Severe trials await us if we don’t understand these critical signs. God has given me a deeper understanding of this subject. Now we can fully understand.
The End-Time Elijah
I want to bring this down to recent times.
Mr. Armstrong was a towering figure in this end time. Malachi 3:1 talks about him being the messenger preparing the way. Malachi 4:5-6 discuss Elijah coming before the great and dreadful Day of the Lord. Matthew 17:10-11 talk about Elijah coming and restoring all things pertaining to the doctrines of the Church. Revelation 3:7-8 also talk about Mr. Armstrong and the Philadelphia era of the Church. Zechariah 4:8 and 10 say that he finished the work of the Philadelphia era, as does Matthew 24:14. Mr. Armstrong preached the gospel around the world for the first time since a.d. 69—in nearly 2,000 years!
One of our ministers, before coming into the Philadelphia Church of God, had a leading Worldwide Church of God evangelist over to his home. They were talking about the changes in the Church after Mr. Armstrong’s death. The subject of Elijah came up, and our minister said he believed Mr. Armstrong was the end-time Elijah.
Shockingly, the wcg evangelist disagreed.
What is that admission really saying? Mr. Armstrong restored all things, and this man is acting like one of the Jews confronting Christ—yet, in some ways, far worse. This man doesn’t believe Mr. Armstrong fulfilled that prophetic office, and yet anybody with elementary common sense—spiritually—can prove he restored all things! That is like asking someone who just came out of a movie theater, “How did you like the movie?” and having them respond, “What movie?”
That evangelist missed everything! He did not understand the signs of the times. He didn’t know what Christ was doing! That’s drastically tragic—blindness of the highest order. You have to ask,Well, what were you doing in God’s Church? What was the point?
Look at the work Jesus Christ, the Son of God, did through Mr. Armstrong! Look at how Mr. Armstrong prepared for the return of Jesus Christ! Yet this man says, I don’t believe he was the man. He didn’t comprehend the signs of the times. It’s like he missed the sixth era of God’s Church! How could he miss the sixth era and possibly understand anything about the seventh?
This evangelist wrote in January 1979 about how Garner Ted Armstrong and other evangelists forbade him to talk to Mr. Armstrong and reveal their plans for changing the doctrines of the Church. He said that they threatened his job if he went around them. He was privy to a massive betrayal in the Church!
What did he do about it? He didn’t do anything at all. He congratulated himself for not going along with them, but is that the Bible’s approach? If people are putting Mr. Armstrong down, is it right to sit there and take it? To just watch such a monstrous betrayal happen before your eyes? The fact that he didn’t respond much more radically was an indication that something bad was going to happen in his life. If he had discerned the signs of the times he wouldn’t have put up with that. There was only one man on the planet who could have stopped that nightmare, and nobody consulted him!
Each one of us is responsible for what goes on in the Church. You can’t just sit there and watch the Church collapse and say, Well, I didn’t go along with it. That’s not really doing anything! Of course we have to be very careful how we approach anything like this, but you can’t just let the Church fall apart! That’s really failing to discern the signs of the times! That’s failing to realize that eternal lives are at stake!
Can you discern the signs of the times—especially ”this time,” as Christ said? This time, just before His Second Coming? The prophecies are being fulfilled before our eyes! In the same context as the prophecy of the gospel being preached around the world, the Bible talks about every man, woman and child being wiped off the face of the Earth! DO you discern the signs of the times? Do you know that we’re living in those times? This time, now? It’s about to explode in our faces! Do you believe that? That’s what “discerning the signs of the times” means.
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