The Church Ages - The 7th age, Laodicea, part 1

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The last church age is a great paradox

We are in a turbulent age of amazing scientific progress and social chaos when deceptive error and evil reach their climax. Comfortable lifestyles and prosperity, yet far too many anxious people are dependent on anti-depressants.

The final tombstone on the grave of our church age may well be,

"The pleasure of what I had was lost by wanting more".

Greed, selfishness, and egotism define our age -- which invented the "selfie".

Greed has made us lose the way. Our cleverness does not stop us from being hard and unkind.

We easily adopt a flawed version of reality as our personal delusion.

Our entanglement in this material world increases at the expense of our spiritual vision.

We think we are wonderful Christians, but we cannot find a single prophecy or parable that deals with the church at the end of the age, that says anything complimentary about us. Unless "asleep'', "blind", "naked", "wretched", "lukewarm vomit" are regarded as praise. Harsh words from an all-seeing God, Whom we cannot bluff.

Sadly, stupidity struts around in our pulpits pretending to be concern.

With 45000 different denominational and church beliefs, much harm has been done by saying "Believe as I do", rather than to get people to believe in the Bible. Church-goers feel that if you do not believe as they do, then you should be forced to comply.

This behavior is where freedoms go to die.

To convince others, you need Bible evidence of what you believe. That’s what is missing.

In a shoddy and materialistic world, the church is described as being a combination of seriously hot to get souls saved, and then lamentably cold in terms of being uninterested in understanding Scripture.  These combine to produce a disillusioning lukewarm church-going "group-think" experience.

This replaces the personal first love a person had for Jesus and the Bible when they first repented to get saved from hell. Thus, saved Christians soon learn to conform to the "cookie-cutter" pattern of their specific denomination.

The individuals learn to stop thinking for themselves.

Church-going requires the individual to blend into the church traditions, like one more addition to an identically and neatly cut-down-to-size hedgerow.

REVELATION 3:14   And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;

:15     I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.

:16   So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

The Word of God comes from the mouth of God.

Spued, or vomited, from His mouth, means that the church has become increasingly unscriptural.

The churches have enough Scripture to get people saved, but then also encourage ignorance of Scripture and enough Scriptural error to seriously mislead these people. They keep saying that we do not need to know the difficult Bible verses.

But we are supposed to have the Holy Spirit and Bible Truth.

JOHN 4:24   God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

The Word or Bible is not regarded as an object of love to be treasured just as it is written. The Bible is rather regarded as an object of loveless speculation. We pick and choose and modify the words until we get it to be the way we want it to be.

Welcome to our Laodicean church. Not the church in Laodicea.

The church "of the Laodiceans". The churches make up their own beliefs that suit them.

Laodicea means "people's rights".

If we are to miss the 3.5 years of great Tribulation, we must know the truth. Being saved from hell by the Holy Spirit does not qualify us to miss the years of great Tribulation. There is a difference between getting saved from hell, and getting saved from the oncoming great Tribulation.

PHILIPPIANS 2:12   ... work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

This is not salvation from hell. That happened when you repented and accepted Jesus as your Saviour.

This is to make sure that we are saved from going into great Tribulation that is looming ominously ahead of us.

It is essential that we learn how to understand the Bible if we are to gain wisdom.

DANIEL 12:10   Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.

We cannot be part of the wise virgins unless we are wise enough to understand the written Bible.

Our final judgement will be by the Word of God.

JOHN 12:48   He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

The most important thing today is to be Scriptural.

MATTHEW 24:3   And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

:4   And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

When the disciples asked Jesus about the end-time events, His main concern was that the church would be deceived.

Our biggest danger is that we will be easily fooled to move away from Scripture.

This is a paradox as we live in this great age -- where knowledge has increased amazingly. But we lack the wisdom to tell the difference between truth and error. We are easily fooled by fake news.

The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic closed down our churches as many church leaders died and we huddled helplessly in our homes. The only ones brave enough to tackle this vicious virus were the medical staff who brilliantly developed vaccines that limited the damage of the virus. Many churches reacted in fury that the vaccines in the shoulder were the mark of the beast in the forehead. Unable to halt the virus themselves, the churches attacked the vaccines which were our only protection.

Condemning the only thing that helps is an advanced form of deception.

DANIEL 12:4    But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

The Bible is a sealed Book of mysteries that will open up at the end time.

We run around everywhere in cars and airplanes. Our clever human inventions. A sure sign of the end.

The virus pandemic limited travel to force us to stay at home and rethink things. But we were not listening. We demand the right to travel and go on holiday even if we thereby spread the virus. Our own personal rights are so important to us in this age.

We did not need to know very much to get saved from hell. We just had to know that Jesus was our only Saviour, and then we needed to repent.

But to miss great Tribulation is another issue. To achieve that, we have to know what the Bible mysteries are talking about. That is going to take hard work and a lot of searching of the Bible if we are to avoid being fooled by the unscriptural beliefs and traditions of the churches.

I CORINTHIANS 2:16    But we have the mind of Christ.

After we get saved, and as we grow in grace, then God gives us the mind of Christ.

With the mind of Christ, we are able to understand the Bible when It is taught to us.

But Jesus was not confident that He would find much faith on earth when He returns.

Faith only comes by believing the written Word of God.

LUKE 18:8   ... Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

ROMANS 10:17   So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Thus, at the end-time, the churches will not be able to prove what they believe from Scripture.

The church can be dedicated to evangelism, but that does not make church-goers interested in understanding the Bible. For most church-goers today, the Bible remains a Book of sealed mysteries.

But Daniel was told that it would only be sealed until the end time.

ZECHARIAH 14:7    But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.

The last church age is a strange twilight zone where the enthusiasm for salvation (daylight) does not extend to Bible knowledge of prophecy and difficult Bible passages (lack of Bible knowledge is the darkness of night time).  Church-goers know a few bits, and ignore other bits of Scripture. It is all very confusing.

Each church claiming to know which bits of the Bible can be ignored, and which bits can be changed.

That is the main reason why they disagree with each other because each church makes their own changes and omissions of Scripture to suit themselves. Thus 45000 different church opinions (denominations) have emerged.

Another paradox: The Bible is in so many homes, and yet it remains the most unread of books.

War, on an industrial scale, has been a dismal characteristic of the last church age.

War has been one of man’s oldest and most futile activities. The more he has killed, the more he still wants to kill.

The very first battle on record is at Armageddon  1469 BC.

Egypt’s Thutmosis III defeated the Syrians and their allies.

The very last battle on record is the battle of Armageddon at the end of the three and a half year great Tribulation. That is when Jesus Christ defeats the combined demonic horde of "big-business-religion" and the political-church hybrid system of the final Beast-Pope with his ten allied military dictators. Their ten armies will have forcibly imposed a culture of ruthless conformity during great Tribulation. Dissenters will all have been killed off.

The church age of the Laodiceans fades into great Tribulation that ends at Armageddon, with mankind fighting against God. This is exactly at the same site where the recorded war started three and a half thousand years ago when Satan inspired man to fight against man.  The circle finally closes. Basically, that means humans have learned nothing of value in three and a half thousand years. No wonder our time on earth is up. Even God gives up after long enough in the face of endless human stupidity.

Albert Einstein suspected that human stupidity is perhaps the only infinite attribute in our finite physical universe.

God intends to smash our human civilization

Armageddon means an  "Invading mountain".

The prophet Daniel saw a Stone that no hand cut out, smite the Gentile image in the feet with its ten toes. The image crumbled.

DANIEL 2:33    His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.

:34   Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.

The Stone grew into a Mountain. Thus the third Coming of the Lord is an invasion at Armageddon that destroys the ten dictators who give their military power to the Beast.

REVELATION 17:12   And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.

They have power as kings. They are not crowned, but rule as kings. They are dictators. God will grant them power briefly (one hour) during the three and a half years of great Tribulation.

REVELATION 17:13   These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

The Pope is a church dictator. In the end, Satan’s superman will somehow usurp the religious church power and the money power of the Vatican (the smallest city-state on earth -- Daniel’s "little horn") and emerge as the final Pope. The final figurehead of the Beast-church system. He will perhaps call himself Peter 2 since the Roman Catholics falsely call Peter the first Pope. (Actually, the bishop of Rome only began being called the Pope around AD 400)

DANIEL 11:21   And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.

This final usurping Pope will not be given the position of Pope as a result of being voted in by the council of cardinals.

The ten dictators will conform to his demands and flatteries, and give him their military power and strength so that he can rule the earth as the final Dictator. The dictators will be in different places, and each can control their region of the earth as they will not have to move their armies far to suppress rebellion or opposition. It takes at least six months to move a modern army far away from America. And two or three simultaneous rebellions will stretch the American military to it limits. So ten dictators, scattered over the earth, will be a far more effective global police-state force. But it needs centralized control by the final Pope to run a one-world government.

The debacle as President Biden chose to run away far too quickly from Afghanistan in 2021 means that America's role as the world policeman is probably over now. America must decrease for the ten dictators to rise.

DANIEL 2:34    Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.

:35   and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

But the final Pope, who will destroy the saved foolish virgins or church-goers in great Tribulation, will be destroyed with his armies at Armageddon when Jesus returns.

Jesus then sets up a true world kingdom, with Jerusalem as the centre of government, so that His Bride can rule the world.

LUKE 19:16   Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds.

:17   And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.

The Mountain represents a kingdom. That is the 1000 years of peace when Jesus rules the world with His Bride, which is the true church from the seven church ages.

The heathens who never heard the Gospel and who survive Armageddon will be the nations that the Bride will rule in the Millennium.

Great Tribulation ends Satan's time for ruling the world as God turns back to the Jews.

Then it is easy to understand the demonic hatred against President  Trump when he recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. That is a sign of the times to the Devil that his time on earth is almost up. The murderous rage of the demons who know that the writing is on the "wall of time" for them, now that the Jews are back in their homeland with their true capital. Demons have ruled the world for 6000 years since the fall of Adam. You can imagine their anger when they realize that their time is almost up.

Bias and hatred for Israel dominate people’s thinking.

Cyprus was taken over by Turkey. Tibet was taken over by China. China has been introducing genocide on Muslim minority Uighurs. The Crimea, parts of Georgia and parts of Ukraine were taken over by Russia.  In their civil war, Syria bombed civilians with deadly poisonous chlorine gas. China tortures dissidents.  Venezuela restricts access to food.  Burma is engaged in the ethnic cleansing of a Muslim minority. Five million are killed in the Congo around the year 2000. Thousands of suspected drug users and pushers are killed in the Philippines. ISIS brutally committed mass murders in Syria and Iraq. Thus, really needing to restore world peace, the United Nations Human Rights Agency instead rather trains the bulk of its outrage on Israel. The UN has condemned Israel more than all the rest of the world combined. Israel becomes the scapegoat for international hatred.

In Laodicea,  the new normal is the misinterpretation of data and hatred of the Jews.

Misinterpretation of William Branham's quotes (such as their prediction that  Hillary would win the 2016 American presidential election), instead of references to the Bible, becomes the basis of Message doctrines.

Brother Branham never said that the seven Thunders have uttered. But most of the Message believers claim that the seven Thunders have uttered, and build up their differing unscriptural beliefs on that idea, which helps to fragment the Message groups.

Money is the downfall of the church

60-0110 THE  QUEEN  OF  SHEBA

... had one time give me one and a half million dollars at one time from the Mission Bell Winery of the Mr. Arkelian, the owner, his wife being healed of cancer. I refused to even look at the check or the money draft. What would I want with a million and a half dollars? There's only one thing I could do with it: Give it away.

Jesus said, " Take heed that no man deceive you".

But we are not listening to Him. We prefer to listen to the Message preachers who got it wrong but still insist on dominating the groups. Power is addictive. So is money.

The church of the Laodiceans is a rich church with material blessings, but is also poor and bankrupt spiritually -- and is sadly unaware of that fact.

The uneven distribution of this world's wealth leads to 10% of the population owning 90% of the wealth. A minority lives in luxury because society is so unequal. Inequality leads to a lack of trust. People then believe that dictatorship will work to provide employment and spread the wealth more evenly. That is why the Germans voted for Hitler.

That is obviously not a very suitable system.

As Rome takes over the world's wealth, most people will conform to her demands, because she will take over the industrial manufacturing sector and provide work.

The final Pope will end up owning the whole world's economy. That will be the maximum inequality of wealth and the death throes of our capitalistic civilization.

DANIEL 8:23    And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.

Daniel speaks of Satan's final superman.

DANIEL 8:24    And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.

The final antichrist Pope will be given the military might of ten dictators, with which he will dominate the world.

He will make a covenant with the Jews to take control of all their Wall Street Stock Exchange money. When he breaks this covenant, the Jewish money power on the Stock Exchange will be destroyed together with all their investments.

DANIEL 8:25  And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand

Craft is handicraft -- Manufacturing.

When America's economy collapses there will be a jobless depression with multitudes out of work.  Only Rome will be able to raise the money to take over America. Having attracted 1.4 billion converts, the Roman Catholic church can be regarded as an attractive or beautiful woman. She has a history of cruelty. As a cruel and beautiful woman, she will rule America.

60-1113 CONDEMNATION  BY  REPRESENTATION
Then when these women help elect the wrong person, then I seen a great woman rise up in the United States, well-dressed and beautiful, but cruel in heart. She will either guide or lead this nation to ruination. (I've got in parenthesis "perhaps Catholic church.")

President Roosevelt in America and Hitler in Germany created big public projects in order to provide the unemployed with work. By boosting manufacturing and providing work, the Roman Pope will govern America until it is time for Russian nuclear missiles to destroy America.

The Vatican has the cash, gold, and wealth. The Jews own the stock exchange money of Wall Street. So the final Pope will make a covenant with the Jews in order to take control over their money too.

The world's manufacturing industry will all be under centralized control.

63-0318 THE FIRST SEAL
So I didn't do it, but I got to go all through the Vatican. Why, you couldn't buy it with a hundred billion billion dollars. Why, you... And just think, "The wealth of the world," the Bible said, "was found in her."

Before her destruction by a nuclear bomb, Babylon (Rome) is described as a city of enormous wealth that she gathers from gold, jewels, and investments and her 1.4 billion converts.

REVELATION 18:10... that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

:12   The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,

:13    And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.

63-0318 THE FIRST SEAL

And after the church is taken away, Rome and the Jews will make a covenant with one another. The Bible said they would, with the holy people. And now notice, they'll make it, because why? This nation is going to be busted, and the rest of the world that's on the gold standard is busted. You know that. If we're living off of taxes, due bills for forty years from now, where are we at? There's only one thing can happen. That's to call in the currency and pay off the bonds; and we can't do it. Wall Street owns them, and Wall Street's controlled by the Jews; the rest of it's in the Vatican, and the Jews has got the rest of it in Wall Street with the commerce of the world.

...

Like this fellow down here in (What's his name?) Castro did. He done the only smart thing he ever did do then, when he destroyed the bonds: paid them off and destroyed them. Notice, but we can't do that. These guys won't let us.
The rich merchants of the earth hold it [the bonds], and then there's only one thing to do: The Catholic church can pay it off. She's the only one that's got the money; she can do it, and she will do it.
And in doing this to get it, she'll compromise with the Jews and make a covenant, and when she makes this covenant with the Jews... Now, remember, I'm taking this from the Scriptures. And now, when she does this and makes this covenant, we notice in Daniel 8:23 and 25 he will cause craft to prosper (And craft is manufacturing.), in his hand.

And he makes this covenant with the Jews, and in the midst of this three and a half years, he breaks his covenant as soon as he gets the thing wrapped up and gets the money of the Jews tied up. And when he does that, oh, my, oh, my, he's called the antichrist until the end of the church age, for he and his children are against Christ and the Word.

Now, when he gets the money all under control, then he will break this covenant with the Jews, as Daniel here said he would do it, in the midst of the last half of the seventy weeks of Daniel. And then, brother, what will he do? He will have all of the world trade and the commerce, a pact with the world, 'cause he will hold the wealth of the world completely.

The end-time events are involved with raising money.

DANIEL 11:20    Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom: but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle.

This will be a successful effort to collect great wealth.

All the wealth piling up in one place makes wealth distribution even more uneven.

So money becomes the downfall of the age, as the collected money produces a one-world economic industry.

Babylon, the original source of Gentile religious and money error, was seen as a head of gold.  Golden ideas like the Trinity, "Your stars foretell", decorated trees for the 25 December sun god's birthday festival, and collecting the wealth by looting the surrounding areas that had been conquered.

But God showed her as balances that were found wanting. Too much on the one side, too little on the other side.

A big wealth imbalance opens the door for Satan to move.

Then the final satanic superman Pope takes over.

DANIEL 11:21   And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.

Then the mark of the beast, religious brainwashing, takes over.

REVELATION 13:16   And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

:17   And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

If you are not part of the political-religious-church organization, then you cannot earn a living in the 3.5 years of great Tribulation.

REVELATION 3:14   And unto the angel of "the church of the Laodiceans" write;

:17   Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

We sit comfortably in the padded seats of the church and complacently expect God to entertain us with a dazzling show of miracles amongst the lights, stage, entertainment, disco drum music, and high-tech video screens.

Relying on the quick fix of feel-good motivational-type preaching that is little better than self-improvement pop psychology.

But the value of entertainment withers away after a while as do the "whipped cream style" emotional motivational sermons. We need something more substantial than endless self-improvement.

Focusing on self is not the secret of spiritual growth.

Many people try meditation. But meditation begins with ME.

A very big paradox is the widening gap between the ideal of the New Testament church,

which was poor, persecuted, and Scriptural,

and the disillusioning reality of the modern-day wealthy self-elevating church. We are the best.

Jesus is the Word of God which the churches do not want

"The church of the Laodiceans" that preaches Jesus as Saviour to the world, and yet has thrown Jesus, as the Word of God, out of the church is the ultimate paradox.

That is why it is "the church of the Laodiceans".  They make up their own Bible and their own beliefs.  It is not "the church of Jesus" -- because He stands outside.

REVELATION 3:20   Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice,

The saddest verse. Jesus standing unwanted outside the church that preaches Him.

Notice, He only appeals to an individual, not to the whole church. The churches in their group-think clusters have moved away from Scripture.

For example, try finding a Scripture that tells us to celebrate the birth of the Lord. Try finding a Scripture that says "Christmas", "Christmas tree", and  "25 December".

MATTHEW 2:11   And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him:

So the wise men took presents to a house where Jesus was a young Child, and only Mary was present. No presents were taken by the wise men to a Baby in the manger in a stable.  To admit this puts one in conflict with the biggest profit-making season of the financial year.

So big-money power dominates, and an artificial alternate reality replaces Bible truths.

People want presents and decorated Christmas trees more than they want the Bible. "Increased in goods" is typical Laodicea, hence the obsession with presents.

The end of the year pagan "sun god" Yuletide festival made the apostle Paul despair and feel that he had wasted his time on Christians who celebrated popular annual occasions. December 25^th was just a form of worldly bondage -- actually bondage to heathen Babylonian beliefs.

GALATIANS 4:9   But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

:10     Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.

The 25^th day 0f the twelfth month of December, Christmas time, and every year. The heathens had it as Yule time, when the sun god was reborn and began to move higher in the sky. "Yule" was an ancient word for "child".

GALATIANS 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

Getting involved in annual celebrations is not what the early church did.

The church of the Laodiceans has just stuck the name of Jesus onto the pagan sun god's birthday. And modern church-goers are happily fooled. The church of the Laodiceans prefers to move away from the teachings of Paul, as Paul was not in favour of women’s rights and women preachers.

I PETER 3:1   Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands;

I TIMOTHY 2:12   But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

No woman teachers allowed! That alone would undermine so many Laodicean churches, as they no longer stay with Scripture. Christmas is also totally unscriptural.

Claiming falsely that three wise men were in the stable, and then copying the pagan "Christmas" tree, which had nothing to do with the stable, is blatantly contrary to Scripture.

JEREMIAH 10:2   Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

:3     For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

:4     They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

Jeremiah said that God is unimpressed with the gold and silver decorations on pagan trees.

Yet  Christmas is the "holiest" celebration of the year as far as Christian churches today are concerned.

Even worse, 25 December is mid-winter and freezing cold and wet in Israel. No shepherds were out at night with their sheep at that time.  They would simply not survive. This is another clear contradiction of Scripture.

LUKE 2:8     And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

LUKE 2:16   And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

These shepherds were out with their sheep at night, so it was not mid-winter.

But does it worry us in the Laodicean age? -- Not at all. Who cares? We think Christmas is just great. Worshiping God is all about our rights. What we like doing.

REVELATION 3:14  And unto the church of the Laodiceans.

Please note:  Laodicea means peoples’ rights.

The church OF the Laodiceans -- the church of the people. The church that the people have made up.

II CORINTHIANS 11:2   For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

A woman symbolizes a church.

Modern women rely on make-up to be attractive to people. Modern churches make up their own beliefs in order to be attractive to people. They tell people what the people want to hear.

Our final age has developed its own church system.

We will serve God our way. God must be impressed with our traditions and bright ideas because we claim that we have the right to worship God in the way we want to.

We like disco music, so we have drums in the church. But the Bible never speaks of a drum. Who cares? We like drums and disco dancing.

All 45000 different kinds of denominational and non-denominational churches have the right to serve God in their own different ways, according to modern thinking.

Forget Scripture -- we have a right to follow our traditions and do what we like doing.

If we like gay rights and same-sex marriage then we allow it.

If we do not like baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, then we do not allow it.

It is all about I, me, and myself in this modern age of selfies.

Sports athletes criticize umpires who try to apply the rules. Athletes justify breaking rules in their fight for human rights. In the same way, churches criticize or ignore the Bible when It contradicts what they feel are their rights.

The ultimate paradox of the last church age.  People can do any wrongs as long as they are doing so for the sake of somebody’s rights.

Welcome to the church age of the Laodiceans.

Confused, contradictory, angry, demanding, dissatisfied, self-obsessed, fearful, anxious, depressed, and Bible-illiterate or Bible ignorant, because they only read those verses that suit their own beliefs. The rest of the Bible is simply ignored as wrong, contradictory, myths, unnecessary details, or irrelevant.  Thus the church-goers play duck-and-dodge with all the Scriptures they know little or nothing about. How insulting to God, in our ungrateful age

Money, pride, selfishness -- the unholy trinity worshiped by Laodiceans while our daily cares lead us astray.

"Churchianity" is a  religion that is all about power,  profit, proliferation, and petty competition.

The leaders get a little further ahead on the ladder of religious power so as to get their hands on their larger piece of the money pie.

Churches believe in parts of the Bible. But an unfortunate brew of ignorance and wishful thinking, that produces wild distortions, are now taken to be Gospel truth. We just believe whatever our church preaches.

In 2021, the 70-odd anti-virus vaccines that have been developed suddenly become the mark of the beast despite being injected in the shoulder rather than the forehead.

The churches were closed down in 2020 in the face of the virus which they could not combat and stop. Pastors huddled safely in their houses while the brave medical staff fought the virus and developed the vaccines which were the only way to lessen the virus damage. Then the churches condemned our only real help, the vaccines, as the devil. After the churches had dismally failed to control the virus.

That is how dumbed-down church people have become. They will believe that unscriptural rumour but deny the Scriptural water baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ.

ACTS 2:38   Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

1963 was a key year as God revealed the mysteries of six of the seven Seals to William Branham in America. A supernatural cloud photographed at an astonishing height of 43 kilometers at sunset, over the city of Flagstaff in Northern Arizona, on 28 February 1963 was believed by many Message followers to be the mighty Angel of Revelation Chapter 10 coming down at Sunset Peak, on 8 March when 7 angels commissioned brother Branham to reveal the 7 Seals. Sunset Peak is 200 miles further south in southern Arizona.

The Angel is imagined to have come down to meet William Branham. But brother Branham was only at Sunset Peak on 8 March, 8 days after the cloud was photographed -- 200 miles north of Sunset Peak. He was hunting javelina pigs. The hunting season only opened on 1 March, the day after the cloud was seen. On 4 March William Branham preached a sermon "An Absolute" in Houston, Texas about 1000 miles east of Sunset Peak. Thus he only got to Sunset Peak on 6 March. He knew nothing about the cloud until a couple of months later.

Notice the confusion of times and places.

Then, sadly, William Branham thought that the cloud had been formed by seven angels leaving him in the morning of 8 March.

There was no cloud formed when the 7 angels came down and then left him on 8 March.

Nobody checked the dates or the places.

Message believers claim that you cannot correct the prophet.

But they cannot explain why 28 February, the date of the cloud, was before the hunting season opened. So they just bluster to intimidate. Brother Branham, great prophet that he was, got his times and places muddled up.

Einstein also forgot where he lived one day and had to phone Princeton University to ask for his street address. That did not stop Einstein from being the cleverest scientist between 1905 and 1930.

This places the Message believers in a vacuum. They build their Angel doctrine on wrong facts that they cannot defend. That can only impress the totally brainwashed.

So these mistakes are now enshrined as facts in a doctrine. But the doctrine tends to change when the people are questioned about these facts.

William Branham eventually classified the cloud as the sign of the Son of man in the heaven, not as the Angel of Revelation 10 coming down.

65-0718  TRYING TO DO GOD A SERVICE WITHOUT BEING THE WILL OF GOD
And then in that great observatory, so that the world will be without, they're still wondering what happened. In Tucson, them big observatories took the picture of it up there; still wondering what happened. What is it? They still put in the paper, "Does anybody know anything about what, how it could have happen?" There is no fog up there, there's no air, there's no moisture; thirty miles high in the air. Oh, my!

"There shall be signs in the heaven above. And when these things take place, earthquakes in divers places, then shall appear the sign in the heaven, of the Son of man." "That day," in Luke, "the Son of man will reveal Himself again; being revealed, Hisself." And the world will look like Sodom and Gomorrah. Oh, my!

MATTHEW 24:30   And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven:

But the story grows as it gets repeated, and all too many Message believers insist that the Angel of Revelation chapter 10 has come down.

Although they tend to disagree about where and when the Angel came down.

So the facts concerning the time and place morph into different vague statements when you question them closely. But they need the Angel on earth to justify their belief that the seven Thunders have uttered.

However, William Branham never, ever said that the seven Thunders have uttered.

But they do not want to spoil a good story with unwanted facts.

Unfortunately, there are now a number of different versions of the seven Thunders. Each one claiming that it alone is right. It is all rather confusing. The seven Thunders are not written in the Bible. Yet each version points to seven different things that are written in the Bible which are claimed to be the Thunders. This is a very obvious mismatch. What is written cannot be the fulfillment of what is not written.

We have to dig deep until the quicksand of our information is safe to set foot on. Glibly accepting a batch of quotes in a docile, submissive manner is no guarantee of truth. That is why there are so many Message churches because the quotes have produced so many different opinions.

Facts should lead us to opinions. We must not have opinions, and then filter out only the facts that you want to accept.

Remember, only dead fish go with the flow.

To further complicate their theories, an unmentioned fact is that there were two clouds photographed from Winslow.

A high-altitude rocket was exploded over Vandenberg Airforce Base earlier that afternoon.

This smoke cloud was needed to fulfill Peter's prophecy.

ACTS 2:19   And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:

Water vapour makes a rain cloud. Smoke vapour makes a smoke cloud.

Christians today falsely, but readily, believe that there are contradictions in the Bible.

Half the time man’s own life is a string of contradictions. We blame everyone but ourselves.

The only sure anchor that we can have in our turbulent age is to believe that the King James Version of the Bible is the Absolute Truth, with no mistakes.

Modern Science is used to oppose Bible beliefs

This study will attempt to do a brief overview of our age to gain a background before we consider the spiritual events as described in Revelation Chapter 3.

The church age of the Laodiceans started in 1904 in Wales and in 1906 with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the 312 Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles, California.

It was a prosperous time. People were very self-confident. Scientists thought that they had solved all the problems of Physics.

This confidence did not last long, as Albert Einstein produced his amazing but difficult theory of relativity between 1905 and 1916. Then followed the crazy insights of quantum mechanics in the 1920s and 1930s, which are hugely accurate as long as you do not try too hard to understand it all. Never again would scientists feel that they have understood all of physics. Especially when Dark Energy and Dark Matter suddenly and unpredictably appeared. Why Dark? Because we have absolutely no clue what they are.

Then the American Apollo astronauts brought back moon dust that was older than the moon rocks, and older than earth rocks. Things get more confusing as we learn more. To make it worse the chemical composition of the dust upon which the rocks sat differed remarkably from the rocks themselves, contrary to accepted theories that the dust resulted from weathering and breakup of the rocks. So now we are more confused about the moon than ever. Scientists simply do not know how it formed.

Scientists developed the theory of the Big Bang to show how the universe began.

Then they discovered the unknown Dark Energy and Dark Matter which form 95 % of the universe. The Big Bang neither predicted nor explained Dark Energy and Dark Matter. Thus the Big Bang can only be applied to 5 % of the universe at most. This makes it a very inadequate theory. Nobel Prize winner Steven Weinberg and Professor Alan Guth, who were once great champions of the Big Bang theory, have now distanced themselves from it.

Famous scientist Steven Weinberg says that the more we understand of the universe, the more pointless it gets.

Thus we have another paradox. Science, which is the basis of the technology that makes our lives so comfortable, cannot offer us a future after death. Science offers us no real purpose for living either, as it cannot tell us where we are going.

A sad paradox happened. Many Christians abandoned faith in Genesis Chapter 1 because it disagreed with the Big Bang theory of Science. Now scientists are abandoning the Big Bang themselves. So the Christians who regarded Genesis Chapter 1 as a myth, to please the scientists, now have got nothing. With the moon dust being older and different to the moon rocks, scientists cannot even tell how the moon was formed. So if they claim to know how the whole universe formed, that is a joke. The Big Bang turned out to be just another theory that could not explain new scientific evidence that was discovered.

Saint Paul gave us good advice.

I TIMOTHY 6:20   O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:

If a scientific theory contradicts the Bible, it is not science. It is just false science. Fake news.

When the Laodicean age started in 1906, engineering skills were developing at a great rate thanks to the industrial revolution.

Then in 1912 engineering self-confidence took a bad knock. The world’s biggest boat, the Titanic, hit an iceberg at high speed and sunk with two-thirds of the passengers. The officer with the key to the cabinet that had the binoculars locked inside was replaced just before the boat sailed and he left hurriedly, accidentally taking the key with him, unnoticed in his pocket. With no binoculars, the lookouts got too close to the iceberg before seeing it and trying to change course. A tragic paradox. A tiny key doomed the greatest ship.

A person had claimed that the Titanic was so big and well-built that not even God could sink it. Unfortunately, God was listening.

This event really shook the self-confidence of the people. Such a big boat, yet so easily sunk on its first voyage. Many wealthy men were on board, happy to show off their wealth by being on board. Had they been poorer they probably would not have been on board. Then they would have been better off as they would not have drowned. This was a definitive moment at the start of the last church age. Man had built his biggest metal monument, and it was just not good enough. A shudder of fear rippled out. In facing the challenges of life, man realized that he was very clever -- but unfortunately not clever enough.

A spiritual lesson. Jesus gave Peter the keys to heaven.

MATTHEW 16:18   And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

:19   And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Peter unlocked the Door to heaven with this key when he said:

ACTS 2:38   Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Hardly any churches use this key. Like the Titanic, these churches that do not use this key will sink in great Tribulation.

They baptize in the name of three titles, without ever knowing what the name is. Ask them what the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is, and you just get a blank look and some meaningless mental gymnastics as they duck and dodge. Known as the "Trinity evasive shuffle".

But without the key, the churches cannot see the name of God, as three People cannot have one name. Looking so darkly through the glass they will be unable to avoid the massive iceberg of great Tribulation that our megachurch system is heading towards at top speed.

Knowing the human name of God for water baptism is a small key, but without it there is going to be a massive collision at the end of the church age. The name of Almighty God is the Lord Jesus Christ.

COLOSSIANS 2:9   For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

Everything that God is, can be found only in Christ.

MATTHEW 1:23   Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

Jesus Christ is God appearing in the form of a Man.

Europeans conquered the world then attacked each other

Then in 1914, the states of Europe who had crushed the colonies with their superior weapons of war decided in a moment of madness to declare war on each other. Internal European competition between the powerful states of Europe had led them to aggressively rush into making colonies. Greed, hypocrisy, and self-seeking propaganda enabled Europe to grow richer and more powerful as they cruelly looted the colonies. What you sow, you reap. The powerful European states then attacked each other. But the whole war started by mistake.

An assassin Princip killed the Archduke of Austria and his wife, and his pistol shots launched the first World War.

The Archduke's driver turned into the wrong street by mistake and stopped in order to reverse and go the other way. He just happened to stop next to Princip who then had an easy target for a few seconds. The war was so violent with its chemical explosives that it was called "the war to end all wars". Twenty million died. Then a wave of Spanish Flu swept the devastated world to kill between 65 and 100 million people. This combined horror only succeeded in setting the stage for the second World War, and its even greater physics explosives of the atomic bombs.

War encouraged brilliant scientists to develop bigger and better weapons of death.

The first World War was horrible enough in its murderous hatred to unleash the dark demonic forces of dictatorship.

54-0513  THE  MARK  OF  THE  BEAST

Now, this is the third Angel's message to the world. And you know what the third Angel's message; it's going forth now in this day. This is the flying of the third Angel message, if you're a Bible reader.

There was three woes followed it. The first one happened in World War One. Second one happened in World War Two. You see what we're going in now. All right. We're at the end of the road.

REVELATION 8:13     And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

This event actually happens in the years of great Tribulation. This feast of the trumpets will be calling the Jews back to Israel during great Tribulation.

But in order for the Bride to get some idea of what these events mean, the Bride sees a preview of the three woes.

World War 1 saw the release of the spirits of dictatorship. This was the preview of the first woe of our last church age.

The conditions of the peace treaty after the First World War were so harsh that poverty was widespread. A big inequality of wealth where the majority have little is a fertile breeding ground for dictatorship.

The Catholic dictator Mussolini rose to power in Italy. Lenin, who killed tens of thousands, and Stalin who killed millions, rose to power in Communist Russia. Germany produced Hitler, and this natural dictator, when he rose to power in 1933, was instrumental in dominating Germany so that the Germans would learn to hate the Jews, who are natural Israel.

The preview of the second woe was in World War 2 when the German dictator Hitler unleashed these demonic spirits on natural Israel in a ghastly Holocaust using Zyklon B poison gas.  This was part of their extermination campaign which killed six million Jews by 1945. The victorious allies found enough stocks of  Zyklon B poison gas that could have killed another 20 million people. Demonic madness with an endless lust to murder. This was just a preview of great Tribulation to give the Bride some idea of what great Tribulation will be like.

When the Second World War ended, the demons had to stop this industrial-scale death of killing millions of Jews.

These demons were unleashed by these awful dictators. Where are they hiding now? They will still be there in great Tribulation as the awful Holocaust of the Jews was just an amateur Tribulation -- a mere warm up for their future horrific slaughter of mankind.

The unleashed demons oppose the King James Bible

After the Second World War, these demons had to change their tactics and move into the churches, as the church is spiritual Israel, to form a confederation of non-Catholic churches. Their job is to stop the Christians from believing in the King James Version of the Bible and prevent all the churches from returning to the beliefs of the early church of the apostolic fathers. That is the ongoing preview of the third woe.

As soon as we start believing something that is unscriptural, then we start dying spiritually.

So the aim of demonology is to make us sufficiently Bible-illiterate to the extent that we cannot establish what we believe from Scripture. Thus over 100 different versions of the English Bible have been developed. All those different variations and changed words will make it almost impossible to find the actual truth.

Then these spirits orchestrated a complete denial amongst the churches that William Branham was the end-time prophet.

Finally, for those believers that realized that he was the end-time prophet, the spirits encouraged the people to deify brother Branham by calling him "the Voice of God". Then the quotes of brother Branham replaced Scripture, and these "Message believers" (an unscriptural term) were fooled into thinking that truth could be obtained just by interpreting quotes. That was the lazy way out. Studying the Bible is way too much hard work.

Bible knowledge amongst Message churches declined drastically.

Moses brought the Jews out of Egypt in the first exodus.

Jesus brought the church out of the Jews in the second exodus.

The Bride must come out of the modern church in the third exodus.

No church is strictly Scriptural anymore.

The modern-day Christians are the spiritual children who should be turned to the apostolic fathers who wrote the New Testament.

MALACHI 4:5   Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:

:6     And he shall turn ... the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

If we fail to return to the beliefs of the New Testament church, then we will be thrown into great Tribulation with its horror of nuclear bombs, and their curse of lingering radiation effects, and the cancers that these cause.

So the spiritual children (the end-time Christians) are being killed spiritually by not being taught the truth of the Bible mysteries, just like the children got killed naturally in the days of Moses and Jesus.

The horrific murder rate of 50 million abortions a year around the world is further evidence of the demons' desire to also kill little children today.

Ignorance of the Bible will be no excuse.

REVELATION 18:1   And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

:2     And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

A strong angel -- The seventh angel to the seventh church age of Laodicea.

REVELATION 10:7   But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

His powerful message was to condemn the church system for being unscriptural. Babylon, the mother harlot, represents the Roman Catholic church, which calls herself the mother church as the Protestant churches came out of her. She is seriously flawed as demonology has moved in and taken over.

The natural dictators unleashed the demons on natural Israel. When the war ended, the demons had to stop their natural killing and enter the church system for the spiritual deaths of modern spiritual Israel, the church, due to their unbelief in Scripture.

Thus it is no surprise that so many priests and church leaders are being exposed as child abusers.

REVELATION 17:5   And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

The mother harlot is also the mother of harlots. This is the Bible description of the Protestant churches that came out of the Roman church.

So the entire church world is described as a bunch of harlots.

This should make us very suspicious of modern-day churches who only tell us the bits of Scripture that suit their man-made doctrines and opinions.

REVELATION 18:4   And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Another voice -- This is not the voice of the seventh angel, but the inner prompting of the Holy Spirit telling us to come out of the modern church systems.

Another voice -- This is not repeating the quotes of William Branham.

If we repeat his quotes, that is the voice of the seventh angel.

Another voice is a personal revelation from God in the heart of the individual.

A personal relationship between the individual and Jesus. Jesus is the Word. No submission to a human leader. This is the voice of the Word that convicts an individual when he or she reads a verse in the Bible.

The churches are unscriptural in many ways, which is bad, but the people do not want to know that. People are desperate to think that their churches are fine. Thus they prefer to live in the "bubble" of their group-think-delusion, which is designed to instill adherence to a creed rather than to reduce sin or Bible ignorance.

So this third exodus is only for those few Christians who dare to believe that their church is wrong, and who want to be strictly Scriptural.

As a warning, God used the coronavirus pandemic to close down the churches in 2020. That is God's opinion of the churches. Only fit to be closed down.

MATTHEW 7:14   Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

The few despised individuals who learn from the quotes of the seventh angel, and then prove their beliefs by following their ideas through the verses of the Bible.

Individuals who are in love with the ideal of being like the first church, but not in love with the pleasures and treasures of our modern world, and who refuse to conform to others.

Church-goers are impressed with churches that have big membership numbers.

MATTHEW 20:16   So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

Ignorance is impressive if it has bulk.  A sea of nonsense sends out impressive tides to sweep us away.

Very few will move off the popular path in order to find Bible truth.

But there are limits on this seventh angel’s ministry. He was sent to restore us back to the first church. He was not sent to make up his own ideas.

For the chosen few, the last age believers have to be just like the first church age believers. "The last shall be first".

There must be no difference between the first and the last church ages.

MATTHEW 17:11   And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.

His final message is a restoration of the last age back to the first church age.

MATTHEW 19:30   But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.

The first and the last church ages must be the same. There is no real difference between them.

The Cold War can be described as Rumours of War

The Cold War between America and the Soviet Union enabled the fighting to be limited to countries like Korea and Cuba and Vietnam. But it encouraged both sides to develop a mad arms race as they made more and more powerful nuclear missiles.

Having spent all the wealth that they had looted from their colonies on the senseless and self-destructive two world wars, the countries of Europe were close to bankruptcy, and then they proceeded to lose their colonies.

The same blood-lust demons who had been unleashed in the war were active as the colonies gained their freedom. Millions died during the vicious emancipation of many of the colonies from their European colonizing states.

America and the Soviet Union, the two superpowers, engaged in a "no-win" Cold War. They developed enough nuclear bombs to kill everyone and still have enough bombs left over to make the corpses bounce. Overkill became a new word.

It was referred to as "Mutually Assured Destruction" -- MAD.  A very apt description of demon-inspired physics.

The brightest brains in physics could only bring us to the edge of a nuclear Armageddon. Humanity has been educated above our intelligence. We have opened a Pandora’s box of destructive power that we do not have the wisdom to control.

This prediction about America was made in 1964 by American radio personality Paul Harvey.

If I was the Devil.

I would set about whatever was necessary to take over the United States.

I’d subvert the churches first, and I would begin with a campaign of whispers.

With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: "Do as you please."

To the young, I would whisper that the Bible is a myth. I would convince the children that man created God instead of God creating man. I’d confide that what’s bad is good and what’s good is square and bad.

Then, I’d get organized, I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature pornographically exciting so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting.

I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I’d tranquilize the rest with pills.

If I were the devil, I’d soon have families at war with themselves, churches at war with themselves and nations at war with themselves until each, in its turn, was consumed.

And with promises of higher ratings, I’d have mesmerizing media fanning the flames.

If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellect but neglect to discipline emotions. I’d tell teachers to let those students run wild. And before you knew it, you’d have drug-sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door.

Within a decade, I’d have prisons overflowing and judges promoting pornography. Soon, I would evict God from the courthouse and the schoolhouse and then from the houses of Congress.

In his own churches, I would substitute psychology for religion and deify science. I’d lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls and church money.

What’ll you bet I couldn’t get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich?

I’d convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that living in sin is more fun and that what you see on television is the way to be.

And thus, I could undress you in public and lure you into bed with diseases for which there are no cures.

In other words, if I were the devil, I’d just keep right on doing what he’s doing."

1965 was a bad turning point for America as president Johnson really escalated the Vietnam war.

Historians say that America tried her best to commit suicide between 1965 and 1980.

Brother Branham’s ministry ended in 1965. America basically rejected his message. Thus it is no surprise to see America losing out for the next 15 years.

The Vietnam war was actually set in motion by President Truman when gave military aid to France in their Indochina (as Vietnam was then called) war against the North Vietnamese. By 1954 the Americans were paying for 80% of the French war effort. This directly involved the United States in Vietnam. The very experienced war general, Eisenhower, who was American president from 1952– 1960 knew it was wrong to get involved but sadly kept America in the war, sending American military advisers to support South Vietnam. Such was his mistaken aim of stopping the spread of Communism into South Vietnam that he never insisted on a free election in Vietnam. Kennedy, the next president, who was a Catholic, was encouraged by Pope John 23 to help the Catholic South Vietnamese president. But Kennedy made a hopeless compromise. He kept increasing the military aid, but it was never in decisive quantities. Kennedy secretly authorized a coup, which ended in the assassination of the South Vietnam president in 1963.

JOB 4:8   Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.

Kennedy himself was shot and killed three weeks later in 1963.

Pope John 23 had also died in 1963.

President Johnson escalated the war in 1965, but foolishly tried to run it from America. About 58,220 Americans would die. The American press and Mass Media had their moment of power and destroyed president Nixon over the Watergate spy scandal. Congress then snatched defeat from the jaws of victory as America abandoned South Vietnam which became the first war that America lost.

This was a defining moment in the last church age.

The Cold War got dangerous in Vietnam. It served as a warning to us that we cannot rely on human strength.

JEREMIAH 17:5   Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

The great superpower of America lost a war for the only time in that century.

ECCLESIASTES 9:11   I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,

This was a warning. America thought they could ignore brother Branham's attempt to bring them back to Scripture because they had such a strong military.

But God allowed their confidence in their very strong military might to be badly shaken.

The whole sad saga had involved the good general Eisenhower who knew he was wrong, and was then encouraged by the religious Pope John 23, who had no right to be interfering in politics. It ended with the American Press and Media, who were never elected, having the final say on the events.

This was a stark warning to our age. Bad leadership, political and religious, comes at a heavy price.

America's rejection of the end-time prophet, by refusing to be restored back to the New Testament teachings of the first church age, saw warfare change into the hit-and-run of terrorism and unwinnable wars.

The military term for this is a tactical stalemate.

The Press and Mass Media now edit the news facts in order to tell people what the Media wants them to hear.

Church leaders mix portions of Scripture with church traditions and politically correct opinions. By not staying strictly with the revealed mysteries of the written Bible, and actively denying these revelations, modern churches are effectively being led into the future great Tribulation with all its horrors.

Our age is easily fooled because the press and media have the ability to even exalt murderers as saints. For example Che Guevara. His face and iconic beret appear on so many T-shirts. The ideal revolutionary hero who came to free mankind from bondage.  He’s revered as some sort of man-of-the-people idealistic revolutionary and martyr. But in fact, he was a murderer, whose revolutions failed to bring freedom to anybody, only more control, and fear. His motto was, "A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate. We must create the education of The Wall!" (The Wall is a reference to the bullet-marked brick wall where Che’s enemies stood before his firing squads.) -- "Cold killing" and "Pure hate" are certainly not Christian attributes.

Ours is an age that is dominated by the bias of the mass media.

Laodicea has become an age of fake news that created an artificial alternative reality.

While killing millions in the wars, mankind’s ability to kill was overtaken by the mosquito. Worldwide, malaria is the biggest killer. So despite being efficient killers, we take second place to the humble and delicate mosquito. Common sense says that we should have waged a much bigger attack against the mosquito, rather than attacking each other. But thinking clearly and sensibly is not a product of the church age of the Laodiceans.

Russia is the king of the North

Let us consider the rise of Russia, the king of the North, who plays a big, bad role at the end time.

The 'darkest continent' on planet Earth is our human mind when it is made up, and thus totally closed to any facts or Scriptures that disagree with our current church opinion. That is why Jesus stands outside all our churches. In our darkened Bible-ignoring age, God is raising up a powerful destructive agent in the north. Bible-ignoring means we just focus on those Scriptures that suit us.

By 1917 the Pentecostal movement that began in Azusa street was starting to denominate. God hated that. So in 1917 the Communist revolution began with Lenin in Russia. A new state of Russia would grow in power until it will finally destroy America.

For now, God has to keep the Russians in check.

America had the freedom of Pentecost and the freedom of the end-time Message, but with time the Americans would move both of those movements out of the Scriptures and into the realm of unscriptural beliefs, just like the other denominations.

JEREMIAH 4:6    Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.

Prophecy can have a double meaning.

In the Old Testament days Babylon came from the north of Israel. In our days, Russia lurks menacingly up in the north.

HOSEA 11:1   When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.

God called Israel as a nation out of Egypt in the Exodus.

But the same prophecy is used when Jesus as a boy of less than 12 years old is called back to Israel from Egypt where He went at the age of two.
MATTHEW 2:15    And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.

JEREMIAH 46:10   For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.

The small patch of red in front of the E of Euphrates, represents Israel.

Russia, from the north, will ultimately be destroyed. God regards her as a sacrificial animal to be slaughtered at the end of great Tribulation.

Another paradox: The West would help to industrialize Russia and build up her power until she would become a formidable enemy. Then the West would have to oppose this strong rival.

Before World War 2, Stalin robbed the peasants, urban entrepreneurs, churches, and art collections to fund the industrialization of the Soviet Union (USSR). In exchange for the money stolen in this manner, Americans, Germans, and a few other nations delivered about 1500 industrial and power plants to Stalin. The West did not mind being paid in stolen money. The Soviet GDP jumped far above anything its predecessor the Russian Empire could have managed.

About 50 million people ended up being imprisoned, unpaid in the Gulag of harsh labor camps, and used as slave labour by Stalin. It takes slaves and looting to build up a powerful country. The total area of all these concentration camps was about equal to the area of France.

After World War 2, several thousand industrial plants were relocated (a polite word for stealing) from occupied Europe, and from China, into the USSR (the Soviet Union). This looting of the countries that Russia invaded at the end of the war secured the next wave of spectacular growth that Soviets enjoyed, well into the 1960s. Then, starting with Khrushchev, a huge problem arose. The abundant input sources started running out. The newfound oil in Siberia helped a lot. But the countryside ran out of people to man the new workplaces that the oil proceeds helped to create.

Productivity, without ever getting close to Western levels, grew progressively less. More and more people, more and more machines, produced increasingly smaller outputs. Besides, the capital assets that were already there now required an awful amount of resources for maintenance and repair: even when new, they hadn’t been top-notch in the first place.

The 1970s oil crisis made apparent the obsolescence of the industrial infrastructure that had transformed the advanced nations. In response, these countries embarked on reforms that were destined to propel them forward in the scientific-technological revolution. A high-tech information age was starting. Russia was falling behind, and needed a ruthless strong man like Putin to take charge. Dictatorship, under the veil of democracy and "free" elections, was back.

One man, Putin, gets elected to power in 2000, and then just stays in power by taking over TV stations and by imprisoning opponents. One opponent was shot dead near the Kremlin. Others get poisoned.

Turkey’s president Erdogan was elected in 2002, and has been in power since then by imprisoning opponents.

So it seems that the rise of dictatorships is again a current theme in politics.

We have to get used to a democratic vote that actually installs a dictator. This will be much easier for the final Dictator or Beast to take over in great Tribulation.

A man invents fertilizer for food and poison gas

Half of the world depends on artificial fertilizer for their food. Yet this inventor also introduced poison gas warfare.

Another paradox is man’s ability to grow more food by using chemical fertilizers, but at the same time we humans kill each other with chemicals.

Fritz Haber, a Jew, comes to mind as the Chemist of Life and Death. Haber was a brilliant Jewish German chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1918 in chemistry, for developing methods in 1909 to produce ammonia from nitrogen in the air. This is still known as the Haber Process. Ammonia was used to make artificial fertilizers, which did wonders to increase crop production. It was called creating "bread from air".

However, this master chemist then sadly went on to develop poisonous gas as a war weapon, because of his fervent desire to be recognized as a German patriot. In Germany, there was strong anti-Jewish sentiment, and he desperately wanted to be accepted as a German, not as a Jew.  By 1915 he felt driven by an excess of patriotism to invent poison gases for use during the First World War.  This gassing of Germany’s enemies was described as being an unspeakable horror. Then, even more unfortunately in the 1920s, Haber, who came from Jewish descendants, helped in creating poisonous gases as pesticides. This research was later developed to produce Zyklon B, the infamous gas used in killing Jews in German gas chambers at Auschwitz, Majdanek, and other extermination camps. Six million Jews died in this Holocaust. It is a sad irony in history that the Jewish man who gave food, and thus life to so many, also played a part in developing the poison gas that would plunge the Jews into their biggest nightmare.

The food production for almost half the world's current population depends on his revolutionary method for producing nitrogen fertilizers.

Some people have called it the most important technological invention of the last century.

Fritz Haber’s name should be a household name, even much more so than Einstein or Newton. But as a merchant of death, his name has darkened.

This symbolizes the last church age where the fourth Seal was revealed.

REVELATION 6:7   And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

The fourth beast around the throne was a flying eagle with its penetrating eyesight.

The voice of the eagle is the voice of the seventh angel as brother Branham recorded his sermons, with their amazing spiritual insights, on tape recorders from 1947 to 1965.

REVELATION 6:8   And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death,

But something goes wrong. Instead of the age ending in a glorious revival of truth, the age ends when the red, white, and black horses of evil unite -- religious deception, politics, and demonic money power -- to blot out Truth. The Holy Spirit goes up at the coming of the Lord. When Life leaves the earth, then death enters the earth for the 3.5 years of great Tribulation.

The seventh church age that should have brought Life as the written mysteries of Scripture were revealed, actually brings Death as people try to interpret unwritten mysteries.

Just like Haber -- His inventions brought so much life, but he is remembered more for the death he invented. He was trying to be accepted as a German. But in the end they rejected him as a Jew anyway. Trying to be accepted by people is not the way to find the truth.

Church leaders preach Life when they preach Scripture. Then they get many of the written Bible mysteries wrong. That is bad, as they glibly give their own opinions. Error introduces death. This is especially so when they try to interpret the seven Thunders that are not written. They are desperately trying to belong to a group that is so-called "in the Message". Which is an unscriptural label, just like "Lutheran" or "Methodist". Whatever they say the Thunders mean, they have got it wrong because they have no symbols to interpret -- just their wild guesses which open the door to death.

Their followers will curse them in great Tribulation because they will then realize that their favourite church leaders have actually led them to their deaths. All the saved Christians that go into great Tribulation will die if they refuse to take on the mark of the beast, which is denominational brainwashing. You belong to what a church says, not to what Jesus as the Word of God says.

REVELATION 13:15    And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

Bacteria in plant roots also create fertilizer out of nitrogen in the air, but only enough to feed about half the world’s population. The other half depend on artificial fertilizer. Because 3 out of 7 people you know live only thanks to Haber.

He brought food to billions of people with fertilizers, but millions died in war and gas chambers.

We live on the edge of ourselves, terrified of the darkness within.

Unable to prove from Scripture what we believe is darkness.

The limits and dangers of Science

The most powerful discovery in Science is that all things are made of atoms.

The most dangerous discovery in Science is when they learned to split the atom.

Now marriages split up, which is socially dangerous.

The biggest mistake in Science is our reliance on science to provide for our needs, and to protect us from harm and danger.

Science has made staggering progress in those directions. But at a cost. The amazingly useful plastics industry that solves so many everyday problems, has now become a monster of pollution that does not want to go away and degrade.

Medicine is amazing in keeping us alive for longer and allowing babies to survive childhood. But in the process, it is creating our single biggest problem, because it is helping to overpopulate the earth.

Electrical power has revolutionized our lives, but generating this power just cannot shake off the shackles of pollution. Clean energy runs at about 15% of our needs, if we are lucky, and has no great possibility of reaching 30% on a worldwide scale. One billion people still live without electrical energy. By producing an extra billion people every 15 years or so, we need to produce more energy at a faster rate than what clean energy can develop.

Nuclear power is great but has hazardous waste disposal problems, plus the threat of nuclear annihilation that makes a small nation like North Korea a world danger.

Power in politics has the same problems. It cannot escape from the stain of corruption, and dishonesty, and greed.

Power in the church is corrupted by an insatiable desire to collect money, which results in a church leadership succession that becomes a family business. The endless desire of church pastors to force people to believe their opinions.

The medical world is plagued by new viruses and antibiotic-resistant superbugs. As we find a new solution, a new drug, then a new danger crops up. A delicate balance between drugs and bugs. We do not win the race against microbes, and we struggle to keep up. We eliminate measles, then we stop inoculating because of fear of autism, and then measles breaks out again. Which is worse, autism, or the harm caused by measles? We are left guessing.

Modern drugs have done wonders to combat disease, but there is also a hidden and growing army of drug addicts. Good and bad just seem to march in lockstep.

Clean water is becoming increasingly scarce as the population grows, and the pollution of freshwater grows with it.

Transport is essential to modern life. Yet choked streets in rush hour traffic is an accepted modern hazard. More than half the world lives in cities in order to survive. But do not try to count all the slums and shantytowns that grow around the cities. Science has developed a throw-away lifestyle that produces mountains of garbage. Few countries have the self-discipline to enforce effective recycling programs.

Looking into the long-term future there is not too much to be optimistic about. Science creates solutions, as well as numerous new problems that will not easily go away.

Science and Technology are not the Saviours that we thought it would be.

Global warming merely proves that Science has enabled us to interfere with nature on a global scale. Science has educated us beyond our intelligence. We make progress but cannot cope with all the unintended consequences and pollution of that progress. The good in Science is being offset by the harm and evil that emerges as a backlash to progress. Scientific knowledge is both good and dangerous. At a certain level of knowledge, we simply lack the wisdom to handle its consequences.

I seem to remember that we were warned to 'stay away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil'.

But we eat greedily of its scientific fruit.

Mother Earth is polluted, poisoned, overcrowded, and overheated.

Science does not offer us a great future in the long term for our grandchildren.

What have we done to Nature’s Eden? Are we about to be thrown out like Adam and Eve were?

Thrown out by the God that scientific atheism has desperately tried so hard to dethrone as it endlessly teaches us that He does not exist?

So science seeks to get rid of the spiritual relationship with God and makes us victims of materialism. So we lose both ways. A lose-lose relationship.

What a paradox. God gave scientists a better intelligence than most of us have. And the scientists then used their better intelligence to try to prove that God does not exist. Talk about a waste of brainpower.

Sin is our greatest enemy. But we sinful humans have invented, and then applied, aspects of science. Science has developed into a paradox.

It is something that can now destroy so much, as well as helping us so much.

Our inability to cope with the destructive side of science is mainly because of our own sinfulness.

Because we cannot conquer sin in our own strength, the harm of science will degrade our lives. Ultimately we will wish we never went down that road of scientific invention. Ask the Syrians what they think of airplanes, weapons of war, and poison gases after Russian airplanes dropped poisonous chlorine gas on them in order to keep Assad in power.

We cannot avoid the kickbacks of Science. They just allow us to perform harm on a greater scale.

Armageddon will eventually wipe out our civilization.

That shows that God is not impressed with what we have scientifically produced.

Sugar has become the public health enemy. This is a form of colonial revenge, as sugar was the main reason for Europe developing certain colonies, especially in the Caribbean islands between North and South America. The fires and high temperatures used to extract the sugar led to the early deaths of millions of slaves and was a major reason that 10 million slaves were taken from Africa to South America and the Caribbean islands. (Another two million slaves perished or drowned on the ghastly slave ships as they crossed the Atlantic). The dead slaves were continually replaced by more unfortunate sugar-producing slaves, who were doomed to a quick death. Half a million slaves went to the cotton fields of the southern states of the USA. Picking cotton was a very cruel form of slavery, but less hazardous, and there they multiplied to become 4 million when they were emancipated in 1865 by Abraham Lincoln, the great American president. John Wesley preached salvation and holiness in England from about 1750, to lead a great revival. William Wilberforce in England became born again as part of this revival, and worked tirelessly for 20 years to get the British Parliament to abolish slavery by 1807.

The blood-stained hands of the sugar plantation owners provided the sugar that Europe became addicted to. By 1965 America had rejected the attempts of William Branham to restore the end-time church back to the Bible beliefs of the early church. Then the sugar madness started in America. The Americans learned to develop the large-scale conversion of glucose into fructose. Thus they managed to invent high fructose corn syrup, which is a concentrate of glucose and fructose. This potent combination is considered to be lethal by public health advocates. The public call this potent mixture "sugar". The consumption of high fructose corn syrup in America increased tenfold between 1970 and 1990. No other food group grew at this rate. Americans got fatter and obesity increased because high fructose corn syrup produces no rise in leptin, which is the hormone that makes us feel full. Increased sugar intake is also linked to diabetes.

This was at the same time that Message believers were developing their various dangerous Thunders beliefs, which focused on the mysteries that are not written in the Bible. So they took less interest in the written Bible and focused on making up doctrines by interpreting quotes. This began the slow but steady movement away from being Scriptural in what they believe. Now the Thunders people can no longer prove what they believe from Scripture. This puts them in the same camp as the Pope, because he cannot prove most of what he believes from Scripture either.

REVELATION 17:5   And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH

Unscriptural Rome is the mother of harlots, with her infallible Pope. Message people have been fooled into believing that various written facts in the Bible are actually the unwritten seven Thunders. A complete mismatch. Different Message people use different written facts to interpret what is not written, and thus we have numerous seven-Thunder doctrines to further confuse the issue. They say brother Branham’s quotes are the 'Absolute' as he is 'the Voice of God', and as such is infallible. Just like the Pope is declared infallible by the Catholics.

The Voice of God is not promised anywhere in the New Testament. Message believers say the mighty Angel of Revelation Chapter 10 has come down, but disagree amongst themselves just where and when He came down. They thus claim He has been down for over 50 years and has achieved what? Nobody really seems to know.

Many claim the Angel was the Cloud of 28 February 1963 formed by the wings of seven angels, photographed near the city of Flagstaff in the semi-desert state of Arizona, that stayed at a height of 42 kilometers and never came down. They also claim that the Lord came as the Cloud in a secret way, as a secret Presence called Parousia.  But the angels only came down invisibly eight days later, on 8 March 1963, to meet brother Branham near Sunset Peak, 200 miles south of Flagstaff. Sunset Peak is part of the great Sonoran desert that includes the city of Tucson. The seven angels left him, invisibly, and formed no Cloud.

Thus the Lord or the Angel came in the desert because Sunset Peak is in the great Sonoran desert. But this has to be wrong because Jesus does not come in the desert.

Tucson, where brother Branham was living, is in the same desert.  So his ministry was not the coming of the Lord either.

MATTHEW 24:26   Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

Was the coming down of the Angel, or the coming of the Lord actually the Cloud of 28 February, that stayed at a height of 42 kilometers, or was it the invisible angels that came down on 8 March? Message believers are not sure and disagree as Pharisees and Sadducees disagreed on their homemade doctrines.

But the seventh Seal, preached on 24 March 1963, brings Him back to earth. So the time gets very confused.

63-1110M SOULS THAT ARE IN PRISON NOW

The Seventh Seal brings Him back to earth.

But to further complicate things,  the seventh Seal has not opened yet. So He had never yet come down by July 1964.

64-0719M  THE FEAST OF THE TRUMPETS

The Seventh Seal hasn't opened yet, you know. That's His Coming.

Actually, in July 1965 which is five months before he died, brother Branham was still looking for the Coming of the Lord.

65-0725  WHAT IS THE ATTRACTION ON THE MOUNTAIN

We send greetings up in the mountains, Prescott, Arizona, to Brother Leo Mercier and his group that's up there waiting for the Coming of the Lord.

The city of Prescott is between the city of Flagstaff and Sunset Peak. So neither the high altitude Cloud of 28 February 1963 over Flagstaff, nor the seven angels that came to brother Branham near Sunset Peak on 8 March 1963, were the coming of the Lord as far as he was concerned.

Brother Branham's followers have messed up his quotes to produce a Thunders Mess-age.

This is nothing new.

Remember the sons of Thunder, James and John, who wanted to pull down fire on the villagers who disagreed with them?

Jesus said that they did not know what spirit they were of.

Exactly the same as the modern Thunders believers. They have neither quotes nor Scripture to vindicate their mental gymnastics.

What spirit are they of? The unscriptural mommy Catholic church.

As soon as you are unscriptural, you become a daughter of Rome.

MARK 3:17   And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder:

LUKE 9:54   And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?

:55     But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.

:56     For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

Disagree with Mess-age Thunders believers, and see how anxious they are to destroy your reputation.

Things have not changed. Same spirit.

65-0725  WHAT IS THE ATTRACTION ON THE MOUNTAIN

We send greetings to those in Tucson, that's gathered tonight, waiting for the Coming of the Lord. Down into Houston, Texas, to those who are waiting for the Coming of the Lord. Up in Chicago, to those who are waiting for the Coming of the Lord. Up on the East Coast, New York and Connecticut, and the great groups up there, that's waiting for the Coming of the Lord. We don't have room here to seat them, so we just have to send them the Word through the medium of the telephone. We send greetings to Brother Junior Jackson tonight, and his group down in Clarksville. Brother Ruddell, up on sixty-two, and his group, waiting for the Coming of the Lord. And we're gathered here tonight at the home church, the tabernacle, waiting for the Coming of the Lord.

As 1965 was ending, brother Branham was still looking for the coming of the Lord.

MATTHEW 24:26   Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

There is no secret presence, no hidden dimension. Jesus dwells in the hearts of men and women.

MATTHEW 24:3   And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

"Coming" is the Greek word  "parousia". This can also possibly mean a secret presence. But Jesus said we must not believe in a secret presence or secret chambers.

Brother Branham never used the word Parousia. Thus he never tried to extract some hidden meaning from that word.

1THESSALONIANS 3: 13     To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

"Coming" is the Greek word  "parousia". Why is it not a secret presence?  Because Jesus comes after the resurrection and we will see Him with all His saints.

I THESSALONIANS 2:19   For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence (emprosthen) of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming (parousia)?

Paul knew he would see his converts in the presence of Jesus when Jesus comes.

This "presence" does not use the word parousia. So do not go overboard on trying to link "parousia" to "presence".

We have not yet seen Paul and the resurrected saints. So Jesus has not yet come.

I CORINTHIANS 15:22   For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

:23     But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.

At the coming (parousia) of Christ, Who was the first Man to be resurrected, the dead shall rise from the grave.

MATTHEW 24:37   But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming (parousia) of the Son of man be.

:39   And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming (parousia) of the Son of man be.

The coming of the Lord will rescue the saints, and sweep the world to its destruction in the 3.5 years of great Tribulation.

Message preachers claimed that the Cloud ended the Laodicean age.

Brother Branham did not say that.

65-1204  THE RAPTURE

We all know we're living in the Laodicea Age. There will never be another age to it. It can't be. So, we're living in the Laodicea Age

This was his last sermon, and he believed that we were still in the Laodicean age.

Rome is rising on the turbulent sea of modern politics

Laodicea, the age of paradoxes.

Medicine allowed millions to live longer, and now there is about eight times the population that there was when the sixth church age started around 1750. This population growth cannot be sustained if everyone wants to live at the modern western standard.

More people were killed between 1900 and 2000 than in any other century. It was the cruelest, most blood-soaked century, and yet the world population exploded as it increased four times -- from one and a half billion to six billion people.  Alongside the almost unimaginable slaughter of our industrial-scale wars, and in the shadow of nuclear annihilation, hundreds of millions of people have enjoyed peace and plenty on an unprecedented scale.

Lenin and Stalin in Russia, Mao Zedong in China, and Hitler in Germany, all mass-murdered millions  because they seriously thought that they had to kill their way to paradise.

Muslim jihadists have the same basic idea.

The 1960s saw the development of the contraceptive pill which focused on limiting the size of a married woman’s family so that she could cope.  But it radically loosened and swept away all forms of traditional sexual morality, especially the abstinence of the unmarried and divorced.

Britain and France got into the second World War on a fantasy that they could somehow -- nobody knew how -- help Poland against a German invasion.

America, as the world’s strongest free republic, won the war against Hitler’s police state Germany with the help of Stalin’s Russian police state.

The empires of Europe collapsed as the former colonies gained their freedom. Then America developed her own financial empire as the dollar became the world’s most important currency when American business spread dramatically around the world. The global market domination by America is only ending now.

Europe had given the world modern nationhood. Now the European Union is an attempt to try to melt the nation-state away again.  The 27 nations (26 after Great Britain left) combine to form the world’s biggest economy. The common euro money system and visa-free travel is trying to establish one big country similar to the United States of America.

Many churches have made the mistake of thinking that the European Union is the beast with ten horns. But having 27 nations (26 when Great Britain left), instead of just ten, wrecks that theory. The beast with one head and ten horns was the pagan Roman Empire. The ten horns were the ten barbarian tribes who helped to break up the Roman empire and then were used to build up the power and reputation of the Roman Catholic church on the ruins of the Roman Empire.

DANIEL 7:7    After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

DANIEL 7:8   I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots:

A little horn comes up amongst the ten, and uproots three of them.

The little horn is the Vatican. The world's smallest state or country. Less than 1 square kilometer in size and it has less than 800 citizens.

The Roman Catholic Church is Trinitarian. The Heruli, the Ostrogoths, and the Vandals were the only three non-Trinitarian tribes who broke up the Roman Empire and occupied Italy and North Africa.

These three tribes, by about AD 550, were completely destroyed by the emperor of Constantinople to protect the Pope in Rome. Thus there was no opposition to the Trinity belief as the world went into the 900 years of the Dark Ages. Then the tiny Vatican City was built. It became a city when a wall was built around it by Pope Leo IV (847 – 855). Many of the Vatican citizens live abroad. It is the smallest city-state on earth, in both size and population. Its independence was recognized in 1929 by Mussolini. That was the year the world went bankrupt, which started the Great Depression. God thus indicated the spiritual bankruptcy of anyone who recognizes the independence of the Roman Catholic church.

In India, Gandhi led an amazing peaceful protest against the British that made them abandon their Indian colony just after the Second World War. Then a Muslim-Hindu clash erupted as Muslim Pakistan separated from Hindu India. One million were killed. Ten million people had to move either north or south in what was the biggest forced removal in history. It was a hideous conclusion to Gandhi’s peaceful lifelong campaign.

Einstein was also a man of peace who hated war. In another grim irony, his famous equation  E=mc² laid the foundation for the development of the atomic bomb.

In science, chaos means that a small event can have big unintended consequences.

In 1979 the Shah of Iran had to flee from a revolution. These Iranian revolutionaries took American hostages. Trying to rescue the hostages, the incoming helicopters ran into two fierce sand storms (haboobs) that made the rescue end in disaster. The Russians saw this failed attempt as proof of American military weakness because they had lost the Vietnam war. So Russia attacked Afghanistan. America thought they were clever by training and arming the Afghans and their allies to form a formidable fighting unit that eventually beat the Russians. The Russian Empire, called the Soviet Union, collapsed soon afterward.

The Americans thought they had won. But they had also produced these tough fighters in Afghanistan, which included Bin Laden.

Bin Laden, a Saudi Arabian who had fought in Afghanistan, was angered when Saudi Arabia asked America to defend Saudi Arabia from Saddam Hussein. America won the 1991 war against Iraq, but that made a mortal enemy of Bin Laden. He moved to Afghanistan and there plotted the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001. This was the defining moment of the beginning of the new century, as it put America, with her huge military-industrial complex, back on the warpath.

Two fierce sandstorms ignited a trail that led to the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq by America.

Twenty years later in 2021, Catholic President Joe Biden ordered a chaotic withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan. The Taliban had won. This was America's second big war that had been lost.

In 1961 Catholic President John Kennedy sent thousands of military advisors to South Vietnam which later escalated into a vicious war. A chaotic withdrawal of the last Americans in 1975 from Saigon saw the Americans lose their first big war.

Those two sandstorms were rather like the two pistol shots of Princip that would lead to the first World War. Then the unhappy peace terms after the First World War led directly to the second World War.

This kind of evidence indicates that the last age of Laodicea is run by turbulent and chaotic spirits. Small events can have big and unexpected outcomes.

But there is a spiritual significance to the war in Iraq.

The prophet Jeremiah not only prophesied the destruction of Babylon but also that the city would never be rebuilt and inhabited.

JEREMIAH 50:29   Call together the archers against Babylon:

JEREMIAH 50:39   Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.

Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq, decided to rebuild Babylon in memory of himself and Nebuchadnezzar who was the king of Babylon in the prophet Daniel's day.

Then America invaded Iraq in 2003 to protect their oil supply and look for weapons of mass destruction.  A vicious war broke out which saw Saddam being executed. But, whatever the reason for the American invasion, the main purpose was that God wanted to protect Jeremiah's prophecy. Saddam Hussein wanted to destroy a prophecy. So God used America to get Saddam destroyed.

We learn not to fool around with Scripture.

One thing you can be sure of. No prophecy in the Bible will ever fail.

In addition, Iraq has been so badly damaged by the two American invasions that many people now claim that it is a failed state.  Thus Iraq, as a once-powerful enemy of Israel,  has been effectively neutralized for a while.

So God is defending  His people Israel.

Syria is so entangled in a civil war and the destruction of its cities, that Syria is not a threat to Israel at the moment. Iraq and Syria represent two powerful states that cannot, at the moment, effectively attack Israel. God has blunted their teeth and made them less dangerous. Why?  Because Jesus will return to the Jews in the 3.5 years of great Tribulation. So the Jews have to survive. Having fewer dangerous enemies makes their survival more sure.

Lebanon which developed the powerful Hezbollah army had to send many of these men to help the Syrian army in their civil war. Not enough Hezbollah fighters remained to threaten Israel. The economy of Lebanon has collapsed which makes it far less of a threat to Israel.

The most chaotic American presidential election was in 2016. Hillary Clinton was a firm favourite to win and every professional poll made her the definite winner.

We cannot trust the news because people tell each other what they want to hear.

But Hillary shockingly lost to "bad boy" Trump who shrugged off endless scandals that would have sunk any other candidate.

Why did he win against all the odds?

Because he promised that he would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel by moving the American embassy to Jerusalem.

Once again we are dealing with the fulfillment of prophecy that overrides any other problem areas.

ISAIAH 11:12    And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Through the muddled ripples of everyday events, the tidal wave of prophecy moves silently, but quite irresistibly on.

But can we recognize who God is using?

A vaster background is needed to foresee things.

Personal actions by world figures are often just a distraction.

The plan of God unfolds despite all the opposition of human free will and human flaws.

Moses was a murderer, but God used him so effectively.

There are complications to the truth that only a deep insight can penetrate.

Uzziah was a good king but overreached himself to burn incense like a priest. God struck him with leprosy.
II CHRONICLES 26:19   Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, from beside the incense altar.

However, David, when he ran away from Saul, ate the priest's shewbread and was not punished by God. Why?

MATTHEW 12:3   But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him;

MATTHEW 12:4   How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?

As a prophet and king, David was acting out a  part of the life of Jesus. Jesus was anointed King on the banks of Jordan but can only take over His Kingdom when His enemy the Beast is destroyed at Armageddon. In the meanwhile, Jesus is the High Priest of the Gentile church. David was anointed king by Samuel but could not take over the kingdom until his enemy Saul had been killed. Between those two events, he could act the part of a priest to be a type of Jesus.

We need to know the Bible better so that we can recognize the clues.

If we get it wrong, we will be left behind in great Tribulation.