Introduction

What is the key of David? Why is it important?

It is specifically mentioned only two times in the Bible. Yet this key has been central to the Philadelphia Church of God’s beliefs from the beginning of our work in 1989. God inspired us to name our television program The Key of David back in 1993. I was giving sermons and writing articles on this subject even before then. I first published this message as a booklet in 2002. I have expanded it several times over the years, including this present edition, which is the largest version to date.

Why such focus on the key of David?

Our understanding of this subject originated in Revelation 3 and the prophecy of the successive eras of God’s Church. To the messenger of the Philadelphia era, Jesus Christ refers to Himself as “he that hath the key of David” (verse 7). He gave this important prophetic key to that era, which was led by Herbert W. Armstrong. After Mr. Armstrong died in 1986, his successors and most of God’s people threw away that key. But we have held on to it.

Very few people—even those who consider themselves deeply religious—know anything about the key of David. Yet the book you hold in your hands will prove to you how this key actually identifies the one Church that is doing the very Work of God on Earth today!

Possession of this key unlocks tremendous biblical understanding and the knowledge of how God is working with humanity. It opens up a profoundly inspiring vision of mankind’s place of honor in the exciting plans God has in store for the entire universe!

The truth in this book is deeply important to God’s Church. I am especially excited about it at this time because of a very special honor bestowed on God’s Church that elevates the importance of the key of David even higher.

One truth expounded on in this book centers on the extraordinary covenant God made with King David in 2 Samuel 7. Read that whole chapter, especially verses 12-16. God concluded His promise to David with these words: “And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.” It is this “throne of David” that Jesus Christ will inherit when He returns to Earth in glory to rule the nations as King of kings (Luke 1:31-33; Revelation 11:15).

Mr. Armstrong wrote extensively about this covenant in his landmark book The United States and Britain in Prophecy. We own the copyright to this book, and we publish it to give it away freely to anyone who asks for it. I encourage you to request a copy if you don’t already have one, and we will happily send it to you at no charge. That book explains how God kept His promise to David down through the ages—even preserving it when it was displaced from the kingdom of Judah in the final days of King Zedekiah in the sixth century b.c. God transplanted David’s throne to the British Isles and preserved it to modern times in the British royal family. This is an astonishing, inspirational story you need to know! It forms the foundation of much of what you will read in this present book.

Though God promised to preserve David’s throne perpetually, in several other prophecies He warned that that throne would be erased. God dramatically revealed the explanation for this apparent contradiction in January 2017. I explain this thoroughly in my book The New Throne of David, published in 2018. In essence, God preserved the throne of David by removing it from the British royal family and establishing it within His true Church in another descendant of King David.

That is obviously a bold claim, and I do not expect anyone to believe it without proving it from the Bible. God commands us, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21). The New Throne of David is filled with scriptural proof to support that claim, and it shows that every word and promise of God is absolutely reliable!

The fact that God’s Church now possesses not only the key of David but also the throne of David makes the truth unlocked by this key all the more exciting and personal to us!

The book you are now reading is really part of a trilogy that all lock together beautifully: The United States and Britain in Prophecy, The Key of David and The New Throne of David. When you master the revelation from God expounded in these books, you will have a profound comprehension of the deepest, most expansive ambitions of the God of the universe and the positions that human beings like you and me and King David can receive in these ambitions!

Most of this present book was written long before God gave His Church the new throne of David. Nevertheless, I find it inspiring to go back and study this revelation that God was giving His people—about David, the throne of David and the key of David—many years before we had any idea of His intention to plant that throne in His Church in our day, before Christ’s return. As you read this book, it becomes abundantly clear that God was preparing His people to receive that precious gift.

Along with the revelation in those other two books in the trilogy, this book forms a big part of the “key of David” that Jesus Christ has given to His Philadelphians in this end time.

The present edition of this book preserves nearly all of the material as I wrote it before the new throne of David was made known to me. We have made some edits and added new sections to specifically address the new throne. But the overall story is one that God has been giving to His faithful people in this final era of His Church for decades now—in active preparation for the time when Christ, “he who has the key of David,” will return to Earth and inherit “the throne of his father David.”

We are extremely close now to that glorious event! And you are part of the groundwork preparations!