Doctrine and You

I don't know if you are aware, but an average of about 10,000 new churches are formed every year in the United States. Why would 10,000 new churches be formed? Well, to some degree, it's because of doctrinal differences. People come up with differing ideas to the church of which they belong, and they step out of that church and form another church.

And thus, a new church is born. We need to realize, as individuals, this is not some phenomena that does not involve us. We ought to recognize the fact that, as we study God's Word, each one of us, we bump into topics, we bump into verses, that trigger little brain flashes, that get us thinking, and I wonder if I've stumbled onto some new truth here. Maybe something large, maybe something small.

It's kind of common. Today, I want to talk about doctrine. I want to talk about new truth. I want to do it in a way that is, I don't know, warm and friendly and fuzzy. But at the same time, I want to be absolute rock-solid that God's doctrines, His truth, exist within His church. I'm very proud of that. I'm very resolute about that.

And there are wonderful things that the church of God brings to those whom the Father is drawing to Jesus Christ. We should not discount that. At the same time, it is common to all of us to look at doctrine from time to time, or see scriptures in the Bible, and say, Hmm, I wonder. There's nothing really wrong with that. It's a challenging exercise. It blows some brain cells off. And if we do it correctly in the end, we can learn something. We can learn something. There's an adaptation of Murphy's law that goes like this.

Anything that is written will be misunderstood. That includes the Bible. God has a very complex code, a very complex work that spans 66 books in many different translations going back through time. And it is one of the most easily misunderstood books. The Bible states that there are some who are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

It also says that there are some who will twist the Bible scriptures, in particular, the Apostle Paul's, to their own destruction. So this book is not only curious and interesting and fun to peruse and educational, but it can end up in destruction for some. When you and I came into this church, its doctrines were set, they were established, and you and I either accepted them or went somewhere else that we agreed with.

Today, there are many church options. The worldwide Church of God splintered into hundreds of small little groups. And people who maybe see something a little different have so many other options to move around and explore and fellowship with other groups who perhaps might think as they think. Some eventually decide that they don't even need a formal church. After all, who understands what I understand better than me?

And if there's nobody that understands it like I understand it, then I'll keep it with perfect understanding by myself. And that's where a lot of people end up, form their own personal group, where they're in charge and their version of doctrine is the purest in their house. Now, let me ask you this.

Does this accomplish the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace? Does this accomplish what Jesus Christ talked about in His Prayer to the Father in John 17 about them being one, as you and I are one, all of us being one together? Is this how the body will edify itself through which every part does its share, growing in love? No. I don't think so. So today, let's talk about doctrine and you. As an individual, let's all look at this individually. I'm looking at it myself. I want to share this with you. Doctrine and you.

Now, what you believe is very important. In fact, the Bible says to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Can you trust anybody but yourself when it comes to doctrine? Can you trust anybody but yourself in ensuring that you are obeying God correctly? After all, you only have one shot at it. We're going to examine today the source of true doctrine and each of our personal relationships to that source.

One of the hallmarks at the end of the age, the Bible tells us, will be an independent mind, self-thinkers. And yet Jesus Christ built His church on the foundation of structure and doctrine. Structure and doctrine. These are shown clearly through the church, as explained by the Apostle Paul. We can look over in Ephesians 2, in verses 19 and 20, for instance. Ephesians 2 and verse 19. Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. This is not independent. This is the church, the ecclesia, the children of God. Notice verse 20, how this is built. Is it built on everyone's opinion? Is it built on your and my personal study?

Our opinions, our views? Having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. The apostles and the prophets were men, fallible human beings through whom Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone, inspired and worked and taught and appointed to be leaders, structure, and through which they would teach the doctrines. So the church here is founded on structure and doctrine. It's important for us to understand. Let's go to chapter 4 in verse 11. We find that He Himself, Jesus Christ Himself, gave some to be apostles.

Remember He said back in Matthew chapter 16 in verse 18, I will build my own church. Thank you. Well, I didn't say it quite like that. I will build my own church or I will build my church. You're not going to build the church. You're not going to be self appointed leaders and teachers and ministers and deacons and have your own doctrines and run around, you know, proclaiming whatever comes into your mind. I will build my church.

And Paul here says, and He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Now here we see in this verse structure, in the leadership and doctrine. These are the shepherds. These are the teachers. These are the ones shepherding and teaching the flock. What is the purpose of doctrine? Well, we see it in the next verse. The purpose of the doctrine coming from the ministry is for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

Till we all come to the unity of the faith. I see. This unity comes from those who are teaching what Christ has established. And they are the teachers that Christ has established. So we have the teachings of Christ and the doctrines of the apostles, and we have the structure that Jesus Christ has put into the church. Going on. Till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man.

It is possible through the structure of the church, through the leadership of the church, the doctrines of the church, to come to the state of a perfect man. A complete, wholehearted, spiritually mature person. And even more than that, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Now, what is the purpose of all the doctrine and the purpose of the ministry's doctrines? We haven't even gotten there yet. Next phrase, verse 14. That we should no longer be carried about with every wind of doctrine.

So you have all of this wrapped up. But speaking the truth. Okay, now, notice what we've said right through this passage. Notice what we've read here. It states that the true church of God will have God-selected ministers with God's correct teachings, able to equip the saints, enabling them to come to the unity of a common faith, to have full knowledge of Jesus Christ, to grow up to spiritual maturity, comparable to the fullness of Christ's stature, and will not be carried about with doctrinal discourse and will speak the truth.

That's pretty solid, isn't it? That's a wonderful thing to be given to a Christian. That is, the mother of us all, every one of us, the church. And you don't mess with your mother, you know? Mothers are wonderful things that protect and nurture and bring up. And even when the child goes through the valley of the shadow of death, it fears no evil because Mom is there with me. Or in this case, the church is there with me.

Jesus Christ is leading and guiding with his rod and his staff. The Bible corrects us. The church through the Scriptures gives us direction. Some would like to take all of this and throw it away and say, Oh no, just let me be out there on my own.

I know a better way, I know a better course. And sometimes kids are like that and families. I know better than Mom and Dad. So let me go out there and do it my way. Well, Christ brings correct doctrine into his church through his chosen ministry.

It's not that the ministry are born special with some other little, you know, gene. It's just the way he's chosen to do it. He inspires all of us in different ways in the body of Christ. And in the church, he establishes an environment for growth. Doctrine comes through the ministry, not through personal home study. Do you realize that? Do I realize that? I'm a minister, but in my personal home study, when I get one of those little exciting brain flashes, that is not where true doctrine is coming from.

Now, I can contribute to it. I can contribute to it in various ways. But no soul individual comes up with church doctrine. Jesus Christ has that, and he disperses it through the body. And not all body parts are equal. And each one contributes. And those who are in the ministry contribute towards certain aspects of truth. Not developing doctrine, but as we'll see, maintaining true doctrine, because the doctrine was already set.

We need to understand that God works this way. An example of this is found in 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 3 about the New Testament church. The Apostle Paul opens this up to Timothy, the pastor, and he says, As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus, that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine.

See, the doctrines are set. Jesus Christ's teachings were formalized, formulated, explained by the apostles, and no other doctrines are to be taught. That includes yours or mine. We don't come up with new doctrines. We don't change doctrines. Verse 4, Verse 6, From which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, idle talk or useless talk, worthless talk. Verse 7, notice, desiring to be teachers. Well, I can be a teacher, too. Maybe I can teach better than you.

Understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.

It just so happens that the Bible tells us that Christ appointed His ministry and gives Him understanding of what is needed by the members to be spiritually mature. It doesn't mean they will be spiritually mature. It provides the information to all of us so that we can be spiritually mature, that we can grow up perfect as our Father in heaven is. There is continuity in this over time. It doesn't change. God doesn't change. In other words, when we look at the truth and the doctrines, we don't see a 1950s version, an 1840s version, one that worked well in the 7th century, one that worked well for the apostles but didn't work in Babylon and wasn't so good in Egypt. No, it's the same. And why is it the same? Well, it's the same because Jesus Christ, the head of the body, said, I change not. And He said when He was here on earth, there is not one inflection of one Hebrew character that will change from the law, ever. And so it's not new doctrine that we're looking for, but rather to retain, maintain, and keep pure the doctrine that God has given to all of His children in His precious Word. In the United Church of God, we have a constitution and bylaws. Now, whether you like that or not, you cannot be an organization in this country or in Kenya or in Uganda or in Tanzania or in most other countries of the world unless you have a constitution and bylaws. Ours happens to open up with the fundamental beliefs. Ours begin with the fundamental beliefs. You know, those fundamental beliefs are important. Doctrinal change in this church, the Constitution says, is only possible if three quarters of all of the ministry, all elders in the church who formed the general conference of elders, agree on that change. You know, in the ten years, almost eleven years of United's existence, not one change has ever been made to doctrine. I don't perceive that one ever will, but it's possible for that to happen should God inspire three quarters of the ministry to recognize that there is some error there.

Some believe that every man is an island. You can believe whatever you want, work out your own salvation. Yes, you are responsible to work out your own salvation, which means to obey God, but it is the church's responsibility to provide pure, correct doctrine. God inspires the church in the doctrines that it has. Consider this scripture in Matthew 16 and verse 19 that Jesus Christ stated. He said, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Now, the church is not free to change doctrine. Remember, Jesus Christ said, not one inflection of a letter of the law will ever change. So it's not like the church has carte blanche here to make up its own doctrines. But at the same time, once the doctrines are established and determined and inspired, those things are recognized by God in heaven as being the code that the church members will go by. Even if there might be what you might call an error or a misunderstanding, that God will inspire its change later on, which has happened historically in the church on at least a couple of matters in the last century.

Now ask yourself the question, does that apply to you and me in our home study? Does whatever we decide, is that bound in heaven? Whatever we decide, I think this doctrine should be this. Does Jesus say He's going to bind that in heaven? He's going to okay that too? No, He only talked here to the apostles. He only talked here to the ministry whom He chose and appointed. There is something there to stop and realize that members' ideas are not viewed the same in heaven as what the leaders of the church establish as the doctrines of the church. I need to understand that. You need to understand that. We all need to understand that. And it's not just okay for any of us to come up with new interpretations of Scripture.

Let's go over to 2 Peter 1 and verse 20.

Here the apostle Peter, to whom, by the way, in the group to whom that previous Scripture was said, about whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven, says here, He states, no prophecy, and that Hebrew, or the Greek word here for prophecy, can mean teaching. No teaching of Scripture is of any private interpretation. It's not about our home study. No Scripture is of John Elliot's interpretation, or Lucy, or Fred's, or James, you see. He brings this out very clearly. And yet there are many private interpretations, aren't there? And that's why there are divisions and discussions in so many churches out there.

People believe that Scripture is a private interpretation. You know, the church receives so many papers, so many people who insist that something should be changed, should be understood their way. And that's why there are so many that they can't even answer all of them, let alone acknowledge that they've received all of them. And that's a group of people in a doctrinal review committee. Now, I'm not saying that it's bad at all to send in papers. They welcome papers. If somebody wants to research something out, that shows that the church is open. We don't want to miss anything or misunderstand anything. But if you piled up all the papers on all the topics, you would probably find that whatever you and I have as a little flash of new truth has been covered so many times before, in the last nearly a hundred years, that this era of the church has existed. To assist people with technical details of our doctrines, the United Church of God publishes doctrinal papers. Doctrinal study papers. I have here a few of them. Here's one on the Lost Tribes of Israel, Covenants of God, Principles of Sabbath as Urbans, the Seventy Week's Prophecy, Preaching the Gospel, Response to a New Look at Prophecy, Marrying Outside the Faith, Balloting in the Church, Tithing, Resurrections, and there are several more papers than this.

So a lot of the information the church puts out is to help people understand some of the technicalities of various topics, whether doctrines or other topics of interest, that people get curious about.

Does Christ give every minister or every individual the same level of inspiration, the same solo understanding of the truth? The Proverbs says, in a multitude of counselors, there is safety. We saw in Acts chapter 15, for instance, the ministry came together and conferred, and they came away with God's understanding, a clear understanding. We saw that one minister taught another. Paul taught Timothy. Some withstood another on an issue until that was resolved. So there is learning, there is growth, there is understanding that takes place among the leaders. You know, these doctrinal papers aren't written by one individual. I've had the opportunity to contribute to a few of them, not very many. But my contribution wasn't from myself. It came because a question arose or something sprang out that had been a question that came to me. I took to Mr. Jimmy Franks a few years ago in one or two instances. He is a professor at ABC. He works with the doctrines, the doctrinal committee. He's worked with doctrinal papers. That's something he's just really good at because he's read what the church has taught. He retains that. He's very gifted in that way to not only understand the Bible's teaching, but what the church has taught and why in the past, plus what some of the other questions are. And so as he and I have talked about that, I've written it down and taken copious notes only to hear him say, but you know we don't have anything in writing about that. Well, we do now. You know, because I'm sort of adding his comments to what I've studied and I've sent that back to him at time and said, just in case, you know, you said you didn't have anything in writing, but now here's a piece of paper in case you wanted some of that written down. In a couple of instances, that has gone into a doctrinal committee where other people have then said, oh, look at this. Well, that can be improved in this. Well, there's other passages here and other people are raising questions about that. And then the Hebrew and Greek guys get involved. We have some ministers who are, they are just, I don't know, they need to get out more, but I'm glad they don't. Really glad they don't, because they have become experts really in the ancient Hebrew and Greek. Not just the words like you and I would pull out of Strong's Concordance or something, you get a list of ten choices and you know, I like that one. But the actual nuances of whether it's masculine, feminine, whether it's singular, plural, in the context of the other Greek words, how it has to apply to where it's narrowed down and a better understanding within the time frame of when it was spoken comes out. Whoa! And by the time you're finished, you see, one of these comes out and it's really good research, very helpful research that a lot of people contributed to. It's important to trust Jesus Christ to have faith. It's about faith. We weren't called to fail. We weren't called to be blindsided by the very church that Jesus Christ established in the ministry that's there to feed us, though that challenge had better be recognized as being possible. Because Jesus Christ even warned that there would be false prophets, false teachers, and some who would come among us who wanted to cull us out. In Romans chapter 12 and verse 4, we need to realize that within the church, which is one body, there are many members. Paul says, for as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function.

Are you okay with doing the function that God has given you and trusting those to whom he has entrusted doctrine and teaching to feed you? See, that's like the foot saying, well, okay, I'm okay with walking down here, but I'm not. Can we trust the head to know which direction we're going to be walking? What if we ran into a wall? What if we walked in front of a car? What if we walked off a cliff? Maybe I better choose the direction myself, you see. Are we comfortable being in the body? For we, being many, are one body in Christ. This is where the faith comes in. This is either Christ's body, or there is no such thing as Christ's church, and individually members of one another. So the body of Christ grows as each part contributes to the others. We see in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 16, understanding the role of the church and our individual roles within the church is paramount to us being comfortable in the body of Christ. And realize that, yes, sometimes bodies get sick, sometimes outside things invade it, but there is an immune system. We shouldn't be afraid of that either. We should just be astute and aware. In Jude, verse 3, it says, Beloved, while I was diligent to write you concerning our common salvation. Oh, this is not just an individual, oh, I've got an in with God, I've got a special little thing here. I can go sit on a mountaintop somewhere with my special little doctrine, and I'm really in there. No, our common salvation. I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Notice, it was once delivered, it was delivered for all, and it was delivered to the saints, not by the saints. That is the doctrine that you and I need. That is what will help us reach the stature of the fullness of Christ if we really work and grow and walk.

Jesus said that there are many false prophets that will rise up and deceive many. It was something new. Not the faith which was once delivered. For false Christ and false prophets will rise and show great signs, and if that's what it takes, great signs with a new doctrine. Marvelous works with a new doctrine, and will maybe deceive even, if possible, the very elect. Now, a preacher on TV, I think you and I would probably recognize as being an heir on some points. All religion has truth. I think any religion that you found on earth would probably have truth and principles found in the Bible.

But let's consider a little bit of mistruth for just a moment. Let's take the book of Matthew. Let's just say in the book of Matthew, every word of the book that you held in your hand of Matthew was absolutely perfect, going back to the Greek. Perfect. Wow! Except one word. Just one. Just one word. That's not much error. That's almost all truth. It just said that Jesus, Mary, came to the tomb on Easter morning. Now, that's not so much of a stretch because that's what it says in the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. So what's the problem there? Well, you know, the problem with that is if you go over to the book of Ezekiel, you'll find that God took him to Jerusalem in spirit to show him the abominations that were being done there, and people were worshipping Tammuz, which is the goddess of heaven, the queen mother of heaven, otherwise known as Isis, otherwise known as Ishtar, I-S-H-T-A-R. Outside the English language can only be pronounced Easter. So there you have it. Just one little thing that is an abomination to God, this worship of the pagan fertility goddess. And it's a huge difference. It could mean, really, a person's putting God first or putting foreign gods before him, which is the breaking of the first commandment. I mean, a small little deal, but it's just it's 99.999% pure.

We need to be careful about any impurities and anything that comes upon you or me or from another source. That sounds good. After all, you know, if another crew keeps the Sabbath in the Holy Days, they're the true church, too. Multiply that by hundreds because that happens. Can't be any error. We can just flit among them and even have our own ideas, too. You see? Aren't we all right? Aren't we all the same? In fact, some of them have newer, deeper, better understanding. It's more interesting, more scintillating.

That's what people can think anyway at times. Jesus said in Matthew 7, verse 15, a very curious statement that you and I need to pay attention to. Beware of false prophets. Oh, yeah, what's a false prophet? We've never seen one of those. Actually, we have. We've seen plenty of them. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing. What that means is they come to you and you are unaware that they are false prophets. That's all he's saying there. Somebody that comes to you looking like a fellow brother in the church. And you are unaware that they are not a sheep like you in the sheepfold. But inwardly, they are ravenous wolves. Now, what's a ravenous wolves? It's a person with an agenda, and the agenda is taking sheep. So you have those within the church who will look like church members, but inwardly, their intent is to take sheep with them.

Why? Why is this? In this world, there are only so many sheep. Not many wives are called. Not many period are called. Few are chosen. There are only a few sheep in the world. How many today in this world are repentant? How many are tithing? I hate to use that term, but it's kind of what it's about when you're after sheep. Now think about this. There's only one in three hundred and twenty-five thousand that are repentant following God's laws and are tithing. One in three hundred and twenty-five thousand. If you're going to start a group, do you want to invest in the odds of going out and getting one in three hundred and twenty-five thousand to even believe what you're teaching? Or do you want to go to the United Church of God, which is ripe and full, and do your picking there? It's a sure bet. It's the largest, ripest group on planet Earth. This happens regularly, folks, in East Africa, with incredible... Well, anyway, it just happens a lot. And our members there are prime targets. Now notice here that Jesus Christ shows that they attend the true Church. Also, in 1 John 2 and verse 19, the Apostle John backs this up when he says, They went out from us. In other words, they were here. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that none of them were of us. We have this tendency among us to entertain and be open to whatever little papers or whatever comments or whatever material or literature or tapes might be coming in the mail. This has been a challenge for God's people for decade after decade after decade. And many times people will become all confused in their mind and bring these tapes and materials to the pastor and say, Oh, now I'm confused. Will you study all this stuff out and set me straight?

You think that's what I want to do? Get all confused? You think I want to open my mind and tempt God?

I have a closed mind, brethren. I do. I have a closed mind. And I intend to keep it closed. Closed to anything except God's Word and His truth.

And he's tampering with that. I am not open to whatsoever. The reason why is God told us. Jesus Christ Himself and the apostles warned us. If you have any other doctrines than these, don't go with them, don't sit with them, don't eat with them. In other words, those nice folks that knock on my door, they don't come inside and we don't chat on the porch. They'd be offended anyway, so we might as well get it over with quickly. And they can go on their way, and I can go on mine.

That's just the reality. And I don't mean to be brutal, but I'll tell you what, brethren. My lifeline to the kingdom of God is a silver or a golden thread. And I don't intend for that silver or golden thread to get damaged or cut. Because many are called and few are chosen. The Bible even talks about us scarcely being in the kingdom, you know.

This is a big challenge. When Satan's out there, he can come in many different forms. And every one of those forms is to take sheep. And I don't want to be one taken. I'm just sharing that with you. Just sharing that with you. Let's consider true doctrine for a minute. What are God's true doctrines? His very true doctrines? Who has the right doctrines?

When a person has a brain flash, I just call it a brain flash. Wow! You know, we do that. Wow! Look at that! And then all of a sudden we connect with about 100 other scriptures. That supports that idea. Wow! This is special. In fact, I'm special. Well, we don't always boil it down to that kind of term, but nevertheless, we have seen the light. Somehow only that individual and probably their family, maybe some friends, seem to understand this. Everyone else seems to be blind to the scriptures that support this new idea. It's exciting. It's invigorating. It's elevating. But we won't talk about that. Here are some examples that we see in the church.

From people either in the church or outside. Here are some of the things. The new excitement. The church should be observing new moons. The United Church of God uses an incorrect calculation of the Hebrew calendar. Another one. We should refer to God using only his Hebrew names. Some feasts are held on the wrong days. There is only one God, not both father and son. Judaism embellishes New Covenant Christianity. Balloting is wrong. Instead, the minister should cast lots. Sabbath actually begins at 3 p.m. when Jesus died. God never permits divorce under any circumstance. The New Covenant replaced the laws of the Old Testament. Government in the church is not biblical. The ministry invented it for control.

Women should teach and be ordained just like men. Tithing is not required for New Covenant Christians. All church members are ministers because it says in 1 Peter 2 and verse 5, you are being built up to a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. Therefore, we're all priests. Members are born again at baptism. The United Church of God's interpretation of end-time prophecy is inferior to mine.

Paul said, pursue spiritual gifts, especially that you might prophesy.

So, NATO makes the U.S. and Britain a part of the north. Some would say New York City is Revelation's Babylon the Great. They can prove it. The U.S. is Babylon the Great since it has corporations, and corporations were invented in Babylon. The United Church of God is part of Babylon because it's a corporation. The Gospel was already preached by Herbert W. Armstrong, so there's no need to do that anymore. Just perfect the bride now, and so on it goes. These are just a few of the things that the church sees, and some of the things that I've seen through the years. Notice here in 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 1, here's what you and I need to watch out for and also not be part of. Remember Jesus said, Woe unto those by whom offenses come. And if anyone offended one of his little ones, it would be better that they put a millstone around his neck and be cast into the sea.

2 Peter 2.1, But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly, not from the lectern, but secretly, maybe private discussions or papers, tapes, invitations, they will bring in divisive or destructive heresies. Verse 2, And many will follow their destructive ways, says many, because of whom the way of truth, God's way, this way that's been established forever, it will be blasphemed. And by covetousness, they will exploit you with deceptive words, push all the right buttons, and what do they want? They want sheep.

It might just be an ego thing. It might just be that more people that I can convince to believe what I believe makes me feel better. Who are these people? Well, as the old saying goes, we have found the enemy and it is us. You know, we look in the Bible and we see all these dastardly people. But you know, it's us. It's our selfish, human nature in every one of us that contains the possibility and the probability that we will act on something that is self-centered and not of God. All of us, at times, find a curious scripture that takes us down a certain mental path. The issue for us is, what will we do with our little baby? What will we do with that cute little nugget that we found?

That really has a lot to do with our being in the kingdom of God. Will we humble ourselves and exalt Jesus Christ, or will we let the self make it all about me? Oh, it's all about me and my baby.

We live in an age called the time of the end, the end time, the last days. It was prophesied to be a time when knowledge would increase. Daniel 12, verse 4, simply says, But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end. And of that time of the end, it stated, Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase. So this time of the end can be defined because God told Daniel these two keys to it.

Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase. But that word run in Brown Driver Briggs lexicon means to go quickly to and fro. Go quickly to and fro. Now, in times past, if you go back 100 or more years, you didn't go anywhere quickly. You went slow, and the further back in time you went, the slower you tended to go for the common man. In fact, if you go back in this nation of the United States to the year 1902, it wasn't so long ago, the 1900s. I was born in the mid-1900s. That was less than 50 years before I... It's not about me. 1902, Oldsmobile became the first manufacturer of multiple cars, you know, kind of mass manufacture. They didn't have an assembly line. In 1902, there were only 8,000 cars in the entire country. There were 144 miles of paved road. Where did you want to go in America? Unfortunately, it wasn't all in a line.

The average speed limit in cities in 1902 was 10 miles an hour. It was a very difficult time back then. When you talk about running to and fro, no airplane had flown yet. Most people only earned $300 a year in this country, and they weren't going anywhere on $300 a year. In the year 2005, which we have just closed, US residents spent $1.3 trillion on travel. $1.3 trillion to go to and fro quickly. If you count the tourism worldwide via air, land, and sea, it involved 800 million arrivals at tourist destinations. 800 million arrivals were counted last year. As knowledge increased, you go back to 1902, 84% of Americans never graduated from high school. Knowledge? Was it strong then? 92% had no telephone. There would be no television for decades. Radio was limited. Speeding forward 60 years, in 1962, the world's largest computer was housed in a huge building and had less computing power than your digital watch right now on your wrist. Things were different back then. If you think about 1972, I was in Youngstown, Ohio, and the pastor brought in a modern invention. It just floored me. It had the name Franklin on it. It had six little red dots. They're little lights called a light-emitting diode. It was fun just to turn it on and look at them. You could put in 462 and add it to any number you wanted. You could subtract and you could divide. You could even multiply, but you could not do percentage. And that only cost $35 in 1972, which is equivalent to roughly $150 today. Now, if you put in more than $999,000 as digits, the thing showed EEE all the way across.