The Voice of the Day of the Lord

The message of the Philadelphia Church of God is both terrible and wonderful: Although it is terrible for a little while, it then becomes wonderful forever!

Revelation 10:6 talks about a time of no more delay (“time no longer”). It is spoken of in context with a little book. In the time of this little book, events will be racing along much faster.

Revelation 11:1-2 relate how God’s Church is being measured by a man just before the Great Tribulation. There is only a short span of time between these events.

It seems clear that Satan was cast down around the time Mr. Armstrong died (Revelation 12:9). Verse 12 says Satan attacks us with great wrath. He knows there is no more delay and that his time is about up, so he is very urgent in his evil endeavors. His rage intensifies as he sees that his time to rule is about to expire. That means we are facing him at the time of his worst wrath in man’s history. We need to realize how he will take advantage of the little time he has left. There is nothing on his mind but destruction, especially the spiritual destruction of God’s people.

These are dangerous and urgent times. Do we realize what a target of Satan’s rage we really are? I believe God’s people lack understanding in this area. And what we see now is only the beginning; the attacks will intensify. We are, after all, exposing Satan to the world for what he is. He hates that, because he doesn’t agree with God’s evaluation of him. But we have to tell the world about him while there is still time.

We must be aware of time—the way Satan is.

The Voice of the Day of the Lord

“The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly” (Zephaniah 1:14). This frightening time hastens greatly, speedily, suddenly! Those words could even mean at once. Greatly means “very, exceedingly … emphatically doubled” (Gesenius’ Lexicon). Of course, God calculates time differently than we do, but make no mistake: That day is very close!

“The great day of the Lord is near, it is near.” The expression is repeated for double emphasis. And then, to add to the urgency, it “hasteth greatly”! The emphasis is on the lightning speed of events ushering in that darkest day ever in the history of man.

Notice, now, in that verse it refers to “the voice of the day of the Lord.” There is a voice, a voice of warning, a voice of prophesying again, a voice that puts the trumpet to the mouth and doesn’t remove it. This is the voice of the Day of the Lord. Today, as the world stands on the threshold of Christ’s return, that voice is on the scene! Do you recognize where that voice is?

We must think in the spirit of Zephaniah. This book has a very somber theme. It amplifies Revelation 10:6—not only are we in a time of no more delay, but the Day of the Lord is near, it is near, it hastens greatly. Hardly a week goes by without some major prophecy being fulfilled. There has never been a time like this, and the pace of events will never be the same again!

When I read the book of Zephaniah and study it deeply, I realize that I’m not as urgent as the spirit of this message. I don’t believe I’m as urgent as I need to be; I don’t believe our ministers are; I don’t believe God’s people are! We must realize just where we are in prophecy!

“Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you” (Zephaniah 2:1-2). Now is the window of opportunity for God’s people to do our deeds! Now is when we must get our act together—before, before, before, before the Tribulation and Day of the Lord begin! The word before is used four times in one verse to get us to act before it is too late! We must act now!

“Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city! She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the Lord; she drew not near to her God” (Zephaniah 3:1-2). She, God’s Church, “obeyed not the voice” (singular). She wouldn’t receive correction from the voice, that prophet, used by God to warn her.

“Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law” (verse 4). These Laodicean ministers polluted God’s sanctuary, or Church. They did violence to God’s law. Only God’s people have God’s law to pollute. This is during the Laodicean era. That is when the voice warns them from the book of Zephaniah.

Verse 6 also discusses cities without an inhabitant. That blackest of all prophecies gives extreme urgency to the voice!

Hear Now

In Zechariah 3, God speaks to Joshua (who is also referred to in 2 Thessalonians 2): “Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at [or men of sign]: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the Branch [speaking of Christ’s Second Coming]” (Zechariah 3:8). Why doesn’t it just say “Hear, O Joshua,” the way it is incorrectly rendered in Lange’s Commentary and other translations? Why are there, in fact, two words in the Hebrew—hear and now? Because it is an urgent message for Joshua! You’d better hear right now, Joshua! God says. You don’t have much time. You’re right at the top of the government, and you are held more accountable than others. Hear now! History has proved that this end-time Joshua really didn’t have much time.

God didn’t issue this warning to Joshua personally. He said “Hear now, O Joshua” through a Zechariah-type prophet—that prophet.

Let’s not forget that His warning also applies to all of us. God pleads with and warns all of us to hear now! There is no more delay—now is the time to hear. Time is racing along. Soon it will be too late.

After Joshua, God addresses his fellows: “… and thy fellows that sit before thee ….” I can’t help but wonder if Joshua’s “fellows” only had until his death to qualify or lose it all. Why else would God express it this way? “Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee”! After all, they were following a man in the bonds of Satan! God warned all of them through Malachi’s Message and other media to hear it immediately. Neither Joshua nor any of them heeded that warning. At least, none of them have yet. Maybe this is why they fight so hard—because, like Satan, they now have nothing to lose!

God allows them to do so because He wants to test us to see how urgent we are in fighting for Him.

When God says “Hear now,” we had better hear the “now”! This is God talking! Could it be any more serious? We have heard so much truth, and God isn’t giving us much more time to hear. These men on the scene are men “of sign”—a sign that “the Branch,” Jesus Christ, is about to return! This is time for the utmost urgency in God’s people.

This extremely bad news is a sign of the best news we could ever hear! In that sense, even the bad news is good news!

Blow the Trumpet

Let’s look at what the Prophet Joel says on this subject. “The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel” (Joel 1:1). The word came to Joel, as the interpretation comes to me today. “Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?” (verse 2). God uses a type of Joel today to say, “Hear this.” People have an opportunity to hear the prophecy of Joel for the end time. In this verse, God uses a prophet to discuss history and prophecy that these old men have never seen before—horrifying times—times that are rapidly growing worse. Some of them have even experienced the holocausts of World War ii. But far worse is coming.

“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand” (Joel 2:1). God keeps reminding us of this: The Day of the Lord is near! In this verse He again tells us to sound this alarm in God’s own holy mountain—to the very people who were set apart to do God’s Work, the people who themselves were to be thundering this message, and failed. Yes, we are to warn “all the inhabitants of the land,” but we are to sound the alarm in God’s holy mountain, the Church, first of all. Those people were set apart for a job and they didn’t do it, so God sends that prophet and a group supporting him to blow the trumpet and thunder Joel’s message to them!

This work was never done by Mr. Armstrong.

Where is the Joel-type prophet who is proclaiming “Hear this”? Who is delivering the message of Joel on television, through a booklet on Joel and in other literature? Who blows the trumpet in Zion, or God’s Church? Who is sounding an alarm in God’s holy mountain?

The word holy does not denote a moral quality. It means they were set apart for God. Set apart for what? The Laodiceans and the Philadelphians were set apart to deliver God’s message—to blow God’s trumpet!

Most of God’s people have even forgotten why they were called!

Who is warning “all the inhabitants of the land”? I have written booklets on all the major and minor prophets. “Hear this” is the strong warning of all the booklets.

The end-time Joshua was warned in most of them. God always gives us an opportunity to repent.

“A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations” (verse 2). This verse indicates that you will be able to see events building toward the Day of the Lord, as Churchill could see what was happening in Germany before World War ii. You will be able to see the clouds and gloominess before they actually come on the scene. A true watchman can see it, and he knows it is coming fast.

“A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them” (verse 3). The land was like a garden of Eden. Then came the devouring fire and left it a desolate wilderness. From the utmost beauty to a complete wasteland—by fire and flame. Not even a blade of grass remains. Just how bad is a nuclear attack? A nuclear winter? “Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness” (verse 6).

By verse 10, we’re into the Day of the Lord: “The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.” The nuclear winter and other problems will snuff out the light of the stars. World War ii was trivial compared to this!

What can we do about this? “Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly” (verse 15). I must blow the trumpet!—even in Zion, God’s own Church. Your job is to support me in that heavy responsibility.

When God instructs, “Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly,” He is talking to us as well. How can we overcome our carnality and get through to God? How can God’s people turn their lives around? By becoming humble before God. Look also at verses 12 and 13—God is very anxious to extend mercy to His people.

Roar Out of Zion

The same story is told in Joel 3. This is clearly prophecy, not history: “I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land” (verse 2). The blood in that valley will be up to the horses’ bridles (Revelation 14:19-20). That is how God pleads if people fail to hear His prophet! The warfare will be so gruesome that human life will be considered meaningless.

“Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up” (Joel 3:9). God’s prophet is to proclaim this bloody message. He is to “prepare war, wake up the mighty men.” It is not a time for ease and comfort. We are entering into the worst worldwide war ever in history. God has always warned Israel before catastrophes. He certainly will do so before the dark and ghastly Day of the Lord!

“Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great” (verses 12-13). The Earth is pictured as a vat full of blood. People by the millions will be wading through human blood!

But that isn’t the worst crisis. Very soon life will end forever for 50 percent of God’s own people. How much does their salvation depend on our work? How much do we love our spiritual family? Our love for them is reflected in how zealously we do God’s Work! This is a work of love (Revelation 3:19).

But notice what God does in the context of all these terrifying prophecies of the Day of the Lord. Verse 16 of Joel 3 reads, “The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.” The Day of the Lord will be intense. So God’s warning must be equally intense! God says He will also roar out of Zion before His Second Coming! This is not a little cat’s meow. Through His people, led by one man, God will deliver a powerful message. He will utter His voice—singular—from spiritual Jerusalem.

There must be a prophet who is that voice of the Day of the Lord before Christ returns. And for him to really roar, he must have a lot of support!

Realize, there are people out there whose salvation depends upon this voice—people who, when they hear it, will come around and turn to God. What will God say if we don’t roar out of Zion? I can’t get this message out by myself—I need God’s people supporting me. There isn’t much time left, and God wants us to really roar!

A Teacher of Righteousness

Joel 2 explains even more about this voice, this one man, who comes just before the Day of the Lord. “Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month” (Joel 2:23). That is a marvelous translation, if you want to obscure the meaning of that verse!

“Children of Zion” should be translated “sons of Zion.” This verse is addressed to God’s own Family.

As I explain in our Joel booklet, the margin of the King James Version renders “the former rain” as a teacher of righteousness. The Hebrew term can mean the early or former rain, or it can mean one teaching. The word “moderately” reads in the margin according to righteousness. These two Hebrew words, put together, and the context, definitely signify a teacher of righteousness.

The second time “the former rain” is used in that verse, it is in connection with the latter rain. God is likening a spiritual harvest to the former and latter rains of the harvests in Judah. Both rains, in April and October, were required for good crops. So here, “the former rain” is an appropriate translation. “In the first month” should read as at the first, or as previously. So God is saying He will send rain, a type of His Holy Spirit, as He did before.

In other words, God’s spiritual harvest was interrupted! His Holy Spirit was greatly reduced. The ultimate calamity struck His Church.

In verse 25 God promises to “restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten ….” A remnant of God’s people will not be cut off. They will receive the former and latter rain. They will be fed spiritually as they were in the glorious past, under Herbert W. Armstrong.

This spiritual education will come through “a teacher of righteousness.” Not only will he hold fast to past instruction, but more spiritual rain—revelation—will abundantly fall for him and his followers. That latter rain will come, in fact, because he holds on to the past instruction, the former rain.

Are we thankful for the spiritual rain we receive abundantly in this Church? What a wonderful gift! In the midst of the greatest crisis the world has ever seen, just before the Day of the Lord, there is abundant rain coming through a teacher of righteousness—or that prophet. The book of Joel is about the Day of the Lord, the blackest day in man’s history. This teacher of righteousness would certainly be a prophet. He would be teaching about this book, and many other prophecies.

We must give God credit for this rain from heaven. He is sending it today even faster than He did to Mr. Armstrong! (I believe this is comparable to the fact that Elisha performed more miracles than Elijah did, even though he held a lower office. The seriousness of the times required it, and God does what the times require.) Look around in this world and you see nothing but spiritual drought! But there is one place with continual spiritual rain. To those who receive this rain, it is strikingly clear where God is working.

That He May Declare It

Jeremiah also fills in some of the details of this picture. He talks about the Laodicean rebellion in Jeremiah 9:6: “Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the Lord.” It is so easy for men to deceive themselves. But God knows, and He says they refuse to know Him. They have had ample opportunities to know the truth.

“Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through?” (verse 12). Here again is the picture of a land so desolate, so saturated with radioactivity, that nobody even wants to pass through it—clearly an end-time prophecy. And God says there is a man to whom He has spoken, to whom He has given this strong message, who will turn around and declare it!

Declare what? That the nations of Israel are about to be burned like a desolate wilderness—so bad that none passes through. None! Nobody! The land is so radioactive that not one person passes through. The whole land is like the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Russia—only about 10,000 times worse!

Nuclear weapons are being proliferated throughout the world today. All the signs point to a nuclear holocaust. Hundreds of God’s prophecies do the same. Still, men reject God’s truth, which makes this time of unprecedented suffering inevitable.

Why won’t they listen now to that prophet as he declares God’s message to the world? God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Why must that prophet be a voice crying out in the wilderness of religious, political and educational confusion?

It says God has spoken to this man. That does put me in a different category. It also puts on my shoulders a heavy responsibility: “that he [a man] may declare it,” Jeremiah says. If you realize what has happened here, you know you must support this message. This is speaking to you indirectly and to me directly.

God is not just suggesting that we declare the message. This is a command directly from God—to me personally. The people who have God’s revelation are the only people who can declare the message. I must do it, and so must the very elect if they want to escape this blackest of all days and enter into God’s Family. And we have very little time to get the Work done.

God asks, “Who is the wise man, that may understand this?” Wise men and women will understand about that prophet. They will know that God makes the Work revolve around him. Those who fail to understand are unwise, and they will pay the worst possible penalty.

God is now determining who are the wise and the unwise. Which category will you be in?

Love the Law

“And the Lord saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein” (Jeremiah 9:13). You can’t forsake God’s law if you never had it. These people were given the law by an end-time Elijah. Now they are rejecting it. So this warning is directed first of all to God’s own Church.

There are plenty of problems in the land, and many people propose solutions. But none of them is willing to stand up and say that we need to start keeping God’s law! People like to deal in generalities, handling things in a way that will never solve anything.

Some people say we need stricter gun control, for example. This is how they would control the school shootings and other similar problems. But that is no solution. We must totally change our society. We must go from being a lawless society to being a law-keeping society.

Other people say that we need a change in our morals, which is true. But this is still speaking in generalities. These same people won’t say that we must keep God’s law, the Ten Commandments!

Also they reject the one man and God’s government needed to enforce God’s law. That is the only solution. Not some vague abstraction or generality. People keep avoiding God’s solution as our society collapses.

Repeatedly these prophecies declare that they reject God’s law. They refuse to let God rule them unconditionally. They reject the Elijah whom God sent, and the holocausts keep coming. They reject that prophet, and the holocausts keep coming. The next holocaust will be so horrific that Christ must stop it or there would be no flesh saved alive (Matthew 24:21-22).

The solution lies in a specific law—God’s Ten Commandments—and a specific government, taught and administered today only by that prophet.

It isn’t that man can’t understand. He refuses to understand! Soon it will be too late physically. For some, it will be too late spiritually.

“[W]hy will ye die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 18:31).

What about you? Do you love God’s law and government? Do you want God to rule you unconditionally? Only those who do can accomplish the Work of God. Are you 100 percent behind what God is doing? God knows. And He will continue to measure His Church.

Cause the Nations to Drink

“Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle” (Jeremiah 25:10). This too is describing the terribly black times of the Day of the Lord.

“And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations” (verse 13). God has revealed much more to the pcg from the book of Jeremiah. All that God has revealed to me in Jeremiah is about to be fulfilled!

Mr. Armstrong did not understand “all that is written in this book.” He understood these prophecies only in a general way. Most of the prophecies to occur in the Laodicean era have been revealed to me. Now we have the complete picture.

Jeremiah wrote the message. Now I must declare it “against all the nations.”

Here is another specific command to me, and to all who support me: “For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it” (verse 15). That is a strong command. A man must deliver this message, and cause the whole world to drink it. Let’s remember that Jeremiah went only to Judah. But now his message must go to all Israel and the world. And that prophet must deliver it, building upon the foundation laid by Mr. Armstrong. I must cause all the nations to drink this message. And our success in this commission is assured, because our message has all the power of God behind it.

What a commission for that prophet and God’s very elect! Do we realize deeply how incredibly important this message is?

“And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took I the cup at the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the Lord had sent me” (verses 16-17). The military attack will drive many people mad! Why won’t our people heed this warning message and avoid that unparalleled disaster?

“And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground” (verse 33). Gesenius’ Lexicon says, “The primary idea is that of heaping up a mound.” High mounds of dead bodies all over the Earth! There will be no lamenting and no funerals. There will be too many bodies for people to even bury! They won’t even try. This will happen from one end of the Earth to the other! The world will be one gigantic cemetery, but without lamenting or burials.

Why will this happen? Why will this indescribable nightmare occur? Because mankind would not listen to the warning message of that prophet!

Do we really fathom the meaning of these prophecies? If we do, I can’t see how they would fail to make us a little sick—or very sick!

The sad truth is that most of God’s own Laodiceans have their minds on getting things for themselves. What a grotesque distortion of priorities. No wonder God will spew them out of His mouth! (Revelation 3:16).

Think on these verses, and you will begin to realize just how difficult our job really is. We have a frighteningly strong message for this world. Delivering it will take tremendous faith and resolve. Every one of us must labor and do everything possible to contribute to God’s great Work. Get involved as much as you can. Contribute financially and in any other way. Wisely seek a better job if it is needed. We should all want more responsibility in contributing to this greatest work on Earth.

Rise Up in Battle!

Obadiah refers to this same end-time office. “The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom; We have heard a rumour [or report] from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle” (Obadiah 1). People have “heard” an end-time Obadiah. He has a “vision,” or revelation from God.

God sends a messenger (“ambassador” is a weak translation). This man is also a warrior for God.

This is the only time in the Bible when Edom is referred to as “her.” Why? She represents God’s Church—specifically the Laodiceans who refuse to repent, even in the Tribulation. Fifty percent of God’s own people lose their birthright, or salvation (Matthew 25:1-13). This is the most painful message we could deliver. (Our free Obadiah booklet contains a thorough explanation of these scriptures.)

The message is against “her”—spiritual Edom. We battle against the mother of the Laodiceans.

When you see a messenger of God sent among the Laodiceans to do battle, that is your signal to rise up and join the war! This is where the “sheep” go into the “midst of wolves” (Matthew 10:16). We must do battle with spiritual Edom, who affects all of God’s people adversely today.

First I got fired by them. Then God hurled Malachi’s Message into their midst. Then we battled them in court. We also battle them with our literature and even in the world’s press.

Notice, we initiate the battle specifically against Edom! They stole God’s precious revelation and fought to stop God’s Work forever. God guided us to fight back with all our might. We battled specifically to print Mystery of the Ages.

We show the depth of our love for God’s truth by how vigorously we fight. We must seize the initiative.

You have to know God to recognize the messenger He sends and to believe him. Because it takes deep conviction to stand up and do battle! You must know this is the man God has sent! A few people got focused on their personal understanding of the copyright law, became convinced we were wrong to print Mystery of the Ages, and left the Church. But wait a minute! What about the messenger God sent with a report? God told His people to rise up and do battle! We must see things spiritually! It requires a different mindset than we’ve had in the past. We have to see the overview of God’s battle plan.

Can you see why this office is so important? You won’t fight alongside someone who says he has a message from God if you don’t really know God and know He sent that man! You must know where God is and know you’re following God’s man! Ambassador isn’t really a good word, because this is someone with a message about warfare! You’re not apt to follow an “ambassador” into battle! When God sends someone, you know there is a job to do, a battle to be fought.

Like Esau, the Laodiceans have sold their birthright for a bowl of soup (Genesis 25:29-34). They gave up everything for a bowl of soup! They’re not concerned about Obadiah—they just want the bowl of soup, physical things. The whole world is about to be destroyed, and they only care about things like salary and retirement and a Satan-inspired religion.

Men lust and kill for physical things. What will we do for eternal glory? What value do we place on our spiritual birthright?

There is no way we can escape our responsibility without punishment. In Obadiah 21 God even calls us saviors. That’s what we are: saviors for God! We are helping to save people for God.

The Feet of Him

There is a certain amount of burden involved with doing God’s Work, but we must see beyond that.

“The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite” (Nahum 1:1). Looking at it humanly, the burden is all we will see. The word burden means “grave and weighty.” Nahum is a book about Germany and the terrible deeds it will inflict on the Earth in this end time. But God wants us to focus on the vision! That great weight is about to be lifted off the world.

This is a book of “vision”—or revelation from God. Who is delivering revelation from the book of Nahum today? That prophet is discussing some bad news. But the good news is, the bad news is about to end forever!

Notice verse 15: “Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.” Behold! God says. Take note! Put your mind on this! Think on “the feet of him”—some man who is bringing good tidings and publishing peace. Take a good look at this messenger, and this wonderful, marvelous message of hope.

I am proclaiming a message that this world is about to see no more of the Holy Roman Empire. You’ll never see it march through Israel again! That is good news. That is the message we have for the world. Every discouragement and depression and unhappiness, every bit of bad news in the long term, is canceled out by this wonderful news.

We need to see the beautiful feet of “him”—the one bringing revelation from the book of Nahum to the world. I’ve written a booklet on Nahum, and we understand this message more deeply than Mr. Armstrong did. God actually wants us to focus on this “him,” this messenger, and his message.

“Behold” gives a special emphasis to what follows. Not only should we see the man who had good tidings and publishes about peace forever, but also notice his feet. He is a messenger who is figuratively pictured as running with God’s message all over the world. He is crying out from the mountains—the highest television towers and satellites.

The man is only a messenger. God’s very elect have their focus on God, who sends the message. That’s why we are admonished to see the feet, which puts everything in perspective. The good tidings don’t come from a man, but from God! The man has the honor to deliver God’s message. And the very elect are also honored to support such a marvelous work and a wonder (Habakkuk 1:5).

Nahum is a book about Germany, a nation that has been a continual curse upon mankind. Satan chose the Germans to inflict a stream of misery and destruction upon mankind. “[U]pon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?” (Nahum 3:19). But you are seeing the last of this beast power—forever. This is the final chapter. The armies of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire will march no more! Words can’t describe such a wonderful future.

God is about to fill the Earth with truth and joy. Look at the beautiful feet of him who races ahead to deliver this message of a new civilization, ruled by our Creator.

God’s Chosen Leader

To conclude this extensive study on “that prophet,” I would like you to notice this statement by Mr. Armstrong in his Good News personal, August 1979: “This thought came to me as I was eating breakfast this morning: In all this world’s history God has never started an important Work or special activity through a chosen human, and then, after that special accomplishment is well advanced, allowed His chosen human leader to be overthrown by Satan—or in any way to turn false!

“Yet those promoted high within that Work or special activity for God have been allowed to turn false, against God’s chosen leader.”

Then Mr. Armstrong gave the examples of Moses, Joshua, Paul, Peter and, of course, himself. “This Church was drifting into a Laodicean condition. Incidentally, both the Sardis and the Laodicean eras of the Church were God’s churches—not Satan’s!

“Someone spread the false rumor that I have said these others were or will be Satan’s churches. … The Laodicean Church will be characterized by spiritual lukewarmness—half of its membership (Matthew 25:1-13) will be shut out of the Kingdom of God.” One half will be shut out forever! People whom many of us know will soon be forever shut out of the Kingdom of God to the tune of 50 percent! Is it important that we declare this message?

Mr. Armstrong continued, “But the bad news, as it appears today, my dear brethren, is that we, undoubtedly of the Philadelphia era—my son’s ridicule notwithstanding—are in serious danger of becoming also the Laodicean era.” Indeed, they were. This was 1979. He said, “I am personally much concerned about that. If you are not concerned, then indeed we are in mortal danger.” Are you deeply concerned about this truth? If not, you are in mortal danger. Mr. Armstrong was talking about your eternal life—or eternal death!

“Satan is pulling out all stops now to destroy this Church of God!” Mr. Armstrong continued. And he is pulling out all the stops to destroy the pcg! “But what Jesus Christ raised up is the Church of God. Today it encompasses the Earth, so we call it the Worldwide Church of God! Garner Ted bragged to me that he built this Church. It was built when he was 3 years old!”

God also built the Philadelphia Church of God. If it isn’t so, we shouldn’t be here. God built this Church, and it continues to grow. Yet men sometimes think they built it. I didn’t build anything; you didn’t build anything, except that we are able to help the great God build it.

Mr. Armstrong concluded, “But what Christ built through his [Garner Ted’s] father placed those microphones before him. He started nothing! He pioneered nothing! …

“God never yet has let one through whom He started a great project turn wrong—and He has never yet let such an appointed leader of His die until his job was finished!”

How inspiring it is to think about that! God will carry on with His Work and will really do everything He can to help that leader. His success has been 100 percent throughout the ages.

So it is very important that we all fully support that prophet. But at the same time, deeply understand we are following God, not a man.