Freedom is one of the most sought-after ideals in human history. Man’s search for freedom has taken him into the fiercest of protests, struggles, revolutions, civil wars—even world wars. Today, in the midst of free societies, many continue to fight for what they perceive as ever-greater freedoms.

Did you know that what most people call freedom today is really slavery?

The great majority of people today are deceived about what freedom truly is! And yet, we can’t be free until we know what freedom is. Neither can we avoid slavery unless we know what slavery is. Are you sure you know?

An Unpopular Definition

The Apostle Peter taught about true freedom, and it got him into serious trouble because his audience didn’t understand what true freedom was!

Peter talked about people whose idea of freedom was in error: “They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved” (2 Peter 2:19; Revised Standard Version). If you are overcome by something, you are enslaved to it. What does that mean, exactly?

Take alcoholism, for example. People may consider it freedom to be able to drink to excess, but many people do that so often, they become alcoholics; they then crave alcohol and feel miserable without it.

Alcohol abuse comes with a staggering price tag, socially and economically. It costs an estimated $2 billion each year to cover health and welfare services provided to alcoholics and their families in the U.S. Include their decreased productivity at work, and some estimate the problem costs America $7 to $10 billion.^[1] Alcoholics have higher rates of divorce and marriage separation, crime, automobile accidents, property damage and injuries to persons, depression and suicide. They, their family and their friends all end up being the losers.

It is easy to see—as they struggle with their addiction, ruining their family, their career, their life—that alcoholics are not free. At one time they may have thought alcohol gave them freedom, but in truth it has enslaved them!

The same is true of drugs. We have developed a drug culture in America and Britain. Drugs are increasingly mainstream and popular, moving well past the pockets within the big cities. They are taking over the lives of people of all income levels, all walks of life. Our entertainment is more and more obsessed with the drug world. Often we see high-profile entertainers grappling with severe addiction.

America leads the world in demand for mind-damaging, escapist drugs. Over 77 million Americans have sniffed, smoked, swallowed or injected themselves with illegal drugs; 22 million identify themselves as regular users. Among youth ages 12 to 17, a staggering 10.9 percent are regular drug users! “The routine availability of illegal substances is now a fact of life for young people. Keith Hellawell, the ‘drug tsar,’ said last week that drug-taking among well-educated teenagers from stable families was the fastest growing part of the drug racket. Forget cannabis—these kids are going straight for cocaine” (Sunday Times, Jan. 9, 2000).

Is that freedom? How many of these people have gotten hooked on drugs and cannot stop? Even low levels of drug use can do irreparable damage to their minds. On top of that disastrous effect, how many of these people are injecting or sniffing away increasing portions of their incomes, at their families’ expense? How many are resorting to ever more unsavory activities to fund their drug habits?

Many people would consider it freedom to destroy their lives with deadly drugs. That is not freedom! Instead they have become totally enslaved to drugs!

For many years we have declared a war on drugs in America. What has been the result? Look at the facts and we must concede that we have lost that war!

America is overcome by its drug problem. And “whatever overcomes a man [or a nation], to that he is enslaved.”

We don’t talk much about the war on drugs today. People don’t like to talk about losing a war. Many people began to see their own families and children caught up in drugs and felt they needed to tone down their approach. They didn’t want to be involved in a war so close to home.

The War on Pornography

Another terrible addiction is gripping America today: sex addiction. It is more and more taking center stage in our culture and entertainment. It too is becoming more common, more mainstream, more widely accepted. Our television and movies portray increasing levels of filth. And the problem is made all the worse by the widespread availability of pornography on the Internet.

“The Net is making adult entertainment one of the world’s biggest businesses. … Pornography is becoming part of popular culture and is still the only business that can consistently turn a profit on the Net. … Pornographers, particularly in the U.S. but also in Europe, have been the driving force of the Net” (London Independent, May 21, 2000). The Internet is saturated with pornography! It is big business—people by the millions are lapping it up. The above article called pornography “the economic powerhouse of the Internet, one of the largest industries in the U.S., and the mother of Internet invention.”

What does that say about us? It is Britain and the United States that primarily fuel that endeavor. Are we free? Most people would call that freedom. Is it really? Or is it enslaving us to a lifestyle that will destroy our marriages and families? Are we enslaved to pornography?

Deep down we know that pornography is evil! In the past, even the thought of it caused shame. At one time we also declared a war on pornography, but we don’t hear much about that war anymore. Why? Because we don’t like admitting defeat. We lost that war as well.

What does it mean to lose the war on pornography? It means losing the values that build strong marriages and strong families. Strong families are the backbone of any strong nation. Yet we have been overcome by something we were too weak to resist. “Whatever overcomes a man [or a nation], to that he is enslaved”! Just look at the facts and you can plainly see that America is enslaved to pornography.

Social workers and ministers often discuss a rapidly growing problem. Many people (especially the young) tell these professionals that they are hooked on Internet sex and can’t break the habit. They have become addicted and have lost control.

In the name of “free speech,” our leaders are allowing the evil god of this world to enslave our young people before they even learn how to live! (2 Corinthians 4:4). The most vile pornography is channeled right into their own homes. That easy access only increases the temptation.

The Bible commands us to do just the opposite—flee temptation and fornication. We are going to pay a deadly price for our rebellion against God.

The fact is, the more pornography we have, the less freedom we have. The negative impact of all that obscenity is incalculable.

Destroying Family

Peter paints an extraordinary picture. Imagine someone coming to you enclosed in a cage, handcuffed, their legs bound by shackles—and offering you freedom! “They promise … freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption …” (2 Peter 2:19; rsv). That’s exactly what is happening so often today! The drug pushers and pornographers do not have true freedom!

In 2000 a U.S. court overturned a law that restricted sleazy sex shows on cable to the late-night hours. The court felt the law interfered with free speech. They wanted people to have access to pornography day and night.

Did the courts consider the effect their ruling would have on families? Do we really believe marriages are strengthened when men watch pornography? Does that endear them more to their wives?

God cares deeply about the family. “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife …” (1 Peter 3:7). God commands husbands to treat their wives with a high degree of honor. He wants stable marriages where couples stay together and rear stable children in an environment of authoritative love and care.

Does being addicted to pornography help you to honor your wife more—perhaps the wife that God Himself has given you? We all know the answer to that; it’s just a matter of whether we are willing to face it.

We must realize what this way of thinking is doing to us! It is tearing our families apart and leaving our children, in many cases, without the proper love and protection from their mother and father. This leaves them very vulnerable to drug and sex addictions themselves!

True freedom means being free of dishonor in our marriages. That is the kind of freedom we need more of today.

Consider this as well: In several places in Scripture, children are commanded, “Honour thy father and mother” (e.g. Matthew 15:4). Is a child addicted to sex or drugs more inclined to honor his parents? No—he is probably much likelier to disregard what they say.

Are the courts looking at these scriptures when they make their decisions? Their priorities are upside down.

We need to be free of fighting, divorce and perversion. Free of anarchy and chaos in our families. We need to be stable! Parents must be stable, or what can we expect of the children? They desperately need a mother and father to love them, guide them, teach them—show them how to be strong, how to face life without drugs and other addictions.

Police officers have to deal with the fruits of society’s bad decisions. They can’t avoid facing the truth. Every day they deal face to face with the results of our pornography, our drugs—the results of all the evils we allow to go on in the name of “freedom”!

Under the guise of “free speech,” we destroy marriages and families—the foundation of our nation! Spewing out tons of pornography is not free speech—it is a diabolical plot to destroy America and Britain! And the plan is working extremely well.

America’s Founding Fathers knew that the family was the strength of our nation. Our forefathers would be shocked and shame-faced if they could see what we have done with our so-called freedom today!

Not only do we scorn the Bible, we contemptuously reject our own history!

A certain recipe for national disaster.

A Nation Enslaved

Strong marriages build strong children. We need strong children who are not vulnerable to drugs.

Why do children want to take drugs and destroy their minds? The mind is the only thing that really sets us apart from animals. What is lacking in their lives that would make them want to do that to themselves? Why even take a chance on something so destructive? Because their wills are so weakened, they must have something to fill the void their parents have left—in most cases. Of course, drugs don’t truly fill that void at all—they only bring people into slavery of the worst possible kind.

Drug addiction destroys the will! Sex addiction destroys the will! The worse the addiction, the weaker the will to resist, to fight evil.

Our young people today have even lost the will to participate in the military to protect our nation’s freedom. History shows the terrible consequences of a damaged will: When a nation’s will is broken, it becomes weak and ineffective—and, oftentimes, enslaved by an enemy nation!

The courts are trying to protect free speech. Yet what will happen if families fall apart and there is no strong nation left? What good will “free” speech be then? If the family is in turmoil and confusion, if parents are divorcing and children are left to themselves, how important is free speech at that point?

What good is free speech if you lose the very values that made you great? We are polluting and vitiating the public good, the character, that we have possessed as a nation in the past.

Understand: I value free speech highly! I know that I could not be printing these words without the free speech afforded our society. It is a great value that we should protect. I promote it in every way I possibly can.

But let’s get our priorities right. Is free speech more important than family? No, it is not. People behave as if family doesn’t even matter! And yet, family is the foundation of every great nation!

The stability of our nation is at stake. Why do nations die? God asks, “[W]hy will ye die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11). Can we really calculate the damage of all these social evils? They add up to the destruction of our nations! Nations collapse by giving in to these evils that are erroneously called freedoms! Not only does our will become hopelessly weak, but our sins cut us off from God’s blessings and protection!

I don’t care who calls it freedom; it is not freedom to get into pornography and drugs! It is not freedom—it is enslavement! It enslaves individuals, and it leads to the enslavement of the whole nation!

What Is True Freedom?

Many religious people like to talk about freedom. But are they getting their definition of freedom from the Bible? “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). If they have a different idea of freedom, they are enslaved. They are not following true Christianity! And that is true of many who consider themselves very religious.

Jesus said to the religious people of His day, “Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (Mark 7:6). Christ condemns a lot of people with this statement! Many people talk about God and Jesus Christ; they act religious. But in truth, their hearts are far from God! They are actually enslaved to a false religion and think they are obeying God.

We must be free from that kind of false Christianity!

“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). If you’re going to be a Christian, you must follow Christ.

Christ lived His life in perfect subjection to the law of God. He resisted the pulls of His flesh rather than being overcome by them!

We need to be like Christ—free of human nature! Most people don’t even know what human nature is.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). That is God’s view of human nature, though most people don’t believe that. Do you recognize the evil in your own heart—or are you, like most others, deceived about human nature?

We can see this truth illustrated all around us: If you let a desperately wicked heart run free, it will do great damage!

It is very difficult to keep God’s law. But the problem isn’t with the law, it is with us. We need to change and conform ourselves to that law. We need to replace the wickedness of our hearts with the righteousness of God by writing God’s law in our hearts!

“… Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people” (Hebrews 8:8-10). We need to write God’s law on our hearts indelibly—to etch it on our hearts and minds so it will never go away! That will bring true freedom into our lives!

We have been deceived to believe just the reverse—that God’s law somehow enslaves us. That is false! Beware of men—no man can give you true freedom! Only God can do that.

God’s law brings us the ultimate, most wonderful freedom of all. It protects our families. It protects our children. It protects us from all the evil in this world.

We should have joyful freedom. I want to be free! “Live as free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil; but live as servants of God” (1 Peter 2:16; rsv).

How beautiful and precious is freedom! True freedom is a wonderful gift! The greatest gift God can give us is to make us truly free.

It may shock you, but the 2000 presidential election chaos in the U.S. was prophesied in your Bible! The battle between lawyers and judges that raged for weeks and months after the election was prophesied over 2,500 years ago! The nation and the world have largely forgotten that election and gone on with their lives. But there is a tremendous lesson in what happened that you cannot afford to forget!

The Supreme Court of Florida made two significant rulings after the election. This was the result of the Democrats sending in hundreds of lawyers to challenge the results of the vote. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed both its rulings. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said that “it might be in the state’s best interest not to go around changing the law after the election” (emphasis mine). In fact, the Florida Supreme Court changed several laws in those two rulings. It created chaos and confusion all over America.

This is no small problem. The purpose of our courts is to interpret and enforce our laws—not break them! They are supposed to uphold the laws to give us justice.

The fruits reveal what happens when we break laws. The fruits of the Florida Supreme Court’s decisions were chaotic. “[B]y their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20).

We saw the fruits of an “evolving Constitution.” The laws were watered down or broken. Of course the Constitution is not perfect and needs a little fine tuning at times. But if we do more than that, we are tearing down the very foundation of our republic!

The Florida chaos gave us good insight into what will happen all across America if we don’t wake up. We are evolving into anarchy!

The Supreme Court of Florida should not have intervened at all. George Bush won on two machine counts. And the law says you intervene only if there is 1) fraud or 2) malfunctioning machines. There was no fraud, and the machines counted like other machines all over America.

This is where the law was transgressed, plunging the state into a gigantic mess. The state does need better machines, but this problem, if it is going to be corrected, must be corrected before the election. That is the law.

But too many of our people want an evolving Constitution and law.

The Trojan Horse

The Democrats started the whole mess by complaining about “illegal” butterfly ballots—a ridiculous issue that was subsequently rejected by all the courts. But it allowed the lawyers to get involved in the process. And, as most lawyers typically do, they discovered other “crimes” like hanging chads and dimpled ballots.

Lawyers helped to obscure the fact that when voters enter the booth, they are responsible for voting properly.

Florida’s Supreme Court should have slammed the door on the chaos from the very beginning, and this confusion would have ended. But it didn’t.

None of this national damage would have been possible without a biased press. They too favor an “evolving Constitution,” which leads us into rampant injustice. The press made it look like both sides were trying to steal the election, when in fact it was just one side.

The nation was divided 50-50. But the press was more like 80-20 in favor of the Democratic Party.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7 to 2 that there were constitutional problems with the Florida Supreme Court’s rulings. But still we needed a stronger decision. The weakness of the Supreme Court’s decision portends more chaos and even anarchy in the future.

This is where most of our leaders are blind. They like an “evolving Constitution,” which places more trust in human reasoning than law. It is a dangerous recipe for disaster. All close elections of the future are apt to be contested. The chaos will spiral out of control unless we make radical changes.

Our people are being led into more and more lawlessness. Human nature hates law. Events tend toward catastrophe unless law keeps us in check.

Our forefathers understood human nature and law far better than we do today. But you can’t convince our leaders of that vital truth.

Events like the election crisis and human reasoning lead the people to trust our leaders less and less. Such things are causing our people to look only to themselves. “[E]very man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). This was the condition of our biblical forefathers—just before their nation collapsed and they went into slavery!

This thinking is not a small problem. It is a plague!

‘Babes Shall Rule Over Them’

We don’t see most of our leaders quoting President Abraham Lincoln and our forefathers about the Constitution and law. President Lincoln knew there were some bad laws. But he said we should faithfully obey those laws until they could be changed according to the Constitution. He knew that the law must remain supreme or there would be very little justice.

The prophecies in Isaiah were written in a book for the end time. Notice this end-time prophecy: “For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable” (Isaiah 3:1-5). God has taken away the judge who renders true justice—because of our sins.

All the leaders are like little children in their reasoning. They rule like “babes.” A child has no real history to draw from. Many leaders have rejected the lessons of history—our greatest secular source of guidance. A good understanding of history also gives a leader vision into the future.

Winston Churchill could warn us about Germany in the 1930s because he understood the history of Germany. All of the major European wars since 1870 have been started by Germany!

The most important vision of the future comes from the Bible. No secular source compares to God’s Word.

Children are guided almost solely by emotions—unless they are guided by a wise adult. But here in Isaiah the children rule, guided mainly by their emotions. And children are naturally lawless!

Our leaders have never grown up emotionally! And that is true of all our leaders—not just one political party. And they lead the nations of Israel—including what has been the world’s number one superpower!

House Divided

The late Tim Russert, host of Meet the Press, said the 2000 election was “the worst political war” he had ever seen. The division between parties was terribly bitter. But the worst is still to come.

As Jesus Christ and President Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” It “cannot stand”! But where is the leader who will, like Mr. Lincoln, step up and say so today?

Mr. Lincoln knew the solution could come only from God!

Seven of the Supreme Court justices said there were constitutional violations by the Florida Supreme Court. But when Al Gore finally conceded the election, he said, “I strongly disagree” with them.

Why did he disagree? Because he believes in an “evolving Constitution.” And his election loss didn’t change his mind. This is the lawless thinking that is dividing and destroying our house. A house so divided against itself cannot stand! But faced with another election like this one, Mr. Gore would act the same way. That is not what we need to unite our American house.

And don’t forget—this is the only house we have!

In his acceptance speech, Mr. Bush said that we must rise above a house divided. But how? A big part of the answer is getting back to the Constitution and law. I see nothing to indicate that we will. In fact, we are moving in the opposite direction. More and more of our people are adopting the philosophy of Mr. Gore and his “evolving Constitution.”

One tv commentator said the election challenge by the Democrats was “unfair.” But it was more than unfair—it was a great injustice. There was collusion between judges, lawyers and politicians attempting to steal an election!

Let’s be honest for a change!

The attempt was made and it almost succeeded. That shows how lawless our people have become. This portends a nightmare future unless we heed God’s message.

Once our political system falls apart, nobody will be able to put it back together again.

How horrifying that we cannot see the coming mega-disaster! The outcome could be changed by heeding God’s message.

Do people really know why Christ came? Did it have anything to do with justice?

Why Christ Came

Christ came the first time for a great purpose. “And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see [or think they see, but are wrong] might be made blind” (John 9:39). Christ came to this world for the purpose of judgment, or justice.

One definition in Thayer’s Lexicon for judgment is “a matter to be judicially decided, a lawsuit, a case in court.”

Christ came to this Earth that we “might see” what true justice is and how we are to be judged.

This world hated His judgment, or system of justice, and killed Him. But the second time He comes, Christ will enforce His justice based on God’s law of love. He will rule according to what is right and wrong.

Why don’t more religions discuss this justice system?

A true Christian is one who follows Christ. If we are Christians, we should seek God’s law and judgment.

Christianity is often the greatest hypocrisy of all. People profess Christianity but don’t believe in Christ’s message of justice. They talk about Christ, but they don’t teach His judgment or justice based on His law, the Ten Commandments.

Men don’t know what true justice is. But Christ knows, and He wants to give sight to the blind. Soon, in your lifetime, Christ will implement His system of justice based on His law, in spite of man’s rebellion.

I didn’t see any of our leaders seeking God’s view of our justice system in the 2000 election.

Samaria Falls

The Prophet Micah was more condemning of our justice system than perhaps any of God’s messengers. And his book is for the end time. (Request our free booklet on Micah to prove this for yourself.)

Let’s look at some of the history of our biblical forefathers and learn an awesome lesson.

“The word of the Lord that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem” (Micah 1:1). The word of the Lord came to Micah as new revelation. This revelation only comes to prophets and apostles (Ephesians 3:5). God speaks to mankind through apostles and prophets.

And so it is today. God has sent a prophet to warn, but God says our people won’t recognize him as a prophet until his terrifying prophecies come to pass (Ezekiel 33:33).

Micah means “who is like God?” Nobody even remotely compares to God. That means we ought to heed His message, because it is 100 percent certain to be fulfilled!

If we are like Micah, we believe God.

God addresses two cities in Micah 1. Samaria was the capital of the northern 10 tribes of Israel. Jerusalem was the capital of Judah (which also included Levi).

Samaria is discussed in verses 6-8. Then in verse 9 we see she has an incurable wound. That leaves only Jerusalem remaining. Later we see only Zion (God’s Church today) and Jerusalem left (Micah 3:10). Even later, there is only one city—undoubtedly Jerusalem—that remains (Micah 6:9).

What happened to Israel, or Samaria? Israel was conquered between 721 and 718 b.c.—about 30 years after Micah delivered his message.

Micah must have seen Israel fall. Why didn’t Judah fall around the same time? That is a critical question.

How to Save a Nation

King Hezekiah was mentioned in the context of Samaria and Jerusalem (Micah 1:1). Notice how this king relates to the story.

“Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spake to all the assembly of the people, saying, Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest. Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? did he not fear the Lord, and besought the Lord, and the Lord repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus might we procure great evil against our souls” (Jeremiah 26:17-19). Judah didn’t fall at the same time Samaria did, because Hezekiah led them to repent!

Samaria and Jerusalem split in the first place because they were so deeply divided. That is the way it is in Britain, America and Israel today. These nations have a history of tearing themselves apart, if their enemies don’t do it for them!

Judah did not go into captivity around the time Samaria did because the people responded to Micah! They heeded God’s strong warning.

This is the inspiring and wonderful truth of what God would do today if only we would listen and heed His warning.

Here is a big lesson: Kings and presidents should listen to God’s apostles and prophets! That is how nations are saved!

Nations don’t have to fall. It is not inevitable. There is great hope in this message.

Prophets like Micah tell kings and leaders what to do. The leader should lead in repenting as Hezekiah did.

Is there a modern-day Micah that our leaders should hear? And that you should heed? There absolutely is, and you can prove it.

This message is so important that the whole Earth is commanded to hearken. But God is starting with the nations of Israel. He is against you. That means you individually and the nations of Israel.

This message is about falling empires! That is what happened to Samaria when the people refused to obey Micah’s message from God!

It is an end-time message primarily, and it means nations are about to fall unless they heed Micah’s message!

The Florida election crisis was only one curse among many because God is against America, Britain and Israel.

Today God is warning. It all happens just before His return to Earth: “For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place” (Micah 1:3-4).

That’s right. Believe it or not, our problems today are tied directly to the return of Jesus Christ! This is the best news this world has ever heard!

Do we get it? Do we understand and believe God?

This is not a message for just the U.S. It is a message for the whole world!

Micah Cries for Justice

“And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?” (Micah 3:1). Who are Jacob and Israel in this end time? We have proved for over 80 years that Israel refers primarily to America, Britain and the State of Israel in these prophecies. (Request our free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy, by Herbert W. Armstrong.)

God is addressing the heads of Israel—the rulers. These are people who have a history with God. They of all people ought to understand judgment.

Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon defines judgment as the sentence of a judgment, according to law. Judges are supposed to interpret and enforce law. Other translations use justice instead of judgment.

This is addressed to the heads—magistrates and government officials responsible for upholding the law. Their responsibility is to give us justice based on law.

The only perfect law is God’s. The framers of America’s Constitution founded much of that document on God’s law as they understood it.

The word judgment means the entire process, or the whole administration of justice. The Hebrew word is mishpat. The same word is used as lawful (Ezekiel 18:5, 21, 27). The point is this: Proper judgment must always include law.

That is why it is so crucial that judges not change the righteous law or reject it.

God holds judges and rulers accountable for their judgment against every institution and each individual. This warning is directed to our rulers.

God wants Britain, America and Israel to be reminded of their history with Him.

God’s own Laodicean Church has a spiritual history with God in this end time, and it has rejected that relationship.

God addresses Jacob first. This was Israel’s name before God began to work with him. So it refers to the physical nations of Israel today. Then God speaks to Israel. God is not repeating Himself. This refers to spiritual Israel, or the Church.

So God warns both carnal and spiritual Israel because they both have a history with God. “Is it not for you to know judgment?” Of all people on this Earth, they should know judgment! They should understand their own history!

They should also know God, but they don’t. Knowing God is the only solution to our problems.

Just how bad is our justice system today?

“Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron” (Micah 3:2-3). God is speaking figuratively and spiritually. Our justice system rips off the people’s skins, breaks their bones, tears off the flesh, chops them into pieces, throws them into the pot, and then eats them!

This is probably the most grisly metaphor in the Bible. It’s as if they butcher their victims and devour them like wild beasts. Cannibalism!

This is God’s evaluation of our justice system!

But this is not the end of it. “Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings” (verse 4). God will literally mutilate those leaders, just as they figuratively mutilated their victims.

The heads, including the judges, ignored the cry of their victims. Soon God will turn from their cries for help in the Great Tribulation. And that includes everybody who operates in that same evil spirit.

Modern-Day Micah

The “sun shall go down over the prophets” (Micah 3:6). This could only apply to God’s own Laodicean Church—spiritual Israel—which had the sun—the light—and then went back into the dark. They no longer have a “vision” or receive God’s revelation.

The Bible is a coded book, and only God can decode it for us. Once He does, we can’t refute His powerful truth.

“But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin” (verse 8). Micah was full of the Holy Spirit and judgment, or God’s justice.

What was Micah to do with that judgment? Did he retire? No, he was told to declare it specifically to two groups—Jacob and Israel. Jacob has transgressed God’s law, and Israel has sinned (“to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin”—James 4:17). This refers to God’s Church, spiritual Israel. They have been given God’s truth and have rejected it. So their guilt is sin. They are not in ignorance as carnal Israel; the Jacob group has never known God spiritually. But the Laodiceans are being judged now! (Revelation 3:14-21).

So Micah was told to declare this message. That means there has to be a type of Micah today who is declaring this same message. Remember, this warning message is tied directly to Christ’s return (Micah 1:3). It is for the end time!

It is up to you to find the individual who is delivering that message. That is the only way to find God.

Remember, God’s message is about judgment—God’s system of justice. So we declare God’s message to the heads—to politicians, lawyers, judges, educators, media and religion. They must change, or our house will not stand!

They must hear God’s judgment—which, again, refers to that which is just, lawful, or according to law. In this case, God’s law.

“Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity” (Micah 3:9). Our leaders “abhor judgment.” They “pervert all equity.” That means what is straight they make crooked!

That is our system of justice. And God says His messenger is to tell the rulers directly—“hear this”!

All of our people must hear God’s rebuke about justice, or they will suffer more than any nation ever has. Do you “hear this”?

“They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity” (verse 10). There will be a bloody end if we don’t heed God’s warning. This verse is about a slaughter. The nations of Israel will have a violent end. They will literally be chopped in pieces, as their victims have been figuratively!

This punishment happens because of our “iniquity,” or lawlessness. The leaders base their judgments on human reasoning, not law.

“The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us” (verse 11). The religious and secular leaders judge for “reward.” Their judgments are not motivated by love for the law, the Constitution or justice. They do it for personal gain.

This illustrates how urgently we need new leaders. But the good news is, this very chaos we are now experiencing will lead directly into a world of God-fearing leaders who uphold the rule of law and make just judgments. These leaders are now being prepared—as they have been throughout history.

Firstfruits

“Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit” (Micah 7:1). This is about the firstripe, or firstfruit, spiritual harvest. Micah discusses the summer fruit from the first harvest. God is always concerned about His Church first.

Micah had a painful experience that God’s people lived through in this end time. “Woe is me!” He could find no “cluster” of spiritual food to eat from the firstfruit harvest. Anciently, the farmers left gleanings for the poor. But in this picture, there was nothing to glean from the fields.

This makes no sense unless you look at it spiritually. In this end time, God’s very elect Christians have left our mother church and its other dissenting groups. Almost every one of them said, “Woe is me.” They were starving spiritually. You don’t know you are starving spiritually unless you have known God’s truth. They were receiving no revelation about Micah, as we have in our booklets about this prophet and many other major and minor prophets.

This refers to a major crisis in God’s Church that we have lived through. Even our court case over Herbert W. Armstrong’s book Mystery of the Ages is addressed in the context of this verse.

Micah 7:1 is a blanket condemnation of all of God’s Laodicean churches. They have polluted spiritual food. Only the group that declares the Micah revelation does God’s Work. (Request our free book Malachi’s Message. It will explain the whole Laodicean issue.)

“The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net” (verse 2). Good man means “holy one.” That same Hebrew expression refers to Jesus Christ (Psalm 16:10).

Why is this holy man perished from the Earth? These firstfruit saints were good, or holy, and then they rebelled.

The Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible says the word perished “is used to describe the downfall of nations [or churches], the withering away of crops [firstfruit harvest] ….”

Only those who broke away from the sinning Laodicean Church survived spiritually (Micah 2:13). That is explained in our Micah booklet.

“They hunt every man his brother” refers to the God Family. Spiritual brothers are hunting Family members to destroy them!

No tragedy could be worse!

Watchmen

Now we move to society’s problems. “That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up” (Micah 7:3). The prince (politician) and the judge ask for reward. They take the initiative in seeking their reward. How abominable! These leaders render injustice if they can’t get what they want. Their motives are very impure.

“They wrap it up” means they conspire to subvert justice! They weave crooked paths and catch people as a spider catches flies in its web.

The state of California attacked the Church headed by Herbert W. Armstrong in 1979. Lawyers and judges met privately to discuss their attack. It was an unethical meeting. God’s Church was described as “a bowl of spiders.” Eventually, the Church was cleared of all wrongdoing. But there were no apologies.

So who was the “bowl of spiders”?

We lived through that abominable miscarriage of justice!

The whole system of justice is being contaminated more each day. This leads to people disrespecting these institutions.

Why can’t we see what we are doing to ourselves?

“The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity” (verse 4). In the midst of these briers and thorn hedges are God’s end-time watchmen—“thy [your] watchmen.” They belong to God. God has used two men to watch and warn in this end time. Mr. Armstrong warned for over 50 years that Germany would rise again and destroy us if we don’t repent. And God has used a type of Micah to carry on that same warning.

But look at the good news. The bad news is directly connected to the best news you could ever hear! Christ is about to come and give us true justice! Both men had to watch and warn just before Christ’s Second Coming—your visitation. Christ is about to visit this Earth!

Do you believe Christ? How many people really believe God’s message?

The watchman work is directly tied to Christ’s return. One leads directly to the other.

What wonderful and inspiring news! This is the best news you could ever hear!

Warring Family

Where does our rule by lawless lawyers and judges lead us? Why is it so dangerous?

“Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house” (Micah 7:5-6). You can’t even trust your friends. That is how treacherous people have become. But it gets even worse. It destroys the family unit.

You have to watch your mouth even when only your spouse is around! The natural family affection is gone. Your mate may get a clever lawyer and strip you of everything.

The son dishonors the father and vice versa. Mother-in-law fights against daughter-in-law. Friendships fail. The family, which is the backbone and strength of our nations, breaks down.

Our failures will be revealed when we face a crisis. Justice, trust, honor and love will not be there to protect us. People will consume each other with treachery and betrayal! They do it even now. But that crime will multiply 100-fold in a crisis.

Anarchy is the end result. The Florida election gave us a little insight of what is going to afflict all the nations of Israel.

This is a very strong warning for our people.

The Solution

Where are these problems ultimately leading?

“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8). The first condition God requires is “to do justly”—to give justice, based on God’s law of love, to everyone. Each one of us will be ruled by God’s law, or else we have no future.

But this is not a hard, calculating justice. Secondly, we must “love mercy.”

Thirdly, we are “to walk humbly with thy God.”

“O man” is from the word Adam. Adam was made from the dust of the ground. We too are like Adam—a pile of dust.

Why shouldn’t we walk humbly with our God? Why are men, made from mud, so proud and vain?

God has showed you, O man. Since the time of Adam, God has shown man His truth. Apostles and prophets have been slaughtered for delivering God’s precious truth. Man has had ample opportunity and has failed utterly. Now Christ is about to intervene and bring us His glorious justice.

The Greek Empire tried to establish the rule of law. They failed and their empire collapsed. The Roman Empire also tried to build a society based on law. They were unable to do so and the Roman Empire fell. Many other empires experienced the same failure.

The famous British historian Paul Johnson wrote an article titled “No Law Without Order, No Freedom Without Law.” It was printed in the Sunday Telegraph, December 26, 1999. In it he wrote, “The rule of law, as distinct from the rule of a person, or class or people, and as opposed to the rule of force, is an abstract, sophisticated concept. It is mighty difficult to achieve. But until it is achieved, and established in the public mind with such vehemence that masses of individuals are prepared to die to uphold it, no other form of progress can be regarded as secure. The Greeks had tried to establish the rule of law but failed. The Romans had succeeded under their republic but Caesar and his successors had destroyed it. The essence of the rule of law is its impersonality, omnipotence and ubiquity. It is the same law for everyone, everywhere—kings, emperors, high priests, the state itself, are subject to it. If exceptions are made, the rule of law begins to collapse—that was the grand lesson of antiquity” (emphasis mine throughout).

Yes, “that was the grand lesson” of history. But have we learned that lesson? Failure to do so means we pay the supreme sacrifice—loss of our republic.

The continual problem of man has been his failure to learn from history.

Are “masses of individuals … prepared to die” to uphold America’s rule of law? Mr. Johnson stated that this is our only security!

In many cases our people are confused about what the law is. And many others want to change our laws, including our constitutional law.

Who is going to be willing to die for such confusion? Will such a deeply divided people sacrifice their lives for our republic and the rule of law?

Our people in Britain and America lack the will to even sacrifice a few soldiers’ lives to fight a ground war. Our generals know that we lack the will to win any hard-fought battle—even if it directly relates to our own freedom. For example, we had to be bombed into World War ii. Even one of the most diabolical leaders in history, Adolf Hitler, could not rouse us to fight until we were bombed by Japan. And we are much more isolationist today.

We are not prepared to die to defend our security, as we were in our past. This is the supreme sign that our will has been broken—and that our republic cannot stand. We must make very radical changes to save our country.

Our forefathers were willing to die to establish the rule of law. Many Americans died in the Civil War to sustain our constitutional law.

How different they were from our people today!

Our Forefathers’ Goal

Early immigrants who came to this land were often persecuted in the countries they left. They usually lacked religious freedom.

“[B]oth in Virginia and in New England to the north, the colonists were determined, God-fearing men,” Mr. Johnson wrote, “often in search of a religious toleration denied them at home, who brought their families and were anxious to farm and establish permanent settlements. They put political and religious freedom before riches …. Thus took shape the economic dynamo that eventually became the United States—an experiment designed to establish the rule of God on Earth …” (ibid).

What a goal. They planned to establish the rule of God on Earth! That means they had the goal of each person keeping the Ten Commandments of God—the basis of all righteous law.

How many Americans are willing to face that reality? Not many. Because then we would have to see that we often fight not to establish law, but to promote lawlessness!

Consider some statements from the Founding Fathers. In his First Inaugural Address, President George Washington said, “[T]he foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality ….” And in his famous Farewell Address he said, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” Without religion and morality, Washington knew the American experiment was doomed to fail. John Adams backed him up: “Statesmen … may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand.” Religion and morality are firmly rooted in divine law.

In 1954, Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote, “I believe the entire Bill of Rights came into being because of the knowledge our forefathers had of the Bible and their belief in it ….”

What political or religious leaders would make such statements as these men did? Even the politicians who established our republic were more spiritual than most of our religious leaders today!

The Constitution is the foundation of our republic. And the Ten Commandments were, in many ways, the foundation of the Constitution. Our forefathers believed that if we didn’t keep God’s Ten Commandments, our republic would collapse!

We can’t afford to take the words of our founders lightly if we want to see our nation stand.

It was much harder for our Founding Fathers to spill streams of blood winning our freedom, and to create and establish our constitutional law, than it is for us just to maintain it! So we ought to respect our Founding Fathers above ourselves. But we are too vain and arrogant to see how profoundly strong they were and how pathetically shallow and weak we are.

Noble Constitution

The Constitution was based to a great extent on God’s law. That is why I believe it is the most noble document ever written by a government of this world.

What a rare document it is. Our forefathers had the awesome opportunity to establish the rule of God in the wealthiest country ever. So they established a Constitution to protect all of us from the extremes of human reason. Tyrants, unjust judges and biased leaders were controlled by this law.

Did our Founding Fathers know that the Bible interprets itself? To some extent, I believe they did. And they probably patterned the Constitution after the Bible, in that sense. The Constitution is a document that interprets itself probably better than any book or document, other than the Bible.

We see indescribable confusion about the Bible today. Why? Because people won’t let it interpret itself!

We received some foundational direction from Britain’s Magna Carta. But Britain has no Constitution.

Our persecuted forefathers wanted their protection spelled out in detail. They had suffered intensely at the hands of tyrants. Such tribulation deepens a people’s understanding about the value of freedom.

Will we have to experience indescribable tribulation before we can appreciate our freedom, which is given to us by the rule of law?

The Bork Nomination

When Robert Bork was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987, it created a firestorm in Congress, and he failed to get confirmed. Shortly thereafter, he wrote The Tempting of America, which I believe is the best book about constitutional law in a century—perhaps ever.

Mr. Bork believed we were more than halfway along in the destruction of our Constitution. That was in 1990. If he was right, our republic is in grave danger.

We live today in a culture that is becoming much more anti-law and anti-God.

If the Constitution is to be rewritten, it should be done only by our legislative branch, or Congress, and the president, or the executive branch. If they err, these leaders are subject to the voters. But that is not true of the judicial branch—the courts. The U.S. Supreme Court justices are selected for life by the president.

Our forefathers designed the Constitution that way so the U.S. Supreme Court justices would not be so concerned about the people when unpopular judgments had to be made. The Supreme Court justices are subject only to constitutional law—not the voters!

Their job is to interpret the law—or better, to let the law interpret itself. They have no authority to rewrite the law. If they rewrite the law, it’s almost impossible to correct the error.

In our history, there was a judge who wanted slavery. He kept searching the Constitution to support his belief. He found the phrase “substantive due process,” and he twisted these words to say that slavery was constitutional.

It took a civil war to overturn that decision. That gives you some idea of how hard it is to change what judges do! Today judges used that same reasoning—“substantive due process”—to say that abortion is constitutional. Mr. Bork believed that reasoning to be a dangerous mistake, and so do I.

If the judges are not subject to constitutional law, they are subject to nothing and nobody!

Law schools routinely teach about being “legal realists.” Like former Vice President Al Gore, they want an “evolving Constitution.” But this reasoning gives the judges despotic powers. It also takes us away from the foundational law established by our forefathers.

Then why do our politicians allow it? The president and Congress often like the judges to rewrite the law, if the decisions are favorable to their views and they know their views will not be approved by the voters. Still, the judges are taking power from the legislature and the executive branches as they rewrite the Constitution.

Our politicians simply lack the vision to see how disastrous this process is. It is based on selfish lawlessness—not law!

The Supreme Court justices are gaining dictatorial powers, and none of them were voted into their offices or approved by the people. The democratic process is being destroyed. That means we cannot maintain the rule of law. Our future is very black indeed unless we make far-reaching changes.

Usually the people know very little about how the law works. But they know enough to lose respect for our governmental institutions. They also lose interest in the whole political system.

As a result, they end up doing what our predecessors in ancient Israel did. “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). This is the history of our own people. And the book of Judges is a part of the biblical books called the former prophets. That means it is prophecy for this end time.

Today, we have no king or president or real authority figure that we look to for leadership. And that means we are a nation without strong leadership. The same is true of Britain.

No ship of state can find its way to a safe harbor without a captain to guide it. That is exactly the way it was in ancient Israel just before they were conquered! And that is exactly where America and Britain are today! There is no leader who can or will establish the rule of law. This sad state of affairs was also prophesied (Isaiah 3:1-5). In this prophecy, our leaders are likened to children!

Most people don’t see that we are destroying the rule of law. And history tells us that our republic cannot stand unless that evil is corrected.

The media is a big part of the liberal culture—nearly 80 percent of them. The destruction of our constitutional republic would not be possible without their support. All too often they are deceived, and in turn they have the power to deceive our citizens.

Mr. Bork related how the Constitution is the big trump card in American politics. Today it is being used by the liberal culture to force their unlawful ideas on people!

The great heresy being taught in our law schools is that the judges are not bound by law. Some are saying the Constitution isn’t even law!

That means we are being led by the human reasoning of a liberal culture.

That is often the opposite of establishing the rule of law. Again, history reveals that empires are destroyed if they fail to establish the rule of law. But the liberal culture often has contempt of history and our Founding Fathers. They foolishly rely on their own reasoning, which is not grounded in foundational law.

The founders of the Constitution put in place the walls, roofs and beams of our Constitution, as Mr. Bork said. The judges’ purpose is to preserve the architectural features—adding only filigree or ornamental work. Instead, the lawyers and judges are changing the very structure of our representative democracy.

The Constitution is being altered dramatically. And it is the foundation of our republic! We are experiencing a constitutional earthquake, and most of our people don’t even know it—yet. Your future is being changed for you, and often you have no input.

This process is sure to lead to anarchy! That is why you and I should be deeply concerned.

Seeking Lawlessness

Why did our Founding Fathers work so hard to establish the Constitution? Because it was to be the supreme law of the land.

“A well-known Harvard law professor,” Mr. Bork wrote, “turned to me with some exasperation and said, ‘Your notion that the Constitution is in some sense law must rest upon an obscure philosophic principle with which I am unfamiliar.’”

But notice what the Constitution itself states: “This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, any thing in the Constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.

“The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”

A Harvard law professor is actually stating that the Constitution is not even law! That view comes from our most prestigious university. The very fact that he would even make that statement shows that we are already getting into extreme lawlessness!

The majority of our leaders now agree with the Harvard law professor. He made a statement that shows we are failing to establish the rule of law. The real issue here is lawlessness.

That means your future will be adversely affected.

Cal Thomas wrote in the March 8, 2000, Washington Times, “In the final Democratic debate before the Super Tuesday election, Vice President Al Gore responded to a question about the type of Supreme Court justices he as president would select: ‘I would look for justices of the Supreme Court who understand that our Constitution is a living and breathing document, that it was intended by our founders to be interpreted in the light of the constantly evolving experience of the American people.’ …

“Mr. Gore’s view of the Constitution, shared by most political liberals, is one of the most dangerous philosophies of our time. It establishes a class of philosopher-kings who determine the rights of the people and shreds the Constitution as a document that conforms people to unchanging principles that promote their own and the general welfare.

“A ‘living’ Constitution, notes constitutional attorney John Whitehead, means the Constitution is ‘up for grabs,’ and it becomes whatever the justices decide, not the people through their elected representatives ….

“The founders never intended the courts to be supreme. Their intention was that the law, rooted in objective and unchanging truth, would be preeminent.”

Law scholars today don’t believe the Constitution was “rooted in objective and unchanging truth”—that is, they don’t believe our founders established the rule of law. But that’s just what the founders did. And now most lawyers and judges reject their foundational work.

Our views today reflect a deadly degeneration into lawlessness!

The liberal culture in politics wants a “living Constitution.” Mr. Bork stated that many liberals imply the Constitution is dead. They don’t want unchanging truth, established 200 years ago, to direct their lives.

The liberal religious culture similarly wants a “living Bible.” Their “intelligence” demands that they adapt the Bible to modern times—even though every word was inspired by God (Matthew 4:4).

Most religions preach that God’s law was done away, in spite of what Jesus said in Matthew 5:17-18: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Christ came to fulfill, or fill the law to the full. He essentially was saying every t must be crossed and every i dotted. Still, many thought, and still think, that He came to destroy the law. They refuse to believe the truth!

Christians are supposedly people who follow Christ, the Lawgiver. That is how they got their name “Christian.”

But whether secular or religious, we are racing into lawlessness, and our nation is plunging toward disaster. Any good history book will show us that!

The Bible should be even more convicting. Study it and see the deadly danger of lawlessness.

When the new U.S. government was established, Benjamin Franklin said that we have “a republic, if you can keep it.“ It’s all about either establishing the rule of law—or descending into lawlessness.

Stumbling at the Law

Some time ago I read one of the most unbiblical statements about God’s law ever made by a religious leader in God’s Church. Joseph Tkach Sr., now deceased, was pastor general of the Worldwide Church of God. He wrote in his member and co-worker letter of May 27, 1992, “The Ten Commandments are important, but they are not enough. Jesus warned the Pharisees, who were strict legalists: ‘Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness’ (Matthew 23:27-28).”

The Bible does not say, “Woe to you, teachers of the law.” That was Mr. Tkach’s interpretation. The better translations make no mention of the word law. You can find the word law in some paraphrased versions of the Bible and a few incorrect translations that add the word law because translators thought it fit the context—or because they hate God’s law. The word law is not in the Greek manuscript. The word law is inserted by those men who are either ignorant of God’s law or are trying to destroy it!

Mr. Tkach said this in that same co-worker letter: “These moral problems, along with the more ‘invisible’ moral problems of neglect and oppression of the weak and the poor, and corruption in business, politics and religion, would indeed be improved if people began keeping the Ten Commandments. However, it is a common mistake to assume, ‘If everybody would just keep the Ten Commandments, what a nice world we would have.’ Christians should consider that the Ten Commandments do not require kindness, mercy, compassion, generosity, sacrifice for others, impartiality, patience or love. Nor do the Ten Commandments specifically forbid conceit, envy, hatred, rage or selfish ambition.”

He said “the Ten Commandments do not require kindness, mercy ….” Let’s back up just four verses before those Mr. Tkach quoted: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone” (verse 23). Here the “law” is mentioned in God’s Word. And it says one of the weightier matters of the law is “mercy”!

Mr. Tkach also said the Ten Commandments “do not require … sacrifice … or love.” But notice 1 John 5:3: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.” God says keeping the law is love! In other words, if you don’t keep the Ten Commandments, you don’t have real love.

Mr. Tkach created his own phony “love” outside of God’s law.

“Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40). The great commandment that sums up the Ten Commandments is the subject here. God says the law means you must love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself!

How could you love your neighbor as much as yourself without sacrifice? Without patience? How could you love your neighbor as yourself (an unbelievably deep, hard-to-fathom love) and still have “conceit, envy, hatred or selfish ambition” toward your neighbor?

Mr. Tkach made some outrageous statements. However, it was all prophesied to happen to God’s own Laodicean Church in the end time: “For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 2:7-8). If we know the Bible, we know Mr. Tkach caused many people “to stumble at the law”! He “departed out of the way.” He led many away from God’s law. Woe be to those who follow his instructions!

God’s Nature and Character

In his book Mystery of the Ages, Mr. Armstrong wrote, “Most important of all however is what is God’s nature—His character—like? One cannot know what God is unless he knows what His character is!

“The character of both God the Father and Christ the Son is that of spiritual holiness, righteousness and absolute perfection.

“That character might be summed up in the one word love, defined as an outflowing, loving concern. It is the way of giving, serving, helping, sharing, not the ‘get’ way.

“It is the way devoid of coveting, lust and greed, vanity and selfishness, competition, strife, violence and destruction, envy and jealousy, resentment and bitterness.

“God’s inherent nature is the way of peace, of justice, mercy, happiness and joy radiating outward toward those He has created! …

“Their [God and the Word’s] way of life produced perfect peace, cooperation, happiness, accomplishment. This way of life became a law.” God’s way of life became the law!

When two leaders of God’s Church have such fundamental and gigantic differences in how they teach God’s law, one of them is frighteningly wrong!

God’s people are being judged now by whom we follow and how we keep God’s law.

Eternal Life at Stake

“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Revelation 22:18-19).

Those are very strong words. The subject is those who lose their eternal lives because of how they deal with the words of God’s Bible. If you add to God’s words, you receive the plagues that are written in the Bible.

But that’s not all. If you take away some of the words of the Bible, you will lose your eternal life! What could be more serious?

Mr. Tkach Sr. had been in the Worldwide Church of God since the 1950s. He worked unusually close to Mr. Armstrong the last seven years of Mr. Armstrong’s life. He was given an opportunity to learn the truth of God as few men on this Earth ever have been!

Let all ministers of God beware of how they handle God’s words!

The Mystery of Lawlessness

Did you know that most of God’s people fear facing the truth of 2 Thessalonians 2? And there is a good reason why. This chapter discusses two men—definite individuals. They are both revealed in a great apostasy or falling away just before Christ returns.

So God’s people must have this truth revealed or we are not God’s true Church. Now is the time for this truth to be revealed. God said that both of these men would be “revealed” in a great “falling away,” or “great revolt” as the Williams Bible translates it. The context also shows it as a great falling away. After all, the man of sin, better translated lawlessness, leads God’s own temple (His Church today) away from God! (verses 3-4). He is a son of perdition, or destruction. This means he destroys God’s truth, which is known to God’s people. “Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle” (verse 15). The word traditions should read instructions. The man of lawlessness is destroying what God’s people “have been taught.” There is no excuse for God’s people not holding on to God’s revealed truth.

So who taught these doctrines to God’s people? “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way” (verse 7). The expression “he who now letteth will let” should read “he who now restrains will restrain” until God removes him—a specific physical man!

The mystery of iniquity (better translated lawlessness) was already there before he was removed. He was restraining it. But when this man was removed there was an explosive revolt against the truth he taught God’s Church. So this whole revolt revolved around God’s government. This man used God’s government to restrain the mystery of iniquity. When he was removed, the Church he founded rejected the government he taught—God’s government. This led to a very radical rebellion—probably the worst ever in God’s Church!

This is all part of God’s plan. God wants to know who can be used by Him without being deceived by a man. Those who rebel are deceived. They are losing their eternal lives!

“And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (verse 10). The word perish should read “are perishing.” Many of God’s own people are perishing spiritually even as you read this booklet!

Only those people who can identify these two men are doing God’s Work today. God reveals the mystery of iniquity only to His own true Church and Work. You can never understand the mystery unless you deeply know those two men. They are the key players in the mystery of iniquity.

This is the only sign God gives to His Church that Christ’s return is imminent! Obviously, God’s true Church must see that sign.

The Philadelphia era of the Church may have been the greatest Work God ever built on Earth. God used one man to build it. He allowed another man to destroy most of that Work in a very short span of time! You and I must understand why. God’s true Church must see and understand this colossal tragedy!

The man of sin is a rebel—totally against God’s law. The man who restrained the mystery of iniquity or lawlessness had to be a great law keeper. Humanly, he led the government used to enforce God’s law. God’s government is based on His law. Without God’s government, there is nobody to enforce the law. God said the man of sin would be revealed “in his time” (verse 6). That time is now. God’s promise and reputation are at stake! This understanding reveals where God is working today.

Malachi’s Message is the only book on Earth that teaches the truth about 2 Thessalonians 2! This book reveals who these two men are. The mystery of iniquity has been revealed as God said it would be!

Whether you realize it or not, your future revolves around this mystery. Many of God’s own people are going to perish spiritually because they refuse to understand.

Request a free copy of Malachi’s Message. It could lead to your salvation, physically and spiritually!

Source of Lawlessness

Even angelic empires fell because of lawlessness. This was Lucifer’s problem. “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity [lawlessness] was found in thee” (Ezekiel 28:15). Lucifer was perfect until he rejected God’s law. “By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire” (verse 16). He sinned, and sin is the transgression of God’s law (1 John 3:4). Then violence was all around him. God’s law prevents violence. But this lawless world is filled with violence.

God had to cast Lucifer down. Today Lucifer (renamed Satan) has no more access to God’s throne. So his empire was shaken and is destined to totally fall.

Satan is still the god of this world, though shortly to be replaced by Christ. “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:4). That means this world worships him as its god and follows his lawless ways!

Satan has deceived the whole world (Revelation 12:9). And this world continues in his violent ways. Human survival has become our number one problem. We would destroy every man, woman, child and all flesh if Christ didn’t intervene and stop human annihilation (Matthew 24:21-22).

But Christ is about to intervene, and the wonderful rule of God’s law is about to be established forever!

We hear about all kinds of abuse today. But abuse within the family is far more damaging than any other. It is harder for the victims to recover.

Such abuse has far-reaching consequences which most people do not understand. The physical family is a God-plane relationship. First, there was the God family plan. Then God created the physical family to help bring human beings into the God Family.

Abuse within the physical family makes this transition far more difficult. Satan knows this, and that is why he works so hard to destroy marriages and families.

God gives us His government to protect and nourish His Family.

That is why the god of this world, Satan, works so hard to cause people to hate God’s government. Without God’s loving government, marriages and families disintegrate.

All we have to do is look around in this world to see that tragedy.

The biggest controversy in God’s own Church today is over government. It has caused what is probably the worst division ever in God’s Church—in terms of the number of people affected.

One of the greatest sins a minister of God can commit is to abuse God’s family government. It does damage that even reaches into eternity!

This abuse can involve being too harsh or too permissive. The only way to reach the proper balance is to totally surrender to God’s loving government yourself. Jesus Christ must administer that government through each person (Philippians 2:5).

God’s Work and Family will never serve their purpose without God’s government. But it must always be a loving family government. “Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren; The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity. Honour widows that are widows indeed” (1 Timothy 5:1-3). God says the ministers are to treat Church members as their own physical family members. That means we should treat younger people like brothers and sisters. Older people should be dealt with as mothers and fathers and grandparents. In other words, the physical family helps us to see how we are to love our fellow Church members. It aids us mightily in understanding God’s Family.

However, it still goes much deeper than any human love in a physical family. God injects His own love into the Church, and we grow into the very unity of the God Family. We build the same oneness that Christ and the Father have. “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me” (John 17:20-23).

After conversion, we must love each other the way Christ loved us. “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34). That means we should be willing to die for each other as Christ died for us!

God’s government can be a dangerous tool if it is abused. We are cursed if we follow a man (Jeremiah 17:5). That is why we must let God teach us. Man’s government can never work. We have 6,000 years of bad fruits to prove that fact. It is time we learn the “new commandment” Christ taught us. If we learn it today, God will use us to teach the whole world very soon. Man’s government is about to end forever!

God has been trying to teach physical and spiritual Israel His government from the beginning of time. There are many examples of this in the Old Testament for our learning today. But men generally reason around these vital lessons because they don’t want God to rule them!

Joshua and Judges

Joshua and Judges were one book originally. These books are part of the former prophets, which also include 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings. These books are called former prophets because they contain prophecy, especially for the end time. (Request our free book The Former Prophets.)

Moses died just before Israel entered the Promised Land. Joshua led the Israelites to their final destination.

The Promised Land is a type of the Kingdom of God. But there is one big difference today. All of the adults in ancient Israel died in the wilderness because of their rebellion. They will be resurrected in the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11-12). They will, at that time, have their first opportunity for salvation.

God’s very elect today will soon enter the Kingdom of God. If we die in the spiritual wilderness, we shall lose our eternal lives. This is our only chance to be saved.

The books of Joshua and Judges contain prophecy of how we shall succeed or fail.

The example of Moses and Joshua is a striking parallel to what is happening in God’s Church today.

Joshua was one of the few Israelites who was converted. His book has some powerful lessons to teach us about getting into God’s Kingdom. That is how some of the prophecy comes into play.

Joshua learned the government God taught through Moses and never compromised with it. The very elect today follow his example and submit to the government God taught through His end-time Elijah—Herbert W. Armstrong.

This is the only way for us to get into the Promised Land, God’s Kingdom! Those who fail here will die forever in the spiritual wilderness, or the lake of fire.

These prophetic books reveal how to be God’s greatest success story forever—or how to be an example of the most towering failures forever!

The stakes are forever today. We can’t escape that powerful truth. Our calling is about living forever—or dying forever.

The Ark of the Covenant

Why is the ark discussed so much in the Bible? “And Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host; And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it” (Joshua 3:1-3). Gold covered the lid on the ark, which is a type of God’s throne (2 Samuel 6:2).

God ruled ancient Israel, and He rules His Church today, from that throne.

The contents of the ark were: 1) the Ten Commandments, 2) the rod of Aaron (which we shall show is a type of God’s government), and 3) manna (a type of our spiritual food today; John 6:49-51).

First, you have God’s law, His Ten Commandments. Then you must have a government (Aaron’s rod) to implement that law. There was one man, Moses, who governed Israel, under God, in the wilderness. When Moses died, he was replaced by Joshua—one man—who enforced the law for God. Always, God uses one-man rule.

When you have God’s law and government, then He will feed you manna, or spiritual food, today. Only the Church with God’s law and government is fed God’s revealed manna, or truth. God reveals it only to “babes,” those submissive to His government (Matthew 11:25).

God will not use anyone to do His Work until they learn this lesson! Any other approach leads to spiritual starvation! God cuts off the spiritual manna.

There was a physical ark anciently and there is a spiritual ark today. The contents are the same. Ancient Israel obeyed the letter of God’s law. Spiritual Israel, the Church, keeps the spirit of the law today.

“And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months” (Revelation 11:1-2). These verses discuss an inner court and an outer court. The inner court is where God dwells. That is where the physical ark was anciently. And that is where the spiritual ark is today.

Most of God’s people today have rejected God’s government. They are in the outer court, which is not where God dwells. That is why Revelation 3:20 says God is on the outside, knocking to get in.

During the Great Tribulation, the Gentiles will “tread under foot” the Laodiceans. That means the Laodiceans will be subject to the most grueling and cruel slavery. The Gentiles will treat them worse than animals. This is the only way God can teach His own people to submit to His government. May God help us to submit today.

The ark anciently was where God’s rule was—as it is today. That is why Joshua told Israel to “go after it”! He wasn’t trying to get the people to follow him. He intensely taught them to follow God.

We must “go after” God—never men! But you and I are responsible to prove which man is pointing us to God. Joshua had priests and Levites to direct people to God. Today we have ministers to perform the same function. The end-time Elijah, Herbert Armstrong, always had his ministers direct the people to God.

God unified Israel around Joshua and the priests. They were all one. “For the priests which bare the ark stood in the midst of Jordan, until every thing was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua: and the people hasted and passed over” (Joshua 4:10). God commanded Joshua to speak to the people according to all that Moses commanded him. Joshua obediently did so.

We are commanded today to teach according to all that God taught through Mr. Armstrong. We are the only Church that does so.

All of the Laodicean groups have rejected God’s government. That is why God only reveals His secrets to His Philadelphia Church today (Amos 3:7).

“There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them” (Joshua 8:35). Joshua didn’t reject even one word that God taught through Moses.

When God sends a man to deliver a message, it is extremely dangerous to reject even one word!

Joshua showed us how to follow the ark today. He also prophesied a great warning to anyone who would dare even reject one word of God’s message through His messenger.

There was an end-time Joshua who failed utterly in following the example of the Joshua under Moses (Zechariah 3:1). This is a great warning to all of God’s people in this end time.

One-Man Rule

Through Joshua and Moses, God taught Israel His government. “On that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life” (Joshua 4:14). They went from one-man rule to one-man rule. God gave the leaders authority for one purpose.

“And the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Command the priests that bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of Jordan. Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan. And it came to pass, when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before” (verses 15-18).

Joshua was told to command the priests what to do with the ark. That is government through one man to assure that the people focus on the ark, or God. The priests with the ark led the way. It was a physical reminder that God was leading them. Joshua and the ministers always made certain that God was the real leader of Israel.

The priests with the spiritual ark today also lead God’s people. These ministers are in the inner court. Though they may not have stature with men, God uses them to do His Work.

God divided the Jordan River and provided dry land for Israel to cross. That was just one of the many miracles God performed. It was always that way when they were submissive to God’s government.

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8). God performs great miracles for His people if they submit to Him. Look at the power available to those who obey God. All we have to do is keep God’s law and government, then He feeds us spiritually and leads us into the Kingdom.

Still, men want to decide for themselves which government to obey. As long as they do that, they will receive none of God’s wonderful blessings. Instead, they will be cursed.

God had a family plan for Israel. “And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. For the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over” (Joshua 4:21-23). He wanted Israel to teach their children about their miraculous crossing of the Jordan River. They were instructed to build a monument to this mind-dazzling miracle. Then the parents would explain its meaning to their children and relate it to the Red Sea miracle.

The American and British peoples are greatly cursed today because they fail to teach their children about God’s many miracles. Our educational system and most religions today usually teach the opposite. Our children are taught to look upon these examples as Old Testament fantasy. That is why we don’t experience such miracles today! Even worse, God is cursing our peoples because of their rebellion.

It takes a strong government to assure that God and His awesome power are kept before the people. Throughout most of Israel’s history it has done just the opposite.

Was this lesson only to be taught to Israel? “That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the Lord your God for ever” (verse 24). Israel was to teach “all the people of the earth” how mighty God is so they would fear Him. Do they see how mighty and powerful He is? Do our peoples fear God today? Anybody can see they do not!

Joshua knew that God planned for Israel to lead the world to God. This has always been God’s goal. That is the Church’s job today.

However, most of God’s own people have rejected God’s government taught through Mr. Armstrong. They have rejected Aaron’s rod. Now they cause people to “stumble at the law” (Malachi 2:8). Therefore God does not feed them spiritual manna—His revelation, or secrets.

God’s government rules God’s true Church today. God is going to use these people to help Him enforce His law in the World Tomorrow (Revelation 2:26-27). The world will be led and fed spiritually by the omnipotent God.

That is what the ark of the covenant is all about. The book of Joshua contains prophecy of our wonderful future.

Ancient Democracy

After Joshua and his elders died, Israel moved into a period covered in the book of Judges. When Joshua was alive, people were directed by this one man under God. But after he died, things changed. They began to rebel against God’s government. So there was a change of government under the judges, which God allowed. People now had to voluntarily come to the judges for counsel and direction. There were not even enough judges to go around.

This new form of government proved to be a real catastrophe. Judges is the bloodiest book in the Bible. They no longer had a Moses or Joshua to point them to the ark. Israel no longer wanted God’s rule. Many judges went astray. It was just another human government that failed. Sooner or later they all do! Remember, Judges is a book of prophecy.

Today, God’s own Church became divided after Mr. Armstrong died. Most of God’s people have become lukewarm and have rejected God’s rule. That choice is leading them to the bloodiest events ever in God’s Church. This lukewarm Church is going to experience the bloodiest time ever on Earth—the Great Tribulation. That is because they reject Aaron’s rod! And for that reason, 50 percent of them will lose their eternal lives (Matthew 25:1-10).

These words ought to strike terror into all of God’s people! But lukewarm people are not listening to God’s Spirit.

The very elect always choose Aaron’s rod, or God’s government, because they cannot be deceived (Matthew 24:24).

Look again at the kind of government ancient Israel had after Joshua died: “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). For emphasis, God repeats this statement (see Judges 21:25). This is a book of prophecy. You can find Israel today by understanding this verse. What nations are passionately into democracy? America, Britain, Israel and most of the democracies in northwestern Europe.

The modern descendants of biblical Israel are about to become the bloodiest nations ever, if they don’t turn to God’s rule! Everybody today wants to do what is right in his own eyes. The book of Judges prophesies the terrifying outcome of such a system of rule!

This is always the fate of Israel without a strong Moses or Joshua to lead it to God. Satan knows how to exploit the many weaknesses of a democracy to bring it down.

Even though a democracy is probably the best government man has created, it is always destined to fail.

There is a telling story in Judges 19 and 20. A man and his concubine traveling through Israel couldn’t find a place to stay. So an old man invited them into his home. Then a gang of homosexual thugs came and demanded to sexually abuse the male guest. They finally took his concubine. They abused her until she died.

Israel was so divided the people could not even agree on how to deal with this vile atrocity! A bloody history indeed.

Judges 4 and 5 tell the story of Deborah. She had to lead Israel, especially into warfare, because there were no strong male leaders. She did so, but she told the men it would be to their shame!

She even sang of this national tragedy. Deborah had to “mother” Israel (Judges 5:7). There were no great men trained to be like Joshua.

We see horrifying tragedies today in America and Britain. Shouldn’t these tragedies cause strong men to rise up in wrath and strength? But there is usually silence.

The question is why?

Israel today is very much like it was in the history of Deborah. Families reject the rule of God. The Bible prophesied in Judges and Isaiah 3:12 that women would rule and children oppress the families today. We may call our marriages a 50-50 rule today, but God says the women rule!

What are the fruits of such a marriage? Very weak and effeminate boys!

Such a family also causes the girls to become overly aggressive, and the problem is perpetuated.

Some people will get angry at these words. They need to understand they are really angry at God! Our people have destroyed God’s family government, and when you destroy the family, you destroy the nation!

Looking at the physical family reveals where we are spiritually. If the man is not the head, God doesn’t rule the family (that is, in marriages that are still intact). It is true that the husband and wife are to submit to God and each other. Still, the man is to be the head. And if the woman cannot submit to him, she cannot submit to Christ (Ephesians 5:21-22). The flip side is that the man must love his wife so much that he would die for her—as Christ died for His wife, the Church (verse 25).

That is the kind of family government that builds great nations.

This is a lesson that God’s people must learn spiritually. Christ is the Church’s Husband. He must be ruling His Church by living in us. “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:19-20). Those in God’s own Laodicean Church have refused to let Christ into their lives. They reject His rule, or Aaron’s rod. The Laodiceans refuse to let their Husband be the Head of His Family! God is knocking and rebuking today. If they don’t listen, He is going to scourge them in the Tribulation.

The Laodiceans don’t understand about the ark today. When Israel went to conquer Jericho, the priests led the way with the ark. After Israel’s army marched around Jericho seven times, the walls fell down flat. Everybody knew it was caused by God’s power.

There are numerous examples like this in the Old Testament. The ark was always kept in God’s sanctuary, or holy of holies (1 Kings 8:6-7). Leaders lived and died. Kings and priests were ordained into office, ruled and died. But the ark always remained. It symbolized God’s presence, which should have been with them always. Israel was continually great when the people looked to God. They were always conquered when they failed to do so.

And so it is today. The only way for us to overcome Satan is through God’s power. That power is given only to those who submit to God’s rule.

The Ark and the New Testament

We need to see that the ark is not just mentioned in the Old Testament. It is also emphasized in the New Testament. “Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary” (Hebrews 9:1). The first covenant was the Old Covenant. Now we are into the New Covenant. We must look at the ark from a spiritual perspective. “For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all” (verses 2-3). The “Holiest of all” is God’s sanctuary, where the ark—containing the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s rod and the manna—is located.

Why did Paul discuss the ark in the New Covenant? Because we have the same contents today, but on a spiritual level. We are striving to gain eternal life today, not a physical Promised Land. Therefore we must get it right. Nothing is more important.

“And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail” (Revelation 11:19). This is God’s temple in heaven. There is an ark of the testament, or covenant, in the midst of lightning and thunderings and earthquakes—a very impressive sight.

The ark in heaven came first. God had Israel build a physical ark patterned after the ark in heaven. It was a symbol of God’s rule on Earth as in heaven.

Solomon built the most beautiful temple ever on Earth. He had the ark brought to the holy of holies. There were two physical cherubs with outstretched wings over the ark. That is the way it literally is in heaven over God’s throne.

The ark will play a key role in Christ’s rule over the nations. This is a prophecy. God will administer His law and feed the world with great abundance, physically and spiritually.

Almost immediately after Christ returns, the world will be introduced to the ark. God is preparing us now to teach about the ark. We must understand this vital subject. The ark of the covenant is for the whole world.

Where Is God’s Government?

Anciently, on the Day of Atonement, only the high priest went into the holy of holies where the ark was. He put incense on live coals, producing a cloud of smoke over the mercy seat which covered the ark. The mercy seat was a symbol of God’s merciful throne.

It is called the mercy seat because God always rules with mercy. There is never an exception! This is such a hard lesson for man to learn. We must learn that lesson very deeply today. God will rule us forever! If not, we will die forever!

The high priest also sprinkled the blood of a bullock on the mercy seat. This was a type of Christ’s blood. It was an atonement for the priesthood. Then he sprinkled blood in front of the ark for the people.

Christ’s blood was shed for all of us. And if there was a type of His blood on the ark, we must not be casual toward it. We must understand! It is a red-light warning. Christ spilled His precious blood for us. If we are not serious about this, we deserve to die for eternity!

We must accept the blood of Christ for our sins and follow His sacrificing life. God wants us in His holy of holies. But we can never be there unless God totally rules us.

Anciently, Joshua led carnal-minded people without God’s Holy Spirit. Only a few, like Joshua and Caleb, had God’s Spirit. That is not so today. All of God’s people have His Holy Spirit.

God’s government is based on the law today, but it is elevated to a spiritual level.

We must take the lessons of the Old Testament and apply them spiritually today. Paul said their examples were for our learning (1 Corinthians 10:11).

Where Is God?

We need to understand the beginning history of Aaron’s rod. “Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men: And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown” (Numbers 16:1-2). These were famous men in the congregation—men of stature. They could be compared to evangelists in God’s Church today.

“And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?” (verse 3). They were against Moses and Aaron. That means they were also against God’s government. Their desire was not to serve God’s people. They said to Moses and Aaron, “Ye take too much upon you.” The truth is, Moses pleaded with God to get out of this job! But God insisted. So when Korah, Dathan and Abiram said, You lift yourselves up above the congregation, that was a serious mistake. God lifted Moses and Aaron up and put them in charge. The truth was that these men were doing what they accused Moses and Aaron of doing.

“And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face: And he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even to morrow the Lord will shew who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto him: even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him. This do; Take you censers, Korah, and all his company; And put fire therein, and put incense in them before the Lord to morrow: and it shall be that the man whom the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy: ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi” (verses 4-7). Moses told these rebels that they were guilty of the very sin they accused him and Aaron of: You take too much upon you, you sons of Levi.

Here was a serious government problem in God’s congregation. This rebellion was confusing God’s people. So God devised a plan to show “who is holy.” Moses assured them “the Lord will shew who are his.”

Today we see a deeply divided Church of God. They are separated by one issue only: God’s government.

Korah and his cohorts were talking about the evils of one-man government, which is always the kind God establishes. Today even many of God’s own people discuss the evils of one-man government!

That is the kind of government God always established under men like Moses, Joshua, David, Peter and Herbert W. Armstrong. Government is always the problem with those people who rebel against God!

God always shows who His true leader is—if people honestly want to know!

Korah and his followers already had exalted positions (verses 8-10). But they wanted more authority. Moses asked them, “For which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord: and what is Aaron, that ye murmur against him?” (verse 11). When we are against God’s true leaders, then we are against God!

“And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab: which said, We will not come up” (verse 12). God inspired Moses to call an assembly, and some of the rebels had such bad attitudes they wouldn’t even attend. They were not seeking the truth as they told the people.

God is inspiring assemblies today, but the Laodiceans refuse to attend. That is because they are against God’s government!

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the congregation, saying, Get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And Moses rose up and went unto Dathan and Abiram; and the elders of Israel followed him. And he spake unto the congregation, saying, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins. So they gat up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side: and Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood in the door of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little children. And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of mine own mind” (verses 23-28). These men really didn’t know that God sent the great lawgiver Moses!

They sat at his feet for years and still didn’t know! They were some of the most exalted leaders in the congregation and they didn’t know!

Mr. Armstrong taught that he fulfilled the office of the end-time Elijah, spoken of in Malachi 4:5-6 and Matthew 17:10-11. Now, the leading men who worked with Mr. Armstrong for years say they don’t believe he was the end-time Elijah. When he was alive, they said they believed he filled that office, but not now.

However, that is not the end of the story. God is still going to show them the truth—just like He did Korah, Dathan and Abiram!

What a mind-paralyzing way to learn! These men were swallowed by an earthquake and died (Numbers 16:29-35). Others had a plague sent among them.

So then what? God still had to show them the man He was using. Here is where Aaron’s rod enters the picture. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers, of all their princes according to the house of their fathers twelve rods: write thou every man’s name upon his rod. And thou shalt write Aaron’s name upon the rod of Levi: for one rod shall be for the head of the house of their fathers. And thou shalt lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation before the testimony, where I will meet with you. And it shall come to pass, that the man’s rod, whom I shall choose, shall blossom: and I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel, whereby they murmur against you” (Numbers 17:1-5). This was to solve the murmuring problem about who was in charge.

“And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, and every one of their princes gave him a rod apiece, for each prince one, according to their fathers’ houses, even twelve rods: and the rod of Aaron was among their rods” (verse 6). The prince of each tribe had a rod. Aaron also had a rod. He was Moses’s spokesman.

“And Moses laid up the rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness. And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds” (verses 7-8). Aaron’s rod was the only rod that put forth buds, blossoms and almonds. An obvious miracle from God!

There is a giant spiritual lesson here! Where you find God’s government, you will find that it buds, blossoms and bears fruit!

Today many rebels refuse to see that miracle. Unless they repent, they will die eternally! The stakes are much higher today.

“And Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord unto all the children of Israel: and they looked, and took every man his rod. And the Lord said unto Moses, Bring Aaron’s rod again before the testimony, to be kept for a token against the rebels; and thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me, that they die not” (verses 9-10). All of the people saw that Aaron’s rod budded, blossomed and bore almonds.

Moses—one man—pointed Israel to the rod of Aaron. And then God supported Moses as their leader.

God commanded them to “take away their murmuring from me” or die! They were not rebelling against Moses and Aaron, but against God! There is no way to escape God’s rule through men today, if we want to live forever and rule with Christ. That is the lesson God’s own Laodicean Church has yet to learn.

Then God had them keep that rod as a token against the “rebels.” They were not honest scholars. They were not seekers after God’s truth. They were rebels!

That is exactly what the Laodiceans are today. Soon the whole world will know.

So God had Aaron’s rod put inside the ark to remind physical and spiritual Israel about these rebels. It was to teach a lesson to God’s people throughout their history, including today! That is why we are taught about the ark in the New Testament. Unless we can learn this lesson, we have no future.

Find God’s government and you will see a “marvellous work and a wonder” (Isaiah 29:14). There is obvious growth there that is miraculously produced by God, as it was on Aaron’s rod. However, we all must individually measure God’s Word correctly.

The beauty is, we can know where God’s Work is. Only the rebels fail to know.

The Laodiceans cannot see it because they are blind (Revelation 3:17). But they are blind because they reject Aaron’s rod. That rod is discussed in the Old and New Testaments. Everybody is without excuse.

These examples are the very strongest warning for God’s Laodicean Church and the world today. Those who reject Aaron’s rod face physical and spiritual death! No warning could be stronger! We must “hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (verse 22).

The former prophets contain prophecy of where God’s government is today! And remember, you’ll never be fed spiritually any other place in the whole world! We never have to fear government based on God’s law of love.

In ancient Israel, 50,000 people died because they looked into the ark (1 Samuel 6:18-19). They were doing something only the priests were permitted to do.

Uzzah was struck dead because he touched the ark to steady it over rough ground (2 Samuel 6:1-8). David was angry because he thought God had been too harsh. But there were clear instructions inside the ark that only the Levites were to care for the ark.

That ark was a symbol of God’s presence and His rule. Aaron’s rod was inside the ark.

Many thousands of Laodiceans are going to die in the Tribulation because they will not heed God’s instructions. God is going to force the world to respect His government.

When will we ever learn that God is only trying to save lives—physically and spiritually. It is we who are so hard—not God!

Billions of people will die in the Tribulation and the Day of the Lord because they didn’t heed God’s message! Billions! And probably not one of them would die if they submitted to God’s Word.

God is teaching all of the firstfruits a precious lesson. We are going to rule the world and ultimately the universe. God must make certain that we don’t wreck His creation the way Satan and man have.

What a spectacular reward awaits those who submit to Aaron’s rod today! There could never be adequate words to describe the magnificent future we will have!

Deuteronomy speaks of 10,000 saints, or “ten thousands of saints,” coming from Mount Paran, located in Petra, Jordan. It is speaking of God’s people in a place of safety in the end time.

“And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. And he said, The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them” (Deuteronomy 33:1-2).

The expression “ten thousands” is from the Hebrew rebabah. Twelve out of 15 times in the Old Testament it means 10,000. A reference for one other instance also says 10,000. The word can also mean a myriad, or a large or indefinite number, but that wouldn’t very well describe the little flock of God, nor even all of the firstfruits. This is specifically talking about 10,000 saints that Christ brings from Paran at His Second Coming.

Fire of Law

Notice that when God came with these saints, from His right hand went a fiery law for them. These people are directly connected to God’s law—the “fire of law,” as it says in Hebrew. This world is soon going to be on fire for God’s law.

Now, if you have a fire of law with which to set the world on fire, you need a government to administer that law.

So here you have 10,000 saints who will be used by God, with the other firstfruits who are raised up. These people come from Paran, and they become God’s government to set the world on fire with law.

Naturally, God wants us to set our lives on fire with His law and government, because that’s what we will do in this world very soon. The 10,000 saints will be a part of the government that will teach God’s law to the world and build this Earth the way it should be built. Is there a real fire in us for God’s law?

Deuteronomy 33:3 states, “Yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words.” God loved these saints, and they sat down at His feet to receive of His words. He directed them, and He had them in His hands. These people were really directed by Jesus Christ.

Consider how soon God will need these people to administer that government. We see so much prophecy being fulfilled today.

The book of Habakkuk comments on this same prophecy: “A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth. O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy” (Habakkuk 3:1-2). “In the midst of the years,” or at the crisis years of the end of this age, God’s Work needs to be revived. We’ve lived through this part of the prophecy.

“God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise” (verse 3). This is the same story as the one in Deuteronomy. This Earth is about to be filled with God’s praise, and it will be those 10,000 people and all of the firstfruits doing it. How? By administering God’s law to this world. This is what we’re preparing for. Without law, everything falls apart. God’s fire of law is needed to fill this Earth with praise.

God Is Counting

Jude talks about the same thing: “Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever” (Jude 13). Here are demons “foaming out their own shame”—wandering stars. What did they wander from? God’s law. The Hebrew expression Kadesh-barnea (i.e. Deuteronomy 9:23) refers to the Israelites also being wandering sons. They wandered away from God’s law. And God says that in this end time, most of His people, His sons, are wandering away from the law. What a contrast to those 10,000 who are growing and developing, who are so excited and moved about law they will set this world on fire with it! They are sons who keep their Father’s law.

“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints” (Jude 14). Jude must have gotten this information directly from Jesus Christ, because Enoch prophesying about this is not discussed in the Old Testament. But Jude says that Enoch was one of the righteous people after Adam and before the Flood, and he kept God’s law. He prophesied about these 10,000. There is that expression again: Even in the Greek it means myriads or 10,000 or ten thousands. But because it is a parallel to Deuteronomy, it should be the same as it is there. Thayer’s even says 10,000.

God is counting. He is well aware of His sons and that law. That 10,000 figure is miniscule when you consider the number that God has called today. That’s another indication that all the Laodiceans are going to have to die. Fifty percent of them will be resurrected from that death, but they’re going to lose a lot of their splendor and their headquarters position because of their attitude toward the fiery law. What separates the 10,000 from all the other thousands that were in God’s Church in this end time—these sons who are wandering around and don’t know how to teach God’s fire of law? The law is what separates us. The 10,000 keep and teach from the fiery law and use God’s government to enforce it. The unrepentant Laodiceans do not.

“The Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints.” That word cometh actually means came. God sees this as already having happened. That’s the kind of vision God has and the kind that you and I need as well.

Later Jude admonishes us, “Keep yourselves in the love of God …” (verse 21). Of course that refers to the law of God as well, which is His love (1 John 5:3).

Get the Government Right

Being on fire for the law is essential for a minister. “For the priest’s [should be priests’] lips should keep knowledge …” (Malachi 2:7). Ministers represent the government of God! God expects them to keep, or guard, His truth—His LAW! Now, in this Laodicean era, most of them don’t. Instead, they cause people to stumble at the law (verse 8).

The Laodicean groups reject God’s government. They reason around the proof Mr. Armstrong established about the necessity for one-man rule. They have “New Testament government,” or some other version of government. They share authority and “love each other” as they divide and splinter and fracture. But they’re free!—meaning, free to bow their knee to Baal. These types of government they’re experimenting with cause all kinds of stumbling at the law.

If we don’t understand the government as Mr. Armstrong taught it, we simply will not be in that 10,000. Christ is going to return, and we will have to set the world on fire with God’s law and implement it with His government. This is not an oppressive form of rule. It is the freedom that we all should fervently desire.

There are severe consequences for failing in this way: “Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law” (verse 9). They didn’t have God’s government right, and they weren’t teaching God’s law. So God says, I will make you base and contemptible.

When you look at the lives of some of the Laodicean ministers and what they are getting into, you begin to see what God is talking about. These men are being humiliated before everybody. Get away from the law and you become enslaved. You become base and contemptible—especially those in God’s Church, because Satan is turned loose on them. What kind of a life is that? No freedom, certainly. Nothing but shame. But God said it would happen.

You can have Satan’s freedom if you want it—or you can have God’s if you want it. God won’t force us. But once you find true freedom, you had better be willing to fight for it, or you will lose it. Realize how precious it is, and praise God and thank Him because we are the only little group of people on Earth today who are free.

Malachi

There are three verses in Malachi that show that these ministers are dead wrong. “Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments” (Malachi 4:4). You 10,000, remember this law. God gave it to Moses. He wrote it with His own finger. It’s not Moses’s law, but it was given to him. Now the fact that we have judgments in God’s Church shows there is government today and in every era, because you must make judgments about the law and the statutes. Some leader has to make judgments. Moses did it in the Old Testament. Was there anybody to compare with Moses? Was Korah on the same level as Moses? Well, he thought he was—until an earthquake swallowed him.

But notice, there is New Testament prophecy here as well, speaking of the time just before the Day of the Lord. “Behold, I [God] will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” (verses 5-6). What “curse”? God is talking about eternal death. If they don’t get in line with what my Elijah teaches, they will die for all eternity, God says. No one else had that authority, did they? Who compared to Elijah? Who was on the same level as Elijah? Which committee shared his power? Well, they tried but didn’t last long. No evangelist shared that power.

Moses, referred to in verse 4, administered the law in the Old Testament. In this end time, an Elijah came along and did just as Moses did—he administered the law. When people fight God’s one-man government, they’re fighting these verses, and they’re fighting God, and they have to lose! Everything will blow up in their faces! And anybody who goes with them is going to be made contemptible and base.

The 10,000 are not that way. They choose the way to freedom and unity, the way to do a work for God! They are on fire for this law, thrilled to pieces to go out to this whole Earth with Jesus Christ and bring praise to God. They will do it through God’s law because there is no other way. They will administer it and enforce it with a rod of iron.

Mr. Armstrong was a type of Elijah, so there has to be a type of Malachi somewhere, delivering a message of Malachi after Elijah is gone. And he must teach the government of God, since he teaches about Elijah and continues the Elijah work. He would be one of the 10,000, so he must be on fire for God’s law, because that’s what His government is all about.

Discrediting Elijah

To illustrate what I’m talking about, here’s an example. One Laodicean evangelist said, “Mr. Armstrong was a wonderful man of God, as you know. … God used him more powerfully, so far as we know, than any man in doing the Work in the last 1,900 years, and that’s certainly something very, very honorable. So what we need to understand, though, in spite of that, the fact that a number of us got together, that is other evangelists in Pasadena, a few years ago, maybe just a year or two, frankly, before Mr. Armstrong died, and we weren’t trying to put him down or hurt him. We were just thinking. We saw he was near the end of his life and kind of wondered. And so one of the fellows actually was in the media area and talked to others who worked with this kind of thing and were keeping statistics and thinking about it, and we came to the conclusion as best we could put it, that only about 15 to 25 percent of the American people ever heard the name of Herbert Armstrong or at least heard it so they would remember it” (emphasis mine throughout).

I have a feeling Mr. Armstrong never knew about this survey. I don’t know how accurate this is; I’ll just take his word for it that it is accurate. He went over to Britain and he found out only about 1 out of 100 people had heard of Mr. Armstrong. In other parts of Europe, it was 1 out of 1,000. Over in Germany and Italy and Belgium it was even less.

He concluded, “I think that this should help us to understand. So think about this, brethren. Millions of these people, even of that generation, of the generation of those of us who are older, need a real witness.“ Essentially, he is saying that Mr. Armstrong must not have been the man who preached the gospel around the world for all of them as a witness. But what they need now is a real witness! And of course, this evangelist will be the one to give it to them, right?

Now—should we compare what this man is doing today with Mr. Armstrong? Do you want to compare what he’s doing two years from now with what Mr. Armstrong did? For that matter, do you want to compare what he is doing with what we are doing?

Here is what he’s really getting at. He said, “We may be thrown in jail and some of us may have to appear before an appeals court or U.S. Supreme Court or before a congressional committee because we’ve been preaching about a coming government. They’d say, ‘You people are talking about our nation. You’re the bad guys.’ You remember, just like Elijah?” Here he begins to speak about what the real Elijah did. “The Elijah was telling about Israel going to be punished by God and the king was upset and he said, Are you he who troubles Israel?”

Now that’s an interesting statement, because he’s implying that Mr. Armstrong was not the Elijah, but rather that he himself is! That’s his motive in talking like this. This world needs a real witness, he says. You can think about that little survey and say, Mr. Armstrong really didn’t do very much, did he? But Isaiah 40 prophesied that he would be “a voice crying in the wilderness.” In other words, people wouldn’t really pay attention. And Matthew 17:10-11 say Elijah would come and restore all things. This evangelist never talks about that.

This is not a small sin. We need to be aware of how Satan works. He is trying to shift our focus away from what the Bible says and onto a little poll.

But there are 10,000 saints who will come back with Jesus Christ, who will work under Mr. Armstrong and set this world on fire with God’s law! They will fill the world with it. And these men who keep trying to change things around must open their eyes—or they will die forever!

Know Who You Are!

The 10,000 saints love Malachi’s Message because it is God’s revelation and it is all about law. (Request a free copy if you don’t have one.) Those saints cling earnestly to such truth, and that is what distinguishes them from all the rest. There aren’t many of us left! If Satan destroys Malachi’s Message, he destroys God’s Church!

Malachi’s Message is about law. It has seven thunders (Revelation 10:2-3). The first thunder is about lawlessness—the Laodicean era. The next is “Following Elijah” and the law. The next is about the “End-Time Joshua in Bondage” and his lawlessness. The next concerns the “Man of Sin” and his lawlessness. The next is “Prophesy Not,” which describes how the work of God was destroyed because the law and government were destroyed. The next chapter is about “Church Division” over law and government, and about a small group of people who cling to the law. And the last thunder is “Malachi’s Message.”

We must cling to that law and government, or we will be destroyed.

Here is one big difference between this evangelist and me: If he were to write a message like this, he would have to go to the council of elders in his church for permission and they would say, No, you can’t give that message. I don’t go to a council. I get the message from Jesus Christ, and if I don’t write it, that’s what will get me in trouble. That’s the way God’s government works—the same government God gave to Elijah.

God is going to have 10,000 people coming from the place of safety who are on fire for His law and know how to administer His government. This is about ruling the world. It’s about teaching Israel and the Gentiles how to live and how to be free with the law of God. Only a small remnant understand this truth. But as long as you have Jesus Christ with you, it doesn’t matter! We could have two people or one person, and we would still have a majority as long as Christ is with us. We must see that.

How deeply do God’s people know who we are and why we are here and what we are doing? Christ says, When I come back, these people will go out and fill the Earth with praise for God! They will have a fiery law! And Deuteronomy 33:2 says that this fiery law is “for them”! God gives it to them and they know what to do with it. And they’re not afraid to use it. But they are fearful of abusing it.

How this world needs that! When I look at what is happening in this world, I think, Oh, God, help us to get past this! Thy Kingdom come!

Let’s strive mightily to get the Work done and to learn about this fire of law and build a fire in ourselves—a fire for God’s law and government, so that we can go out very soon with Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, as His Bride! To fill the Earth with praise and build a fire in this world for God’s law and for God’s government!

Since Gerald Flurry originally wrote this booklet in 2001, many of the problems he addressed have gotten worse. Statistics regarding alcohol and drug abuse are far higher. Pornography use has increased and become far more socially acceptable. And the 2000 election crisis foreshadowed far more acute political division in the United States.

Here are some factual updates the Trumpet staff has compiled, with quotations from Mr. Flurry followed by more recent statistics.

Page 2: Alcohol abuse comes with a staggering price tag, socially and economically. It costs an estimated $2 billion each year to cover health and welfare services provided to alcoholics and their families in the U.S. Include their decreased productivity at work, and some estimate the problem costs America $7 to $10 billion.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, alcohol abuse costs an estimated $28 billion in health care, $13 billion in car accidents, $25 billion in crime. An additional $179 billion is lost in workplace productivity. This is a staggering $249 billion drain on the U.S. economy every year, more than 20 times the estimated average of 22 years ago.

Page 3: America leads the world in demand for mind-damaging, escapist drugs. Over 77 million Americans have sniffed, smoked, swallowed or injected themselves with illegal drugs; 22 million identify themselves as regular users. Among youth ages 12 to 17, a staggering 10.9 percent are regular drug users!

The National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics reports that half of Americans age 12 and older have used illegal drugs at least once. That’s more than 138 million people—nearly twice as many as in 2001. In 2020, 37.3 million Americans were considered current illegal drug users. Of teenagers, 46.6 percent have tried illegal drugs by the time they reach 12th grade.

Meanwhile, the opioid crisis is killing record numbers of people and littering American cities with drugged-out zombies. Some 9.5 million Americans 12 and older (or 3.4 percent) misuse opioids at least once every year; the vast majority of these use prescription pain relievers. Since 1999, overdose deaths from opioids have increased 500 percent among 15-to-24-year-olds. Accidental drug overdose is a leading cause of death among those under age 45. In 2000, over 70,000 drug overdose deaths were reported, of which 67.8 percent were opioid related.

In 2017, the cost of drug abuse was over $270 billion. The U.S. government budgeted $35 billion for drug control; yet some states have legalized drug use, even providing users with drugs and paraphernalia. Marijuana use is illegal under federal law, yet 15 states have legalized its “recreational” use. So we can expect this problem to continue to grow.

Page 5: Social workers and ministers often discuss a rapidly growing problem. Many people (especially the young) tell these professionals that they are hooked on Internet sex and can’t break the habit. They have become addicted and have lost control.

Psychology Today reports that more than 90 percent of young men today admit to regularly watching porn videos. The world’s largest porn site has over 90 billion videos, which are viewed by more than 64 million users daily. A 2021 survey by Common Sense Media found that 73 percent of teenagers ages 13 to 17 have watched porn online. More than half said they first saw porn by age 13; 15 percent by age 10.

Page 14: This is where most of our leaders are blind. They like an “evolving Constitution,” which places more trust in human reasoning than law. It is a dangerous recipe for disaster. All close elections of the future are apt to be contested. The chaos will spiral out of control unless we make radical changes.

True to this forecast, U.S. elections have been contested routinely since the 2000 election. The 2016 election results giving the presidency to Donald Trump have been openly denied by Democrats for years. In 2020, the election was actually stolen from President Trump by various lawless means. Nearly 70 percent of Republicans and a growing number of Democrats believe the election was stolen. Elections for Senate, the House of Representatives and at the state and local levels have also been contested. Today, the American public’s trust in the election system is at a record low, with 58 percent “only a little” or “not at all” confident that elections reflect the people’s will.

Page 16: The late Tim Russert, host of Meet the Press, said the 2000 election was “the worst political war” he had ever seen. The division between parties was terribly bitter. But the worst is still to come.

Party divisions have grown demonstrably worse. After the 2022 midterm elections, Congress was divided: The Senate was split down the middle with 51 Democrats to 49 Republicans; but Republicans won a narrow majority in the House of Representatives with 222 to 213. Across the states, the division continued with governorships divided 24 to 26 between Democrats and Republicans. The division is also largely between rural and city dwellers. Despite the nearly equal division between parties across the nation, many Republicans have turned out to be ideologically allied with Democrats and unwilling to take truly conservative action. Many American conservatives feel disenfranchised and betrayed by Republican leaders.

Page 36: It took a civil war to overturn that decision. That gives you some idea of how hard it is to change what judges do! Today judges used that same reasoning—“substantive due process”—to say that abortion is constitutional. Mr. Bork believed that reasoning to be a dangerous mistake, and so do I.

In 2021, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, putting the decision back in the state’s control.

Page 38: The media is a big part of the liberal culture—about 80 percent of them. The destruction of our constitutional republic would not be possible without their support. All too often they are deceived, and in turn they have the power to deceive our citizens.

This trend has certainly intensified: Today, nearly all mainstream media has become “liberal,” and a growing majority of it would be better characterized as leftist. This includes social media, which has come to have significant power to shape public opinion, and has been proved to be strongly controlled by federal authorities. The role of these media outlets in supporting unconstitutional government measures has been robust in recent years, promoting stories that support their agenda and ignoring or actively suppressing stories that contradict it. Examples include scaremongering coverage of the covid-19 pandemic featuring incessant and inflated death totals, aggressive promotion of untested vaccines and vaccine boosters, and demonization of anyone who voiced contrary views. Another powerful example was the way politicians and media characterized the January 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol as an insurrection that threatened the nation’s democracy more than 9/11 or Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.

In 2021, Elon Musk purchased social media site Twitter (since renamed X) in an effort to counter this one-sided messaging. Within months, he released “the Twitter Files,” exposing profound government interference in mass media to push leftist views and to target those who contradict them. (For more on this subject, request our free book America Under Attack.)

American society has been transformed. The lawlessness in our society is far more advanced than when this booklet was first written in 2001. The only path to true freedom from the terrible curses afflicting our nation is to turn to God and obey His perfect law.