Prophecy

Thank you very much, Mrs. Call. I think part of the title to the song sums up the comments on that song, How Beautiful. I'd say Connor must agree partway through the song. He said, Beautiful!

Well, one thing I didn't mention in my announcements, but I think most of you saw, we had a letter from the chairman of the Council of Elders, and it was on the roads that I included in my email last night. And also, I made some extra copies. I should have mentioned, if anybody wanted those, I put some of those on the back table. And I think it's appropriate. He commented a great deal on how the significance of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in Britain. And if you turned on the radio or television this past week, surely you heard about that. It is quite significant. One monarch on the throne for 60 years. This is only the second time that's happened, at least in our knowledge, I suppose, sometime in the Middle Ages or in ancient times. Perhaps it happened. But it's pretty rare. And he noted that a lot has changed in that 60 years. Of course, he took the throne shortly after the end of World War II, and was on the throne during the largely dismantling of the Empire.

And he noted how that fits in with prophecy. Sorry, I'm ad-libbing a little bit, because I had planned on speaking on this subject, and I'm usually really good. I like to write out my introductions fairly carefully. But what happened is the sermon that I prepared for today, well, I didn't prepare for today. I prepared it quite some time ago, and then it just kept getting superseded with other things more important.

You might remember, some months ago, I gave a sermon on how the Bible prophecy shows who the modern descendants of Israel are. And I showed, as we can look in the prophecies that were given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And by combining those prophecies with history and what we see around us, we could prove that the current descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the inheritors of those promises are Great Britain and the United States.

As a matter of fact, we've got a booklet that the Church puts out. I'm not going to rehash all of those, but just remind you that we did that, or that we do show that. And I gave the sermon on that subject. What I did then was I discussed the promises. And as a matter of fact, it's been long enough ago. Let's, during our introduction, turn to Genesis 22 and remind ourselves of that. Genesis 22 will begin in verse 16.

What I was saying, I normally like to write out my introductions. They say, your beginnings and your finishes are some of the most important. But my introduction originally said, yes, the sermon that I gave only a couple weeks ago. Of course, it's been a little longer than that.

But we'll remind ourselves of this. And of course, the section we're going to read is after God tested Abraham. By telling him, I want you to take your only son Isaac and go and sacrifice him. We know it was a test and that God does not approve child sacrifice of any kind. But he wanted to see would Abraham put God first above even his own children. And when he did prove that, God said this beginning in verse 16. He said, By myself I have sworn, says the eternal, because you've done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, blessing I will bless you, multiplying.

I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. Your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies, and in your seed all nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. So God promised wonderful physical blessings and also that the Messiah would be descended from Abraham. And we noticed that he said, By myself I have sworn this. These blessings now became, we believe, unconditional. And then they were passed down, because Abraham did not inherit them immediately.

Of course he couldn't since they referred to his descendants. They were passed from Abraham to Isaac, then from Isaac to Jacob, and then in particular from Jacob to two of his grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh. We know that the peoples of ancient Israel did enjoy great blessings, and for hundreds of years they reaped part of the blessings promised.

They never attained the full extent of what God promised, but they also did not fulfill the requirements. God wanted them to be a special people and to obey and live by his word. They didn't do that. So God allowed them to be conquered by a foreign power, the northern kingdom that was known as Israel by the Assyrians and taken into captivity, later Judah conquered by the Babylonians. And then, of course, as I mentioned in our booklet, we can study history and prophecy to see that because God's promises were unconditional, they would still be fulfilled.

And they were, some 1260 years later, according to some estimates, in the modern nations of Great Britain and the United States. So, as I said, we can illustrate that the U.S. and Britain are the modern descendants of Abraham, and that when Jacob said of Ephraim and Manasseh, let my name be named on them, of course he was referring primarily to the name God gave him, Israel.

So when we look at prophecies that refer to Israel, and if they refer to the latter day, they refer to the United States and Britain in particular, and other nations that are descended from the Ephraim and Manasseh. In the sermon I gave earlier, I stopped short of analyzing very many of those prophecies. I just wanted to show who the peoples were. Later on, some people asked me, well, when are you going to give part two? And as I said, I started working on part two some while ago, but because we want to talk about discuss meat and deuces, and I put off giving the sermon, not because I didn't think it was important.

But I think it is important for us to talk about what we can expect for our peoples in the future. What are those end-time prophecies? So I want to spend some time looking at those, but also express a note of caution. And I do want to express some appreciation for Mr. Warren's sermonette, because our subjects fit together very well, even though it wasn't intentional. I think God's inspiration shows through. But as I said, I want to express caution, because we can get ourselves in trouble looking at end-time prophecies for the modern Israelites if we start giving too precise a definition.

And with all the focus I've been doing on summer camp, that came to mind. I remember sitting at summer camp one year, and I did the calculations. It was my eighth year of serving on staff at camp, and this year will be my twenty-fifth year. So if I did my math right, is that back seventeen years ago? Close enough.

A leading minister in the church gave a sermon entitled, Where Are We Now in Prophecy? Which is not a subject we always cover at summer camp, but he thought it was important for our young people to know. And in that sermon, he expressed that he was very certain Christ would return within the next five or ten years. Seventeen years ago. And at the time he gave the sermon, it was very convincing. And I'm not criticizing him for that. I'm saying we can look at events, and we're certain of where...

Or we are very convinced of how close we are. And I think it's important for us to be convinced, because Christ is going to return in our lifetime if we consider the fact that when we die, our next waking moment will be in the resurrection, and Christ will have returned.

So we've only got that much time whenever it is their return. I'm getting off my notes here. That's how I ended up going along this morning. Before we look at some of those prophecies, not knowing exactly how or when they'll be fulfilled, I think it's worthwhile to remind ourselves of the general chain of events that will happen at the end of the age. There are some major prophecies in the book of Revelation, and I want to turn to Matthew 24.

We've been there earlier, what is known as the Olivet Prophecy, that give a good general framework for what we can expect at the end of the age. Actually, I thought for a moment that I might be able to handle that problem of going a little long if Mr. Warren was going to cover very much of this. But he gave a good introduction. I might be able to condense some of my comments. But let's pick up in verse 3. Now, as he sat on the Mount of Olives, that's Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately saying, Tell us, when will these things be?

He'd been speaking of the temple being thrown down and rebuilt and other things. When will these things be? What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age or the end of the world, depending on the translation? Jesus answered the first thing He said is, Take heed. Don't let anyone deceive you.

Now, that might have surprised them at the time. It makes much more sense now because we know that He was looking ahead hundreds, even to a couple thousand years before the end of the age. They thought it would be in days, weeks, maybe at the most months or a couple of years. So Jesus had to caution them. Don't let anyone deceive you, especially, although it's not written here. He might have had in the back of his mind, If it doesn't come as soon as you think, don't let anyone deceive you.

Because He says, For many will come in My name, saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled. All these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. So there's going to be wars, there's going to be false religion. These things don't necessarily signal the end of the age. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines, pestilences, earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginnings of sorrows. I'm not going to turn there, but if you look in Revelation, you'll see a description of the end of the age. And in chapter 6, we see the unfolding of seven seals. There's a symbolic scroll that has seven seals. And as they're opened, the first seals correspond to what we just read. The first seal represents a white horse that we can see as false religion. Then comes war, a red horse with a great sword, not given to the horse, but the one riding it. Then famine, then pestilence. So we see these events unfolding. And then we move on in verse 9. Then they'll deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you'll be hated by all nations for my name's sake. Many will be offended and will betray one another and hate one another.

Now, it's interesting. This prophecy obviously directly applied to those disciples. They were going to be delivered up. Some of them would be killed fairly soon afterwards. But I think we can see how that was fulfilled and has been down through the ages. Those professing to follow Christ and those who truly have followed Him have been persecuted and often killed.

It says, And there, as I was saying before, you could say, the end of what? They were thinking the end of the age, and of course we do too. But for most Christians through history, it's been to the end of their life.

But it's still the same thing. Endure to the end, till your last breath, and you'll be saved.

But as we go into verse 14, something interesting happens. We start getting closer to a sign that the end is here.

Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet and the holy place, whoever reads, let him understand, let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains and don't go to the housetops and continue there. I want you to keep your finger here, and I want to turn to Acts 13. As I said, we're going to come right back. But I think there's some significance when he talks about the Gospel being preached to all the world.

It's important, I think most of what Jesus said here was not a prophecy specific to Israel. You don't have to know who are the modern descendants of Israel to understand those prophecies. And we don't for many of the end-time prophecies, which is somewhat of a concern I want to address.

But the Gospel being preached to all the world does have a tie to ancient Israel because of what we see in Revelation 13 and verse 6.

There's a principle here that I think we can carry out even to our day. This is when Paul and Barnabas are going and traveling and preaching the Gospel. Their habit was they would go to the synagogue first, to the Jews. And we see the case here in verse 6. When they'd gone through the island of Paphos, they... Wait a minute... Oh, verse 46. I apologize. Acts 13, verse 46. I knew what I was reading didn't fit what I wanted it to read.

And verse 46, it says, then Paul and Barnabas grew bold. They said, it was necessary that the Word of God should be spoken to you first. That means to the Jews they were addressing. But since you rejected and judged yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. So there's a principle. The message would go to the chosen people, the descendants of Abraham first, but then outward. So we can look and see when the Gospel of the Kingdom is preached to all the world, it would be logical that the base, the start, would be in the Israelites nations. But then it would also go out to all the world. And I'm not saying anything that should be surprising. That's been the case. We could say this prophecy has been in the process of being fulfilled for decades now. It started here in the United States, and it's been preached thoroughly, but it's gone and been available in all the world. Now, magazines have gone to all the world. Radio programs. And now by the Internet, just about anywhere where you can get electricity, you can have the Gospel preached and explained. Let's come back to Matthew 24, though, if you will. We'll pick up where we left off. Actually, let's go down to verse 20.

I'm just going to leave that there. I want to come back to that point. I just wanted to pose the question, but let's drop down while we're here to verse 29. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They'll see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with great power. And He'll send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet. They'll gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. There are a couple of things to look at there. One, this completes the seven seals. We talked about the four seals showing false religion, war, famine, pestilence. Then persecution of the saints is represented in that fifth seal. The sixth seal are heavenly signs. And as I said, I don't want to go through all of Revelation, because I want to go to some other prophecies. But then the seventh seal marks the time when we're near to Christ's return. Now, all these heavenly signs and all the things we've been talking about... I hate ending a sentence in a preposition. All these things of which we've been speaking. That sounds awkward, doesn't it? All this stuff is global. It's worldwide. It's not specific to just the nation of Israel. Now, because it's worldwide, the nation of Israel is affected and impacted. But we might wonder what happened to all the nation of Israel. If we go through Revelation, and I just reread it recently to say, how much do you see Israel in Revelation? Not much. In Revelation, Chapter 7, there's a description of 144,000 people being sealed. And it says 12,000 come from each of 12 tribes. And Dan gets left out of that somehow, and I don't want to go into that. But there's also an innumerable multitude of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues. And it makes me think again, we just read about how the elect would be gathered from all the four winds of heaven. They're going to be scattered. Now, this prophecy alone doesn't tell us how they'll get there, but it makes us wonder why is that the case? I'll just mention again, because I don't want to go through Revelation. It's worth remembering, of course, the book of Revelation has this framework. The seven seals describe these great events that, in some ways, could be said to be starting from the time of Christ leading up towards the end. But that seventh seal, when it's opened, introduces seven trumpets that are great plagues. And then the seventh trumpet, the time when Christ is about to return, brings seven last plagues, pictured by vials or in the New King James bowls. And bowls is a little better rendition because it's something that poured out very quickly as opposed to a vial where... Now, that doesn't matter. I was just thinking I could have had a demonstration, but you get the point.

But as I said, they still don't mention Israel. The one thing we see as far as particular nations, the sixth plague involves drying up the River Euphrates to clear the way for the kings of the east. And, of course, bringing the Battle of Armageddon. We know that there's going to be mystery Babylon the Great, and there's talk of a beast power. So there's going to be a great military power, we believe, centered in Europe, a great false religious system. We think will be the revival of the great Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church. But I wonder, with all of these great things happening and with the focus of the Bible being so much on the nation of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, where are they in those prophecies? Could it be that the modern nations representing the children of Israel by that time have ceased to be a factor on the world stage?

Even after receiving such blessings from God that during the 20th century they were the most dominant nations in the world, could they by perhaps in the 21st century be of minor significance? Well, that's a good question. I'll come back to that later. Let's entertain. Maybe it's a possibility. But first, let's look at some prophecies that we know do pertain to Israel. Maybe that'll give us a hint as to what happens to the nation of Israel at the time of the end.

So we want to look at some prophecies that apply to Israel that may or may not pertain specifically to the end days. And in doing that, before I introduce some of those, I want to mention some of what we... Let me back up and say that again. I want to remind us of the purposes for prophecy. Why do we read it at all? Now, it's in the Bible. It's got to be important. I think it's more than just saying it's cool to be able to predict the future. You know, to predict some unusual thing will happen and then make it happen. God could do that. But there's more to it. God does what He does for a reason. And I'm going to list three reasons for prophecy that I see in the Bible. The first reason is to demonstrate who is God, to show the power that God has. Now, let's go to Isaiah 46.

As I said, that might sound contradictory in my ears if I said, well, it's not just about being...seeming cool to be able to predict the future, but then saying He does it just to show who He is. But it's important to show that only one being in the universe can do this. Isaiah 46. We'll begin in verse 9. Let's see what He has to say about it.

It says, Remember the former things of old, for I am God. There is no other. I am God. And there's none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning. From ancient times, things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel will stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Only God can do these things. This proves that He is the only God. So when He makes prophecies, some of them simply amazing that you think couldn't...

Well, I guess there are some prophecies that we've seen fulfilled, and some when they are fulfilled will say, Only God could have done this. But there are other reasons besides that. Another important reason, and I'll say this while you're turning to 1 Corinthians 10, is that God wants us to learn from these prophecies. They're there for God's people to learn lessons.

I want to go to a couple places in Scripture to show this. First in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 11. I've noticed when I'm up here, I don't hear the pages rustling as easily as I do down in Prestonsburg. So I'll assume that you're there. Here Paul is talking about things that happened to ancient Israel, and he says, Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Now he was speaking specifically of the history of ancient Israel, and he talked about them coming out and having their heads and their necks hardened. But I think it's not really a stretch to say the prophecies also fit in that category, that they happen for us to learn lessons.

And we can see that partly by looking at what we find in Jeremiah chapter 36. This should sound familiar to everybody that's attended the in-home Bible studies, as we've plowed through the book of Jeremiah. I've gained some understanding or insight into some stories and episodes here that I hadn't before, or didn't see as clearly.

This is one of them. Jeremiah 36 will read verse 2 first. This is God's instruction to Jeremiah. Take a scroll of a book and write on it all the words that I've spoken to you against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day that I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day. So Jeremiah had been getting the word from God, go and tell him this, and prophesying, and telling them what's going to happen.

And he did. Now God says, I want it written down. So he wants the written word to go to Psalm. Now let's go to verse 21. Now we'll see later, this scroll is taken and read in the temple. The priests hear it. They say, oh, let's take this to the princes. The princes hear it. Finally, they take it to the king. So we pick up in verse 21. So the king sent Jehudi to bring the scroll. He took it from Elisha, the scribe's chamber, and Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and in the hearing of all the princes who stood beside the king.

Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month with a fire burning in the hearth before him. And it happened when Jehudi had read three or four columns that the king cut it with the scribe's knife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. Now some of the people were, and what it said, yet they weren't afraid, they didn't tear their garments.

They were ignoring, they were making light of God's word, of these prophecies. But you could say, the word went to the people to whom it was intended. It had been read in public. It had gone to the leaders, the religious leaders, the princes, the very king. So it's done its job, right? Well, if we look ahead to verse 28, we'll see that, no, it hadn't done its job yet. And verse 28, God gives Jeremiah more instruction. Take yet another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll which Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, had burned. And you'll say to Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, thus says the eternal, to burn this scroll, saying, why have you written that the king of Babylon was certainly not coming to destroy this land?

Actually, I wanted to stop reading after verse 20, because I want to go down to verse 32 to show it was completed. Then Jeremiah took another scroll, gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Noriah, who wrote on it at the instruction of Jeremiah, all the words of the book which Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, had burned on the fire. Besides, there were added many similar words. Well, as I said, if the word had gone to those to whom it needed to reach, why bother to write it all down again?

Why not say, well, they heard the prophecy, it's their tough luck if they don't listen. Well, the answer, of course, is perhaps God wanted those words preserved anyways. He wanted them there as a lesson and instruction for all of us, as Paul said, to whom the ends of the earth have come. And, of course, there's also the thought that perhaps all these prophecies had not yet been fulfilled or would be fulfilled again. We'll come back to that state, come back to that thought, but I want to mention one more reason for prophecy.

And this is a very important one. A third reason for prophecy is to motivate people to change. Prophecy is often given to encourage people to repent so that the prophecy won't have to be fulfilled. Let's go here in the book of Jeremiah to chapter 18. Jeremiah 18 and verse 7. Here he says, Ezekiel 33 will read verse 11. Ezekiel 33 and verse 11.

He continues here to basically say that... You could say God is saying, what have you done for me lately? He wouldn't use that kind of slang, but he's saying, you might be an evil person, but when you stop doing evil and turn and repent, the punishment can be lifted. But of course, the same can go with the blessing that you would have had could be taken away if you stopped doing right and turned to sin. So we can see a lot of prophecy is not about making some unexpected predictions and then bringing it to pass. Now God can do that, and in some cases he does. Remember the other reasons. He wants to show that he is God. He wants to teach lessons, but what he cares most about, I believe, is teaching people to do things his way. Teaching people to live by his way of happiness. As Mr. Armstrong used to say, the way of give, the way of love. And that's why I think there are a number of prophecies that are what we could call statements of cause and effect. Now you could say, if you do this, then that will happen. If you do this other thing, though, then this is what's going to happen. And if I'm correct, and there's probably somebody here that knows if I am, I'm thinking in computer programming, they call that an if-then statement. Does anybody here give me a nod that studied computer programming? Kurt's just smiling. Maybe you've heard of it. You know, if-then, if this, then that. And you know, in computer programming, they speak binary. So everything's a one or a zero. So if it's a one, then you go this state. If it's a zero, you go this way, and computers do millions of calculations in a split second. But it all comes down to the if this, then that. Bill Hultbrand's laughing. Am I saying that wrong? I'm not saying it wrong. You didn't expect a computer lesson in a prophecy sermon. Maybe I'm simplifying a little. But I think that's what we find in the blessings and cursings chapters. Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 28.

There's two places where we see these. Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. These are prophecies. But you could clearly see their if-then statements. Matter of fact, it starts off that way. Deuteronomy 28, the very first verse.

Now it shall come to pass, If you diligently obey the voice of the Eternal your God, You observe carefully all His commandments, which I command you today, That the Eternal your God will set you above the nations of the earth. And all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you, Because you obey the voice of the Lord your God.

Now, I focused on the blessings in that earlier sermon, Because we could see that only the nations of Britain and the United States Have reaped all the blessings that were promised. But we also are going to see that curses could come for those who don't obey. Let me skip down to verse 15.

Now, if you obey Me, blessings. But here we see, in verse 15, But it shall come to pass, If you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, To observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes, Which I command you today, That all these curses will come upon you, And overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, Cursed shall you be in the country, Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

And it continues on. Cursed, cursed. Which gets hard to say after a while. Let's look at some of the more specific ones, though, to show... We can see some of those results coming in our land today. Let's look at verse 23. And your heavens, which are over your head, shall be bronze, And the earth which is under you shall be iron. The eternal will change the reign of your land to powder and dust from the heaven.

It shall come down upon you till you are destroyed. Now, droughts are something that's always happened, But they can be avoided. But they won't be avoided if people don't obey God. As I wrote this, I thought, what do the people in Texas think last summer? And I don't always pay attention to the weather in Texas, But I remember talking to Gary Smith as he was looking for housing down there, And how bad the drought was. And there were some people saying, if we were only closer to our God, Some people in Texas were saying we would avoid this drought, But the general populace was not.

Let's look at verse 25. The eternal will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You'll go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. You'll become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. I'll add, without turning there, Leviticus 26, which is the other blessing and cursing chapter, And Leviticus 26 verse 19 adds the phrase, I'll break the pride of your power.

And we've seen that many of you have lived long enough to see the change, That the United States went from being the most powerful nation on the earth, And even though we're still powerful, we've stopped winning and dominating wars, And we've even lost the will to try. And I wonder, as bad as military defeat is, Perhaps not even having the will to give it a shot might be worse.

Let's look at verse 27. The eternal will strike you with the boils of Egypt, With tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, From which you cannot be healed. The eternal will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart, And incurable diseases. It's interesting, in our modern day, we found cures, or at least helps for a lot of diseases, And vaccinations can help reduce the amount of disease, But the more we separate ourselves from God, the more other things come up. Whereas perhaps He protected us. He talked about the sicknesses that came on Egypt. Well, as our nation drifts further from God, Perhaps that's the reason we're seeing a rise in difficult diseases, Chronic diseases that weren't extant before.

Now, and I'm not accusing anybody that's sick of being sinful. That's not the point. I'm talking about the nation in general. Let's look at verse 43. The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you. You'll come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you. You'll not lend to him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. Have we seen that in our modern nations?

Now, of course, racial relations have been a problem for many years, But we've seen an influx of those of non-Israelite ancestry Coming into the country and gaining more and more power. We focus on the United States. Of course, we should be aware of our problems. But I remember when I used to travel to the Great Britain to serve at the summer camp there, Talking to church members in London who expressed the frustration that people in London felt With so many immigrants from Pakistan and other parts of, you know, Well, I wouldn't say Europe, but of the Near East.

And they said, it's just changing the whole nature of our country. And yes, it has. And of course, it's not just that, but as it says here, We used to be the nation that lent to others. Now we're the nation that's so far in debt. As you, again, you can't watch the news or listen to it on the radio without being informed.

We're borrowing, and not only from ourselves, but especially, we're borrowing from other countries, China and the Pacific. I want to come back to Deuteronomy 28, but let's turn to Hosea, chapter 7. Hosea 7. Let's see if you find the big prophets.

Then you get to Daniel, and Hosea is the first of the littler ones, or the miners. Hosea 7, beginning in verse 8. Speaking of our brethren across the ocean in Britain, says, Ephraim has mixed himself among the peoples. Ephraim is a cake unturned. Aliens have devoured his strength, but he does not know it. Yes, gray hairs are here and there on him, yet he does not know it. And that fits in with what Mr. Rhodes described as happened in Britain over the last several decades, that it was such a great and powerful empire. And now the time has declined from when, I believe it was, well, when Queen Victoria had her diamond Jubilee, great powerful warships sailed up the Thames.

They had a, it wasn't Armada, it was, what's the term they had for the display in the river? Well, anyways, they had a naval demonstration, but they were much more powerful ships. I was surprised, well, or maybe amused when I saw on the news there talking about how many ships were in the ocean, and so many of them were rowboats. And I've got nothing against rowboats, but, you know, this great demonstration to the Queen, you know, the military power was gone, and yet everybody was celebrating it.

And they should celebrate the Queen, but it was like this prophecy said, suddenly there's gray hairs and weakness, and they don't even know it. And it's the fulfillment of prophecy. And that's, my point is that all of these prophecies, they're if-then statements, if you do this, you're going to get this result. They're prophecies, and they come true, and they can come true more than once. They've happened in the past, they'll happen again and again. I'm looking at this. Oh, no, that's coming up later. Let's note one of these that clearly demonstrates.

If you kept your finger in Deuteronomy 28, I want to look at verse 49. In Deuteronomy 28, verse 49, And they shall beseech you at all your gates, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down, throughout all your land, and they'll beseech you at all your gates, throughout all your land, which the Eternal your God has given you, and you shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Eternal your God has given you, in the siege, and in the desperate straits, which your enemy shall distress you.

The sensitive and the very refined man among you will be hostile toward his brother, toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children, whom he leaves behind, so that they'll not give them any of the flesh of his children, whom he'll eat, because he has nothing left in the siege and the desperate straits, which your enemy shall distress you in all your gates. Now, to read this, it just sounds preposterous. But there's evidence that it's happened, and more than once. One time we know it's true, it's in the Bible. Consider this. Let's turn to 2 Kings chapter 6, and we'll begin in verse 24.

It's a pretty serious thing to be that hungry, but we'll see a case of it, that prophecy being fulfilled in the times of ancient Israel. 2 Kings chapter 6 and verse 24. This, of course, after the nations are separated, so the northern kingdom of Israel with its capital at Samaria, the southern kingdom of Judah had its capital in Jerusalem. It says, So the king makes a comment, what can I do for you? But then he said, what is troubling you? And then she answered, This woman said to me, Give me your son, that we may eat him today. We'll eat my son tomorrow. And she said, So we boiled my son and ate him. And I said to her on the next day, Give your son that we may eat him, that we may eat him. And she's hidden her son. So she's basically trying to take this woman to court for not bringing her son so they could eat him. Now, it happened when the king heard the words of this woman, that he tore his clothes as he passed by on the wall. And the people looked at her underneath, and they had a sackcloth on his body. So the king was very distressed. And it goes on to show that he was going to blame Elisha, and God would work a miracle to end the siege. But I wanted to focus on this one thing. As I said, it sounds preposterous that people would be that hungry, or would be so distant from God's way that they would do this. But it happened. It fulfilled the prophecy. But we can see that it's happened again more than once. I read a section to you from Josephus, and I typed it up here rather than bring the book with all its small print. But I read this. This happened around 70 A.D. when the Jews revolted against Roman rule, and then the Roman armies came and set up a... they besieged Jerusalem. Josephus, of course, wrote later about it to preserve it in history. So I'm reading... the version I have is from the Wars of the Jews on page 402. He says, Skipping ahead a couple of pages...

So they were eating their shoes and their clothing. And then the next page, she describes the case of a woman who was from a well-off family, who always had had plenty, and she had fled to Jerusalem during the siege to escape the Roman army. He says, Nor did she consult with anything but her passion and the necessity she was in. She then attempted a most unnatural thing, and snatching up her son, who was a child, sucking at her breast, she said, Come on now! Be thou my food, and be thou a fury to these seditious varlets, and a byword to the world. And as soon as she said this, she slew her own son and roasted and ate one half of him, kept the other half concealed. Now, as bad as that sounds, the story actually goes on and gets worse, and I didn't want to copy and read any of that. I wanted to quote just enough to show, as I said, the prophecy has been fulfilled at least twice that we have record of, once in the Scripture. And I ask the question, why would I read such horrible things to you? Because I want to make the point that they have happened before, and if prophecy is any indication, they will happen again. That's the result of the descendants of Israel not obeying God. And if that's the case, if that's what happens when we don't obey God, we should ask ourselves, How is our nation doing today? What's going on in this country? The way I see it, our government is becoming ever more corrupt. Schools are often contemptuous of God and His ways. People are self-centered, seeking their own gratification. We already see, as I've read, or I've read the prophecies and then shown what's going around us, some of these cause-and-effect prophecies are being fulfilled, so it seems inevitable that others are going to follow.

That'll bring on our people things just as revolting and horrible as I've read and whatever we can imagine. Unpleasant things. Now, I should note, and I've got here, I changed color ink so I wouldn't pass over this, but there are Bible scholars who say all of these terrible prophecies were fulfilled in the Old Testament days, and they're done. The other is prophecies. We can see they were fulfilled. We don't have to worry about it. And it is important. I want to bring up the subject of what's called dual prophecy. Now, if you've been in God's church for any length of time, you're familiar with that phrase, right? As a matter of fact, I've heard it for as long as I can remember. I presume that, of course, everybody knows about dual prophecy. And what I mean when I say that is that there's a prophecy and then there's an early, lesser fulfillment of the prophecy, but then there's a later, larger fulfillment that meets all the expectations. So I was kind of a little bit surprised when I studied into this looking at some secular sources that there are some that say there's no such thing as dual prophecy. There are scholars that say that's a bunch of hogwash, especially Jewish scholars. Jewish scholars say that Christians just made that up to try to say that the Old Testament was about Jesus. And, well, as I thought about it, there are some cases where people make claims about what is prophecy and what is not, where it makes you wonder. And I don't want to...well, actually, I didn't look up any specifics. I've read cases and some booklets or essays people have written where they'll take a passage out of something that I don't even think is prophecy at all and claim that it's a dual prophecy and sometimes that it applies to me personally, not me, but the writer. So, you know, it's easy to see where people get skeptical about some prophecies. So do we know, is there such thing as dual prophecy? And so how do we know? Well, I want to show...I think the Bible shows that there is. I hope I didn't get you doubting where you say, oh, maybe there's not. Let's go to Matthew 17, because I want to say absolutely there is dual prophecy, and we can prove it by the fact that Jesus Christ made the case himself, first of all. Matthew 17, and we'll begin in verse 10. I want to make the case of outdual prophecy and then look at some prophecies that we believe may be dual and have a larger fulfillment to come. Matthew 17, beginning in verse 10. Christ had been teaching his apostles and talking about things about the end time and had them wondering.

So it says here, his disciples asked him, saying, well, why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? That is before the Messiah. Jesus answered and said to them, well, indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. So he said, yeah, the prophecy is true. Elijah will come first. Then he says, but I say to you, Elijah has come already, and they did what they would to him, whatever they wish. Likewise, the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood he was speaking about John the Baptist. Now, just so we're clear, let's go to Malachi chapter 4. That's actually not very far from here. Malachi is the book just before Matthew. What prophecy is this? He says, the scholars were saying, Elijah must come first. Jesus says, yes, that's right. Why did they think that? Because here in Malachi, there's a prophecy that says, before the Messiah will come Elijah. Malachi 4 and verse 5. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. He'll turn the hearts of the children to the fathers and the fathers to the children. Oh, I read that backwards. The hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest I come and struck the earth with a curse. This prophecy is only given once. Here's a prophecy that says, before the Messiah, I'll send Elijah the prophet. And the disciples are saying, well, what do you mean? You're talking about you're the Messiah, what about Elijah happened to come first? Christ then, during his ministry, would make clear that the Messiah would come twice. The Jews of his time didn't understand that he would come first to be a sacrifice and start the church, and then he would go. But Christ said, and you can look it up in Matthew 14, he said, if I go, I'll come again and I'll prepare a place for you so that you'll be with me. Christ made it clear he was going to come a second time, and he made it clear that the prophecy of Elijah would be fulfilled a second time. So there was the earlier fulfillment by John the Baptist, then a later fulfillment. Now, we can have discussion, and there has been discussion. When we were expecting Jesus Christ to return by 1975, we thought, well, the Elijah has been fulfilled by either Mr. Armstrong or perhaps by the work of the church. Now, we're not sure, but I can be sure the prophecy will be fulfilled, or perhaps has. Remember, John the Baptist ended his ministry before Christ revealed himself. So I don't want to get into the details of how it will be fulfilled, just that we can know that it is a dual prophecy. It has been fulfilled. It will yet be fulfilled.

There is another case we can look to for that. Let's go to Joel 2.

Joel 2. Let's see. That's before Amos. Joel 2 and verse 28.

This is going to look very familiar because we've been reading these descriptions recently, but I'm going to read them again because they fit here. It shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Also on my men servants and on my maid servants I will pour out my spirit in those days. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke.

The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.

Okay, that's a pretty specific prophecy. Now let's turn to Acts 6.

No, not Acts 6. Acts 2. I'm not sure where I'm getting my numbers backwards here.

Acts 2. And we'll begin at the beginning of the chapter.

And as I said, we just read this recently, but I think it's appropriate here because we'll see this is a case of a prophecy given and then, under inspiration of God, one of the apostles saying, this is this prophecy being fulfilled.

When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Then there appeared to them divided tongues as a fire. One sat on each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Now let's move down to verse 14. Because some people said, you know, they heard all this running around the speaking, and they said, all these guys are drunk.

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, men of Judea, all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you.

Heed my words. Listen to me, folks. They're not drunk as you suppose. It's only the third hour of the day.

But this is what was spoken of by Joel the prophet.

And here he quotes, it shall come to pass on the last day, says God, that I'll pour out my Spirit in all flesh.

Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And he continues.

So Peter is saying, this fulfills that prophecy by Joel.

And I wonder, while Peter was saying this, do you think he was glancing up to the sky?

Because he knew the rest of the prophecy, he even quoted it. The moon's going to turn to blood.

There's going to be darkness, blood and fire and vapor. Peter might have thought all that's going to happen now, too.

But it didn't happen then.

We can surmise that the prophecy was dual. There was this lesser fulfillment. The Spirit was poured out.

With that Spirit in him, Peter said, this is fulfilling that prophecy, but there's more of the prophecy yet to be fulfilled.

Towards the end, or at the end of the age, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, all of it will be fulfilled.

So we know it's a prophecy with dual fulfillment.

Now, how do we know which prophecies are dual?

Now, wouldn't it be handy if you're looking at your New Testament, if you go to the Gospel, you just see some passages in red?

They say the words of Jesus printed in red. It would be nice if we had our dual prophecies printed in green or purple.

I thought I'd get more chuckles out of that, but it just came to me, actually, while I was up speaking this morning.

We don't have a way of knowing for certain. Some of these, as I said, where we can see two fulfillments, but there are others we just don't know.

But we know some of the cause and effect prophecies are not only dual, but perhaps quadruple will happen over and over again.

Let's see one example. Leviticus 26.

Before we go to some others that we might think probably are dual, but we're not certain, because I want to start focusing on prophecies of Israel momentarily.

Leviticus 26, this is the other blessings and cursings chapter, beginning in verse 23.

And if by these things you are not reformed by me, but walk contrary to me, this is God speaking, then I will also walk contrary to you and punish you seven times for your sins.

I'll bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant.

When you're gathered together within your cities, I'll send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemies.

I'm going to stop there, because what I want to do now is turn to Nehemiah to see that this prophecy has been fulfilled more than once.

Nehemiah chapter 9.

Nehemiah 9, and it always takes me a little while to find Nehemiah, just before Esther.

I'm going to break into his long account of Israel's history, beginning in verse 26.

Nehemiah is praying to God and recounting this history.

He said, Nevertheless, they, that is ancient Israel, were disobedient and rebelled against you, cast your law behind their backs and killed your prophets, who testified against them to turn them to yourself, and they worked great provocations. Here it comes.

Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their enemies, who oppressed them in the time of trouble.

Now that's exactly what was prophesied there in Leviticus 26.

If you turn from me, I'm going to deliver you into the hand of your enemies.

But it says here, When they cried to you, you heard from heaven, and according to your abundant mercies, you gave them deliverers and saved them from the hand of their enemies.

So when they would turn and repent, as God said, He would deliver them.

But if we look in verse 28, it says, After they had rest, they again did evil before you.

Therefore you left them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them.

Yet then when they returned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them, according to your mercies.

As I said, cause and effect.

A prophecy can be completed or fulfilled more than one time.

So just a dual prophecy in some ways is a small thing.

Let's look at some...

I had a comment, of course.

We could see a longer version of what Nehemiah just described.

We could see if we just read the book of Judges. It happens over and over again.

But let's turn to the book of Isaiah, to see some of these prophecies that could well be prophecies that are dual.

We know that they've been fulfilled in the past.

Will they be again?

We'll start with Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 2.

Mr. Warren left his water for me.

Isaiah 1 and verse 2.

They've turned away backward.

That could apply to our people today every bit as much as it did to Israel before they were conquered by the Assyrians.

In some ways, you could say it could apply more.

We have more means to corrupt ourselves.

And so the result, what happened to them then, could happen to us again in verse 7.

Your country is desolate.

Your cities are burned with fire.

Strangers devour your land and your presence, and it's desolate as overthrown by strangers.

The daughter of Zion is left as a booth in the vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

Unless the eternal of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom.

We would have been made like Gomorrah.

Will this punishment be exacted on the peoples of Britain and the United States?

Does it seem that fantastic to talk about our land becoming desolate?

Just short of being like Sodom and Gomorrah?

Let's go to chapter 3.

Verse 16.

And I say this remembering the time we spent with Jeremiah, how Jeremiah wept when he saw what was happening.

When we talk about things that could happen to our nation, it's not something that makes us happy, it's something that could fill us with sadness, but we still should be aware.

Isaiah 3, 16.

Moreover, the eternal says, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, they walk without stretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, making a jingling with their feet.

Therefore, the eternal will strike with a scab.

The crown of the head, the daughters of Zion, and the eternal will uncover their secret parts.

Let's skip down to verse 24.

So it shall be, instead of a sweet smell, there will be a stench, instead of a sash or rope, instead of well-set hair baldness, and instead of a rich robe girdling and a girding of sackcloth and branding instead of beauty. Now, a brand is a mark of slavery, generally.

Your men shall fall by the sword, and you're mighty in the war.

The sins described seem as current as they were back then.

Perhaps these other things will be fulfilled again.

And as I said, talking about this wantonness and referring to sexual immorality, in many cases, some of the results could easily fit with the growth and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

But we could debate, what is or is not a dual prophecy.

But there are some prophecies that we know apply to the end time.

In the time that's left, I want to look at some of those just to give us pause and to be aware of what's coming.

We know some of Jeremiah's prophecies seem to have been aimed specifically at the United States and Britain for the end times.

Let's go back to Jeremiah in verse 30.

Jeremiah verse 30 will start in verse 5.

Jeremiah chapter 30 verse 5.

It's a pretty vivid description here.

Thus says the eternal, We've heard of the eternal, and the eternal, we have heard the eternal, and we have heard the eternal, and the eternal, and the eternal, and the eternal, Thus says the eternal, We've heard a voice of trembling, of fear, not of peace.

Ask now and see whether a man is ever in labor with child.

Can man go into child labor?

So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor?

All faces turn pale.

Well alas, that day is great so that none is like it.

And it's the time of Jacob's trouble, but he'll be saved out of it.

Now, oh yeah, I want to continue.

The day pass in that day, says the eternal of hosts, that I'll break his yoke from your neck, and I'll burst your bonds.

Foreigners shall no more enslave them, but they'll serve the Lord their God and David their King, whom I'll raise up for them.

Now, I've heard time read in the past, Jacob will be saved out of his trouble, but he has to be in trouble to be saved out of it.

It says that there's a time so that none is like it.

I mentioned that when we were looking at the Olivet Prophecy.

How many times can be the worst time ever?

And I thought, only one.

Only one time can be the worst, so this is a prophecy of the end time, and Jacob's going to have to be delivered from slavery.

We know that they were enslaved by the nation of Assyria, hundreds of years ago, thousands, about 720 AD.

And I say about, I've heard some scholars debating over whether we have the timeline correct, but many years, hundreds of years before Christ, Israel went into slavery. But that wasn't the worst time ever.

The worst time ever is yet ahead, and apparently slavery is in the works.

Let's go to Daniel 10.

I want to look at, sort of, the bookend, the longest prophecy in the Bible, because obviously we don't have time to read through all of that, and it doesn't fit our purposes here today.

But we do want to see that this prophecy, parts of it, do apply to our time, well, to the end of the age, which we think easily could overlap with our time.

As I said, I want to be careful setting dates, but things look close.

Daniel 10 and verse 14.

Now, I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come.

Now, in this case, what had happened, Daniel was fasting, asking God to give him understanding, and the Archangel Michael came to him and said, I've come to help you in understanding. He says, the latter days.

That's a phrase we see in the Bible when it refers to the end time.

Now, the Archangel Michael then reveals a lot that's going to happen.

It goes through the rest of chapter 10, all of chapter 11, and continues right into chapter 12, and I want to pick up there.

Daniel 12 and verse 1.

Remembering that he said, what's going to happen in the latter days?

So he gave everything that was going to lead up to the latter days.

And he says, at that time, Michael shall stand up.

That's the Archangel, that great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people.

And there will be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time.

Once again, worst time ever has to be the same time.

And at that time, your people shall be delivered.

Everyone who was found written in the book, many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to contempt.

He's referring to the resurrection.

But, once again, to be delivered, they have to be in trouble in the first place.

If we look down, there's a couple reminders that we're talking about the end.

In verse 4, the angel Michael tells him, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book till the time of the end.

Many will run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.

Likewise, verse 9, he says, go your way, Daniel.

The words are closed up until the time of the end.

So I said, this prophecy is for the end time.

And we know that, as we read, people are going to have to be delivered, but it's going to be the worst time ever, and Israel will be involved in it.

Let's...Ah, Isaiah chapter 10. I wanted to go there.

Isaiah 10, beginning in verse 20.

Here we're looking at prophecies that we know are for Israel and for the end time.

We know that Israel is us. We've proved it before, so we need to take these to heart.

Here's another phrase at the beginning of verse 20. It says, it shall come to pass in that day.

Often... Most often when we see that, it's referring to the end time.

It'll come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and such as have escaped from the house of Jacob, will never again depend on him who defeated them, but will depend on the eternal, the Holy One of Israel.

The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. For though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, a remnant will return. The destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness, for the Lord God of hosts will make a determined end in the midst of all the land. So we see the good, happy ending. There's going to be redemption, but it's interesting. There's a reference to that prophecy given to Abraham, that his descendants would be as the sand of the sea. And we see God saying, that's going to be fulfilled. You'll be as the sand of the sea, but only a remnant's going to be left when this is done, and they'll have a chance to repent.

It seems that the modern nations, the modern descendants of Israel, are going to suffer some type of defeat that drastically reduces their numbers. Let's go back to Jeremiah 30.

I apologize for making me jump back and forth, but I wanted to look at these in a logical order, rather than just in order from front to back. Jeremiah 30 and verse 24. Jeremiah 30 and verse 24. He said, The fierce anger of the Eternal will not return until he has done it, until he has performed the intents of his heart. In the latter days you'll consider it. So this is a prophecy for the latter days. And let's continue, because remember these chapter breaks were inserted much later. God didn't necessarily intend us to switch to a new subject. He says the latter days. And then he says, At the same time, says the Lord, I will be God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people. Then he says this, Thus says the Eternal, The people who survived the sword, found grace in the wilderness, Israel when I went to give them rest. That's interesting. Is the wilderness here mentioned symbolic? Or is whatever is going to happen so bad that our land will be like a wilderness?

And it talks about people who survived the sword. It seems that there's going to be something bad. Now the people who survived will have a chance to escape. But it's going to be a matter of survival, and that won't apply to everyone. Look at verse 7. For thus says the Eternal, Sing with gladness for Jacob, And shout among the chief of the nations, Proclaim, give praise, and say, O Eternal, save your people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I'll bring them from the north country, And gather them from the ends of the earth, Among them the blind and the lame, The woman with child, the one who labors, And the child together, And a great throng will return there. Now, great throng might be a relative's term, But it talks about having to bring them back from all over, From the north country, and from the ends of the earth. We saw earlier, I mentioned in Matthew 24, And in Revelation it talks about God's people coming from the ends of the earth. To be able to come back and be allowed to repent, They have to have been there in the first place. So this means that apparently after some type of military defeat, With a large number being killed, The remainder are going to be scattered all over the earth. Let's go to the book of Ezekiel chapter 1.

Actually, I'll summarize what's in Ezekiel 1, So I can move on to chapter 2, But we'll remember God calls Ezekiel. Well, actually, let's not summarize. Now, it came to pass in the thirtieth year of the first month of the fifth day of the month. I was among the captives by the river Kebar, And the heavens were open, and I saw visions of God. So, He's there in captivity, and God appears to him. He gives him a vision. And the word of the eternal came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, The son of Buzi in the land of the Calvians by the river Kebar. The hand of God was on me there. Now, let's skip ahead chapter 2 to verse 3. Chapter 2 and verse 3 says, He said to me, Son of man, I'm sending you to the children of Israel, To a rebellious nation that's rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this day. They're impudent and stubborn to the people of Israel. They're impudent and stubborn children. I'm sending you to them, and you'll say to them, Thus says the Lord God. As for them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, For their rebellious house, Yet they'll know a prophet has been among them. But the interesting thing is we just read that Ezekiel was a captive, And he was being given a prophecy and a message To a nation that had gone into captivity a hundred and twenty years earlier, And were gone off. Well, I could say who knows where. Apparently, some people did know where, But there's no evidence that Ezekiel was ever able to deliver this message. The only way God's commission could be fulfilled is if The writings were preserved, the prophecy was preserved, And then it was brought to the people later, Either by word of mouth or in writing. And of course, the fact that you've got this sitting on your lap now, We could say, did fulfill that. The message came, but it wasn't for those at that time, It was for the end. Let's see how that occurs in chapter 6. Ezekiel 6.

Start in verse 2.

It says, Son of man, set your face towards the mountains of Israel. Now we see in prophecy many times mountains is symbolic of nations. So he said, set your face to the mountains of Israel, and say, oh, mountains of Israel. That could be saying, the U.S., Britain, Australia, Canada, and some of the others. Hear the word of the eternal God. Thus says the Lord God to the mountains, to the hills, to the ravines, and to the valleys.

Indeed, I, Eve and I, will bring a sword against you, And I will destroy your high places. Then your altars will be desolate, and your incense altars will be broken. I'll cast down your slain men before your altars, And I'll lay the corpses of the children of Israel before their idols, And scatter your bones all around your idols. Down in verse 7, your slain shall fall in your midst, And then you'll know that I'm the Lord. In verse 8, though, he says, Yet I'll leave a remnant, so that you may have some who escape the sword among the nations, When you're scattered through the countries. Then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they carried you captive.

Because I was crushed by their adulterous heart, as injuring God says, I was crushed. Now, not literally, but his feelings, obviously, were crushed by their adulteries, Which departed from me, and by their eyes, which play the harlot after idols. They'll loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in the abomination. Then they'll know that I am the Eternal. I've not said in vain that I would bring this calamity on them. We'll go down to verse 14 to finish the thought.

So I'll stretch out my hand against them, and make the land desolate. Yes, more desolate than the wilderness, towards Dibla, in all their dwelling places. They'll know that I am the Lord. This portrays a picture of our modern nations somehow getting into a war which we lose. Talks about being slain by the swords, the bodies piling up. And then experiencing disease epidemics, food shortages, and having most of the people that are still remain, which is probably a small minority, hauled away as slaves.

Sounds like science fiction. And I've seen movies portraying something. It's sad in a way, because we've had movies that make it easier to imagine this than it would have been, at least for me, 20 years earlier. And it's not something, as I said, that we revel over. We don't enjoy this news, but it's there in God's word. How could it happen? If we could speculate, there are a lot of ways we might think.

Just imagine how dependent we've become on technology. If our peoples were to lose electricity, how long would it be before we turn on each other? I've had discussions with some people recently of what they call the electronic, electromagnetic pulse weapon. If it would destroy all transistors and make it so electronics don't work. Well, the joke was then the Amish have the upper hand. They're the only ones among us that know how to live.

I said, yeah, except that guns don't have transistors. I mean, I'd hate to think that a group of people who are devoted to nonviolence being overwhelmed with the violence, but there's not going to be a lot good left. Or, if not that, disease epidemics. There have been movies about that.

What if some fast-moving epidemic comes for which we have no defense? How quickly could our nation be reduced to nothing without even suffering much of a real invasion? And then I think back to the Olivet Prophecies, the Book of Revelation. Perhaps it's not that unusual that the nations of Israel, that the name Israel, doesn't much appear. Perhaps our people will have already suffered devastation by then, and gone into some form of slavery before the set-up for the Great Plagues that'll happen at Christ's return.

And I know I'm not preaching anything new. Many of you have read this, but we don't discuss it that often. But I think it's important for us to remember in the society around us, when we consider the cause-and-effect prophecies. What is our nation doing? Are we earning blessings or curses? Now, I hope as God's people, we look at ourselves, we're set apart, and that's one of the reasons we think of ourselves apart.

We want to be close to God and earning blessings, and we hope that God will bless us for seeking His will. But we live in a nation that we love and we want to see succeed.

But we don't want to be blind to the direction of where we're going. I don't want to end on such a sober note. Let's turn to the book of Amos. I do want to consider and remind us of where it ends up. Amos 9.

Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos.

Amos 9 and verse 8.

I want to remember, things will be bad, but the prophecy always shows that they'll get better. I keep saying Hosea. I mean Amos. Don't go to Hosea. Hosea is fine, but we're not reading that now. Amos 9 and beginning in verse 8. Behold, the eyes of the eternal God are on the sinful kingdom, and I'll destroy it from the face of the earth. Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the eternal. For surely I will command and sift the house of Israel among all nations, as grain is sifted and sieve, yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground. That applies, we believe, to God keeping track of the nations of Israel all through the time before Great Britain rose to prominence. But of course it can apply to the end of the age. Yet will not the smallest grain fall to the ground, and all the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say the calamity shall not overtake or confront us. On that day I'll raise up the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, and repair its damages. That tabernacle of David, that the dynasty that's still been, Queen Elizabeth is sort of keeping the seat warm, but its real occupant is yet to come. And I shouldn't, I don't mean to denigrate her by saying, keep the seat warm. Of course we do respect her. But I'll repair the damages, raise up its ruins, and rebuild it, as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Eternal, who does this thing. Behold, the days are coming, says the Eternal, when the plowmen shall overtake the reaper, the trutter of grapes, him who sows seed, the mountains will drip with sweet wine, the hills will flow with it. I'll bring back the captives of my people Israel. They might go into captivity, God says, I'll bring them back, and they'll build the way cities, and inhabit them. They'll plant vineyards, and drink wine from them. They'll also make gardens, and eat the fruit from them. I'll plant them in their land. No longer shall they be pulled up from the land which I've given them, says the Lord their God. The Lord your God. We read these scriptures of the Feast of Tabernacles because they fit. We know that all this destruction will come, and then Christ will return, and the world will be rebuilt. Good things are coming, and all those who died in these horrible ways are going to have a chance to live again. That's the wonderful thing, the thing that we know that most people don't, that there's a hope. There's a hope for everyone. Not long after the time of Jacob's trouble, everyone will get a new start. Now, we're called to be in God's kingdom to proclaim that message now. We have a job to do. We have to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God, and at the same time remember the warning of the stuff that's going to happen beforehand. We have to be a witness to God's way of life. Now, we don't always emphasize the frightening stuff, that what's going to befall the modern nations of Israel, but it's something we have to know. It's a part of our message. Thankfully, what's also a part of our message is that God is merciful. God is loving and kind. He only lets this happen to bring the best things about in the end. Now, many of the prophecies we've read include God's promise that if and when people repent, God will remove the punishment. And there are prophecies that show that this is going to happen. There's coming a time of peace. There's coming a time of happiness. A time of great abundance and tremendous blessings. I ask you to join me in praying that the time of Jacob's trouble will be brief, and that we'll have the time of God's kingdom that's coming.