Sermon (December 31, 1983)

by Herbert W Armstrong

Greetings, brethren. The doomsday clock has just been set up by the atomic scientists from 4 to 3 minutes before midnight. The eleventh hour struck some time ago. World leaders are perplexed. They’re frightened. They have no solutions. The unthinkable has become very thinkable, and hundreds of millions now are beginning to worry about it. The President of the United States recently said it would seem like Armageddon is approaching near.

If you happened to stay tuned after the movie “The Day After” appeared on the ABC network (Let’s see. That’s a little over a month ago, I think about the 26th of last month.), there was quite a discussion of some of the leading advisors to the United States government. The panel in the discussion to discuss the whole thing included the Secretary of State, and the former Secretary of State, and many others that had been advisors to the President or former Presidents of the United States in regard to this very world condition and the possibility of nuclear war. And everyone is beginning to realize now that we have come to the place where a nuclear war can BLAST ALL HUMANITY out of existence – not leaving a man, woman, or child alive on the face of the earth; and that includes every one of us.

Now, in a world of absolutely awesome progress and yet of world of appalling evil (as I’ve said so very many times), are we now reaching the end of human existence? Are we reaching human extinction from this planet? Is the crowning achievement of technology and science and massive governmental production going to be the Frankenstein that will destroy us all and blot out all humanity?

World leaders are bewildered. I talk to many of them. Perhaps I’ve talk to more in their own home offices than any other man alive recently. They’re absolutely helpless. They have no solutions. They are bewildered. They don’t know how to face the future. Why?

Now this does vitally concern us all, and it has something very special to do with this particular Church. I don’t mean just the Pasadena p.m. congregation, but I mean the whole Church of God worldwide. Jesus preached the solution, and He preached a great deal of it in parables. He preached in parables so that the world would not understand. They didn’t understand what He meant by His parables. He did explain to His own disciples. He said it was given to them to understand.

And it is given to you and me, brethren, to understand. It is not given to the world in general. They do not understand. They can’t understand. Now if we aren’t preempted tomorrow morning, I’m thinking we probably won’t be tomorrow night, on I believe that will be Channel 9 at … Let’s see. Will that be 9:30 or 10:30? I forget. But it’s a rather late hour, and prime time; however, I think the program will be on – an interview with one of the leaders of the government of Israel. And, if you are watching that interview, you will notice, as I begin to explain what does lie ahead, he seems to be perplexed; and he rather admits that he doesn’t understand the Bible. And he did express that he wished I could explain to their rabbis so that they could understand the Bible a little better; and I thought it was a clear indication that he recognized that I have a better understanding of their own Bible than their own rabbis do – which I would agree with him. [Laughter in audience.] And that doesn’t have to be any boast, because they don’t understand it.

Jesus explained to His disciples something that the world never did understand. It was all about the Kingdom of God, which is the overruling purpose of God. And that was Jesus’ message – the Kingdom of God. The world didn’t understand that; and they don’t yet, because that gospel has not been preached to the world. They have not preached the gospel of Christ. They have preached man’s gospel about Christ. They’ve merely preached about the person.

The person, Jesus, was a Messenger. The gospel is His Message. That is not preached, and was not in the world until God opened radio to me before the days of television; and it was proclaimed all over the United States in a 19-year time cycle. And then, precisely a century of time cycles from the time that the gospel was SUPPRESSED, Radio Luxembourg, the most powerful radio station on earth, was opened up in Europe; and the gospel went out to Europe.

(Even though I have very big type that I think you can almost read down there in the front row, I can scarcely read my own notes here.)

Well, I want to give you a certain analogy today. It’s not a parable. Let’s call it an analogy, but it’s similar and one that I think you will understand. The people that God has called will understand. This world is a building. It has a foundation. It has a superstructure. It has been built. It has been built in a certain way. We read in Revelation 13:8, in the middle of the verse, it talks about ”the Lamb [of God] slain from the foundation of the world. ” The world was built on a foundation. You build a house or a structure on a foundation.

Now, I’ve been going back to the foundation of this world for the last, I think maybe 2 or 2 1/2 years, most of the time; and you can’t understand it without going back to the foundation. It’s the one thing that I’m afraid the Church had been overlooking. I’ve said so many times it’s like coming in to a movie when it’s about 90-95% finished. You don’t know what went before. You don’t know what events led up to what you’re seeing in the movie now. Consequently, you don’t understand what’s going on when you see the movie, if you didn’t see it from the beginning. The beginning always sets the foundation for the whole thing.

So people try to look at this world that way, from what they see today. If you don’t go back and see what led up to it, you don’t understand the world. You don’t understand how it came to be this way. What was the foundation of this world? God’s purpose is to build a kingdom. That kingdom is something built, and it is likened to a building; and it’s compared to a building in the Scriptures.

Like a building, it had to be built on a foundation. We read in Psalm 127 (Psalm 127. Let me see. Didn’t I have a marker for that? I don’t know how I overlooked that, but I’ll find it pretty quickly here. My marker got lost.) where David wrote:

Psalm 127:1 Except the [Eternal] build the house, they labour in vain that build it.

There the world is likened to a house that is built; and except God builds the house, they labor in vain that build it. Now God did purpose to build a house. That house is a kingdom. That house is a great nation. That house was a great civilization. And He chose to build it out of matter, out of dirt. So He formed a man out of dirt, out of the dust of the ground. He intended to build the house from that man.

Now, the man wasn’t complete. He hadn’t completed even the foundation yet. Physically, the man was incomplete because God wanted him to reproduce and produce more people to build, so that the building would carry on and grow. The man, of course, couldn’t do it alone. So God took one of his ribs; and, out of Adam, He made a woman. He didn’t make the woman out of the ground, like He had Adam. She was made out of him. Woman came from man. Man came from the ground.

Also, he was incomplete (as I’ve said so many times) mentally and spiritually. He had a brain like animals – no better than animals, just like animals. But God had put something in the human brain that was not put in the animal brain, and that is a human spirit. The human spirit is a psyche. It imparts intellect to a physical brain. The spirit can’t see. It can’t think. It is the brain that sees through the eyes; the brain that hears through the ears. The brain does the thinking, but the spirit sort of impels the brain. It suggests. It sort of leads the brain. It gives the brain the power of intellect.

Now again, in Genesis the first chapter and the first verse, we read how:

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

The word for God is Elohim, which is a plural word meaning more than one person. It could be written even ”Gods [plural] created the heaven and the earth.” I think the translators didn’t translate it that way in English because they thought that would confuse people. And yet you come to verse 26, and you find:

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

God intended them to reproduce and multiply, and He was going to build a structure from that foundation. In the second chapter of Genesis and verse 7, it says:

Genesis 2:7 The [Eternal God] formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man [That is, the dust of the ground just formed into a man.] became a living soul.

The dust of the ground became a soul that’s all together matter. Now there was a spirit IN the soul. The soul itself is not a spirit. So many, in fact the whole world, have been deceived on that point. I’m going to make it clear right here, as I have many times.

Now, the man had only temporary existence. His life came; the only life he had was a temporary existence that came by the breath of air (the breath of life, as it’s called) and the circulation of blood. The blood was oxidized in the lungs. It was passed through the lungs by the air, and sort of fired it (like your engine in a motor car is fired by a spark plug; and it ignites the gas, and fires it, and produces power).

So man had only a temporary existence, but God offered him immortality and perpetual existence. That was offered in one of the trees in the Garden. God had moved him into the Garden of Eden, which must have been the most beautiful garden that has ever appeared on the face of the earth.

One of the most beautiful gardens I’ve ever seen was the Japanese Garden over in the campus at Bricket Wood, which was our college campus for some 17 years. Another most beautiful garden is the one at Exbury, a garden of rhododendrons; and millions and millions of dollars have been spent in building that garden. It occupies several acres. Some of us from here when through it last May. I have a movie of it, showing “The Glory of the Garden,” as it is called; and it’s just one of the most beautiful things you ever saw. Millions of dollars have been spent in building it. But the Garden of Eden was undoubtedly far more beautiful because God built it; and He beheld everything He had built and made, and:

Genesis 1:21 And, behold, it was [Not just good. It was:] very good. [Very good!]

So man was offered immortal life, and that came through the Tree of Life; but it would come from God. It was just as if God had said to Adam (It was coming from God through the Holy Spirit.), and God might have said to Adam something like this: “I have given you a human spirit in your brain, to give you a human mind to know of yourself good and evil; and you have. But you have self-existence.” But it would be a selfish good.

That’s as far as he’d be able to see; and, if he took it, it would ultimately result in death. He would have a sense of good up to a certain point, on a human level, as far as he could. But it would be self-centered and selfish. And he also had evil. Now he would have good towards himself and evil towards other people, and that is what has happened.

But, if he took of the Tree of Life, God might have said, “With it and the Tree of Life you’ll receive My Spirit; and in it you will receive MY MIND – because it is a better mind than yours, a mind that can understand all spiritual knowledge. You’ll only be able to understand physical and materialistic knowledge, and the spiritual qualities of good and evil on the human level – on the physical level, more or less. But to understand it on the higher spiritual level you’ll need My Spirit, and you will need the Life that comes from Me. I will give you of My own Life. You will be first begotten and then born of Me. And your life will come right out of Me, and I will give it to you from Me,” God might have said to Adam. With it, of course, would come spiritual knowledge.

Otherwise, you would have merely human knowledge if you take the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which would be human knowledge. But, without God, you will never be happy. You cannot succeed. You’ll be confined to a lower level. Your life will run out, because you don’t have eternal life; and you will surely die. So that could have been called the tree of death. The other tree (that God did offer him freely) was the Tree of LIFE. But God forbade him to take of the tree of death; and, if he did, he would surely die. In other words, it was just merely good on the human level; and on the human level he only had a temporary existence. So naturally he was going to die.

Now, if he took of the Tree of Life, he would also – through the Spirit of God, that God would have given him from that (I mean receiving it from God.) – receive the guidance of God; and he needed that guidance. Now Adam did received guidance. He made the decision, “Well, I’ll go it alone. I’ll depend on myself. I’ll decide good and evil. I don’t need You to tell me good from evil. I’ll decide it for myself.”

He didn’t meet up with Satan himself. His wife, Eve, stole out when he wasn’t looking and met Satan; and Satan deceived her. But Satan must have gotten to Adam too, since he gets to everybody as ”the prince of the power of the air” and as spirit. A spirit being can communicate at least attitudes into the human brain, because our human brains are on Satan’s wavelength.

Now, you can’t understand things that are going on radio stations that can be heard right here in this auditorium if your ear could be tuned in on their wavelength, and you could even hear voices and see pictures coming from television stations if you can be tuned in on their channel; but it takes instruments to do that for us.

But Satan broadcasts. He doesn’t broadcast in words (I’ve said it so many, many times.) or definite thoughts but in attitudes that lead to thoughts and lead to motives and motivations. So he [Adam] received whatever good he had from Satan. Then God closed up the Tree of Life until Jesus Christ, the second Adam, should come and pay the penalty that Adam had incurred and that all of his sons were going to incur.

Now God could not give his sons the Holy Spirit because Adam had sinned. And before the sons had become old enough to comprehend and understand and receive the Spirit of God, Satan had gotten to every one of them with the attitude of selfishness that led to sin. And those sins had to be paid for because ”sin is the transgression of the law.” The law has penalties. ”The wages of sin is death.” All had then inherited the penalty of death. And until Christ came, who had never sinned, and then had died and paid the penalty of human sin, God could not open up the Spirit of Life to any human being.

Now He made an exception in the prophets of the Old Testament, for the writing of the Bible; and they were sort of a pre-foundation of the Church. The Church has come to receive the Holy Spirit because Christ had paid the penalty and our sins could be forgiven, and Christ came. His death doesn’t give us salvation. It doesn’t impart eternal, or immortal, life to us at all. It reconciles us to God.

Now there again is something else. God had purposed … And I can even have another sort of analogy or sort of a parable. God had purposed to build a Family. It was His Family; and His Family potentially began with Adam. It was all coming out of Adam, because Eve came out of Adam, and then Cain, and Abel, and Seth. Then they had other sons and daughters after that, who all came out of Adam and Eve. Then other children came out of them. So you trace it back, and ultimately every human being has come out of Adam; and we’re all the family of Adam. It was the potential Family of God.

Now there’s another analogy: Satan came along and kidnapped that family. I am writing now another book. The first chapter will appear in the February number of The Plain Truth. Some of us have already received advance copies of that issue. The lead article is “A World Held Captive,” which will be the title of the book; and that is the first chapter of the book (if I can get around to finding the time to write the rest of it). At least the first chapter is written.

Satan kidnapped this family. And here we had the rather ludicrous and ridiculous idea, or situation, that the kidnapped person actually believed in the kidnapper and the kidnapper’s way of life a whole lot more than the potential Father. God is the potential Father, and He intended them to become His children; but they had to receive Life from Him. They had to first QUALIFY. In other words, God is the perfect spiritual character, and man was given a chance to receive the Spirit of God.

First he had to make a decision. He had to want that. Wanting it, it was available to him; and God offered it to him freely. He would have received the Spirit of God. Through the Spirit of God he would have begun to receive the knowledge, and he would have received the LOVE of God shed abroad in his heart. He would have received the knowledge of the law of God, of the way of perfection in life and perfect character. But in order to perform that perfect character and produce it, it takes love.

God did not build Adam, or create Adam, with that kind of love. That was like the icing of the cake, would have to come later. It could have come through His Holy Spirit if Adam had taken of the Tree of Life, which he did not do. He rejected it, so he could not have it; and it could not come to humans until the time of Jesus Christ.

But Adam, instead of receiving the guidance of God, now received the guidance of Satan the kidnapper; and so the whole family did go. It was the potential Family of God; but it was kidnapped by Satan, and it has loved the way of the kidnapper.

We had an example not too long ago, when the granddaughter of the famous newspaper publisher (William Randolph Hearst), Patty Hearst, was kidnapped. Low and behold, she was brainwashed a little bit; and she came to love the way of the kidnapper more than the way of her own parents. While they were human and carnal, yet you see humans have good as well as evil. They were considered as an upright and good family, as this world goes. But Patty, for a while, preferred the way of them and even entered into a bank robbery with them with loaded guns, or loaded rifle.

Well, it seems like that situation finally came out all right from this world’s point of view. She was finally rescued; and I think it’s something in the past now, at this time. But it does give us an illustration, and that might be of some value. I would think that even she herself would be glad if we could use the experience for the good of other people, to illustrate it – that ALL HUMANITY has loved the way of the kidnapper, and the kidnapper ”deceives the whole world.”

So a world was founded on Adam. He had made a decision. He was going to go the way he did, and he was influenced and led by Satan when he could have been led by God. He became Satan’s property, and it was Satan’s way of self – do your own thing, resent authority, selfishness, vanity – instead of cooperation, and serving, and helping, and togetherness. That became the foundation of the world. But the foundation was faulty, and so the superstructure was bound to be faulty.

Now we turn back, and I’d like you to read (or listen to, as I read) Matthew the seventh chapter and verses 24 through 27.

Matthew 7:24-25 Therefore [Jesus said] whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock [a solid foundation of a rock]. (25) And the rain descended, and the floods came[It was a heavy storm.], and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

It had a solid foundation. It had the right start, the right foundation. And every building starts from its foundation. You know, you don’t build the roof first, and then the top floor and others, and then build under them because what would hold up the roof and the top floor? You build the foundation first.

Matthew 7:26-27 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: (27) And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew [It was a big storm.], and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall [thereof].

Now, a house has been built. ”Except the [Eternal]– or except God – build the house, they labor in vain that build it.” Humanity has been laboring in vain 6,000 years building this house, this superstructure that we call the world, that we call this civilization. It is a world, it is a building, on a faulty foundation; and every thing has been wrong with that foundation. Not only was it an unsound foundation but it was started out on the wrong attitude, the wrong motive – self – from Satan; and it was influenced by Satan all the way through.

Jesus came to save the situation, and I want to tell you how He came to save it; but first I want you to notice this. He came, and Satan tried to kill Him. Later he tried to deceive Him and to get Jesus to sin, and Jesus didn’t. And so, when Satan couldn’t do that and Jesus did found His Church, His Church was a building started on a solid foundation of a Rock; and Jesus Christ is that Rock. The foundation, as I’ll show you later, is the apostles and prophets; and Christ, the Rock, is the chief corner stone and the chief of the foundation. So Jesus came with the good news of another building altogether – the Kingdom of God.

God was going to start a kingdom, but Satan kidnapped that kingdom. That kingdom has built a certain superstructure that we call the world, that we call civilization. It’s been built on a false foundation.

Now, the Protestant churches have been deceived; and they’re trying to SAVE the world. They’re trying to save the superstructure. They’re not going back to repair the original foundation. No, there’s a Rock in the foundation that’s going to let the whole building crash; and they’re laboring in vain, because the Lord isn’t building their house. They’re trying to work on the superstructure and save that. God has no intention of saving that superstructure. That may be a surprise to you, but just listen.

Jesus came and preached the good news of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is THE FAMILY OF GOD that will rule the world and become a nation. In other words, it too starts with the Church, and the Church is that Kingdom in embryo. The Church is also called a house, or a building, ”fitly framed together.” It’s built on a Rock.

Now what I want you to notice, Jesus preached this gospel. But, in Galatians the first chapter and verses 6 and 7, the apostle Paul said to the Churches up in Galatia:

Galatians 1:6 I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel.

What they were called to was this sure and safe foundation – the truth of God and the grace of Christ, who came to restore us back to the Father (God) from whom Satan the kidnapper has kidnapped us.

Galatians 1:6-7 I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel[Another message about what it’s all about.]: (7) which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of [Jesus] Christ.

Again, I want you to turn … Well, Satan counterfeited with another gospel. He turned them to a different gospel altogether. Jesus did not come to try to save this superstructure. What He came for was to start another building altogether. God had started a potential building that could have been His building, but Adam rejected Him and turned to Satan and Satan’s way instead. Now God is going to let it CRASH! God is going to let this world COME DOWN! GOD IS NOT TRYING TO SAVE THIS WORLD, and this world is going to CRASH DOWN and go into extinction.

Now those words are a little bit shocking, I think, to most people. I don’t think they should be to you, brethren, because I think you’ve already heard enough to understand. But most religions think Jesus came to save this superstructure. That’s what they are trying to do. They don’t say, “Come out of the world.” They’re PART OF THIS WORLD. The Catholic church is part of this world. The Protestant churches – the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Baptists, the Lutherans, the Congregationalists, and so on – they’re all PART OF THIS WORLD. They’re the religious part, and they are preaching. They don’t realize it. They’re blinded. They’re deceived, and they don’t know it. I’m not saying they are maliciously, intentionally, wrong. They think they’re right! They’re just as honest in believing they’re right as you are in knowing that we’re right. But they are deceived, and they are trying to save this world.

God is not trying to save this world. And you can’t find where Jesus Christ, when He was on earth, tried to save this world. Rather He called His disciples out from this world and said, “Come out of this world altogether. I’m going to start a new and a different world. We’re going to start a new building. We’re going to let this building crash! We’re going to start a NEW BUILDING altogether.” And it’s based on a foundation that was first a Rock, and then the disciples that He taught became apostles. The superstructure, the foundation of this building that God is building, is:

Ephesians 2:20 … built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself [the Rock] being the chief cornerstone.

A building built on a Rock. So God sent Jesus Christ into the world as the second Adam, starting all over where the first Adam could have but failed. Jesus came as the second Adam.

Now, Jesus made the decision. In fact, He had the Spirit of God from birth because He was begotten by the Spirit of God and not by a human sperm cell. But He was tempted in all points, every way that Adam was and then some. Satan tried to kill Him. Then Satan tried to deceive Him. Satan didn’t succeed.

Then Satan went after the Church; and he martyred the leaders of the Church, and they were put to death. Then he started a controversy as to whether the gospel should be the gospel of Christ (that Christ brought, His own gospel) or some different gospel that they would make up (a gospel of men) merely about Christ.

There was a 100-year lapse in the history of the Church, and we have no record of what happened. But when the curtain lifts over that which had been drawn down over the history of the Church, 100 years later we find a church calling itself “Christian” that is as different as night is from day from the Church that Jesus started on the day of Pentecost through the apostles – built on Christ and the apostles. It was a totally different church, and that is what all the churches in this world have come on out of that. Men believe what they get from other people in the church.

This Church, brethren, did not come that way. The original apostles were taught by Jesus Christ, and the apostle of this time was taught by Jesus Christ. Jesus in person is the personal Word of God. The Bible is the SAME Word of God, in writing. And God taught me by Jesus in writing, just as He taught the early apostles by Jesus in person; but it’s the same Word exactly.

The churches have preserved it, believe it or not; but they don’t understand it because it’s written in code. They can’t break the code. They can’t understand what it says.

Jesus came as the second Adam. He started an entire, NEW, different building all together – A DIFFERENT CIVILIZATION. Not reforming, not healing up this sick world; but starting a new world all together – from start to finish built on a new, separate, foundation. And He called His disciples OUT OF this world. They didn’t choose Him. They were not volunteers. He said, “You have not chosen Me, but I have called you OUT OF THIS WORLD;” and He taught them.

Now then, Jesus came to reconcile those who are called OUT of this world. They are no longer part of the world, and they are reconciled to God by the blood of Christ. The world thinks you are saved by the blood of Christ. You read Romans 5, verse … well the 5th chapter of Romans. (I was going to say verse 5, but I’m not quite sure of the verse.) But read in the 5th chapter of the book of Romans, and you will see that we are not saved by Jesus’ blood. We are reconciled to God by the death of Christ, not saved by the death of Christ. Death can’t give you life. But we’ll be SAVED BY HIS LIFE, His resurrection! We are not saved by His death. We are saved by His Life. But His death reconciled us back to God from whom we’d been kidnapped.

Now THE WORLD DOESN’T WANT TO GO BACK TO GOD; AND THE WORLD BELIEVES IN A FALSE JESUS. MOST OF THE CHURCHES PREACH ABOUT JESUS. THEY PREACH ABOUT CHRIST. THEY DON’T PREACH ABOUT GOD THE FATHER. You don’t hear very much about GOD. That’s why they say, “The law is done away.” The law is honoring God. It is GOD who established the Sabbath. It is GOD who said you are stealing when you take His tithe that is holy to Him. The things that are holy to God they’re not concerned about. They’re only concerned selfishly about the things that seem right to them, and that’s what the Protestant churches are teaching all the time.

Well now, at the foundation of the world God had a plan; and our annual holy days picture that plan to us. But in Hebrews 9:27 … Do I need to turn to that? I believe I do because I’ve read it so many, many times. It’ll only take a second though. Let’s turn to it.

Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die[That’s from the foundation of the world.], but after this the judgment.

Now the judgment will come by a resurrection. Next you go to I Corinthians 15, beginning with verse 22.

I Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam ALL die …

Adam died. He lived 930 years, then he died. His life ran out. We find men then lived to be about 500 years old. Then they lived to be about 120 years old. And finally, in the days of king David, he was 70 years and was “old and stricken with years.” Then he died, when he reached 70. And today that’s about the expectancy of life – 70 years. God has blessed some of us with a little longer life than that, but:

I Corinthians 15:22-23 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall ALL [the same “all”] be made alive. (23) But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits[by a resurrection from the dead, the firstborn among many brethren]; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming [will be resurrected out of their graves].

Those that are alive and remain at that time will changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, from mortal to immortal; and will rise to meet Christ in the air as He’s coming back to reign in the new world that He came to start. Not this same world at all! An entirely new and different building – a new world, a new civilization.

The present world started on a foundation. God started another world on this foundation of Christ, but He’s not trying to save this world so that whosoever will in this world can just get saved; and the whole world is going to be saved one by one. Instead, Jesus said in John 6:44 … I’ve read this so many, many times. Jesus said:

John 6:44 No man can come to me …

Now, there’s only one door to God. The main thing is to get back to God the Father. The Protestant churches and the Catholic church ignore God the Father. The Catholic church teaches you to go to Mary, and the Protestant churches teach you to go to Jesus. But, you see, the law came from God the Father. Christ came to restore us to God the Father and reconcile us to God. It’s God who has eternal life to give. God is the Father from whom the potential Family has been kidnapped. Jesus said:

John 6:44 No man can come to me [And He’s the only door to get to God.], except the Father which hath sent me draw him.

It’s a case of getting to the Father; and the Father has to choose and call you and draw you, or you can’t come to Christ. That’s why you can’t talk your relatives into seeing the truth of God. If God hasn’t called them, you can’t do it. They’re blinded. They can’t see, and they think you’re crazy. Who is there among you that haven’t been called crazy by relatives and other people when you tried to tell them some of the truth? They can’t see it. To them, you’re just crazy if you believe what I’m preaching.

So the Church now is, and is called, a building. Notice in Ephesians, in the 2nd chapter of Ephesians. I’d like to begin first in verse 1.

Ephesians 2:1-2 And you [said to the Church at Ephesus, and they had been Gentiles originally. You … ] hath he quickened[or, made alive and given the spirit of immortality], who were dead in trespasses and sins; (2) wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world …

You were part of this structure – this superstructure built on a false foundation. It is led by Satan, who has built a superstructure we call “the world.” And you were part of it. You were deceived by Satan.

Ephesians 2:2 … according to the prince of the power of the air [who is Satan], the spirit that now WORKS [now is working] in the children of disobedience.

And he was working in every one of us, brethren; but we’ve been called out, so he doesn’t work in us any longer. We are no longer part of this building. This building is going to CRASH! This building is coming down.

If you are in a big building and it is going to topple over in an earthquake, if you can get out and away from that building maybe you can save your life. But you don’t want to stay in it or you’ll crash with it. This world is going to crash down! It’s a building that’s going to CRASH and CRUMBLE and BE DESTROYED. If you stay in it, you’re going to be destroyed with it.

Jesus said, “COME OUT of this world and be separate.” He called us out of the world, and it is only those that are called. Now I took a sermon one time to devote considerable time going through actually dozens of passages all through the New Testament showing that all of those who get into the Church have been called, have been chosen by God. They are not volunteers. They are draftees. We have been conscripted.

Well, now then, I wanted to go a little farther. Coming over next to Ephesians the 2nd chapter, beginning with verse 19:

Ephesians 2:19 Now therefore you [who were Gentiles. He said to the Church at Ephesus:] are no more strangers and foreigners [because the true Church was Israel converted and receiving the Spirit of God], but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God.

Now house – household – that is the family. It’s a family living in a house; and that house is built on a faulty foundation, and we are to come out of it. But the new Family is built on a new foundation, and it is new house. It’s the house of God. In the Bible, we find the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah are so often called “the house of Israel” and “the house of Judah.” The word “house” is used to designate a nation in many, many places in the Bible.

Ephesians 2:20-21 And [you are] built on the foundation[Now notice the foundation here. And in the Church we are built on a NEW and DIFFERENT foundation. Not the foundation of Adam and Satan. Built on the foundation:] of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone [Just as I’ve been saying, we are built on a Rock. We are built on a solid foundation.]; (21) in whom ALL THE BUILDING [You see, we are a building. The Church and the world to come, the civilization, is a building. “In whom all the building … ”] fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord [a spiritual temple].

And you, brethren – and I’d like to include myself with you – are that temple to which Christ is coming. Some people think the Jews are going to build a new temple for Christ. The Jews reject Christ. They’re not going to build the temple for Him to come to. But GOD IS BUILDING THAT TEMPLE! And you and me – we, individually – each are the temple of the Holy Spirit; and as a collective body we are the temple of God in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. We are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ the ROCK is the chief corner stone, or the foundation on which we are built.

Ephesians 2:22 In whom you also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

It’s the building in which God will dwell, a habitation of God – an entirely new and different building, an entirely new civilization.

Jesus taught the knowledge about the Kingdom of God. And so He taught us that this world is going to crash, and He is going to come as the King of kings, the Lord of lords, to start a new world. Jesus had to meet Satan head on. He conquered Satan, and He qualified to replace Satan on the throne of the earth. Satan is on the throne of the earth, and this says he has kidnapped the potential Family of God. It has been his world, and he’s on the throne of the world over all the governments of the different nations of the world; and Satan is the king over all of them. They are blinded and they don’t know it. He has blinded them so they don’t see the truth, as you read in II Corinthians; let me see, I think it’s 4 and verse 3.

Now in Matthew 24, they asked Jesus about the end of the world. This world is going to come down and crash. This building is going to crumble and be destroyed. He said that this same gospel of the Kingdom that Jesus preached would be proclaimed in all the world; and it was not for 1900 years. God has raised me up to proclaim that worldwide, and it has gone worldwide.

Matthew 24:14 This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations [Not in all nations, but for a witness to them.]; and then shall the end come[The end of this world, the collapse of the world.].

It will be ended. It will be over. In verse 21 and 22 you find the final crash, being the Great Tribulation; and ALL HUMANITY would be destroyed – there wouldn’t be a man, woman, or child left alive from the nuclear war – except that God will for the Church’s sake (the elect’s sake that He has elected) shorten those days before everybody is made extinct. For our sake, the whole world will be … Not all of the world will be saved, but enough at least to start a new world; and we will be ruling over them.

Now then, finally in Revelation the 3rd chapter and the 21st verse, Jesus said:

Revelation 3:21 To him that overcometh [That’s in the Church.] will I grant to sit with me in my throne [That’s in the new earth, after this earth has crumbled, and fallen, and crashed; and He’s come to start the new world, the new building.], even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne[that was in heaven].

And then in the 2nd chapter and verses 26 and 27 of Revelation:

Revelation 2:26 He that overcometh [And we have to overcome, and we have to endure to the end. “He that overcometh:”], and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations.

We’re finally, after the world has crashed and Satan is gone, now we’re going to start a new government – a new world. And we are, say, the first floor or two of the next high-rise building built on the original foundation of Jesus Christ and the apostles and prophets. We’re going to build the rest of the superstructure. And, as Christ taught the apostles and they began to teach others, I’ve been teaching you people.

You are being taught so you can teach others at this time, when you’re going to have POWER over the rest of the world. You’re going to rule them. You’re going to judge them. And you’re going to teach them the truth. And then they will be able to repent, and come and receive the Spirit of God, and take of the Tree of Life – which Adam rejected (the first Adam), and which the second Adam did take, and which we’ll ALL be taking at that time.

Revelation 2:26-27 He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations; (27) And he shall RULE them with a rod of iron …

Other scriptures say we’re going to judge the world. We’re even going to judge angels. But this world God is not going to save. He’s going to save a lot of people out of it. Those in the world that are not called now, I read you the scriptures of how all who are not still alive have all died; and many more are going to die before Christ comes. In fact, I would say that more than two-thirds of all the people on the face of this earth. I would say that probably close to 3 BILLION people on the earth are going to die or be killed between now and the Second Coming of Christ, and that’s in our lifetime.

TERRIBLE things are going to happen, and the world now is frightened. The world’s leaders are frightened and perplexed, and they don’t understand. They don’t have any solutions. They don’t know what to do. Brethren, God is using us as the solution. We’re going to not save this world. We’re going to build a new world. And those that are left alive, they will have been called out of this world because this world will have CRASHED and be dead. We’ll be starting a new world, and they will then …

There won’t be any devil around to deceive them. And then for 1,000 years – which we celebrate at the Feast of Tabernacles every year – we’re going to be saving the rest of the world, and judging them, and ruling over them IN GOD’S WORLD, living God’s way according to God’s law and through the Spirit of God. They will be given the Spirit of God, and then they will be given eternal and immortal life. That is, all who are willing. But they will have to repent. They will have to make a decision – every one of them. But there won’t be any Satan around to deceive and mislead them. They won’t be deceived.

If they make a wrong decision, their blood will be on their own head. They won’t be deceived. Today most people are deceived. God knows that, and He puts the blame where it belongs – on Satan the devil. That is, the primary blame. Then, after the Millennium, there’ll be the Great White Throne Judgment; and everybody that ever lived is going to come back to life. Those converted during the Millennium, plus us, will all be in the Family of God in this NEW BUILDING, THIS NEW STRUCTURE. And the old structure will have crumbled and been long forgotten. Then, every one of them is going to be just like Adam was in the beginning. They’re going to face the two trees, so to speak; but there won’t be any devil there to deceive them.

We’ll be there to teach them, and every influence around them is going to be a godly influence to lead them God’s way. You know, personally I believe the overwhelming majority are going to respond and be saved when they are no longer deceived; but not all, otherwise the Bible wouldn’t say that there are going to be those who will become ashes under the soles of our feet.

It’s not a universal salvation. No one can be saved except he makes the decision himself. It’s not only making the decision, it’s acting on that decision. Sin is the transgression of the law, not just the temptation and the desire. It is acting on that temptation. It’s when the desire comes, you meditate on it and you think, and finally you give in and say, “Well, I’ll go ahead and do it.” The doing is the sin! People are going to have to make their own decisions. They’re going to have to be doers as well as hearers.

But finally it will be God’s building, built on a sound foundation. But this world, this building, is on its last legs. We talk about the end of the world. It’s drawing near. Be sure that you’re not caught in the destruction, when the building crumbles that you don’t fall down with it. Come out of it before that time, because we are going to have protection. You’ve heard of the protection that we have, in the sermonette. Come under that protection and we have nothing to worry about, but all hope and glory lies ahead for all of us.