The Eternal Has Chosen Jerusalem

One vision in your Bible is greater than any other—powerful enough to get you through any trial or test. Let’s go through a few highlights of my new free booklet, The Eternal Has Chosen Jerusalem.

“And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him” (Zechariah 3:1). Joshua is a type of an end-time leader of God’s own Church who is enslaved by the devil!Many today scoff at the idea of Satan being real, yet he routinely wrecks nations. This evil spirit being infiltrated God’s Church and caused the vast majority of the brethren to lose the vision.

“And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” (verse 2). God’s warning message will pluck 50 percent of His rebellious people out of gehenna fire, but the other half will die forever. It’s that serious! God is real. So is Satan.

God gives us an awesome vision: The Eternal has chosen Jerusalem. This statement is so important, God repeats it for emphasis (Zechariah 1:17; 2:12; 3:2).

God will soon make Jerusalem the most magnificent city anybody has ever seen! Today, most people in God’s Church have simply lost this vision. The reason they rebelled is because they lost the very vision they needed most of all.

Keep your mind on “the Eternal has chosen Jerusalem” vision so you can obey God and do His work. This is the only way.

The real focus of this vision is new Jerusalem, which will descend from heaven to Earth after the Millennium. Abraham searched for this city (Hebrews 11:8-10), which is designed and built by God Himself. The appearance of this city will be the real beginning of God’s plan for the universe.

“Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH” (Zechariah 3:8). The wicked Joshua and his fellows are men “wondered at,” or men of sign. Their rebellion, which took place several decades ago, is a sign that Jesus Christ is about to return to solve all world problems once mankind finally learns the lesson that he cannot rule himself! God must guide us.

God is already making plans for the Great Tribulation, sending four angels on spiritual chariots throughout the Earth to perform His will when the time comes (Zechariah 6). Even as humans hurtle toward nuclear destruction (Matthew 24:21-22), God is advancing His master plan!

“For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day” (Zechariah 3:9). Soon, God will eliminate all sin and lawlessness seemingly overnight. This is the God who can be a real force in your life today!

The “seven eyes” in this verse represent seven Church eras throughout the last 2,000 years that can see God’s plan unfolding through His own eyes. God gives us light and vision like nobody else because only we look through His eyes!

The evil Joshua’s fellows are looking to a man instead of God. God tells Joshua to “hear now” because there’s so little time left to obey the warning. This is an extremely urgent sign of the Second Coming.

“And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” (verses 1-2). God gives us dangerous knowledge. If we don’t take action, we will be in big trouble. Do everything possible to capture “the Eternal has chosen Jerusalem” vision.

“In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig tree” (verse 10). After the punishment comes the Millennium. All will be able to choose a peaceful, prosperous life.

The Zerubbabel Inset

The end-time Joshua led his followers away from God. He is robbing them of their millennial future! In Zechariah 4, God adds a Zerubbabel inset to tell Joshua how he’s wrong. The Laodicean rebels need to learn from the example of Joshua’s predecessor, Zerubbabel. God wants them to choose life!

The Zerubbabel inset is Zechariah 4:6-10. It seems to break the flow of chapters 3 and 4, but God put it there for an important reason. “Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (verse 6). Talent won’t finish God’s Work. We need God’s Holy Spirit! The end-time Zerubbabel, the late Herbert W. Armstrong, relied on the power of God his entire ministry. Following this example will solve your problems and bring tremendous blessings into your life.

“Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it” (verse 7). In the Bible, a mountain is a symbol of a government. Even if a strong worldly government confronts God’s servant, God will flatten it! No army can close God’s open doors! (Revelation 3:8). God will bring forth the Headstone, Jesus Christ, the Head of God’s work. The Laodiceans have lost their Head. Think about what happens to a physical body without a head, and you will understand how deadly this sin is.

“Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you” (Zechariah 4:8-9). You can prove that God sent Mr. Armstrong. If we haven’t proved this already, God will soon prove it for us—the hard way.

“For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth” (verse 10). A “plummet” is a measuring device. God used Mr. Armstrong to measure the Church.

Isn’t it wonderful to realize you can do mighty deeds if you will just bring forth the Headstone and let Christ live in you? (Philippians 2:5). Christ’s own faith can spur you to do whatever God’s work needs done (Galatians 2:20).

So often, Mr. Armstrong was alone. The people around him actually tried to stop the work, but they never could until he died in 1986. God allowed His Church to turn away to see how much we loved His truth and would stand up and fight for it. Ninety-five percent of His people failed that test. This is not an easy calling, but it is so full of hope! Nothing even remotely compares!

Pure Spiritual Gold

“Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth” (Zechariah 4:11-14).

The two olive trees are God the Father and Jesus Christ. The two olive branches are two human leaders over God’s Church—one in the sixth era and one in the seventh era right now. The golden oil is a type of the revelation God gives His Church through His man, through the Holy Spirit.

Gold is the most precious metal on Earth. That’s the value of God’s revelation. That’s the value of “the Eternal has chosen Jerusalem” vision. We can hide from our problems in our own selfish ways, but we won’t find hope anywhere outside this vision.

God wants us to keep the golden oil burning in His lamp. Never lose sight of the vision! God uses a man to do His work until Jesus Christ returns, and the golden oil just keeps flowing. God’s truth is pure spiritual gold.

Focus on new Jerusalem. Once we raise up the ruins of Jerusalem, we will beautify the whole universe! (Romans 8).