How to Thrive in the Laodicean Era

God warns us: These final days before Jesus Christ’s return are spiritually perilous times. Read again Christ’s message to “the church of the Laodiceans” in Revelation 3:14-22. This is the era we live in. In this passage, Christ describes people who are spiritually lukewarm, wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked, both in God’s Church and in this world.

But you do not have to fall victim to those problems. Even amid so much spiritual failure, you can spiritually thrive!

I speak from experience. For decades now, God has given this small remnant Work, and me personally, extraordinary blessings. He has answered prayers, worked miracles, opened doors, created opportunities—time after time after time.

There is a reason. I want to share with you some of the most important practical and personal lessons I have learned from doing this Work of God during this spiritually lukewarm age. I know absolutely that anyone who follows this example will experience many of the same blessings!

Beware the Adversary

When Herbert W. Armstrong died in 1986, the Laodicean era began. The “synagogue of Satan” that existed within the true Church quickly showed itself (Revelation 3:9).

It was shocking how quickly the leaders in Pasadena, California, abandoned the truth and drove that church into the ground! Joe Tkach Jr. said Mystery of the Ages was “riddled with error”—but in fact, it was critical to the Work! One evangelist called it essential to God’s Work; shortly after, his boss said it was “riddled with error,” and that man said, “Yes, sir!” We must have more spiritual depth and courage than that!

There were about 120,000 people in the Church at the time. When the leaders began casting truth to the ground, shockingly, most of the ministers and members went along with it! Some were excited about the doctrinal changes. Many were not—yet they acquiesced. They didn’t want to rock the boat. They lacked the courage to speak up. They expected someone else to set things right, and they ended up compromising. They were simply too passive about holding fast to the truth.

I was deeply disturbed by what I witnessed. I turned to the Bible to understand why this was happening. God began to show me that such spiritual timidity and compromise are common throughout human history! I expounded on this in my book Malachi’s Message; I encourage you to read it.

On December 7, 1989, in an office at the Church’s headquarters in Pasadena, the wcg leaders fired my assistant and me for holding fast to the truths Mr. Armstrong taught. They thought they knew better than him. They disparaged his teachings and said he was a terrible leader. They planned to take the organization God had built through him in a new direction. This was a spiritual catastrophe!

The Laodicean apostasy should put us all on notice: Satan is far stronger than you think! He stalks about like a roaring lion, “seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). He had planted men who were deeply under his influence at the very top of God’s one true Church! He devastated God’s Work and deceived most of God’s people, throwing their eternal lives into doubt!

Satan has deceived the whole world! (Revelation 12:9). How powerful he and his demons are—how subtle, how skilled, how effective, how persuasive, how pernicious, how evil!

This is one of the most important lessons we must learn if we are to thrive in the Laodicean era. We must not be ignorant of Satan’s devices (2 Corinthians 2:11). He will use every weapon he can to sabotage us. He is always pressuring us to compromise, even in the smallest amount. The Laodicean disaster shows we must never compromise with God’s truth and God’s law—not one millimeter—or Satan will begin to manipulate and deceive us! Do not underestimate him, or you will become another of his many victims!

In this Laodicean era, not only have the great majority of God’s people fallen away, but we often lose people from the pcg. I expect it will be this way to the very end. As Daniel 11:35 prophesies, even “some of them of understanding shall fall.”

Making it into the Family of God is not easy. This is an elite calling: marriage to Jesus Christ, the King of kings forever! Eternal rulership in the Family of God! God will not give this reward to anyone without first proving and testing him.

Trust Not in Men

This history also exposes a flaw in our human nature that we all must battle. It teaches one of the most fundamental truths of the Bible, yet one that very few people learn.

The Laodicean rebellion shows that most of God’s people were following Mr. Armstrong—or some other man, or their own reasoning—not Jesus Christ!

Jeremiah 17:5 has this sage advice from God Himself: “Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.”

The failure in God’s Church in this era shows the disaster that occurs when you trust human beings. God wants us to learn to trust only Him!

It is also important to realize that God does work through men. He always works through one man, as He did the Prophet Jeremiah, to lead His people. God plainly says we are cursed if we follow a man. We are also cursed if we fail to follow the man God is working through.

Satan has deceived the whole world—and he has accomplished that through men. On the other hand, God has done great works throughout the ages, and He has achieved them through men. Satan deceives us through men. God leads us through men. We must learn to distinguish between the two—or we will be deceived!

Most people rebel against God because they trust a man—yet they refuse to trust God and follow His man, the leader He has appointed. We must learn this gigantic lesson or be cursed.

We need God’s help through the man He has chosen. The Ethiopian needed the help of God’s man (Acts 8:27, 30-31).

Many scriptures tell us how important the ministry is in governing the members of the Church. The ministers are gifts from Christ to His people to help perfect them (Ephesians 4:11-12). God wants us to “esteem them very highly in love” (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13). But if those men go astray, we must not follow them—or we will be following them into the lake of fire! We must follow God—and follow the men He has appointed as they are led by God.

“Remember those who rule over you [the ministry], who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct” (Hebrews 13:7; nkjv). God uses a man to lead His Church, and He gives His men the rule over His people. But He tells us to follow their faith, not their carnal ideas! God expects us to submit to His human government in faith. But we still cling to Christ—not men. God doesn’t want us to follow human government. If the leaders are not walking by faith, then do not follow them. We are only deceived when we follow government that is not walking by faith. You will never be deceived if you follow the leader as he follows Christ!

“Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you” (verse 17). God’s faithful ministers are watching out for your eternal life. God wants you to have a good working relationship with them—a joyful relationship, not grievous. That does require that you obey and submit to them as they submit to Christ. That doesn’t mean the minister will always do everything correctly. But God must have government in His Church.

So should we follow a man? Yes and no. Never follow a man God is not leading. Always follow the man God is leading. Following God’s man is actually following God. How well you do that will determine your physical and spiritual future. It is the most important choice you will make in your life!

Let No Man Take Your Crown

The danger in trusting men is abundantly clear in this era of God’s Church. Since Mr. Armstrong died, many church groups have splintered off from the wcg, and they all claim to follow God. But you must prove whether they are or not! You must try the spirits and follow a man only if he follows Christ (1 John 4:1; 1 Corinthians 11:1). That means you must know Christ! Men can be spectacularly wrong. If they are not following God, they will go off track and lead those who follow them to destruction!

Examine your own life for areas where you are following men, even yourself. This mistake is dangerously easy to make.

God gives His Church a great warning in this end time: Let “no man take thy crown” (Revelation 3:11). God prophesies in Matthew 25 that 50 percent of the Laodiceans will let a man take their eternal crown! And the other 50 percent almost let a man take their crown. God spews all of them out of His mouth into the Great Tribulation (Revelation 3:16, 19).

This same fundamental lesson is also being written on a grand scale in this world. Jeremiah 17:5 explains why our world faces so many mountainous disasters: People are trusting not in God but in man. That man may be a leader, or it may even be their own Satan-influenced human nature; most people trust themselves and follow their own mind.

When we look at the crises besieging our world today, we ought to see plainly that they are much bigger than any man can solve! “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish” (Psalm 146:3-4).

Consider what has happened in recent years to America: We have seen supposed “experts” make catastrophic decisions that have wrecked our families, our schools, our institutions, our economy, our national standing in the world. God is allowing these disasters to teach us just how astoundingly wrong human beings can be. Do you recognize that? Most people do not! In spite of those failures, people keep trusting in flawed, pathetic men! Even those who have lost trust in politicians or institutions are instead trusting themselves, leaning to their own understanding. That leads to curses just the same!

For 6,000 years, man has failed to learn that we are cursed if we follow a man. Unless repented of, this terrible mistake leads to eternal death!

God is going to let mankind reach the point where people will know there is no hope in man and will be willing to heed God’s Word, the Bible. The experiment of human government will prove a grandiose failure, and people will begin to recognize that they truly need God’s help.

What a world it will be when human arrogance has been leveled, people will become humble and childlike, and they will be ready to be taught by God!

Sadly, to reach that stage, mankind must experience destruction just short of destroying all life on this planet!

To avoid those curses and to thrive in the Laodicean era, this is a lesson you must learn deeply.

Trust in God

To be blessed, here is what you must do: “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit” (Jeremiah 17:7-8). Trust in God! Those who do are like a well-watered tree with deep, strong roots that can survive drought and still bear fruit.

Is your life like this beautiful, fruit-producing tree? Are you always producing fruit in a world afflicted with spiritual drought?

I challenge you to learn this towering lesson now, before the “heat” of global tribulation comes. Events are rapidly approaching that conflagration. You need God’s direction, His correction and His protection. God will protect you and cause your life to blossom and bear bountiful fruit if you learn to trust Him.

When I was fired from the wcg in 1989 for holding fast God’s truth, I had nothing. Suddenly I was a fired minister with no congregation, no salary or anything else—except the Bible truths that I believed with all my being.

But I knew that if I trusted God and clung to the truth, everything would work out. And it always has! I’m telling you, God has blessed me, and blessed this Church, beyond words to describe. I have had to trust God continuously, looking to Him for direction, discernment, faith, courage and protection even in the face of obstacles and attacks. He has never failed to provide!

There have been times when God revealed His will, gave me direction, gave revelation about a prophecy—and I walked forward in faith. But then circumstances seemed to go in exactly the opposite direction from what may have been expected. That happened when we printed Mystery of the Ages, and we suddenly found ourselves mired in an expensive lawsuit. It happened when we lost our case at the Ninth Circuit and were then rejected by the Supreme Court. It happened when Joe Biden was inaugurated president after I had said Donald Trump would win a second term. Just as so many of God’s people have had to do for millenniums, we had to hold fast our faith and simply know that God would not fail to do what He had promised! He had not led us into those circumstances only to abandon us when they appeared to turn against us. But He was testing our faith. And when we passed the test, He gave us spectacular victories.

The same can be true in your life! There are times when circumstances look dark and you are tempted to give up spiritually. Trust God! Trust that if you are doing your part and obeying Him, then you can walk by faith and He will supply everything you need!

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones” (Proverbs 3:5-8).

God will teach you, guide you, direct your paths—He will reveal which is the way of life and which is the way of death—if you receive His Word, acknowledge Him in all your ways, obey Him, and trust Him.

Fear God, Not Men

Proverbs 29:25 reads, “The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.” Trust God, and you will never fear man.

Fearing pitiful human beings is a terrible trap! But the Laodicean era shows how easy it is to fall into. By the thousands, God’s people showed themselves more fearful of what other people thought than what God thought—more afraid of offending men than offending God!

How far would the falling away within God’s Church have progressed if ministers and members had stood up for God? Many of them disagreed with what was going on but did nothing! That is inexcusable!

The only way to thrive in this Laodicean era, and at any other time, is to obey God whatever the cost. As the apostles said when their lives were threatened, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

Will you stand up for God? Will you risk losing things precious to you—a job, a family member, status, comfort—for the truth? Or will you allow yourself to be bullied and intimidated into compromising?

Some people have convinced themselves they are right with God—while they ignore or defy God’s government. They get into some personal study and come to believe they know more than God’s end-time Elijah or God’s ministry—but they are deluding themselves. They are trusting their own judgment, “going about to establish their own righteousness, [and] have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Romans 10:3).

The Church’s transformation into Laodicea showed shameful fear and cowardice among the people of God. If you didn’t experience that history personally, you can still recognize how common this weakness in man is. Just look at what has been happening in America and other Israelite nations in recent years, and you see similar cowardice. It is a strong pull in our human nature. It led millions of people to comply with and support insane policies and practices they did not agree with—excessive and oppressive restrictions during the covid-19; censoring people for pointing out election irregularities and crimes; pushing transgenderism to the point of taking children away from parents or firing people for using “incorrect” pronouns; and many other terrible, oppressive injustices. People who knew that these things were wrong were cowed into submission.

Satan is a bully and a terrorist! He uses fear and intimidation to force people to do his will. He has been cast down to Earth and is in a mad rage as his time comes to an end (Revelation 12:9, 12).

To thrive in the Laodicean era, we cannot succumb to the spirit of fear. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). If we are thinking like God, we are not fearful, but bold and filled with faith!

As I wrote in Malachi’s Message at the start of the pcg: “In the Laodicean churches, spiritual courage may be the greatest need. Without it, the other virtues are of little value! God’s people can’t cower in fear and still grow in God’s love. God says ‘the righteous are bold as a lion’ (Proverbs 28:1).” That spirit has guided this Church from the beginning—and it is the spirit every one of us must live by, especially during this Laodicean era!

The Laodiceans allowed fear to stop them from boldly proclaiming God’s message to the world. It is in our human nature to want to avoid the difficult job of prophesying for God. That is why they succumbed to the spirit of “prophesy not” (Amos 2:12; 7:13). Ministers feared being fired, losing their income and being unable to support their family if they took a stand for God. They feared rocking the boat or disagreeing with family members. They feared conflict with their wives over issues like makeup and other changes. So they went along.

That is what happens when you fear men instead of fearing God. As I write in Malachi’s Message, “Paul said, ‘[W]oe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!’ (1 Corinthians 9:16). He feared the ‘lion’ [God]! If we don’t preach the truth that God reveals, we show a dangerous lack of godly fear—fearing men rather than God. prophets speak out when they are told to ‘prophesy not’!”

Do you have the spiritual courage to stand up for God? To take a stand within your family against a spouse, or a parent, or a child who is compromising with God’s law? Are you eager to represent God in a world that is hostile to Him? Will you support God’s Work even when the world turns against it?

Amos 7 prophesies of a confrontation where “the land is not able to bear all his words,” the words of God’s prophet (verse 10). Jesus Christ repeatedly warned that His people would face persecution (e.g. Matthew 5:10-12; 10:16-39; 24:9-13; John 15:18-21; 16:1-4). God’s people must be spiritually tough enough to withstand those attacks. The apostles showed this toughness—and they were martyred for preaching God’s truth! They did not back down from doing their job!Neither should we.

If we fear God, we will not fear men. The fear of God gives us the spiritual courage we need, because God supplies that courage! That empowers you to thrive even in a spiritually lukewarm and compromised era.

‘Foolishness’ to This World

Living God’s way has always created friction in this Satan-inspired world. That is why God tells us, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4). We must be willing to go against the flow of this world—whether it be keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, or avoiding pagan holidays, or refusing to lie for an employer, or having to turn down an opportunity that God opposes, or resisting any number of temptations that worldly people commonly indulge in. Such is the way of a true Christian! The things of God are foolishness to this world (1 Corinthians 2:14).

One of the most difficult of God’s doctrines for people to accept is God’s command that we cut off contact with those who have turned away from Him. The pcg obeys this plain biblical command. This has brought untold criticism and persecution on the pcg and on God’s people—perhaps more than any other single doctrine.

This is an important doctrine to understand and to see from God’s perspective. I will go into a bit of detail on this, because it perfectly illustrates how God enables you to thrive spiritually even when everyone around you is going astray.

God commands that we turn our back on someone who turns away from Him. “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us” (2 Thessalonians 3:6). God the Father has a plan, and He has a Family, and sometimes He has to disfellowship people. That will never change until Jesus Christ returns. Even then, there will be some problems in the Millennium with human beings, but at that time Satan will have been put away (Revelation 20:1-3).

Paul did not say, I wish you would do this. He said, We command you to do this; this must be done to save the Church! I’m telling you, if people are walking disorderly, quit walking with them, or else! That is love. It is the only way to save the Family. How many families have to die before we will learn this lesson?

So many times when people break this command, I have heard them say, “I just wanted to love him; I just wanted to be there and see if I could help.” God says stay away from such an individual! He is talking about a brother, a family member. It is natural to want to protect your physical family. God wants it to become natural to protect your spiritual family.

Remember your baptismal covenant! As we saw in Chapter 1, at baptism you promised God that you would be willing to give up anything for Him—even the closest members of your own family! (Luke 14:26-27). That is no small commitment—and many, many people in God’s Church have been put to the test on this very point. Far too many have failed that test.

God commands this repeatedly in His Word. He could not be more clear. “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them” (Romans 16:17). “But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat” (1 Corinthians 5:11). These are direct scriptural commands. Yet the great majority of God’s people ignore them—and condemn the pcg for obeying them!

Will you obey God? He tells you what He expects, then He lets you make the choice—in this and in every other doctrine. He wants to know what choice you will make. He is not making little automatons. He wants people to make decisions. If they lack the character to make good decisions, they are going to get in trouble.

Cutting off contact with someone seems harsh and unloving. And someone could do that with wrong motives.

But even God the Father turned His back on His own beloved Son! When Jesus Christ became sin at the crucifixion (2 Corinthians 5:21), the Father turned away from Him. It caused Jesus to cry out in agony, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).

Turning your back on a family member is hard! Do you think doing that to Jesus Christ wasn’t excruciating for God the Father? He never stopped loving His Son, His eternal companion. But He cannot abide sin!

Keep the Temple Holy

This instruction from the God of love continues: “If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds” (2 John 10-11).

“If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself” (1 Timothy 6:3-5).

“A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject; Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself” (Titus 3:10-11).

Why does God say this repeatedly? Why is He so strong about this? Because He knows “the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). He knows Satan is “more subtil than any beast of the field” (Genesis 3:1). He knows how susceptible we are to the devil’s broadcasts and how easy it is, especially when it involves people we love, to rely on our own reasoning.

The pcg has lost a lot of members over the years. People leave for various reasons—but an unwillingness to obey this command to cut off contact with apostates has probably caused more people to fall away than any other single reason.

Many people in this Laodicean era are simply too casual about listening to and obeying God’s commands!

God the Father pleads with us through these inspired passages as the Apostle Paul did in 1 Corinthians 4:14: “I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.”

In commanding disfellowshipment, God is trying with all His being to protect His children from the wiles of the devil. Look at what happens when we ignore this command! Satan has destroyed so many. I have seen it! I have lost many people whom I love! And despite living in an age of such widespread spiritual devastation, so many people still foolishly believe they are stronger than Satan. They are not!

When a Church member is struggling spiritually, God’s ministry works very hard to help them. We will spend hours and hours with someone who is in trouble, as long as they are willing. We do not want to suspend anyone or put anyone out of the Church. But in the end, in many cases, we must!

When God disfellowships someone, it is an act of love. Love does not mean tolerating sin. We don’t tolerate sin because we love—we get sin out because we love, and we keep that atmosphere of love in God’s Church.

Paul strongly corrected the congregation in Corinth for accepting a shameful sin in one of their members. “And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. … In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ … deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 5:2-5). Put that man out immediately, Paul commanded—with all the authority of Christ!

Study that passage. It shows the grief that failing to disfellowship brings into the Church of God!

In the 1970s, ministers would allow people who had serious problems, who should have been disfellowshiped, to continue attending services. Many congregations were divided, the people were confused, and it was a huge mess. Mr. Armstrong had to close Ambassador College for a time because Satan had destroyed it.

Satan is always trying to infiltrate God’s Family. He is always working to undermine and erode God’s standard. We must fight with all our being to resist and prevent that. If we do not, the devil will take over—just as he did in the Worldwide Church of God! Look at the devastation! In terms of numbers, that was the worst spiritual disaster in the history of God’s Church!

The Church is “the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). It is the temple of God (Ephesians 2:19-22). It is holy, and we must fight fiercely to keep it holy!

Listen to the Father’s heartfelt plea in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” What a clear command—and what a marvelous promise from our Father!

When Jesus Christ saw a presence in God’s temple that did not belong there, what did He do? He kicked them out! “And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves” (Luke 19:45-46).

The religious leaders of His day wanted to kill Him for what He did (verse 47). People can criticize the pcg for our zeal to keep God’s temple pure, but they cannot honestly say this doctrine comes from anywhere but straight out of the inspired Word of God!

What Is the Love of God?

We want to have mercy; God has abundant mercy. But we must understand that disfellowshiping is an act of love. It shows love toward God by obeying Him. It shows love toward God’s people by saving the Church from destruction. And it even shows love toward the one disfellowshiped, because that is the only way he is ever going to repent.

When someone is put out of God’s Church, he is in a spiritually precarious position. He is more vulnerable to Satan’s attack. Again, as 1 Corinthians 5:5 says, disfellowshipment is meant “[t]o deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh ….” However, it is done in the hope “that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

The suspended or disfellowshiped member has a choice. If he accepts the correction, then God can save that person! God has done so with many, many prodigal sons! These are people whom He was able to “snatch out of the fire” of the Tribulation or eternal death in the lake of fire! (Jude 23; rsv).

The man whom Paul disfellowshiped in 1 Corinthians 5 was saved. He responded favorably to the correction, repented and returned to the Church. Paul admonished the other members to forgive him, accept him and comfort him (2 Corinthians 2:6-8). I have personally seen many cases like this.

Nothing makes God the Father rejoice more! (Luke 15:7). For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found! (verse 32).

“And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed” (2 Thessalonians 3:14). Church members have a part to play in making such a person ashamed. That is your responsibility. If you don’t do your part, then he will think his sin is acceptable. But it is not! His eternal life is at stake! It is easy for us to forget that. Each of us has a responsibility to make that person ashamed. God’s people are all kings and priests in embryo—and kings and priests make definite decisions. If they act like kings and priests today, then they are going to stand up and rule for God in the Kingdom! We must prepare for that responsibility.

What is God’s love? 1 John 5:3 states that love and law-keeping are the same. Love is law-keeping, and God’s law is love. The Laodiceans talk about love—but they ignore God’s law! We must have deeds. The law is love. God is love, and the law is an expression of His love. Yet so many people talk about love, love, love even as they are breaking God’s law.

God tells us to measure and to put those who do not meet God’s standard in the outer court (Revelation 11:1-2). God cast all the Laodiceans out of His inner court. They are no longer in the temple where God is. Physically, He says they will be “trodden underfoot”!

Some people who leave God’s Church or are put out become bitter. They attack me and the pcg, publicly speaking or writing terrible accusations—bits of truth put in the worst possible light, tiny parts of a much bigger story that condemns them, or rank lies. These people have aligned themselves with the father of lies, “the accuser of our brethren … which accused them before our God day and night” (John 8:44; Revelation 12:10).

I pray for those people! I hope and pray that as they experience the curses of being separated from their Father, as they find themselves out in the field feeding swine, spiritually starving, and considering filling their bellies with husks, they will come to themselves—and that they will say, “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants” (Luke 15:18-19). They only need to return to their Father to receive again the abundance He wants so much to lavish on them!

But bitterness is like an extremely addictive drug! It is humanly impossible to overcome. Sadly, over the years, I have not seen many of those people repent and return to God. People can make themselves an enemy of God (Micah 2:8). People who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit commit the unpardonable sin (Matthew 12:31; Hebrews 10:26-27).

These are the realities of living in the Laodicean era. We truly are in a ferocious spiritual war, and there are always casualties in war.

Again, this doctrine is a perfect example of how important it is that we obey God exactly—even when it is very difficult to do so. Following the orders of our Commander in Chief is not the easiest thing to do emotionally, but it is the way to be protected, and it is the path to spiritual victory!

God Has Raised the Ruins

We live in a spiritually destitute Church era plagued by complacency, self-deception and misery, an era for which Christ has scorching correction (Revelation 3:14-22). Yet within these hostile conditions, the loving and merciful God has preserved and blessed a small group of faithful people. His message to us, even in this era, remains the same as the one delivered to the Philadelphians in verses 7-13: “[B]ehold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.”

Yes, we have a little strength. But because we have not denied His authority, look at the doors God has opened for us! What blessings He has given us! What vitality, energy and life He has infused this body of believers with as we strive to finish His Work! He truly has enabled us to thrive in this Laodicean era!

When I think of all that God has built and accomplished with this little remnant Work since it began shortly after Mr. Armstrong died, I am deeply moved.

God has been guiding and prospering us every step of the way, and we have strived very hard to walk through every door He has opened. We began by working out of our homes. Then we bought a little office condominium to hold a handful of employees. We expanded to a second unit, then a third and fourth. Then God gave us our headquarters property and led us to start a college. He inspired us to print Mystery of the Ages and other books by Herbert W. Armstrong, then He guided us through six years of litigation over the right to publish and distribute those books and gave us a stunning victory. All so we can give that wonderful truth of God freely!

Step by step God has helped us raise the ruins of the Work He built through Herbert W. Armstrong: the relationship with Dr. Eilat Mazar and the Jerusalem work in 2006; starting Imperial Academy in 2008; inaugurating the spectacular Armstrong Auditorium in 2010; raising up a college in England on a grand estate, Edstone, in 2014, as Mr. Armstrong had done at Bricket Wood in 1960; founding the Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology in Jerusalem in 2022.

From the beginning, God has directed me to study into specific prophecies in the Bible and given me understanding to share. “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). He exposed the evil in His lukewarm Church. He directed me to understand prophecies about the Middle East and Iran, about Europe and Germany, about the pope, Vladimir Putin and China. He gave me prophetic insight into Satan’s attack on America carried out through Barack Obama, and He revealed Donald Trump’s role in setting some of that right and giving the nation time to repent—while also revealing that he won’t fix all the problems. Time and again what God has directed me to speak about has proved prescient and has come to pass! That is not the work of a man! Only the Almighty God can do that!

This is not boasting but is meant to demonstrate that, in this Work, we walk by faith.

All of this was built on faith. Not just my faith, but the faith of our people who believe in this Work and believe God, believe His Word, rely on that Word, and cherish His promises.

That is how this Work was built. In over 60 years in this Work, I have been put to the test hundreds and thousands of times; I know that God will fulfill every single promise and never fail—not one time! If God has promised it in His Word, and if we trust Him, He will fulfill it. He cannot lie! It is impossible for God to lie! (Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18). He is the Creator of the universe—He has all power and can easily fulfill any promise He makes. We must merely trust Him and have faith.

God’s Work has always been a work of faith in the face of odds. It requires spiritual courage, which is the highest level of faith. And we need ample faith and courage if we are to thrive in these final days of man’s rule on Earth.

World Tomorrow Vision

Mr. Armstrong built a work that radiated vision. It was, as he said, the World Tomorrow in embryo! Ambassador College won several awards as the most beautiful college campus in America. When Franz Josef Strauss, the strongman of Germany, visited the campus, he said, “When you see Ambassador College, you see what you can do for this world.” Mr. Armstrong supported fine culture, the best of the human spirit, in a way that reflected the positive, joy-filled way of life that God is about to establish all over the world!

God has blessed us and empowered us to resurrect that same culture and spirit, even in this Laodicean era. We don’t have the same resources Mr. Armstrong did and are limited in some ways. But in other ways, I believe God has actually enabled us to surpass what Mr. Armstrong did, despite us working with a much smaller group of people. That is largely because of the time we are living in, preparing for Christ’s return—and because of the dedication and loyalty of God’s faithful remnant!

We have staged several original musicals and oratorios based on well-known stories in the Bible: telling the dramatic stories of Abraham, of Ruth, of King David, of Isaiah and Hezekiah, of Jeremiah, of the Apostle Paul; proclaiming the messages in the biblical books of Lamentations and the Song of Songs. This is special, extraordinary evidence of God’s living presence within His people. We have recorded several albums of original songs of praise to our great God. (You can access these at pcg.church under the Resources tab.)

We have produced two phenomenal Irish dance productions—Celtic Throne and Celtic Throne II: Psalter of Ireland—that follow the journeys of David’s throne, which Mr. Armstrong explained in The United States and Britain in Prophecy. For several years now, the Celtic Throne dance troupe has performed in some of the finest theaters in America, Israel and Britain, receiving enthusiastic ovations from audiences everywhere for their world-class performances. This is a powerful and moving testament to the uplifting godly culture that will abound in the World Tomorrow—and it is alive and well in God’s Church!

The archaeological work we support in Jerusalem has produced astonishing results, with finds far more significant than any found during Mr. Armstrong’s time. The messages proclaimed by these artifacts that we have helped to unearth—about David and Solomon, Nehemiah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Hezekiah and others—are profoundly relevant to this dying world! We have received truly uncommon favor within the archaeological world and within the Jewish state of Israel to be able to be a part of biblical archaeology. The mighty doors God has opened for this little work in Jerusalem are astounding!

It is extremely moving to see the loyalty and dedication of God’s faithful people in supporting God’s end-time Work. To see our Church members drive three hours each way to attend Church services, or rent a hotel room for a night so they can also attend a Spokesman Club meeting the next morning. To see them spend all day at a fundraiser so the congregation can donate an extra $1,500 to the Church. To see them travel four or five hours to volunteer at a Personal Appearance Campaign. To give generous holy day offerings year after year, even in tough economic times.

I am moved to see members looking out for each other, tending to each other when they are sick or in trial. I am moved to see teenagers travel to headquarters from all over the world to attend summer camp in Oklahoma—to spend three weeks learning about God and sweating on the sports fields and enjoying one another’s company. I love seeing their smiling faces and hearing their cheers and laughter. I am moved by the devotion of our ministers and full-time staff, doing all they can to serve God’s Family and carry out our God-given commission at the highest level possible with His help. I am moved to receive letters and cards and calls of thanks from television viewers and magazine subscribers telling us we are changing their lives.

I am deeply moved by so many aspects of the Work the Father and Jesus Christ have been doing through this faithful remnant—and, again, during one of the most spiritually destitute times in history!

“Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you” (Habakkuk 1:5). God raised up a new Work through people of faith!

This Work proves that you can, indeed, thrive spiritually in a lukewarm age! Even in a very dark time, you can live a life radiating the light of God!