 476 AD, but then there were a number of resurrections of it, beginning with 554 AD onto 1814 as a matter of fact. And, so once again, there is to be one more revival or resurrection. Actually, in a sense, Napoleon resurrected the Roman Empire - so did Mussolini in a sense. It was the time of the prophecy, the seventeenth chapter of Revelation and the eighth verse, when this Empire was, and yet it was not, yet it was. And it was in such an insignificant condition at that time. The pitiful insignificant revival of the empire under the bragging, strutting, boasting Mussolini.

Well, we have found here in the fiftieth chapter of Jeremiah this prophecy of the Eternal God through the prophet Jeremiah about Babylon. And it is not the ancient Babylon of 600 years before Christ, but the daughter of that Babylon that is described in the seventeenth and the eighteenth chapters of Revelation. Now, we've gone into that at some length. Now, just to refresh your mind by skimming very, very quickly through the ground we've covered up until now, we're pretty well through the fiftieth chapter of Jeremiah. The fiftieth and fifty-first go together, they are two very long chapters. I want to go through them, I want you to get this in detail. I hope you to have your own Bible opened. I've been reading this in the Moffatt translation, same Bible, only in more modern English. But, whichever Bible you have, open it and read it and you will get the same general thought all the way through.

Now here's; "The Eternal's message...about Babylon... Tell the nations and proclaim it, let the news go free that Babylon is captured, her idols are disgraced, her blocks of gods are in dismay..." (Jeremiah 50:1-2 Moffatt translation throughout unless otherwise specified)

This is a prophecy of a time when Babylon is to be captured. Now, as I explained in the preceding two programs at least, there is a duality here and while in a sense literally this is applying to the fall of the old Babylon 600 years before Christ at the hands of the Medes and the Persians; when the Persian Empire followed and succeeded the Chaldean Empire that was called Babylon. On the other hand, I've shown you in passage after passage through this prophecy that the real application of it is for our time now. And it is really referring to that which is already underground and undercover, beginning to be hatched, shall we say, and ready to come forth. And, it doesn't appear above ground yet. The nations don't realize it. We're contributing a great deal toward it. We're helping to build the very Frankenstein that we're going to shudder and fear as soon as it does appear and we see what it really is.

375 Million People in EU (Play from 4:18)

There will be about 375 million people in the population in this resurrected Roman Empire in the territory of the old Roman Empire in Europe. About 375 million people. The seventeenth chapter of the book of Revelation shows it will be a combination of ten dictatorships in Europe going together. Ten governments or nations in Europe consolidating in a United States of Europe. I don't know whether they'll call it 'The Roman Empire' or not, but that's what it will be.

Alright, now then, we found here that in verse three "a foe from the north has attacked her to lay waste her land" (Jeremiah 50:3). I had shown you in Isaiah 47, that this is speaking of the daughter of that ancient Babylon, called in the female gender all the way through. And it's the Babylon that is yet coming. Now, the foe to the north - the north always speaks geographically from the location of Jerusalem - and this is referring then to the nations that are directly north. And it is as you read here in verse 9, a horde of nations, because here you read God says;

"For I am rousing against Babylon a horde of nations from the north, to battle with her mightily until they master her, shooting like expert archers, who never go empty-handed." (Jeremiah 50:9)

Now, the 'horde of nations', north of Jerusalem, is simply the USSR or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and their satellite nations. The nations up in there that are under the Soviet orbit at the present time.

Now, getting back to verse 4, it tells you what hour it is, and the time, and it is not 600 years before Christ because it says;

"...then says the Eternal at that hour, the Israelites return, they and the men of Judah wending their way weeping in search of the Eternal their God," (Jeremiah 50:4)

Now, actually, there was a return of some of the Jewish people under Ezra and Nehemiah, along about this time, it was after, it wasn't at that same hour, it was later about the same time that the Persian Empire took over - in fact it was the Persian king who allowed them to go back - but it wasn't at the same hour. And again, Israel did not go back. You can read of those who went back under Ezra and Nehemiah, and you can't read any in there, of the tribes of Ephraim or Manasseh or Zebulun, Issachar and Simeon and the tribes that made up the house of Israel or the ten tribes. That nation had migrated clear across Europe by that time, and were over in north western Europe by that time. Many of them in the British Isles and the islands of Denmark and Sweden and Norway and their many islands and coastlands all up through that section and that's where they were by that time.

Now it is the time when;

"...the Israelites...they and the men of Judah, wending their way, weeping in search of the Eternal their God, asking the way to Zion [that is the spiritual condition of the Church and of grace], their faces turned to it,calling each other to join the Eternal in a lasting compact, never to be forgotten." (Jeremiah 50:4-5)

The time of the New Covenant, and I was reading to you, I think in the preceding program, where that New Covenant is to be made with Christ - a marriage covenant. He made a marriage covenant with Israel at Mt. Sinai in the days of Moses. Now, He's going to make a New Covenant. And at the time the New Covenant is made, people won't be saying, well 'Know the Lord' because it says that everybody will know the Eternal, from the smallest to the greatest (Jeremiah 31:34). The earth will be full of the knowledge of the Eternal so that's happening after the second coming of Christ. Very few people have these things correct.

Now, again in verse nine, He's rousing a horde of nations - now get that, it's a number of nations. There were just the two peoples that formed the Persian Empire that came against the ancient Babylon 600 years before Christ. And then again, beginning with verse 14;

"Set upon Babylon, all around, all ye who bend the bow; spare not your arrows, shoot at her - she has offended the Eternal. Raise the war-cry round her - she gives away, her bastions are stormed, her walls are down! 'Tis the Eternal's vengeance on her; take your revenge, treat her as she treated others!" (Jeremiah 50:14-15)

Now, just for a moment, turn over here to eighteenth chapter of Revelation. You'll see it's talking about the same thing, and that's the time of the second coming of Christ. Verse 7, Revelation 18, it quotes that what we found in Isaiah forty seven, speaking of the same thing;

"How much she hath glorified herself and lived deliciously [that's she, a female], so much torment and sorrow give her for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow." (Revelation 18:7 KJV)

You'll find that is actually quoted from Isaiah 47 and verse 7, and this is Revelation 18, and verse 7. Now, verse 8;

"Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her [it's the judgments of God, His plagues in the 'Day of the Lord,' the Day of the Eternal]. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, Standing afar off for...her torment, saying, Alas, alas, the great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come." (Revelation 18:8-10 KJV)

The Vengeance of God (Play from 10:13)

Well now, let me see, there's something else I wanted to quote here, let's go back here beginning with verse 5;

"...her sins have reached unto heaven...God has remembered her iniquities. Reward her [verse 6], even as she has rewarded you, double unto her double according to her works: in the cup that she has filled fill [un]to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously so much, torment and sorrow give her..." (Revelation 18:5-7 KJV)

You see, double unto her and double according to her works. Well, there it is, almost word for word what we read here. It's the Eternal's vengeance, that is judgments of God - take your revenge, treat her as she treated others. Now, let's see, let's drop down now to verse 18;

"Therefore, the Lord of hosts, declares the God of Israel, I will punish Babylon, king and land [I will punish], as I punished the Assyrian King [that took Israel captive 700 years before Christ]; I will bring...Israel to his homestead." (Jeremiah 50:18-19)

You see, it talks a great deal as if it were talking back in that ancient time, six or seven hundred years before Christ. But then it shows here, every little while that it is talking about the present time. Because it said in verse 4 that at that hour the Israelites return and that is speaking about the Great Exodus at the time of the second coming of Christ. And here, it's speaking again of this in verse nineteen, 'I bring back Israel to his homestead', and that my friends, is our people. The American people, the British people, yes and the Swedes, the Danes and the Norwegians, the Dutch and the peoples of northwest European.

"I bring back Israel to his homestead [that's what God says], to pasture on Karmel and Bashan, till he can eat his fill in Gilead and on Ephraim's hill [Ephraim was the northern land, the northern part of Palestine, where the kingdom of Israel lived in the ancient time, not the southern place. Judah had their capital at Jerusalem. But, Israel's capital was Samaria, and up in the land of Ephraim and Samaria, called Ephraim's hill]. Then the Eternal promises, at that hour [notice], no guilt [shall be] discovered nor any sin detected within Judah; [that is no guilt in Israel nor any sin in Judah] for whom I spare, I pardon." (Jeremiah 50:19-20)

I've read that to you before, it is the time of, and after the second coming of Christ. People will look for guilt, people will look for sins and there will be none, because Jesus Christ is coming at that time!

Most Israelites Are Not Jews (Play from 12:45)

Now, what else do you read about that time when He comes? About Israel and Judah, not the Zionist movement as the Jewish people have been going back. That's fulfilling prophecy - Oh of course it is - but another prophecy altogether and not this one at all. Now then, for just one moment, just hold that place. I want you to notice right here a little in the eleventh chapter of Romans. Romans in your New Testament. Turn real quickly to the eleventh chapter of Romans with me for just a moment. Now, the apostle Paul had thought that God had cast away all of the people of Israel. So, he starts out and he says;

".. Hath God cast away his people? God forbid...I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, the tribe of Benjamin." (Romans 11:1 KJV)

Now, Benjamin was one of the tribes in the house of Judah and they were called Jews. But the ten tribes were not Jews, have never been called Jews, nowhere in the Bible. The first place in the Bible that the word 'Jew' occurs, the Jews and Israel were at war against each other. Israel fighting against the Jews, believe it or not (II Kings 16). Why, Jew and Israel are not synonymous terms at all. They are two different nations. I tell you my friends, there aren't even very many preachers that know that. Yet there are four whole books in the Old Testament of your Bible that make that plain and devoted altogether to showing the differences between those two nations and the rival wars between them and ancient history. Why don't people know the Bible? Listen;

"God hath not cast away his people [whom] he foreknew..." (Romans 11:2 KJV)

And then he explains, however, that it's like it was back in Elijah's day. That the nation as a whole, had turned away from God and God has blinded them. It says here;

"...Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for [verse 7]; but the election hath obtained it [that was the small remnant compared to the seven thousand out of the millions in ancient Israel in Elijah's day, the election have obtained it, but]. ...the rest [that is the great majority] were blinded [or hardened, as the margin has it - spiritually blinded so that couldn't see or understand, and their hearts hardened]. (According as it is written: God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see; ...ears that they should not hear;) unto this day." (Romans 11:7-8 KJV)

Now, God blinded them. Well then if God blinded them, He stands bound, duty bound to take away the blindness. He can't condemn them into any final hell fire from which there shall be no resurrection through something that He did to them! Not at all, and neither is He going to. So, in verse eleven, Paul says;

"I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall [and without ever having a chance? You notice God blinded them so that they could not see the truth, why]? God forbid [they haven't stumbled that they'll fall and be eternally lost, not at all]: but rather, through their fall [which is, it shows here that it's temporary] salvation has come to the Gentiles...to provoke them [the Israelites] to jealousy." (Romans 11:11-12 KJV)

Now, verse 15;

"...if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, [taking salvation to the Gentiles, as did happen under the ministery of the apostle Paul.] what shall the receiving of them but life from the dead?" (Romans 11:15 KJV)

The receiving of these Israelites that God had blinded. Now, they have been blinded up until now, and they're still blinded. I tell you, my friends, we're Israel and our people are blinded, spiritually - our people today are in Babylon - if you know what Babylon is! And Babylon in this modern time is spoken of in the seventeenth and eighteenth chapters of Revelation. It's primarily a spiritual term, although it stands for the entire civilization of our modern time. Yes, and it stands also for the kingdoms and the governments, especially of Europe, and of their ways and their traditions and all that sort of thing. It stands for a way of life. It stands for a civilization. And our people are swallowed up and in that Babylon today. We are in its clutch and it's time that we drew ourselves out. God says;

"...Come out of her my people [Revelation 18, verse 4], that you be not partakers of her sins, that you receive not of her plagues." (Revelation 18:4 KJV)

Because those plagues are coming in our time and our generation. And we're almost to that very time now. But our people are blinded. And our people are deceived. Your Bible says that Satan the Devil has deceived all nations (Revelation 12:9). Now, that doesn't exclude the United States. You can know the truth if you want to, but my friends, most of us are just dumb sheep. We're putting our faith in men. We're trusting men and organizations of men, even religious organizations.

God says don't do that. If you read the prophecies in your Bible of what God said the pastors of the sheep, the shepherds of the sheep are going to do with our people today and how they have misled them and deceived them (Ezekiel 34). And every prophecy in your Bible says that our people would be deceived, that they would have turned away from the truth and turned to fables today. That is either true or else the Bible isn't true at all. Then how can you believe anything in the Bible? And what is your authority? In who and what are you trusting, my friends?

Now, if you have the doctrine - as one very large church does - that the church is the authority and the Bible is not and if you really believe that and you've proved it, why, you go on trusting there. But if you don't believe that, and the majority of our people don't have that belief, they believe that the Bible is the authority. Many of them profess it, but they don't follow it. And you show them what the Bible says and they can read it with their own eyes in plain language 'thus saith the Lord', 'thus saith the Eternal', and people will say, 'Well yes, I see the Bible says that but then, well you see, here is what we believe, and this is what our church believes, and this is the way I look at it.' And we reason it out in our own minds and we reason our way right around God.

Judged By The Bible (Play from 18:47)

Listen my friends, the holy sacred Word of God in the Bible, and probably your Bible - there may be a few mistranslations - but that Word is going to judge you in the Judgment Day, and you are going to be there. I don't mean that I don't care. I mean it makes no difference whether something would happen that would snuff out your life one minute from now, or whether you live to a ripe old age and are still living at the second coming of Christ. Regardless of that, you are going to be in the Judgment! You are going to give an account. So I call on you, open your Bible and believe what you see there.

I don't call on you to believe on me. If I tell you to believe on me, why then I'd have to say, 'Well, the people that follow me I want them to believe me but you follow your denomination, your church, your pastor, whoever it may be, your religious leader, no matter who it might be.' I'd have to be honest and tell you, you follow him. And then one is going one way and some another and look at it - it's pulling off in all directions. You know it's like the man said to me, 'Well, I see you are going in different directions, in different ways, but we all are going to get to the same place.' Oh, yes, that's true, they're all going to same place, my friends, but it isn't the place you think! Let me tell you, they are not going to the place they think they are. They're all going to the same place.

You know; "..wide is the gate, broad is the road - and easy and the multitudes are going in there at - that leads to destruction [that's where they are going. But], strait is the gate...narrow is the gate and hard and rutty and difficult is the road that leads to everlasting life, and few there be, said Jesus Christ, that find it." (Matthew 7:13-14 paraphrased)

Jesus Christ said that many will seek to enter into the Kingdom of God and shall not be able. My friends, the Savior Himself said that. That's in your Bible (Luke 13:24). Again, it doesn't make any difference which translation you have, it's in your Bible. Because these main fundamental things, my friends, are in every translation.

Now, then, I want you to get this right here. Here, Israel has been blinded, and they're blind even to this day, my friends. And that's our people, most of them. Why, Jesus Christ said none could come to the Son, except the Spirit of the Father draw him (John 6:44). We don't believe the things that Jesus said, do we? Why, my friends, why is it that most of us today believe exactly contrary to what Jesus taught? We practice customs and ways and the things we do that we think are religious customs that Jesus had nothing to do with, but the very ones that He condemned and commanded us to come out of. We practice customs that the pagans had been practicing hundreds and hundreds of years before the time of Christ, and we call them Christian. And we pat ourselves on the back and we think we are a holy, righteous people.

A False Jesus (Play from 21:42)

Yes, we publish more Bibles than anybody. Our land is filled with churches. We publish the Bible in all the languages of the world. We send our missionaries all over the world and we say 'Know the Lord.' Oh, yes we do, but we'd better back up a bit, my friends, and find out what Lord are we talking about. Because, the apostle Paul said they'd come preaching another Jesus. And a lot of us need to find out whether we have been - well you know, it just reminds me of a slang word that I used to hear years ago, 'hornswoggled' into believing in another Jesus and didn't know we believed it. You know, I hadn't even thought about that word in, I imagine thirty or forty years. It came to me right there and it just seemed that it really fits the case. Alright, I hope you get the meaning. For the purpose of words, after all, is to convey the right meaning and thought. Now then;

"...if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be [these Israelites that God has blinded, what shall the receiving of them be], but life from the dead?" (Romans 11:15)

Now then, if you'll turn right on down here to verse twenty five, and verse twenty three it said;

"And they also, [these Israelites] if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in..." (Romans 11:23 KJV). [Into]the olive tree, which is Israel with the Holy Spirit, and Gentiles are grafted into that. They're no longer Gentiles - they're Israelites as you read these verses inbetween where it speaks of them as the natural olive tree for Israel and the wild olive trees for the Gentile nationalities. But the Gentiles are like branches off a wild olive tree and they're grafted contrary to nature into the Israel tree - through Christ. "And if ye be Christ's [said Paul], then are you Abraham's children, [that's an Israelite] and heirs, according to the promise" (Galatians 3:29 paraphrased). The promises were given to Abraham and are for Israel only. But even a Gentile then becomes an Israelite. But, they'll be grafted back into their own tree, if they abide not still in unbelief. Now, here's verse 25:

"For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits; that [this] blindness [or hardness] in part [and it's the big part] is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so [listen, that's at the second coming of Christ. so] all Israel shall be saved..." (Romans 11:25-26 KJV)

There it is. The majority of Israel has been blinded; God blinded them and it's only temporary in order that salvation would go to the Gentiles. And finally, so all Israel shall be saved - that includes every Jew. But that also means a great deal more than the Jew - it means our people, the British people, the American people, it means the Danes, the Swedes, the Norwegians and the Dutch and all of those people. They're all cousins of ours, we're all of the same race, originally;

"...all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion [Sion, again is the Church again, they shall come out of Sion,] the Deliverer [who is Christ at His second coming], and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes..." (Romans 11:26-28)

Believe Your Bible (Play from 24:56)

I want to tell you that most of our people are and they don't know it, today. Oh, my friends, God help us to wake up. God help us to realize this is not just some false prophet talking. I don't want you to believe me at all. You believe what you see in your Bible. But oh, in the name of Jesus Christ I plead with you open your eyes, open your mind and realize that it could happen here, it has happened here, that we could be deceived and we have been deceived. Well God help us then to realize it.

Now, let's get back here to where we are; "...at that hour [the Eternal promises], no guilt in Israel shall be discovered, nor any sin be detected within Judah; for whom I spare I pardon." (Jeremiah 50:20)

You see, at the second coming of Christ all Israel shall be saved because Christ is coming to turn away ungodliness from Israel, that is now today blinded. Oh, if you just understand all these prophecies and all these sayings in your Bible and put them together, how wonderful it is. How interesting, how thrilling it is to know the real truth! Listen, isn't truth like this, when you come to see it? Has God opened you heart and your mind to know, to let this in, has it sunk in, so that you can see how much more thrilling this is than, oh some murder mystery, or some nonsense that you can see in some kind of an entertainment play somewhere? Oh, my friends, God help you to get your mind on His truth.

Now then; "The Eternal has opened his arsenal [we read here in verse twenty five] and brought out the armies of His wrath..." (Jeremiah 50:25 paraphrased)

And that is the hordes of Communist Russia. "Woe betide them their hour has come, the day of their doom" [verse 27], (Jeremiah 50:27). And verse 29: "Summon archers against Babylon, all who bend the bow; beleaguer her, let [no] man escape. Requite her for her crimes, treat her as she treated others..." (Jeremiah 50:29)

There it is, Revelation 18:6, again, I read it just a few moments ago. "For a people is coming out of the north-land, a power is stirring, a host of kings, from the far ends of the earth!" (Jeremiah 50:41)

That's a lot more than came 600 years before Christ on the ancient Babylon. That is speaking of this Babylon now, today. And, oh yes, back here in verse 33, let me read this here, and I just have time if I hurry real quickly.

It's the time her hour has come;"...the day for me to doom you [read Revelation 18, it's the same hour. Now here], The LORD of hosts proclaims: 'Israelites and the men of Judah are trampled down together; their captors hold them fast and will not let them go. But theirs is a strong champion, His name is the Lord of hosts [that's Christ at His second coming], he'll take their part, and daunt the Babylonians, that the world may live at peace." (Jeremiah 50:32-33)

There's a time when they're delivered that the world may live at peace and the time is the second coming of Christ. I want you to notice, now, we're ready now to get up to chapter fifty one, where God is summoning destroyers and I'm going to show you again that its Communist Russia, and that is before Ezekiel 38. We'll come to that later.