Chapter 8: Chronicles and the Key of David

The throne of David is the primary theme of the book of Chronicles. This book is a vision that revolves around David’s throne. We need to understand it deeply.

Ezra, who wrote both Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah, based it on material from the former prophets. Prophets do teach history, but their primary purpose is to prophesy. We certainly want to learn what we can about history. But if these books were written by prophets, that means they are prophesying, and that is their most important message. That is what Chronicles is all about. Ezra is prophesying. He was quite a powerful prophet.

As I explain in my booklet The Book of Chronicles (free upon request), the inspired order of books in the Bible places Chronicles as the last book in the Old Testament. And it links with the last book in the New Testament, Revelation. Though Chronicles contains a lot of history, it is a profoundly spiritual and prophetic book.

God’s Church received new revelation about the book of Chronicles just before we received the revelation about the new stone and the new throne. God gave us the truth about Chronicles to prepare us to receive that throne! That gives you a sense of how important this book is.

1 Chronicles 10 through 29 are explicitly about the key of David—20 chapters! People wonder why Chronicles focuses so much on David. The answer is that this entire book is a key of David message, and at the heart of that is the throne of David.

Adam

The book of Chronicles begins with a genealogy that goes all the way back to the first man, Adam. We need to know that history. Remember Adam and the opportunity God gave him: He had direct contact with God and was offered the tree of life. But he rejected it. He and Eve chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or the tree of death. Look where the world is today as a result! Because we are eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we are about to destroy all human flesh on Earth (Matthew 24:21-22).

But the “Adam” at the beginning of Chronicles isn’t only physical. This biblical book has a deeply spiritual message. The reference to “Adam” has a dual purpose.

This is not really about Adam, the first man. This book points to the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, who came and gave His life for this world! You can recognize this profound truth if you are thinking spiritually. (I also explain this in more depth in that Chronicles booklet.)

This book is very spiritual if we look at it as people who have the Holy Spirit today. If Adam were alive today, he wouldn’t understand this truth because he turned away from the tree of life. That is what this is about: eating from the tree of life. How wonderful when God makes that available to you! Very few people have this opportunity today.

Prophecy for Today

Lange’s Commentary says, “[T]he author of Chronicles confines his attention to David and the kingdom founded on the promise made to him in 2 Samuel 7.” That is an outstanding insight into this profound biblical book. Even carnal-minded people can see this. But they don’t understand why. Why does Chronicles have so many chapters on David?

Nobody understands this book except the people of God today. God didn’t even reveal it to Mr. Armstrong. It is specifically for our time, and we need this information.

Remember God’s promise in 2 Samuel 7:12-16: “… I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. … And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.” That is a beautiful promise and prophecy from God! Clearly there is a direct physical fulfillment in David’s royal line.

But again, we need to view Chronicles spiritually. God’s reference to an eternal throne, “established for ever,” and a God Family—being a Father to human beings who are sons—is obviously directed to God’s people spiritually! We are God’s royal Family, preparing to share that throne with Jesus Christ forever. And the throne of David currently resides in God’s true Church. Chronicles truly has special meaning for us today!

Chronicles also talks a lot about building, about how we need to build and raise the ruins. Ezra was trying to inspire people after they had returned from 70 years of captivity. That too is very significant for us. From our beginning in 1989, we have been raising the ruins of Mr. Armstrong’s work that was destroyed after his death.

1 Chronicles 13-16 focus on the ark of the covenant, a symbol of God and His throne. God communicated with the people from there. You’d think they would be eager to be close to God, but they turned away. Even David didn’t treat that ark with enough respect in the beginning. God had been clear in His instructions on how to transport it, but David neglected those instructions. When it lurched as they were moving it, Uzzah touched it to steady it, and God struck him dead. That got David’s attention! He realized he had committed a great sin: “[T]he Lord our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not after the due order” (1 Chronicles 15:13). God was preparing David and teaching him how to rule for eternity. What a lesson this is: When God speaks, we must do exactly what He says, in due order. We have a structured government, and we follow that. We step out and obey God, and wherever we find that we’re not doing something right, we try as hard as we can to do what God says. We strive to be like David, doing things exactly the way God says to do it and in due order. That brings such joy and happiness into our lives.

David’s biography is the longest in the Bible. The Ferrar Fenton translation subtitles the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles, “History of the House of David.” Several commentaries agree. One says that to understand Chronicles, you need to understand its focus on David and his throne. They keep calling it history, yet it is a book of prophecy! It isn’t merely the history of the house of David—it is prophecy about the house of David. They cannot understand that without the Spirit of God. Only we really understand God’s prophecies.

The key of David message concludes the Old Testament and leads right into the New Testament. The book concludes, “The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up” (2 Chronicles 36:23). Go up where? To Jerusalem. This points directly to the New Testament, where the most important events of Christ’s life occurred in that city. And the first verse of the first book of the New Testament speaks of “Jesus Christ, the son of David.” There is David again!

Ezra ended Chronicles pointing directly to the message of the Gospels and the majestic truth about “Jesus Christ, the son of David.”

Chronicles is a very spiritual book that we need to understand. Let’s see the connection it makes with the end-time prophecy of Jeremiah.

The 70-Years Prophecy

This connection appears at the end of the book. 2 Chronicles 36:20 describes the historical setting—Babylon taking Judah into captivity: “And them that had escaped from the sword carried he [the Chaldean king] away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia.”

Now notice: Ezra brings Jeremiah into the picture. “To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten [70] years” (verse 21). The margin points back to prophecies in Jeremiah 25:9-12 and 29:10. That is history we need to remember.

We must understand that Jeremiah played a role here. His prophecies are central to the pcg’s commission and relate closely with the throne of David. God has revealed a lot more from the book of Jeremiah to us. These are crucial truths God wants us to understand that connect with Chronicles.

God has revealed more to me to add to our understanding. It is critical for understanding the connection between Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah and Jeremiah. As I said, Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah are to be understood and applied spiritually, and even the 70 years Jeremiah prophesied of is spiritual.

Jeremiah warned Judah about that coming captivity. That is now history, but Babylon’s ancient destruction of Judah is a type of much more than that. Today there is a modern Babylon. It is almost formed, and we are facing it right now! God wants us to tie that in with this 70-years prophecy and look at it spiritually.

That 70 years is a type of the modern-day Babylon taking Judah captive, along with two nations of Israel: Manasseh and Ephraim. It will take 2½ years of the most horrific crises ever on Earth, including a nuclear attack and captivity, to help these people repent, unless they repent now. God will give them that much time to repent of their sins. The first captivity is a type of the coming second Babylonian captivity.

Once those people learn that lesson, we will all be raising up the ruins. That is mostly spiritual! We are raising up a lot of the ruins spiritually today, and it is leading into the wonderful World Tomorrow.

Why did Jeremiah write a book? Because his message was not only to Judah but also to the two prophetic nations of Israel, the United States and Britain (Jeremiah 30:1-2). This is a book for the end time. “For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah …” (verse 3). Who will take them into captivity? Babylon—the Chaldeans (Habakkuk 1:6-15). Jeremiah 30:4 goes on to again talk about Israel and Judah.

“For thus saith the Lord; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?” (verses 5-6). Everybody in these nations is pale with terrifying fear. That is the future of our peoples if they don’t repent! We don’t like to think about that, but at times we must.

“Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. For it shall come to pass in that day [the day we are now living in], saith the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him” (verses 7-8). There is hope! Even if Jacob—unconverted Israel—rebels, God still has compassion for him.

Then God brings David’s future position into the picture. “But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them” (verse 9). God promises to raise David (and the other firstfruits as well) from the dead! And He will give him an impressive position: king over all Israel!

Why does God keep emphasizing David? He is a wonderful example to us. And we are going to be right there beside David, working with him. We will be teaching a lot about David in the World Tomorrow because we have learned so much from him today.

The Tribulation God describes in verses 5-8 before David’s future kingship is exactly what this world will soon experience if people don’t repent. But then He gives us the very zenith of hope! Above all that bad news is the good news—so good that people with a carnal mind cannot believe it!

Believe God’s Word. Believe what Jeremiah said about ancient Babylon and about modern-day Babylon and these two captivities. Believe God will do what He says, as He has always done!

A Seething Pot

Note Jeremiah’s commission: “See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant” (Jeremiah 1:10). The Ferrar Fenton translation reads, “See! I have appointed you today over nations, and kingdoms; to pull up, and to break down, and to destroy, and to erase; as well as to build, and to plant.”

That is worded very simply: Pull up, break down, destroy—these are the three overturns of David’s throne. Mr. Armstrong taught us that Ezekiel 21:27 shows the throne was overturned three times. But then what happens? The throne is erased! Other Bible study aides use the expression “ruin utterly” or “destroy utterly.” Those three overturns are history. What replaces it? Where is David’s throne? It has to remain because God promised it would continue from the time of David to the Second Coming and forever! Now we begin to see why God set up a new throne. God says clearly that He erased the throne of David that used to be. He replaced it with a new throne, and we have it!

Tie this in with that 70-years prophecy. We must see what Jeremiah prophesies about this final Babylonian captivity. It is prophecy for us today if we look at Jeremiah spiritually, just as we do with Chronicles.

“Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it” (Jeremiah 1:11-12). God says, “I will hasten”; He will speed up events. I think that shows a certain level of Christ Himself being involved on Earth at times. It seems God is performing this act in person. Events in the world and in God’s Church are moving faster and faster. We are in that gun lap at the very end of our race!

“And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north. Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land” (verses 13-14). That is speaking of a modern-day Babylonian empire! God says this seething pot is about to boil over on three nations if they don’t wake up. This is an impending attack by the Holy Roman Empire that includes nuclear warfare. No wonder people’s faces turn pale!

“For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah” (verse 15). This attack is coming! Europe is yearning for strong leadership. European leaders want to position the Continent as another world superpower. In the end, these leaders will try to blot out the name of Israel! We have to be ready: This pot is seething as never before!

Linking With Ezra-Nehemiah

Chronicles also strongly links to the book of Ezra-Nehemiah, another prophetic book. I write about this in the Chronicles booklet, and will briefly summarize this truth here.

The concluding verses of Chronicles are: “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia [Babylon had been conquered by Persia], that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up” (2 Chronicles 36:22-23).

These are the same verses Ezra began Ezra-Nehemiah with, a book he had written years before. The commentaries can’t understand why he pointed back to his earlier book. But clearly Ezra deliberately tied these books together.

If you don’t look at this spiritually, you will never understand it. Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah are spiritual, and they are linked. Ezra-Nehemiah says a lot about Zerubbabel, Joshua, Haggai and Zechariah. I have written booklets on two of them (Haggai and Zechariah), and Zerubbabel and Joshua are also important end-time prophetic personalities. These are prophecies for today! God discusses these men in detail because these books are end-time prophecy, specifically for the pcg.

Why did Ezra point back to Ezra-Nehemiah? Here are two reasons.

First, it underscores the fact that Chronicles is an end-time message specifically for the pcg, which is raising up the ruins. That is the message of Ezra-Nehemiah. The Jews who returned to rebuild Jerusalem would work with a spade in one hand and a sword in the other (Nehemiah 4:17-18). As we do God’s ruin-raising Work today, we must wield our spiritual sword, the truth of God, to combat anything that gets in our way. We have to be building like those people were. Those Jews’ hearts were in the Work! And as Mr. Armstrong said, if our heart isn’t in the Work, we won’t grow.

God wants us to realize that there are ruins to be raised. This whole Church has been doing that for years and continues to raise the ruins of what Mr. Armstrong had built. We are here to build and build and build. God says the whole universe is waiting. It is groaning, waiting for the liberty of the sons of God! (Romans 8:18-23). We are going to be raising ruins for eternity. This is our future! Chronicles points to that ruin-raising message to emphasize that it applies to us.

Second, this link brings the key of David message and the throne of David into Ezra-Nehemiah. We must keep in mind that what is missing in Ezra-Nehemiah is the throne of David. God has provided that for us. This makes the message of Ezra-Nehemiah even more relevant to us.

The link between these two books is further reinforced in Nehemiah 12:23, which mentions the book of Chronicles. This drives the commentaries crazy, because when Nehemiah was composed, Chronicles hadn’t been written yet! Of course not, because this is prophecy for today. Ezra expressed that himself in his edits, adding this reference to Chronicles and fortifying the link between these two books. He explicitly tied Ezra-Nehemiah to Chronicles, and Chronicles to Ezra-Nehemiah. This is a sign that people could see and understand if they would let God lead them. If you don’t have the Holy Spirit of God, you don’t get it. And it wasn’t revealed in Mr. Armstrong’s time because it is for today.

David in Ezra-Nehemiah

Here is some important context that shows how Ezra-Nehemiah is a spiritual book, not simply history. When the Jews returned to Jerusalem, they did not have the throne of David with them. Yet they were intensely focused on David. That great king’s presence is pervasive throughout Ezra-Nehemiah. Ten times David is mentioned by name. Let’s look at some examples.

Ezra 3:10 says, “And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the ordinance of David king of Israel.” David had ordained that this should be done and in this way, and they followed that. This is a tremendous example for us today. We follow David’s example to the best of our ability. We produce music that has messages from and for God! We sing from a hymnal with beautiful psalms, many of which David wrote. God has us sing them over and over so these wonderful truths are ingrained in our minds. This example is specifically for us today because we are going to teach this in the World Tomorrow. We need to be ready when Christ arrives.

In Ezra 8:20, Ezra speaks of some people he solicited help from, “whom David and the princes had appointed for the service of the Levites ….” Ezra always referred back to what David had done for direction on how to conduct matters.

Ezra focused so much on David, and this is for the pcg specifically, as is Chronicles. The new throne has everything to do with building and raising up the ruins. We will sit on that throne with Christ forever and ever if we put our heart in this Work and build everything spiritual we need to.

Nehemiah 3:15-16 show that as the Jews rebuilt Jerusalem, they knew all about the city of David and even “the sepulchres of David.” That is an important reference to the tombs of the kings. We expect those tombs to be found soon (more about this in Chapter 14, “The Father’s Vision”).

Nehemiah 12 has several references to David. Verse 37 says, “… they went up by the stairs of the city of David, at the going up of the wall, above the house of David, even unto the water gate eastward.” When these people were raising up the ruins, they knew where David’s palace had been, just like today we know where it was. But this history is recorded for our benefit. Those Jews didn’t have God’s Spirit. This is for us spiritually. That is what Ezra was prophesying at the end of Chronicles.

Verse 24 reads, “And the chief of the Levites … with their brethren over against them, to praise and to give thanks, according to the commandment of David the man of God ….” This was a commandment of David, the man of God, and they obeyed it! They loved David. They brought him into the picture all the time. They built the way David built. We want to do the same.

David continually praised and thanked God in the temple and anywhere he could. He had enormous choirs and ensembles lined up to offer continual praise and thanks, and the whole nation could look to that example. It isn’t natural to think this way. We are naturally self-centered, but we must become God-centered. We must learn to think like God, act like God, work like God, and build the very character of God! We strive very hard to do that. We have made praise and thanksgiving part of our educational program from kindergarten through college. We work to teach our children to be princes and princesses for God, where they dance and sing for God, as the adults also do. We are building that way of life at God’s headquarters and around the world. That is what David did, and God is going to set him over all the tribes of Israel! What leadership they are about to be blessed with.

Verses 27-29 describe them celebrating with music, praising God. They played the musical instruments David, the man of God, had made. David made musical instruments! That takes skill. But what a beautiful sound to have music like that. God loves that!

“Both the singers and the gatekeepers kept the charge of their God and the charge of the purification, according to the command of David and Solomon his son” (verse 45; New King James Version). David and Solomon taught that we have to be purified. We all have human nature and must get rid of that.

“For in the days of David and Asaph [the song leader] of old there were chief of the singers, and songs of praise and thanksgiving unto God” (verse 46). This is the way it will be in the World Tomorrow. God says we have to be building and preparing to show the world what transpired during the reign of David and put it on a spiritual level. Can you imagine the music, singing and dancing we will have in the World Tomorrow? It is going to be breathtaking! Thinking about all of that the way God wants us to understand it brings these books alive.

All Ezra-Nehemiah needs is the new throne of David. What a spiritual book it is! How spiritual Chronicles is, and how spiritual Jeremiah is. We have to get our focus on the spiritual, and we have to build and build.

God builds churches that really support His Work; this is the way we accomplish things. God’s Church today is small, but we have loyal supporters. Look at the impact we are having on the world because we are building this key of David vision. As the inscription in the lobby of Armstrong Auditorium explains, it is made possible by the support of the people of God. That $25 million edifice couldn’t have been built without people who really support and believe in what God is doing! We all have to be unified and do it together. We must love and support each other and build the love of God and the fellowship of God between us. We are God’s Family, the royalty of God! We are most blessed among all people.

Sidebar: Revelation and the Key of David

In the inspired order of the Bible, Chronicles is the last book of the Old Testament. It ties in beautifully with the last book of the New Testament, Revelation.

There is an outline in Chronicles that parallels the first three chapters of Revelation. Chronicles is built around the key of David message, as are Revelation 1-3.

Chronicles begins with a genealogy. In a sense, Revelation does as well.

The book of Revelation begins, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God [the Father] gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John” (Revelation 1:1). This book is from God the Father, who gave it to Christ, who gave it to an angel, who gave it to John.

In verse 10, John says he heard “a great voice, as of a trumpet.” This is Jesus Christ speaking! Chronicles began by mentioning the first Adam. Here we get a brilliant description of the Second Adam! (1 Corinthians 15:45).

In Revelation 1:11, Christ touches on another aspect of this spiritual genealogy—the seven Church eras: “… I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.” There is a lot about the God Family that God wants us to see in this spiritual genealogy.

But first, there is a greater description of the Second Adam.

Christ in the Midst

“And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks [lamps]; And in the midst of the seven [lamps], one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle” (Revelation 1:12-13). Jesus Christ is right in the midst of His Church. What a difference it makes in a Church when Christ is in your midst! That means that, as long as the people will submit to Him, Christ is leading it, and terrific events will unfold!

“His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength” (verses 14-16). This is the Second Adam! He is radiant and glorious—and scriptures reveal that is the way God’s people are going to look when we are glorified! (1 John 3:2; 1 Corinthians 15:49; Philippians 3:21).

“I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death” (Revelation 1:18). This is the Leader of our Church! When He is in the midst of this Church and we do our part, He will accomplish astounding things. That is for certain!

This magnificent Being is called “the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David,” and He opens up the entire book of Revelation! (Revelation 5:5). And He is the “Root of David.” It is from the root that life proceeds! What a wonderful blessing it is to have this Root of David, and the very life of God, in our lives!

Then in Revelation 22:16, He says, “… I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” How stunning that Christ is not only the root, but also the offspring of David. Again and again He points back to this human king, through whom He founded the throne upon which He will sit for eternity.

After this spectacular description of the Second Adam in Revelation 1, the seven Church eras are explained.

The Seven Eras

Christ said to the first-century Church, “Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden [lamps]” (Revelation 2:1). Those seven lamps represent the seven Church eras. Christ walks right in the middle of them!

The Ephesus era was doing well for a time, but then there were problems. The people lost their first love. And Christ admonished them to “repent, and do the first works” (verse 5).

“… To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God” (verse 7). Here is a reference to the first Adam and the tree of life that he rejected. God says that if you want to eat from that spiritual tree, you must overcome. He will not let you eat from that tree otherwise. So we must overcome. We must be doers.

After the first-century apostles died, the Smyrna era strove to faithfully follow God during a dark period. This era too had a “synagogue of Satan” (verse 9), like the Philadelphia era (Revelation 3:9)—people who claimed to be spiritual Jews but were apostate. During the Smyrna era, Emperor Constantine converted to Catholicism and began to enforce Catholic doctrine such as Sunday-worship. True Christians were persecuted, imprisoned and even martyred (Revelation 2:10).

The Church during the Pergamos and Thyatira eras was on the run from persecution from the several incarnations of the Holy Roman Empire. The prophecy in Revelation 12:6 depicts this period: “And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.” That represents 1,260 years that the Church was the target of terrible persecution and warfare from Satan’s false church. The story of the accomplishments of God’s saints during those centuries is truly inspiring. (You can read far more about the “spiritual genealogy” of God’s Church in my book The True History of God’s True Church.)

The Sardis era began toward the tail end of those 1,260 years in the wilderness. It made the transition from England to the United States, where people could practice freedom of religion for the first time in generations.

As I wrote in Chapter 1, God called Herbert W. Armstrong during the time of the Sardis Church. Mr. Armstrong knew they had the right name and that certain doctrines were right, but it appeared to him that they were not dynamically alive spiritually the way they should be. Sure enough, Christ’s message to this era is, “And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead” (Revelation 3:1). What an indictment! You have a name—Church of God. But you are dead. God wants us all to be dynamically alive! Are you dynamically alive spiritually? We need dynamically alive people to support this Work.

God used Mr. Armstrong to fulfill the role of the end-time Elijah, who would “restore all things” (Matthew 17:11). That is a powerful work to accomplish—and Mr. Armstrong did so in spite of the process starting during a Church era that was dead! Oh, how the truth of God can bring us to life!

Christ’s message to Sardis continues, “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life …” (Revelation 3:5). Christ says, If you overcome and do as I tell you, I won’t blot your name out of the book of life! The reverse of that—what happens if the people don’t overcome—is obvious. This is a fierce warning for us.

To the Philadelphia era under Mr. Armstrong, God gave the key of David (verse 7), and those who remain loyal to God during the Laodicean era (verses 14-22) hold tight to that key.

‘The City of My God’

Revelation 4 describes God’s throne room. God the Father is surrounded by majesty on a scale we can scarcely imagine! We need to get that picture in our minds—because that points to our future.

The key of David vision is all about the gospel of the coming Family of God. Jesus Christ and God the Father lived for a prior eternity, only the two of them—and they deeply, deeply desired a family. They have done more for the sake of having a family than we can truly conceive! The Father is the Head of the Family, and He is heading this entire process. We are called by our Father. Then Jesus Christ takes over and makes certain we have the power we need. The good news of that coming Family is what the key of David vision is all about.

God wants to bring every last one of us into that eternal royal Family. Revelation 2:10 says, “… I will give thee a crown of life.” Revelation 3:11 says, “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” That is a command from Christ our Husband: Let no man take your crown.

“[A]nd I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name” (verse 12).

Read God’s description in Revelation 21 and 22 of that new Jerusalem from which we will be ruling with Jesus Christ (more about this in Chapter 14). It is spectacular beyond comprehension! And it is real! This life we have today is just a physio-chemical existence, made from earth. God is offering us a place in His eternal royal Family, clothed in glory, honor and majesty. The key of David vision is all about the royal Family of God!