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The Plain Truth – June 1985
The Plain Truth – June 1985
What Is Now Prophesied!

by Herbert W. Armstrong


Will the next 15 years bring human extinction – or the dawn of a new world of peace and incredible achievement?

SUDDENLY this world has become different! It was never like this before. Look at the change in the last 85 years – then LOOK at the change in the last 15. What will another 15 years be like?

When I was a boy, our family transportation was a horse and buggy. Horse-drawn streetcars had just been replaced. Telephones were rare, hanging on walls. Only a few downtown streets in cities were paved. Automobiles were a curiosity – we called them horseless carriages. They were steered with a stick instead of a steering wheel.

Gaslights dimly illuminated city streets. A man, riding horseback, rode past with a lighting stick to turn them on at dusk and again to turn them off at dawn. Our home was dimly lighted by kerosene lamps.

No man had ever flown. Orville Wright’s first 12-second, 120-foot flight did not occur until after I was 4 1/2 months into my 12th year. Television was unheard-of. Compare this with the startling advances of the last few decades. And with the mounting crises in Africa, riots, looting and mass VIOLENCE worldwide. And threat of all-out world-girdling NUCLEAR WAR.

And now, as we enter the middle of the decade of the 1980s, Russia is still in Afghanistan, planning to control the Indian Ocean.

Again I ask: WHAT will this world be like in another 15 years?

What Scientists Prophesy

Numerous world-famous scientists and economists see a stern picture of the future. They see – today – the masses of illiterates in India, Africa – more than half the world’s population in the depths of ignorance, poverty, squalor and degradation; the population explosion and the coming food war; the breakdown of family life – the very BASIS of a progressive and thriving society; the spiraling increase in crime; the fast-spreading breakdown of law and order.

All this they see, and tell us humanity’s one great problem, now, is the QUESTION OF SURVIVAL.

Ask these sober scientists and economists HOW LONG we may continue in this present trend. Some will guess, perhaps 15 more years – others think less than 10 – some give us a little more. But that’s only relative. It’s still a question of SURVIVAL!

There Is Good News Ahead

Humanity WILL SURVIVE! There is GOOD NEWS for the future. This good news is reported by a major news source most people – and most scientists and economists – have utterly overlooked.

There is a master plan already worked out. And it will bring to this earth PEACE! There is a master plan to solve the vast problems of illiteracy, starvation, poverty and squalor. It entails vast agrarian reforms, economic reforms, reforms in governments, and practical plans to bring about disarmament and world peace.

Many scientists and world leaders know, in general, what it will take to bring this solution. Today, many farseeing leaders put their fingers on the one great change that can now save humanity alive. What they don’t know is how to implement it.

With one voice, these men say the solution now demands a WORLD GOVERNMENT.

There is one thing wrong with this solution. That world supergovernment would have to be given the power of a world police force to enforce its laws, and it would have to maintain the ONLY military force in the world – all nations would have to surrender their armies, navies and air forces to this one SUPERSTATE.

In a word, every nation would have to surrender its national sovereignty absolutely. And WHAT MAN could be accepted by all as WORLD RULER? It would, mind you, be a world POLICE STATE. Would the Soviet Union give up its struggle to harness the whole world with communism and accept an American capitalist as their world ruler? No, I’m afraid not in a thousand years!

Would the United States accept a North Korean? NEVER!

There is only one way the nations could get together on a world supergovernment.

Within nations, each individual has to be willing to give up his personal sovereignty. He must submit to the laws of his government or suffer the consequences. Of course, individuals in all countries are given certain personal liberties, not prohibited by law.

So it must be with NATIONS – if there is to be a world supergovernment – if humanity is to survive! If there is to be this world supergovernment all individual nations must first give up their private selfish goals, their dreams of world conquest – of spreading their particular kind of government around the world.

One important newsmagazine said this can happen only if there is “a strong hand from someplace” that would intervene.

So there is the world’s dilemma.

Many leaders are agreed the world’s only hope is a world supergovernment. At the same time, they confess frankly that world supergovernment is absolutely unfeasible and utterly IMPOSSIBLE!

And where does that leave you? Does that leave you with nothing but gloom and doom for the future?

Two Alternatives – and Only Two

You have to face it – either there is now no HOPE – either all humanity soon will be erased from this earth – or there does exist that “strong hand from someplace” with supernatural power to INTERVENE in world affairs – to literally take control from the human great powers of this world and to SAVE humanity from itself!

You need to wake up – and to realize this means YOUR LIFE – and the lives of your children, your family, your friends and neighbors. The one great problem facing every one of us is HUMAN SURVIVAL. And the only alternative to extinction – SOON – is world government!

I sat in the press gallery in the Opera House at the San Francisco, California, Conference in 1945, when world leaders were drawing up the charter for the United Nations. There I heard the leading statesmen of the world warning that this United Nations they were forming was “THE WORLD’S LAST HOPE.” One hour, in plenary sessions, they were uttering this solemn warning; the next hour in group conferences with leaders from other nations they were fighting for their own special advantage.

The United Nations has proved NOT to be that supergovernment.

This Is Real – It Involves You

Hiding your eyes from the existing facts won’t save your world for you – and YOU alive in it! This directly concerns the life of every reader of The Plain Truth – and the countless other millions who ought to be reading it.

This is REAL! It’s HERE! There isn’t much more time! It’s now far later than you think. And – yes, I realize it – this is the ONLY VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS of today’s desperate situation that dares to SPEAK OUT!

THIS YOU MUST FACE. There are now two alternatives – and ONLY two.

1) Either the Creator GOD exists, and will soon, now, step in and INTERVENE in this world’s affairs and SAVE ERRING HUMANITY FROM ITSELF – or:

2) Any one of six existing causes will ERASE HUMANKIND FROM THE EARTH!

The person who is unwilling to consider that the Creator GOD is a real, living, all-wise, all-knowing, all-powerful personal BEING, has only the CERTAINTY of existing world conditions fast closing in upon him!

But for the reader who is willing to listen, I give you not only your ONLY HOPE of survival, I give you your one SURE HOPE.

World’s Most Accurate Newscaster

First, notice the published report of the world’s No. 1 newscaster. This newscast was a FORECAST. And it’s CERTAIN. I know, very few ever realized that Jesus Christ came as a NEWSman – reporting NEWS for the future. He spoke of 20th-century world conditions – and WORLD GOVERNMENT to come. The world has misunderstood, perverted, maligned his message.

The word gospel means GOOD NEWS. And his was news for the FUTURE. He described today’s violent chaotic world. In the pivotal prophecy of the New Testament of the world’s best-selling book, he graphically described the international chaos into which the world is rapidly plunging right now. He said the violence would explode into a world trouble so great, that unless God intervened, no human would remain alive.

Yet, he promised, the all-powerful God would intervene supernaturally to cut short this world chaos (Matt. 24:21-22).

NEWS – Past, Present, Future

No book has so great a sale as the Holy Bible. And no book ever was so unread, misunderstood, maligned, distorted, misrepresented. Those who profess to use it as the source of their religion promulgate doctrines diametrically opposite from its teachings.

Few know that a whole third, approximately, of that book is devoted to FUTURE NEWS of world happenings. News of the now soon-coming peaceful and happy WORLD TOMORROW – on through CENTURY 21. It’s the BEST NEWS you ever read!

We look, now, at one pivotal NEWS DISPATCH within this volume, which covers dramatically a panorama of the dominating governments, past, immediate present and future.

Advance News Report

You never thought of this panoramic look ahead as a NEWS REPORT? It’s time we recognized it for precisely what it is! And it’s exciting!

Incredible though it seems – and would be discreditors to the contrary notwithstanding – the evidence has demonstrated conclusively that this world-news report was written about 600 years before the birth of Jesus Christ.

It concerns the king of the Chaldean Empire that ruled the Western world from 609 to 539 B.C. His name was Nebuchadnezzar. His capital was the ancient glamor city and world capital, Babylon. One night this king dreamed a remarkable and frightening dream as reported in Daniel 2. It was one of those rare dreams that remain indelibly impressed on the mind after awaking. He thought it must have meaning.

So Nebuchadnezzar called in all his astrologers, his religious leaders, magicians, his chief advisers, his wisest men. He determined to test their clairvoyant powers.

“It was a terrifying dream, yet it’s gone from me,” he told them. “I want you to tell me what I dreamed. If you fail, I’ll know you are fakes and phonies, and I’ll have you all put to death.”

But even with their lives at stake, his wisest men could not tell Nebuchadnezzar what he had dreamed.

Now among other nations that had been conquered by this great Chaldean king was the kingdom of Judah, whose capital city was Jerusalem. These Jews had been taken as captives and transported from their homes in their cities, towns and countryside to the land of the Chaldeans, where they were made slaves. But four outstandingly brilliant lads had been inducted into important government positions in Babylon. Among them was Daniel.

These four Jewish lads were seized, to be put to death along with the sorcerers, magicians and Chaldean “wise men.” Daniel asked for time, promising that he would be able to tell the king his dream and its meaning.

The four Jewish lads prayed to their God for the answer. That night it was revealed to Daniel in a vision (now quoting the Revised Standard Version):

Report on What Is to Be

“Are you able to make known to me the dream … and its interpretation?” asked the king when Daniel was ushered into his presence. “No wise men … can show to the king the mystery …” replied Daniel, “but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days.

“You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its breast and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

“As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it smote the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces; then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away… But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”

But what did it MEAN? Its MEANING was a NEWS forecast leading to the present world turmoil, and its imminent and SURE outcome! It is NEWS that vitally affects the life of every reader of The Plain Truth.

“This,” continued Daniel, “was the dream; now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory … you are the head of gold. After you shall arise another kingdom inferior to you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth.”

Here was NEWS of the future. It was news reported in advance. And it happened! After the Chaldean Empire, the Persian Empire arose. It was inferior as a world empire intellectually, morally, and in honor, splendor and glory – as silver is less valuable than gold. But, as silver is harder than gold, so was the Persian Empire stronger in military might.

Humanity was deteriorating. The Persian Empire fell before the swift conquering flight of young Alexander the Great, with his Greek and Macedonian army. Alexander expanded his empire farther east and west and south – greater in military strength, more in quantity – greater in area and population ruled – but inferior in quality, as bronze is of less value than silver, yet a harder metal.

Alexander wept, it is said, because he had no more worlds to conquer. He died young. His empire was divided into four divisions, each ruled by one of his four top-ranking generals.

Now continue this most unusual form of NEWS REPORT.

The Roman Empire Came

“And,” continued Daniel, “there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron…” This was the Roman Empire, which swallowed up all four surviving divisions of Alexander’s Greco-Macedonian Empire, and spread out farther besides. It was the strongest military power in world history up to that time. And the two legs symbolized the two divisions of the mighty Roman Empire – with the eastern capital at Constantinople (today called Istanbul, Turkey), and the western capital at Rome.

But Daniel continued: “And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle … but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay.”

There are three other specific prophecies – FUTURE NEWS REPORTS – one in the seventh chapter of Daniel, and one in the 13th and one in the 17th of Revelation, which also depict the future NEWS of this same succession of world empires. Putting all four prophecies together, it becomes plain that the toes of this image represent a last, final resurrection – or rebirth – of the Roman Empire in our time!

Soon-Coming United States of Europe

There is not space for details in this article. (Request our free booklet The Book of Revelation Unveiled at Last.) But the two prophecies in the book of Revelation report clearly – long in advance – the fall of the original Roman Empire in A.D. 476, its restoration by Justinian in 554 and its history up to the fall of Napoleon in 1814.

Then Revelation 17:8 shows the partial revival of this empire under Mussolini – after he took Ethiopia, adding it to Italian Somaliland, Eritrea, Libya and Italy – officially naming it “the Roman Empire.”

These prophecies depict detailed ADVANCE NEWS of one more, last revival of this empire, yet to occur, by a union of 10 nations, or groups of nations, in Europe.

This coming “United States of Europe” is the dream of many leaders – not only within Europe, but in Britain and America. The Common Market is only its economic beginning.

Every indication is that this ADVANCE NEWS will be current news. And it will completely STUN THE WORLD! Yet The Plain Truth has reported this news in advance for the past 51 years!

Can you envision what that will mean in the world’s balance of power?

But these nations will not cling long or loyally together. The 10 toes of Nebuchadnezzar’s image pictured this United Europe millennia in advance. They will not cleave together for long, even as iron and miry clay will not.

Then what shall happen?

This prophecy – and others – give you the NEWS long in advance!

Then Finally – WORLD Government

Continue Daniel’s explanation to King Nebuchadnezzar.

“And in the days of those kings [these then who are to unite in Europe!] the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people … and it shall stand for ever… A great God has made known to the king what shall be hereafter. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure” (quoted from Daniel 2, RSV).

This is just one of several ADVANCE NEWS REPORTS that explicitly affirm there WILL BE a world government that shall bring this war-weary earth PEACE AT LAST.

Not by the help of men or of their human governments – but in spite of them. Other prophecies report, centuries and millennia in advance, almost every detail of today’s rapidly worsening conditions.

Humanity WILL SURVIVE! There will be a happy WORLD TOMORROW. Mortal humans do have a stern lesson to learn first. Human bungling will bring accelerated world trouble before God-ignoring humanity will be willing to learn. But WE SHALL LEARN!

Few realize that 90 percent of biblical prophecy pertains to OUR TIME, and the time immediately ahead. And approximately a third of the Bible is prophecy! It has been neglected utterly. It has been terribly misunderstood, misrepresented. It is tremendously important! Especially now!

Earlier in this article I said Jesus of Nazareth was the world’s greatest NEWSCASTER. Many, deceiving and being deceived, have represented his teaching as a sentimental religious teaching having no relation whatever to this life, this world, its nations, its governments, its society. THAT CONCEPT IS FALSE!

Jesus’ “gospel” (and remember gospel means “good news”) was actually his ADVANCE NEWS REPORT of the KINGDOM – the GOVERNMENT – of GOD, soon now to bring us world PEACE. The KINGDOM of GOD is, simply the world-ruling GOVERNMENT of God. It is absolutely not a sentimental, ethereal, imaginary something “set up in the hearts of men.” It is something REAL! It is SOON COMING!

And Jesus Christ was born to be the KING of that WORLD GOVERNMENT (Luke 1:30-33; John 18:36-37; Rev. 11:15; 19:11-16). As Jesus so promised his disciples that he would return – so, now soon he will return to RULE THE WHOLE EARTH and bring us peace at last!