Chapter 4: Satan Attacks David’s Throne

Satan the devil is filled with hatred, anger, bitterness and wrath against King David’s throne. And no wonder! That throne is going to replace him and his rule over the Earth! When Jesus Christ sits on that throne, Satan will be thrown into outer darkness. He knows the end of his reign is extremely near, so his fury against that throne is only getting stronger.

We have witnessed a great deal of that wrath in recent years. And it is certain to intensify even more.

The good news is that, as important as this throne is to Satan, it is far more important to God! Even though God’s people can expect the pressure on us to intensify because we now possess the throne of David, we can also expect more miraculous help from God.

In fact, there is a lot of evidence in the Bible that Jesus Christ Himself is already becoming more personally involved in helping this Work to protect that throne!

Decline of the Royal Family

Look again at the time frame of events related to the change in the throne.

In November 1996, the pcg began plans to print Mystery of the Ages. That same month—on November 15—the stone of Scone was transferred to Scotland. Mystery of the Ages was on the rise, and that stone of destiny was faltering—and it is no longer the stone of destiny today.

About 10 months later, on August 31, 1997, Princess Diana was killed in a car crash.

Did the royal family of David’s throne lose some of its protection from God? I don’t know for certain, but it is interesting that it happened within a year of England surrendering the stone. God does give special protection to those who have the throne of David. He also punishes them for their sins more acutely than He would others.

When God gave the revelation about the new stone on January 16, 2017, the royal family of Britain was displaced as the royal family of David’s throne. That was a signal of terrible things to come upon Britain, as well as a sharp decline of America and Judah. It was also an indication that we would see a rapid decline in Britain’s royal family.

Look at what began happening to Britain’s royal family almost immediately after this change.

The Queen was 91 years old at the time and obviously near the end of her reign. Her husband announced in May 2017 that he would step down from his royal duties later in the year. In its June 30, 2017, issue, Newsweek published a feature article about Prince Harry, in which he said that when his grandmother dies, nobody wants to assume the throne. “Is there anyone of the royal family who wants to be king or queen? I don’t think so, but we will carry out our duties at the right time,” he said.

Well—God is relieving them of that responsibility!

The Newsweek article was written by a reporter who had received liberal access to Prince Harry for most of a year—as part of the royal family’s effort to update its public image. The article showed the disturbing direction the monarchy is taking.

“We are involved in modernizing the British monarchy,” Prince Harry said. The royals are breaking with many past traditions. They are championing popular social causes, trying to relate to the public by showing that they are “ordinary people.” They are working to boost their popularity by rubbing shoulders with immoral celebrities and in other ways that degrade the throne. They are also undermining biblical teachings.

In April 2017, Prince William appeared with American pop star Lady Gaga in a Heads Together video aimed at normalizing mental health problems like depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. He also sued a French magazine for £1.3 million for publishing pictures of his wife, topless. Her sister, Pippa, married the brother of a reality tv star. The British Spectator called the royals “Britain’s biggest reality tv show.”

Is Lady Gaga the kind of company the royal family of Britain should keep?

On May 12, 2019, Prince William was named the “straight ally of the year” at Britain’s lgbt Awards. “It’s so important to be proud of the person you are,” he said in a video accepting the award.

The Newsweek article dwelled quite a lot on Prince Harry’s efforts to live a “normal” life. “He tells me several times that he aches to be ‘something other than Prince Harry,’” the author wrote. She described various ways how he has essentially tried to escape from being a royal.

“Harry’s determination to be ordinary seems reflected in his love life,” the article says. “His girlfriend, Meghan Markle, might be a well-known actress, but she is also a divorcée, a vocal feminist and American, none of which conforms to the stereotype of a royal consort.” When Prince Harry became engaged to Ms. Markle in 2017, everyone welcomed it as a wonderful thing. She decided to be baptized and confirmed before they got married. Is this supposed to make David’s throne righteous? The Guardian actually printed an article saying, “I don’t know if the impressive Meghan Markle believes that she is entering a fairy-tale family. And I do slightly worry that the introduction of Hollywood glamour into the royal family serves only to reinforce the wrong sort of monarchy, the bread-and-circus version.”

“The younger royals are just too interested in the cringe-inducing world of celebrity and in the popularization of their own image,” wrote the Spectator. “We are told that they are reinventing the concept of monarchy for the digital age, and so on. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. … In 30 years’ time, royal historians might look back at the Heads Together campaign, at the eager association with pop stars, and the blooming romance between Prince Harry and Miss Markle, and ask: Was this the moment when it all started to go wrong?” (May 13, 2017; emphasis mine throughout).

Isn’t it amazing that a worldly news source would note that something has gone seriously wrong that severely changes the future of the monarchy? And it happened just months after God’s people received this new revelation.

‘Abdication’

Harry the duke of Sussex and his wife, Meghan, announced in January 2020 that they would step down as senior members of Britain’s royal family. Many likened the couple’s announcement to an “abdication” or a royal divorce. It sparked a public crisis within the royal family; coming at a hard time for the Queen, whose husband was in ill health. The Telegraph wrote of her, “It is no secret behind palace gates that she has been left devastated by their bombshell statement” (Jan. 18, 2020). The Telegraph said the timing of the duke’s decision, “when the family, and the monarch, needed the younger members to put aside personal animus, is in many ways unforgivable” (Jan. 9, 2020).

Harry and Meghan were stripped of their “Royal Highness” status. No longer “Prince Harry,” he became “Harry, duke of Sussex.” He lost his military posts, including captain general of the Royal Marines, and no longer represents the Queen in any official capacity.

Harry and his wife are good friends with important figures on the radical left in America. The Daily Mail reported that the Sussexes got advice on their break with the royal family from former U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife. The Sussexes want to “mimic the way they had managed to build a successful, but dignified, life for themselves after the White House,” it wrote (Jan. 10, 2020).

The left in America, with its film stars and celebrities, loudly supported Harry and Meghan’s decision. During a trip to the UK, Hillary Clinton said Meghan’s critics in the press were “bad guys.” Meghan, she said, must “[k]eep going—do what you think is right.”

Others in the radical left went much further than merely praising the Sussexes—they said the reason it was necessary was that the royal family is racist. “Black Britons Know Why Meghan Markle Wants Out,” the New York Times headlined (Jan. 9, 2020). By dramatically stepping down, the two were sticking “two fingers up at the racism of the British establishment,” the article stated. The article triggered an avalanche. “Experts” in race and gender studies flooded the airways to explain that Harry and Meghan’s decision was a reaction to society’s racism. Good Morning Britain, This Morning, Newsnight, Question Time and many more programs hosted discussions on the nation’s sins against the part-black duchess of Sussex. Friends of the Sussexes accused the royal family of having it in for them from the start—with no evidence. “People had bent over backwards for them,” said one palace aide. “They were given the wedding they wanted, the house they wanted, the office they wanted, the staff they wanted, and had the backing of the family. What more did they want?”

It was a turning point for race relations in Britain. Never had the idea that Britain is fundamentally, institutionally racist received so much airtime. And in July 2020, Harry released a video message supporting the Black Lives Matter movement (whose stated goal is to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family”). He declared that “racism” is “endemic” in our societies. Days later he lamented the racism inherent in the Commonwealth.

The same culture wars that have fractured our universities, our politics and our media have arrived at the heart of the monarchy. Now a member of the royal family—though stripped of much of his royal status—is turning against his heritage. The royal family is shifting from a source of national strength to national weakness.

The Importance of Family

When William and Harry’s mother, Lady Diana, married Prince Charles in 1981, the world was mesmerized. In the Plain Truth magazine, Herbert W. Armstrong called their spectacular wedding “Britain’s Last Gasp of Joy and Splendor.”

Mr. Armstrong noted that Britain was a kingdom in decline. He was in Britain at the time, and he privately noted that, in the wedding ceremony, references to the wife obeying her husband—based on scriptures like Ephesians 5:22-24, Colossians 3:18 and Titus 2:5—had been removed. He commented, “Well, let’s watch and see whether it lasts or not.”

It did not last! Both Charles and Diana ended up having adulterous affairs. That wedding was the most-watched television event in history up to that point. The whole world was focused on the “fairy tale” romance and marriage. And what they got was a clear example of infidelity, immorality and treachery! Can we really pretend that their example didn’t have an effect on British society?

Family is the most important relationship that exists! If you study it in the Bible, you see that it is a God-plane relationship! It teaches us spiritual truths about God Himself. Ephesians 5, for example, reveals that marriage is a type of the relationship between Jesus Christ and His Church. This Christ-Church marriage inspires us to see that marriage between a man and a woman is a God-plane relationship!

How precious is a strong family, producing godly children! Anyone can recognize what a marvelous and beautiful institution family is. There is nothing else like it! (To learn more about this truth, request a free copy of Why Marriage—Soon Obsolete?)

That is why it is so tragic when we trash what God created. Just look at what happened with the very first marriage—Adam and Eve—when they rejected God’s instructions. They ended up with a son who murdered his own brother! Surely that should have woken them up to what a mistake they had made! But sadly, it did not. People too rarely look at the real fruits of their decisions.

The royal couple that many people are so enamored with today, William and Kate, lived together for quite a while before they married. And now he is championing transgender rights. They are supposed to be an example to their people!

That June 30, 2017, Newsweek article noted: “When asked about his family, Harry talks readily about the Queen … and his late mother …. He says less about William and Kate, and almost nothing about his father or his stepmother. The world now knows how unhappy that relationship made his mother, and her sons.”

What kind of family is he going to have?

The article says Prince Harry is trying to carry on his mother’s legacy. “Twenty years ago, when irrational fear of being infected with hiv/aids was at its height, Diana was photographed touching an hiv-positive man, and that one gesture altered public attitudes. (‘I’d like to be a queen of people’s hearts,’ Diana once told a tv interviewer; the moniker stuck, especially after her death.) Last December, Harry had an hiv test in Barbados before a bevy of photographers.”

What is the royal family trying to accomplish by associating with these kinds of causes? Society is embracing vile family-destroying perversions like gender-fluidity, same-sex “marriage” and transgenderism. The royal family is throwing its support behind this movement. Even a generation ago, Diana was promoting a Sodom and Gomorrah lifestyle! Is that a legacy you want to sustain? The royal family isn’t promoting God-plane marriage, but Sodom-plane immorality!

How sad to see all of this happen. Nobody in God’s Church is delighting in this. This was the throne of God—and this is what it has degenerated into in Britain! It means nothing at all to them, it seems!

The royal family of Britain is no longer royal in God’s eyes, and I don’t think they are very royal in anybody’s eyes. They are the ex-royal family of David’s throne—the very throne that Christ is about to rule from forever!

This is a universe-shaking event! Surely the angels have been shaken by this. And it is a very moving and stirring event to God the Father and Jesus Christ. This is reality—not a reality show, but reality!

The Philadelphia Church of God is now the royal family of God’s throne! That is something to ponder!

You and I, of all people, must uphold the standard of God’s throne, spiritually! If we are baptized members in God’s Church, we have the Holy Spirit, and we must show the world, as much as we possibly can, how things will soon be around God’s throne on Earth!

Christ Personally Appears!

During our court battle, the Wall Street Journal interviewed us and many people in the wcg. Jess Bravin, the journalist, said that many members of wcg dissenting churches were glued to the case. Why would they care? None of those members came to our aid. They were hoping we would fail.

How can you let yourself get to the point that so many of God’s people did—where they were so bitter they decided to fight against the truth of God that they had been taught for many years?

We were fighting for Mystery of the Ages because we love God’s truth and because we knew we couldn’t finish the work of proclaiming God’s message unless we had it! But there were people fighting against it. They were fighting against what was revealed to Herbert W. Armstrong, who then recorded it in his writings.

Amos 8 ends by talking about people who will “fall, and never rise up again.” This can only refer to Spirit-begotten people. Other prophecies show that 50 percent of the Laodiceans will never rise up again. This includes the antichrist, who fought us so vehemently in court to destroy God’s truth, plus all those who followed him.

It is one thing to leave God’s Church, but it is another to come back and fight it and try to destroy the truth of God!

Surely we can see why God is so upset!

Amos 9:1 begins the fifth vision of Amos. The number five is the biblical number for judgment. “I saw the Lord standing upon [by] the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut [wound] them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered” (Amos 9:1).

Amos does not say God showed him something. In this vision, Amos said, “I saw the Lord”! Amos didn’t say that in the other four visions. Here he actually saw God in a vision. According to the Companion Bible, in the original manuscripts the Hebrew word for “Lord” is combined with “-eth,” meaning God Himself.

The Anchor Bible says about verse 1: “[God’s] presence in the sanctuary, where normally the priest would be standing or officiating, would indicate that something out of the ordinary, something ominous, was about to happen.” Something ominous certainly did happen!

The “altar” is a symbol of the ministry in God’s Church (request my free booklet on Amos for more explanation). God struck the pillars at the top so the ceiling, posts, pillars and ministry were shaken! It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!

As I explain in my Amos booklet, this prophecy was fulfilled in our court battle. We know from this passage—and from the fruits of the court case—that God appeared! These people forsook God and fought against Mystery of the Ages. And look what happened to them! Jesus Christ personally came to smite them. God shook them, which means to agitate, quake or shake. He shook the posts and pillars—everything of substance in the wcg.

Of this vision, Amos said, I saw the Eternal! He was on this Earth with God’s people! We didn’t see Him, but we certainly saw the fruits of His visit! Christ personally saw to it that we received justice, getting us ready for a new stone and a new throne.

Jesus Christ had a lot to do when He came to Earth. Christ, the Stone, was crying out and warning His lukewarm people through us! If they were “glued” to the court case, then they knew what we were teaching. Christ was crying out to them, trying to get them to straighten out their lives and return to the truth of God. But they didn’t repent, and now they are in a grave spiritual condition. Only 50 percent of them will turn around. Those unrepentant and unwilling to change will lose their eternal lives and will be dust under our feet.

These prophecies are for us today! If we don’t understand them, then we are not God’s very elect! Sure, we make mistakes here and there, but God’s very elect will understand these prophecies.

We have shown before that Amos 9:1, 11-12 are about the court case. But God has revealed that it is about much more than that. It is also about a new throne and new stone.

‘I Raise Up the Tabernacle of David’

“In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old” (Amos 9:11). The “tabernacle of David” is rarely used to refer to God’s Church, especially in the New Testament. Luke quotes James using this expression in Acts 15:15-16, quoting Amos 9:11, to show what will happen in the Millennium. But we are raising up the tabernacle of David before the Millennium!

The expression “tabernacle of David” implies that we have King David’s throne in God’s Church today! It is referring to a temporary throne within the Church. You see the same thing in Isaiah 16:5: A man in the Church is sitting on that throne in the context of the “tabernacle of David”—a temporary setting, but the throne of David nevertheless.

This is what God has revealed. God has taken the throne away from Ephraim, or Britain, and given it to His own true Church. This is a great honor for us! God is giving us an incredible opportunity. We have to raise the ruins—and not only of Mr. Armstrong’s work. We are also raising the ruins of King David’s throne! We must strive to restore King David’s godly leadership!

In the court case, we went up against a man whom the Bible indicates is Satan-possessed. It was at the very beginning of the Laodicean rebellion that he stopped publication of The United States and Britain in Prophecy, which fully explained the throne of David—the leading book in building the Worldwide Church of God under Mr. Armstrong. One of the first changes he made was to destroy a book about David’s throne! That shows you how satanic that takeover was.

Amos 9:12 says God’s Church will “possess the remnant of Edom”—speaking of the Edomite Laodiceans who are going to lose their eternal lives. That is what we did! We fought for Mr. Armstrong’s writings and took possession of them—and received a double wonder in the process. Christ fought right there with us through the whole ordeal.

Notice, though, that verse 11 says, “In that day will I [God] raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I [God] will raise up his ruins, and I [God] will build it as in the days of old.” Does He also do that in person?

It does make you wonder: Did Christ come only during the court crisis, or is it more than just that? He didn’t say, I’m going to send Amos to raise up the ruins, or I’m going to do it through him. Look at Matthew 17:11, where Christ said, “Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.” That isn’t the way Amos 9:11 is written.

Christ came to help us in the court battle. Is He still here, operating personally in some ways? Does He come back periodically, or is He staying here? Verse 11 is very much like verse 1: He stood there by the altar—He did the job Himself. Maybe He thinks it is necessary to be appearing more often to help us out because we are in the time when Satan has been cast down, and he and his demons are confined to Earth. Maybe in this utterly mad age with Satan and the demons cast down, we require Christ’s presence more than in the past.

And now, we have the very throne of God, which makes us a more obvious target!

Habakkuk’s Version

The Prophet Habakkuk discusses these same events.

The context of Habakkuk 3 is our court case, “in the midst of the years” (verse 2)—meaning the crisis years, when we were battling over whether we could continue proclaiming Mystery of the Ages and the foundational truth.

In the middle of the crisis years, God came personally! Verse 3 says, “God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah.” Compare this with Deuteronomy 33:2, a prophecy of when Christ will return from the same area with 10,000 saints. But in Habakkuk 3:3, Christ doesn’t have 10,000 saints with Him. This verse is describing the same events that unfolded in Amos 9!

In Habakkuk 3:3, the verb “came” in the Hebrew is in the present tense. Christ comes from Mount Paran in the middle of the court case. He is in action! He is doing something! He comes to this Earth, He stands by the altar, and He wounds the Laodiceans in the head.

Verse 13 says the same thing: “… thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck.” They were wounded in the head, just like in Amos 9:1.

Habakkuk 1 and 2 are about two men in a court battle. But in Habakkuk 3, God appears! God, Himself, appears to help the true Church of God!

It is important that we realize our need for help and protection from God will only grow in the time ahead.

War Between Two Thrones

Habakkuk 1 begins by talking about our court case, and the anxiety which that injustice caused us. It describes a Satan-possessed man inside God’s own Church, destroying God’s Family.

In a sense, there is a duality between the first four verses and the verses that follow.

Verse 5 describes the miraculous double wonder we experienced. Immediately after that, verse 6 says: “For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs.” This is referring to the old Babylonian system in Europe, led by Germany, that is rising to power once again right now.

The split in God’s Church occurred in December 1989, one month after the Berlin Wall came down. This passage shows that while God’s Church would rise in prominence, so too would this ungodly alliance.

There is a war between David’s throne and the throne of this great false church; the latter is a political throne guided by an evil spiritual throne. In this passage in Habakkuk 1, God is putting His Church right beside this Babylonian religion, exposing the counterfeit of David’s throne for what it is!

Notice, God says, “I raise up the Chaldeans”! Can you imagine God doing that? Is He so wrathful that He would raise up the evil Holy Roman Empire to punish the British, the Americans and the Jews—the birthright nations and the scepter nation? Would God do that, Himself? Well, Revelation 17:17 says that He put it in their minds.

Habakkuk 1:7-8 mention “evening wolves,” which sleep all day and then go out at night and eat whatever they catch, not only the meat but the bones, too—just brutal! Verses 9 and 10 describe this beast power conquering and capturing all other nations. They are a destructive people; that is how they operate. God repeats this grisly truth over and over. The destruction that these people are going to unleash will be worse than anything you can imagine, because nobody has ever seen anything so horrific!

“Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god” (verse 11). The leader of this modern-day Holy Roman Empire will be guided by a religious power that has fornicated with the kings of the Earth. He will impute his war-making power “unto his god”—Satan the devil. This man will worship Satan in a way that other people do not: directly and personally! No other church worships the devil the way the great false church does.

In his book England: The Remnant of Judah and the Israel of Ephraim, Frederick Glover used this passage to say this about the spiritual leader with whom this modern emperor will align: “[A] Christian bishop has been found to magnify himself into, and has found others to make of him, a king of kings, and lord of lords, and further dared to act, the mighty ruler of princes.” This man makes himself “king of kings and lord of lords,” trying to set himself up as Jesus Christ! This doesn’t come from the mind of a human being. This is the worst kind of evil!

Glover also referenced Jeremiah 1:10, where God told Jeremiah, “I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms.” He explained, “The words thus applied by [God] to the office of the Prophet Jeremiah having been those upon which the bishops of Rome established their travesty of almighty power on Earth, over kings, emperors and states: as is clear from the Preamble to the Bull of Pope Pius v, by which that bishop of Rome thought to deprive the Queen of England of her throne and power: ‘Pius, bishop, servant of the servants of God. He, who reigneth in the highest … hath committed to me, … church … to one alone upon Earth, … the bishop of Rome, to be governed in fullness of power.’”

This religious power wanted to take over King David’s throne! It has made powerful efforts to rule this world. But its main objective is to subjugate God’s people! This is the devil incarnate!

The Catholic Church’s main goal throughout the ages has really been to destroy David’s throne. It cannot stand the thought of someone else having the preeminent throne on Earth! And it kills people who disagree with it, if it has the power. It has done this time after time after time after time, yet people still don’t understand just how dangerous that church is.

The Bull of Pius v against Queen Elizabeth was published on May 3, 1570, and declared the pope’s sovereignty: “Him alone He made prince over all people, and all kingdoms, to pluck up, destroy, scatter, consume, plant and build.” This religious leader was appropriating the Jeremiah 1:10 commission. The Catholic Church believes it can uproot, build and plant David’s throne. How would you like to live under that corrupt system?

When the throne of David was in Britain, Satan was extremely busy. But now we can expect conditions to get far worse very quickly. God moving David’s throne is one of the great signs that Satan’s time is very, very short!

Glover went on to write about a time when England would have fought to its death to defend the stone of destiny or the throne of David! But that is certainly not the case today. Now, they casually send it back to Scotland. England is so degenerate today that it won’t do anything to fight for that throne. Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams bowed down and kissed the pope’s ring. That is worshiping Satan’s religion! That is the kind of degeneration happening in the nations of Israel today.

Would you fight to the death for the throne that we have in God’s Church today? Our stone is far more important than the one sitting in Scotland.

God’s Church has a new stone and a new throne. We are a spiritual empire, and we have a throne that is about to start a new civilization that will last forever! We are kings and priests in embryo, serving under the true King of kings! God will have His true Church do some amazing things in the future. That should really excite us.

If we realize who we are, we can see why God will open doors for this small group of people. We are going to be doing things that will astound even us! We only have a short time to do this Work, and there is nobody else who will do it.

Satan is full of wrath because he knows Christ is about to return and sit on David’s throne! He hates us even more now because we have the throne that will replace him and his rule on Earth! You can see this in Revelation 12, where Satan goes after God’s people. Verse 1 shows that the Church wears a crown of 12 stars, which symbolize the 12 nations of Israel. This is where you find David’s throne. Verse 3 depicts the resurrections of the Holy Roman Empire. “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” (verse 6). This is the history of God’s Church and its 1,260-year war with the Holy Roman Empire. (Request my free book The True History of God’s True Church to learn more.)

Do you want to know what the future will be like, and how the beast power will conduct itself? Just read Habakkuk 1:14-17—the leaders of that system will slay the nations! Like fishermen catching fish, they will enjoy it so much! Human beings, made in the likeness of God, are like mere fish and creeping things to them, having no value at all. These people are in the spirit of the devil!

Verse 17 in the Moffatt says, “Are they to go on drawing the sword, murdering peoples without pity?” People will be asking, Is there no end to this awful, satanic Holy Roman Empire? Are they going to just keep drawing the sword and murdering people?

Pick up the story flow in Habakkuk 3, right on the heels of our court battle: “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls” (Habakkuk 3:17). This is about nuclear bombs decimating the Earth! There will be no grapes on the vine, no olives on the trees, no sheep in the pasture, no cattle in the stalls. Habakkuk trembled at just the vision of the destruction this rising Chaldean-Babylonian empire will inflict (verse 16).

This is a horrific picture Habakkuk is painting, but we don’t need to get depressed. Habakkuk was troubled, but he didn’t allow it to get him down. “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments” (verses 18-19).

In the face of all the current evil and approaching turmoil, we can rejoice in what God is doing! The world will finally see where the way of man leads us. It is horrifying in many ways—but this is what it takes to get people into the Family of God!

New Revelation About Samaria and Jerusalem

Micah 1:5 reads, “For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?”

Jacob was Israel’s name before his conversion. This is prophetic terminology for physical Israel—the nations of Israel—rather than spiritual Israel, the Church. And what is Jacob’s sin? “Is it not Samaria?” This is an interesting answer. It is a coded message. God is decoding it and letting us know what it means.

Samaria was the area that became the capital of the kingdom of Israel, the northern 10 tribes, after the nation divided. Jeroboam’s great sin was that he rejected the house of David, where David’s throne was (e.g., 1 Kings 12:16, 19, 26). He led the 10 tribes away from the house of David and David’s throne. (You can read much more about this in my book The Former Prophets: How to Become a King and in the first chapter of my booklet Great Again.)

“David’s son Solomon became the wisest man who ever lived (except Christ). But he taxed the people very heavily, and when he died his son Rehoboam became king,” Mr. Armstrong wrote in Mystery of the Ages. “The people sent a delegation with an ultimatum to Rehoboam. If he would reduce their taxes, they would serve him. If not, they would reject him as king. On the advice of the younger men among his councilors, Rehoboam told the people he would lay even heavier taxes on them.

“Thereupon the people decided against the royal house of David.” That is what the books of Samuel and Kings are really about: the house of David. Mr. Armstrong continued, “They named as king, Jeroboam, who had occupied the office we would today call prime minister, under King Solomon. Since Rehoboam was seated on the throne in Jerusalem, the people of Israel chose a new capital some distance north of Jerusalem. (Under a later king, Omri, they built a new northern capital at Samaria.)”

1 Kings 12:16 shows that it was against the house of David that the people were really rebelling! Verse 19 says, “So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day.” The people were not just rebelling against Rehoboam, Judah or Jerusalem. God says they rebelled against the house of David! That is about the scepter promise that God made to David. That was the great sin of our ancestors—and is Britain’s and America’s great sin today!

God is very upset with the prophetic nations of Israel today, America and Britain. America is chief because of its superpower status. And is it not Samaria? Is it not about the sins of Jeroboam? Modern Israel is steeped in sin, and God gets very specific about what those sins are: They are the same sins that plagued Samaria anciently—and it all goes back to Jeroboam.

Anciently, Jeroboam established a religion that had a form of righteousness. He ordained priests, set up worship services, and proclaimed holy days—but it was all a deadly counterfeit.

In America today, the “religion of Jeroboam” is prominent. Evangelicals have found a strong advocate in the current president. From the beginning of his administration, a strong majority of evangelicals have approved of his job performance, most of them “strongly.” They helped elect him to the presidency, and he needs them in order to remain afloat politically.

There is a lot of talk about religion in America, but it is extremely shallow. Many religious people claim to believe the Bible, but they will not obey it! They want different holy days and a different “sabbath” from what God established. They are lawless. God could never bless that.

2 Kings 17:5-6 show how God allowed the northern kingdom of Israel to be conquered because of their evil in following Jeroboam. Verses 20-22 read, “And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight. For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin. For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them.” And “they departed not from them” even today! America the superpower and Britain have the same problem. Jeroboam is back, and people are going to have to see how depraved their religion is.

“[A]nd what are the high places of Judah?” Micah 1:5 asks. Judah is the tribe through which God promised to preserve the scepter (Genesis 49:10), which He did through the kingly line of David. Anciently, Jeroboam hated that throne. The modern nations of Israel have rejected it as well. That is why God removed that throne from Britain to God’s true Church.

We must escape the transgression of Samaria!

Punishment on Israel

The rebellion in America has become so atrocious that God is forced to send terrible correction. “For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the [nuclear] fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place” (Micah 1:3-4). This is very hard correction! The Earth has never seen such destruction!

What a terrifying warning from God. Those who fail to heed will face nuclear fire!

“Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof” (verse 6).

God is talking about Samaria in this way because of the urgency of the time and how little time remains before the punishment will begin! He wants us to see that it all ends with Jeroboam. Jeroboam and Samaria date this prophecy. This is the chilling reality about time: There is a deadline! This is talking about the administration of the current American president!

Look at America today. What is wrong with this nation? We are dangerously divided. The radical left is waging an aggressive campaign to sow rebellion and chaos. People are using the language of revolution and insurrection; they are increasingly relying on violence as a political tool; they are threatening and attempting to overthrow the government. They continually accuse their political opponents of being racists; some spout dangerous conspiracy theories to incite race war! They say, for example, that policemen are deliberately targeting black men in some kind of government-sanctioned genocide!

Considering all the inflammatory rhetoric from the left, is it any wonder that more and more people are growing agitated and hateful, feeling like they are fighting for their lives? There are some really mentally disturbed people in America!

“Can a Divided America Survive?” commentator Victor Davis Hanson asked in a June 2017 column. He pointed out one of the many problems facing the nation: runaway immigration. “Currently, some 27 percent of all Californians were not born in the United States,” he wrote. “More than 40 million foreign-born immigrants currently live in the U.S.—the highest number in the nation’s history. …

“History is not very kind to multicultural chaos—as opposed to a multiracial society united by a single national culture. The fates of Rwanda, Iraq and the former Yugoslavia should remind us of our present disastrous trajectory.”

“The United States is currently the world’s oldest democracy,” he wrote. “But America is no more immune from collapse than were some of history’s most stable and impressive consensual governments. Fifth-century Athens, Republican Rome, Renaissance Florence and Venice, and many of the elected governments of early 20th-century Western European states eventually destroyed themselves, went bankrupt, or were overrun by invaders” (National Review, June 15, 2017).

This is reality! Whether or not people realize it, the survival of our republic is under threat! America is on the verge of civil war that will set our cities ablaze even before the bombs drop and our country is overrun by invaders.

The same is happening in Britain. There, an irrational faith in the glories of multiculturalism has enabled a virulent segment of radical Islamism to grow. The United Kingdom harbors thousands of suspected terrorists! It wouldn’t take nearly that many people to tear society apart if they were all strapped with bombs! God calls Britain a “silly dove” for its naivety and self-inflicted weakness (Hosea 7:11).

The Anglo-American world order created stability for over 200 years. Twice in the last century these nations rose up to stamp out violent, brutal efforts to take over the world! How different history would be if they had failed!

Today, though, we see several powerful nations recognizing the weakness in America and Britain. They are making aggressive moves and gobbling up territory. The weaker America gets, the bolder these enemies will grow. And this time, there won’t be anyone to stop them!

Micah 1:9 says, “For her wound is incurable ….” Do you recognize that Samaria’s wound is incurable? Many people still have faith in the president to turn things around. But do you really think a human being can solve these nation-destroying problems? If you do, your belief disagrees with God!

President Donald Trump has said, “My administration is under siege.” That is true—but the reality is that all of Israel is under siege! No man can solve these problems. The times of the Gentiles are upon us! Attacks on the nations of Israel are increasing in frequency and intensity. God is giving more latitude to Satan the devil, who is frothing mad because he knows how short his time is (Revelation 12:12).

We must live our daily lives fully aware of the shocking shortness of time. We must be urgent about our prayer, Bible study and spiritual endeavors. Look at how engaged emotionally and spiritually the Prophet Micah was in doing the work God gave him! (Micah 1:8). We must be aware of just how little time we have left!

Notice again, verse 5 talks about “the transgression of Jacob”—unconverted Israel—and “the sins of the house of Israel”—speaking of spiritual Israel, God’s lukewarm saints. There is duality here. The Laodiceans have fallen into the same sins as the nation! They are going to end up experiencing melting mountains and valleys turning to wax! Prophecy shows that 50 percent of them will lose their salvation altogether! God is very serious about the need to escape the transgression of Samaria!

Though our nations suffer from an incurable wound, the opportunity is still open for individuals to turn to God in repentance before it is too late.

These shocking prophecies about the nuclear destruction of America are in the same context as Micah 2:13, which discusses God bringing His people to a place of safety. The time is coming soon when we will have to flee! God is making it very clear with this prophecy just how urgent time is!

Omri

Micah 6:16 has a related prophecy that can help us see this spiritual reality more deeply: “For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people.”

This prophecy is for us today. Omri was the father of Ahab, one of the most evil kings Israel ever had. And what did Omri represent?

“But Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the Lord, and did worse than all that were before him. For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin, to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger with their vanities” (1 Kings 16:25-26). Omri tried to follow Jeroboam in every way! He knew he was doing evil, and he loved it!

Omri in Micah 6:16 is just another version of Jeroboam. It is another way of expressing the sins of Jeroboam that plague Israel today. God brings Omri into the picture to help us better understand the nature of the problem. He is talking here about making all the inhabitants under Omri’s rule a desolation!

“The kingdom of Samaria or the 10 tribes, the head of which was the city of Samaria, which was established by Omri,” Gesenius’ Lexicon says about this verse in Micah. “Omri was the seventh king of Israel.” The first king of the northern kingdom of Israel was Jeroboam. Omri, the seventh, continued the Jeroboam dynasty in spirit. All these kings followed in Jeroboam’s evil footsteps. It’s like they worshiped him! You can see why God had to finally destroy them with the Assyrians.

Unger’s Bible Dictionary says: “After a civil war of four years, Omri was left undisputed master of the throne …. Having resided six years in Tirzah, he removed to the mountain Shomron (Samaria), which he bought from Shemer for two talents of silver.” And he made Samaria the capital. Micah denounces that! He speaks derisively of “the statutes of Omri,” and of his son Ahab.

The Tombs of the Kings

The Bible speaks of “the sepulchres of the kings”—tombs where the righteous kings of Judah were buried along with those of David and Solomon. We believe those tombs are located under David’s palace or close to it.

In the second century b.c., a high priest by the name of John Hyrcanus knew where these tombs were and plundered a lot of wealth out of them. Later, Herod the Great did the same thing. He found some furniture of gold and took it. Later, he decided to take more. He sent two guards in, and the story is that a flame burst out, killing both of them. Apparently, Herod was so frightened that he built an impenetrable door blocking access. From that day forward, there has been no record of anybody finding these tombs.

But there is a prophecy that says these tombs will be found.

Jeremiah 7:32-34 speak of a horrific time soon to come when dead bodies will pile so high there isn’t anywhere to bury them. All joy and mirth will cease. Then notice what happens next.

“At that time, saith the Lord, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves” (Jeremiah 8:1). They will have to know exactly where those graves are in order to unearth them. “And they shall spread them [those bones] before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven …” (verse 2).

The discovery of the tombs of the kings could create a world sensation very soon. The Holy Roman Empire destroys those bones because it worships the dragon (Revelation 13:4; Revelation 17). Satan hates David’s throne more than any throne on this Earth because it is about to replace his throne forever!

Jeroboam had a fierce hatred for these righteous kings. That hatred comes from Satan, the god of this world. He has contempt for the throne of David, especially now that there is a new throne! Look at what these Satan-inspired people will do just to the bones of the righteous kings of David’s throne! Can you imagine what they would like to do to God’s people who possess that throne?

You could say this will really upset God, but those kings are going to be resurrected right after this. Bones are not going to mean anything to us in the future. We will be able to visit personally with men like David and Solomon—what difference will their bones make then? Soon we will get to the point where there aren’t any more bones!

What Satan wants to blot out most of all is the scepter promise. It’s about the race of kings who sit on that throne—and about Jesus Christ sitting on that throne and bringing grace to the world. Satan is in his greatest wrath because he knows his time is short (Revelation 12:12), and he wants to blot out everything that has anything to do with the throne of David.

Soon we will help these people get rid of their hatred. You can see the hatred these people have if you read Psalm 83: The Holy Roman Empire and the Arabs will ally together in order to blot out the name Israel! I think they understand some of our teaching about Israel; they know who Israel is. They want to kill every descendant of Israel and erase it from history! You can see why God must deal so severely with people at times!

We need to have a strong sense of how much Satan hates this Church, and how much violence he would like to do to us! Yet God won’t let him touch us—other than for our own good at times, to build our character.