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Transcript

Well, good afternoon, brethren.

This is a message that follows in the spirit of Mr. Pack’s recent sermon on remembrance. And you’ll understand what I mean by that. I gave a sermon titled, “Prophecy Proves God’s Church,” about three years ago. And I started that message by saying the following. I’ll just basically read to you almost exactly verbatim what I said: “This is a timeless sermon on prophecy, one that we can come back to if we ever find ourselves questioning our understanding of prophecy.”

And so, I decided to go back and re-listen to that message again. And it was a timeless sermon on prophecy. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it. It absolutely held after three full years. There was one minor detail about the sixth head that had changed. But aside from that, I would recommend that all of us go back to that message in March of two thousand and twenty-three and listen to it again. Because it was timeless. And it actually sets up this sermon very well.

Now, what I discussed then and what we’ll discuss today was very high-level prophecy. And the goal is to help us all, and is today to help us all stay grounded in the big picture of prophecy. It can be very easy to get caught up in the details. Prophecy has a lot, a lot, a lot of details. And Mr. Pack goes over a lot of details in his messages. But what we’re going to hear today and what you heard three years ago is a message and are messages that help lay the foundation for what it is that Mr. Pack is talking about.

So that if you’re new to the Church, if you haven’t been around for a while, or maybe if you just forgot, and you’ve been in the Church for a long time, and now we’re putting you back in remembrance of the foundational things that set the table for what Mr. Pack talks about regularly. I said a few years ago in the last message that prophecy is like a football field. Think of a football field or a soccer field. You go out to this soccer field, and ninety-nine point nine percent of what we understand and have taught in prophecy is settled. It’s done. There’s no real adjusting it or changing it, and that’s why, after three years, nothing has changed. It’s the same truths that I talked about three years ago still hold to this day.

We talk about what we often talk about on a regular basis, and what Mr. Pack focuses on is the part that we still don’t understand. The kind of the, you go to the back end of the end zone or you go near the goal or a corner of the soccer field and you’re talking about like a three foot by three foot or one meter by one meter space that we’re kind of still trying to wrestle with and figure out while the rest of the whole soccer field is settled. The rest of the football field is settled. The rest of the football field is the topic of this message.

We’ve at all through different times in the series struggled with doubt, but hopefully these messages will stabilize us. When we’re put in remembrance of the foundational doctrines of prophecy, they’re stabilizing. They ground us. They root us, and they help us to... the whole point of this message is to prove through prophecy that this is God’s one true Church. So when we remember, because it can be very easy to forget, when we remember the big picture in prophecy, we’ll leave today’s message, and after you listen to the other message I gave three years ago, you’ll leave this message and say, “Where else can we go?” This is the true Church. This is where God is leading. Not because what I say or what Mr. Pack says or any minister of God says or asserts, but it’s because it’s what the Bible says.

So if you can prove what you hear today is true, it becomes another powerful way that we can know this is God’s one true Church. No other Church, including the splinters, who hold to more truths than the masses in the world of Christianity, they at least understand certain elements of the Sabbath, Holy Days, and so forth, but none of the splinters believe what it is that we’re talking about today because they’re holding to old, wrong thinking in prophecy.

So let’s get into some of the greatest points from the last ten years of prophetic understanding. We’re going to cover a few review points from the last sermon. That’s the whole point. We’re going to go through those fairly quickly because you can go back, and I want you to go back and re-listen to that message. You can go back and re-listen to that. I don’t need to spend a lot of time on the review, but the review is very helpful for this message as well. What you’ll find is that point after point after point build, and once you lay the foundation of some of these basic doctrines of prophecy, they build on each other, and they help strengthen and fortify one another as you keep going.

So first, to understand where we are now in prophecy, we must first understand what we used to believe. I’m going to use a few cards here that will show what it is that we used to believe. Let me place these quickly. We used to believe, now imagine... Excuse me. Imagine that this whole lectern is the Millennium, the thousand years. The thousand years starts here. We believe that there’s three and a half years before the Millennium, where the beast and false prophet, we still believe three and a half years before the Millennium, but my point is we believe that there was three and a half years before the Millennium only.

That’s not what we believe, but three and a half years preceded the thousand years, and at the end of the thousand years, here’s what happened. All mankind resurrected for what was a one-hundred-year period, after which God comes, and the new heavens and new earth come. Pretty simple. That’s our old superstructure, if I could put it that way. Superstructure in prophecy. Three and a half years back here of the beast and false prophet followed by the Millennium. Back here, Christ returned and the Millennium began, and we began to rule as kings and priests for a thousand years, and only at the end of the thousand years did all mankind get resurrected for a one-hundred-year period after which God came, and the new heavens and new earth came.

That’s what we used to believe. We’re going to systematically dismantle this and prove it to you from the Bible. You don’t have to ask me or question what I believe. What I believe is what God says. So let’s start doing that as a review of what we talked about last time. One of the early major points we talked about doesn’t get into these things quite yet. Early in the series, we learned that there is this thing or this person called the eighth head. Now, back in the Worldwide Church of God, and what we used to teach in the early Restored Church of God years was that there is... We may have seen that it existed, but we had no explanation for it.

We only believe that there were seven heads of the Holy Roman Empire and that the seventh head was the three-and-a-half-year period that preceded the Millennium. But if you turn over to Revelation chapter seventeen quick, we’re just going to go over each of these few points. We’re going to go over just some of the very high-level points before, and very quickly before getting into new proofs and more proofs today.

Revelation seventeen, just pick it up in verse eight, “The beast that you saw was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition. And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. And when they beheld the beast that was and is not and yet is, and here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, and there are seven kings. Five are fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short space. The seventh head only continues a short space. And the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth.”

The beast who reigns for forty-two months, we’ll read that in chapter thirteen, a little bit later, I’ll just reference it. Beast, the eighth head reigns for three and a half years. We didn’t have an explanation as to how this eighth head even existed. But now we do. We do. We understand that there is an eighth head, that there isn’t just seven heads. There aren’t just seven heads. There is an eighth head. That is one, you could say, pretty small but pretty big difference between what we teach and what those in the splitter groups teach. They don’t have an explanation for the eighth head. We do. Because God’s word, you know, you can’t just do a Thomas Jefferson and snip out parts of the Bible. It’s all true.

The question is, is how does it fit? So we now have an explanation for the eighth head. One of the other things, and I could argue one of the greatest truths that we learned in this series, is related to prophecy, but not. It’s the nature of God. Who is God? That God is all throughout the Bible in ways that we never saw before. And I’ll prove that to you. We believed that the Lord of hosts in the Bible could have been Christ for all these decades, when in fact the Lord of hosts is provably the Father.

Let me just take you to a couple verses. Turn over to Second Samuel seven. This is just review. I’m going quickly through these points because I have an entire message that I already gave on this in more detail. So you can go back and listen to that. But let’s just quickly go to Second Samuel seven, Second Samuel seven, and verse twenty-seven. Now, when we pray, and the world understands this, vast numbers of people in the world understand that when you pray, you’re not praying to Christ, you’re not praying to Mary, you’re not praying to St. Christopher, whoever kind of Catholic thing you’re doing.

Catholics pray to all kinds of people. But most people understand and believe that when you pray, you come to God the Father, and that’s who you’re praying to. Jesus is our main intercessor. He’s the one that we pray through, and Christ brings us before the Father, and we stand before God, and we pray to Him. So when we’re praying, when you see in Second Samuel seven, twenty-seven that it says, “For You, O Lord of hosts...”

Our question at hand is who is the Lord of hosts? Is it God the Father or Jesus Christ? “...God of Israel...” Okay, that’s a pretty big hint that it’s actually God the Father. “...you have revealed to Your servant saying, I will build you a house, therefore has Your servant found it in his heart to pray this prayer unto You, Lord of hosts.” Who do we pray to? We pray to God the Father. And therefore, whenever we see in the Bible, I could take you through scores of other places that talk about how... Isaiah thirty-seven talks about we pray to the Lord of hosts. James chapter five talks about it. We pray to the Lord of Sabaoth.

Could take you to all kinds of places that prove that the Lord of hosts is who we pray to, and we pray to God the Father. We don’t pray to Jesus Christ. We don’t pray to Mary or anybody else. We pray to God. So when you read the term Lord of hosts, this is a great discovery and understanding revelation to all of us. Years ago, when we learned this, when we see the Lord of hosts in the Bible, it is God the Father.

Now you’re probably thinking, “What does that have to do with prophecy?” Well, it does. That single understanding unlocked vast swaths of the Bible. Now let’s see it. Let’s begin to start to entertain some of these pieces over here. We used to believe God the Father comes after the a hundred-year period after the Millennium. So we’re way back here right now. We haven’t even reached what we believe to be this bad period in front before the Millennium. And we still have a hundred years before we see God the Father, according to our old thinking. Is that correct?

Well, let’s turn over to Zechariah fourteen and prove, now that we know who the Lord of hosts is, prove when the Lord of hosts comes. How many of us have ever heard of this whole concept of feet stand on the Mount of Olives, and it splits in half? Everybody’s heard of that. And everybody, you could be... I don’t care who you are, you’re in the world, you know that that happens way out here, back here, to start the Millennium. That happens before the Millennium. That does not happen after the Millennium.

So let’s read in Zechariah fourteen, a couple simple verses. Verse one, “Behold the day of the Lord comes and your spoil shall be divided in the midst of you for I will gather the nations against Jerusalem to battle and the city shall be shaken, the houses rifled, the women ravished, half the city shall go into captivity, and the residue of the people shall be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth...” which Lord? Which Lord are we talking about? “The Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as He fights in the day of battle, and His feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem in the east.” And it cleaves in half.

Again, which Lord are we talking about? Let’s come on down to verse five, at the end of verse five, “And the Lord my God shall come...” That doesn’t sound like Jesus Christ, but let’s confirm that it isn’t. “The Lord my God shall come and all the saints with You.” Verse six, “And it shall come to pass in that day, the light shall not be clear one day,” and so forth. Verse nine, “And the Lord shall be king over all the earth, that day shall there be one Lord and His name one.”

So you come on down, keep reading. What Lord is this? Verse thirteen, “And it shall come to pass in that day that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them, and they shall lay hold hand every man against his neighbor...” and so forth. And you keep coming down, and here we go, verse sixteen, “And it shall come to pass that everyone that is left of the nations which shall come against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the king...” We just read that there was a king in verse... back just recently, “And then shall worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and keep the Feast of Tabernacles.” And verse seventeen, “They’ll worship the king, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.”

The Lord of hosts is the one in discussion in Zechariah fourteen. So when you see this great God being’s feet planted on the Mount of Olives, it’s not Jesus Christ. It’s the Lord of hosts. It’s God coming. So why don’t we take this, we can now believe and see and prove in the Bible that God comes way back here. He comes before the Millennium, not after the Millennium.

Another element to this message, and the one prior, I’m not getting into the details of exactly when and how things work back here. I’m saying what I’m proving is dismantling the old thinking and saying some of the stuff that happens way out here, that we used to think happens out here, in fact happens much earlier, before the Millennium, not after the Millennium. So we just proved, and there’s a host of other verses. Again, go back and listen to the other sermon that I gave, that help further prove God the Father comes before the Millennium, not after the Millennium.

Okay, now, if you think about it this way, this point alone sets The Restored Church of God apart from all the other splinters. Because if you believe as part of your doctrine that God can’t come until after a one-hundred-year period, after the Millennium, but you and I can read in the Bible that He actually sets His feet on the Mount of Olives before the Millennium and splits in two, then there’s no excuse. This single doctrine is taught by The Restored Church of God and The Restored Church of God only.

So if you believe in the Sabbath and the holy days and tithing and eating clean meats, not eating unclean meats, if you believe in all of the foundational doctrines of God, then this prophecy that we’re talking about sets us apart, The Restored Church of God apart from every other splinter group out there. Let’s go further. I said that these points kind of build on one another. We learned about and read about the day of the Lord here in Zechariah fourteen.

Recall, we used to teach that the day of the Lord was a year-long period. One of the things that we’ve learned in this series is that it is not. It is in fact a one-day day of the Lord. Now that might sound pretty basic, but we did use to teach that the day of the Lord was a one-year period following two and a half years of great tribulation. And those three and a half years total combined created the three-and-a-half-year picture of the beast and false prophet before the Millennium, what we used to teach.

The problem is the Bible explains that the day of the Lord is a single day, and you can prove that, again, starting right here in Zechariah. Zechariah fourteen, six to eight describes a single day. First of all, it calls it that day. It doesn’t call it that year. It says that day. And in that day, if that’s not enough proof to say, well, the day of the Lord is in fact just one day, it’s not a whole year, that day becomes a very long day.

Now, how do you make a whole year? You make a year... God made years such that you have to have day and night, day and night, day and night, day and night, three hundred and sixty-five times a year. So if the sun and moon, by definition, stop on that day, you can’t keep having more and more and more and more days. You can’t make a year. It’s impossible to make a year out of that. The day of the Lord is a single day. One day. Again, I’m going fast, but the reason I’m going fast is to set up what we’re going to discuss in detail in the near future here.

So that’s another point that we talked about. The day of the Lord is a single day. It’s not something that happens for an entire year. Now, once you’ve proven that the Father is the Lord of hosts, then you can prove that He comes before the Millennium, which we did. And once you prove that He comes before the Millennium, you can properly understand the nature of the day of the Lord, which is this Zechariah fourteen day that we just saw.

So let’s go further in understanding this day. What follows is another massive change from what we used to teach, but it is impossible to miss once you know when God comes and that He comes at the day of the Lord. That is understanding when the new heavens and new earth come. We used to believe that God comes and the new heavens and new earth come way out here after the hundred-year period. So, let’s just ask the question, logic would say that if we’ve now proven God comes way back here, the other thing that was attached to God coming is this thing called the new heavens and new earth. So, might it follow God and come back to this before the Millennium, not after the Millennium?

Let’s turn to Second Peter chapter three. I’m just going to see one quick verse here, Second Peter three. Now, excuse me, let’s just go to Amos nine, I’m sorry. Amos nine. It’s better for our purposes here. Amos nine. And verse five, short pithy verse, it says this, “And the Lord God of hosts is He that touches the land...” Wow, there’s another verse, the Lord God of hosts is He that touches the land. So does He touch the land out here? No, no, no, we read in Zechariah fourteen, He touches the land back here.

What happens, verse five. Excuse me, I lost my place. Verse five, “And the Lord God of hosts is He that touches the land, and it shall melt.” The land melts, “And all that dwell therein shall mourn, and it shall rise up wholly like a flood and be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.” You can read in Isaiah twenty-four and verse twenty-three, no need to turn there, but it also talks about the Lord God of hosts, when He comes and reigns in Mount Zion, at that time the moon is confounded, and the sun is ashamed, and God reigns before His ancients gloriously.

So when you see that the earth melts, a new earth, and when you see that the heavens go black and get dark and change, in Isaiah twenty-four, we can now prove that those things also happen when God comes, before the Millennium. So we’re starting to chip away at some of our old thinking, and now we’ve got a couple things left. All mankind is resurrected, now I guess all mankind just has to wait until the end of the Millennium and somehow live a hundred years out there inexplicably. Well, let’s go to Isaiah sixty-five and begin to address that point.

This is where, in the last message, I got into this coming point, but I had to kind of move quickly because time was running out in the message. So here’s where we’re going to start to slow down a little bit. Here’s where we’re going to start and take a little bit more time and focus on these final pieces. Isaiah sixty-five begins to set up this point. When the new heavens and new earth come. This is finishing off that point, and it says here in Isaiah sixty-five, we’ll read in seventeen, “They that sanctify themselves and purify themselves in the gardens behind a tree...” Excuse me, I’m reading in sixty-six. Sorry.

Verse seventeen, “For behold, I create new heavens and new earth.” Okay, here we are. New heavens and new earth. Now, when does that come? We know that that comes when God the Father comes, which we’ve proven is before the Millennium. “Behold, I create new heavens and new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come to mind, but be you glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem.”

So it’s not just new heavens, new earth, it’s... Revelation twenty-one also talks about new Jerusalem coming at that point too. That’s what the new heavens, NH, new earth, NE, new Jerusalem, NJ. “But be you glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in My people, and the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her nor the voice of crying.”

So the question at hand now is, when is this hundred-year period, and where did we get this hundred-year period comes after the Millennium? Why did we once believe that? Well, the only Bible verse that talks about a hundred-year period that we use to prove this, proven quotes, okay, it was just hidden from us at that time. It’s not like we were malicious or had bad intent. No, we simply, God was hiding the truth of certain elements of prophecy from our eyes so that it could be revealed at the very end before God and Christ return.

So what is this hundred-year period, and where did we come up with it? What was the thinking? The only verse that we used in the Bible to prove this hundred-year period was here in verse nineteen and twenty. “And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people, and the voice of weeping will no more be heard in her nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days nor an old man that has not filled his days. For the child shall die a hundred years old, but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed.”

We thought, well, we’ve got to have... we know God isn’t an evil being. We have to have all mankind come up here so that they can live for a hundred years. I mean, this hundred-year verse is there, but why did we believe that it was way out here? Well, our logic at that time was we had the new heavens and new earth coming out here, and we had God the Father coming out here. And so when you read in verse seventeen that this hundred years of life is tied to the new heavens and new earth coming, what else were we going to believe other than if we believe new heavens and new earth came out here, we had to tie the hundred-year period to it. We had to. There was no other option.

But brethren, we know and have proven that it comes here, not out here. So my question to you is in context, how are we allowed to believe that the only verse and it was used in the Bible to prove a hundred-year period out here stays out here if we’ve brought the new heavens and new earth and God the Father coming here. So here’s where it has to sit. Now let me explain that. It takes a little bit of explanation. What does that mean? I thought this was the thousand-year period. It is the thousand-year period.

But when mankind comes up, and we’re going to keep this super very simple, very simple. Those who live into the Millennium, who made it through the three and a half years of trouble before that, the kingdom which we will get into, we haven’t proven that. That’s one of the big points that separates us from the splinters, is that there aren’t just three and a half years prior to the Millennium. There’s a full seven years, and this first half is good. It’s a kingdom. And we’ll prove that. You don’t need to take me at my word.

But let’s just understand. Those who live into the Millennium, what God says is that they don’t have a hundred years only out here. They have a hundred-year lifespan. They live up to a hundred years old. And whether they did well in the Millennium or they didn’t, whether they were young children that grew up properly or they were sinners and accursed by the end of their lifespans, you could be children at some point. At some point, you might be born in the Millennium. You start your hundred-year lifespan at that point. You might be born later in the Millennium. You start your hundred-year lifespan then. You might be born way out here. You start your hundred-year lifespan at that point.

So the hundred years is just simply showing the duration of people’s lives through the Millennium. Not very complex. It is not a one-hundred-year period at the end of the Millennium. It is hundred year lifespans through the Millennium. And again, why do we know that? Because the only place the hundred years is talked about in the Bible is immediately preceded by the new heavens and new earth discussion. This one hundred years is joined at the hip to this new heavens and new earth. You can’t throw it way out here. It has to stay attached to the discussion of the new heavens and new earth.

So I hope that’s fairly simple. It’s not a very complicated subject. The reason this... I’ll just say this again, the reason this hundred-year period existed after the Millennium was to resurrect all mankind and give them an opportunity to live God’s way for a hundred years. So in doing so, they would either qualify or disqualify themselves from receiving eternal life after the hundred years. That was the sole verse. The only verse. There was no other verse that we used to definitively prove. We would tack on other things. If you believe that the hundred-year period was out here, then you would have to believe the new heavens and new earth was out here, and you could tack on all of those new heavens and new earth verses. But the problem is, they had no explanation. You would open the Bible, and it would be very hard to understand.

Now it’s easy. Now we read that God comes. The new heavens and new earth come. Hundred-year lifespans begin into the Millennium, and it’s simple. So we’ve already proven, look at what we’ve begun to do. We’ve got God the Father before the Millennium. We have the new heavens and new earth coming before the Millennium. We have this hundred-year lifespan explained as being through the Millennium.

Now, the only question at hand now is, will God leave all mankind to be resurrected for who knows how long now? We don’t even have a duration. Will God leave them after the Millennium to be resurrected so that they can, what, live into perpetuity as human beings? What would they do? How does this work? Naturally, brethren, we have to now believe and understand that all mankind must also come up before the Millennium. Okay? Well, let’s prove it. Let’s prove it.

Again, I’ll say this. Once you’ve proven there’s no hundred-year period after the Millennium, you’ve automatically brought the resurrection of the dead of all mankind forward before the Millennium. So let’s look for a few other verses that can prove this outright. Turn over to Revelation chapter one. Now, the resurrection of the dead is very interesting because what you’ll find... let me just move this over. We’ve now proven all of these big things that were once thrown out after the Millennium have now come to precede the Millennium. When you see this hundred years, think of that now as saying a thousand years. That’s maybe the better way to look at it at this point.

God comes, new heavens and new earth come, and this is all mankind is resurrected, okay? Question is, where is all mankind resurrected? Where do they... Oh, excuse me. Where is all mankind resurrected? All right. Turn over to Revelation chapter one. Revelation chapter one and verse seven. A simple verse. Now let’s read verse six. “God made us kings and priests unto God the Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, He comes with clouds, every eye shall see Him...” When is this? “And they also which pierced Him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.”

Now this is a discussion about Jesus Christ. You could say also God the Father coming, but this is a moment describing when Christ comes to begin the Millennium. And this is very commonly understood. This is not outside the bounds of what most Christians, even in the world, believe. Certainly, the splinters believe this. The splinters believe that Christ comes here to begin the Millennium. So this is not any different than what we’ve always believed.

But my question at this point is this. When Christ comes at this point in power and glory to begin the Millennium, why does it say in verse seven that every eye shall see Him? Every eye shall see Him. Well, is that just every eye of this generation of people? Because what we used to believe was that there was three and a half years of great tribulation and day of the Lord punishment on this generation only. There was no resurrection of the dead prior to the Millennium.

So the beast and false prophet was all on the final generation of living people on earth. And then whoever made it through the beast and false prophet lived into the Millennium, and then the Millennium would repopulate with people before finally after the Millennium, you’d have this hundred-year period where now all mankind is resurrected and given a hundred years.

But my question is this. How is it possible in verse seven to say that at this moment, before the Millennium begins, when Christ comes, every eye sees Him, and they which pierced Him? Wait a minute. Who’s that? Are you telling me by the time the Millennium begins, the people who are actually piercing Christ at His death and crucifixion will be present? How did we explain that verse before? How could we have possibly explained that all mankind comes up after the Millennium when a verse so plain as this, that the Roman soldiers, we’re not even talking about Israelitish, we’re talking about the Roman soldiers who pierced Christ will be present and see Christ return in great power and glory to start the Millennium. “And all kindreds of the earth will wail because of Him.”

Now, when we read every eye shall see Him, we now know that every eye includes the Roman soldier, and you could argue, well, what about all the Romans? What about all the people that were there surrounding Christ at His death? What about... it says here, all kindreds of the earth? How all is all, brethren? Are we allowed to believe that that’s only talking about one generation, but maybe God just made an exception and brought that one Roman soldier back up and resurrected him? No, of course not. That’s silly. God, prior to the Millennium, resurrected all mankind.

Now, this just, whether you hit it from the perspective of when God comes, or you hit it from the perspective of when the new heavens and new earth come, or when the hundred years is and now you could even hit it from the perspective of when all mankind rises, everything is coming before the Millennium. Brethren, this is easy to see. This isn’t hard. I’m not taking you to complex verses. I’m just showing you when Christ comes, which everybody believes happens right here, there’s a Roman soldier who pierced Him in the audience. What’s that about? Every eye will see Him. All kindreds of the earth will wail when they see Him.

So let’s go over and turn over to Malachi chapter four, the end of the Old Testament. Malachi four. Here’s an interesting one. So you could say, well, we now know at least, at least the Roman soldier and all mankind are resurrected right here to begin the Millennium. We know that that’s at least the latest that they can come up, right? So my question is, is it possible that they can come up even before that? And they’re here for a period prior to the Millennium. Let’s prove it. Let’s ask the question and then prove it.

So we know that the Roman soldier at least sees Christ here, but let’s read in Malachi four in verse one. “For behold, the day comes that shall burn as an oven.” That day, for context, you’ll see that it’s called “the great and dreadful day of the Lord” in verse five. That’s another term for the day of the Lord, which is right here to start the Millennium. Not a one-year period. It’s a one-day day of the Lord that happens right here to begin the Millennium. So that’s the context.

“For behold, the day comes that shall burn as an oven. All the proud, yes, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble. And the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts.” Lord of hosts. Once you see that, now all of a sudden your eye can’t stop seeing it everywhere in the Bible. It’s everywhere. The Bible is a book about God. We used to, in many ways, think that it was a book about Christ, and pretty much Christ-only. We knew God existed, but we just didn’t think that He wrote about Himself so much. He’s everywhere in the scriptures.

“And it shall leave them neither root or branch.” Verse two. “But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings. and you shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. And tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this...” We’re talking about right here, this day of the Lord. “In the day that I shall do this, says the Lord of hosts. Remember you the law of Moses My servant, which I commanded unto him in Oreb, for all Israel.”

Now the law was for all Israel. Was the law just for the Israelites who were living in Moses’ time and Joshua’s time? Or was the law for all Israel? The law was for everybody, all generations of Israel, all the way up through today. There are Israelites today on earth, all over the earth. They just don’t know who they are. This law was given for all of them. So when will it take effect is the question.

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And He’s going to turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” God is going to bring families... or Elijah is going to, excuse me. God is going to do it through Elijah, really, that’s the best way to put it. God is going to bring families together using Elijah before the day of the Lord.

So how can you fix families without having all families back? Pretty simple. At what point do you say, well, you fixed these two or three generations who are living at the end of the age, you fixed them. But all the vast numbers of generations that preceded them, they’re still a train wreck, and they’re a mess. And we’re going to actually fix them after the Millennium. Let’s wait until after the Millennium to fix them. But we’re going to fix the two or three generations that are alive today. No, no, no. When Elijah fixes families, he fixes families before the day of the Lord. The families all the way back to Adam and Eve. He’s going to turn people’s hearts back to their relatives, children to their fathers, and fathers to their children.

So brethren, Elijah does that before the day of the Lord. He comes, and all families have to be therefore resurrected, not just at the day of the Lord. He can’t fix families and resurrect them at the day of the Lord moving forward. To fix the families, they have to be resurrected earlier. Now let’s prove more that all mankind comes up early on, Jeremiah twenty-five. Jeremiah twenty-five, fascinating chapter. Verse thirty sets the context that we’re talking about.

Verse thirty says, “Therefore...” Jeremiah twenty-five thirty, “Therefore, prophesy you against them all these words, and say unto them, The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter His voice from His holy habitation, He shall mightily roar upon His habitation, He shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.” Okay. “And a noise shall come even from the ends of the earth, and so on and so forth. For the Lord has a controversy with the nations, He will plead with all flesh. All fresh. We’re talking about right here, the day of the Lord, God is going to plead with all flesh, he will give them that are wicked to the sword, says the Lord.”

So that’s the context we’re about to read, and it says all flesh. He’s pleading with all flesh, brethren. Think about it. All flesh that have ever lived were resurrected back here to begin this seven-year period that we’re going to talk about here shortly, okay? But let’s go back to verse seventeen and let’s notice a few interesting things. It says, “By the day of the Lord...” it says verse seventeen, “...then took the cup at the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the Lord had sent me.”

“To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof...” Wait a minute. How many kings of Judah can you have on the throne at one point in time? There’s only one king of any nation. You can’t have four presidents of the United States in office at the same time. There’s one king of Jordan. There’s one at any given point in time. So when you see here in verse eighteen, it says the cities of Judah and the kings thereof are going to take part in the cup of the Lord’s wrath. How do you have multiple kings of Judah present at one time?

Well, it’s because, brethren, many kings of Judah have existed through the centuries and Millennia, but they’re all back together. Let’s keep reading. “And the princes thereof, and make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse, as it is this day. Pharaoh the king of Egypt and his servants and his princes and all his people and all the mingled people, all the kings of the land of Uz.” How many kings of the land of Uz have there been? There’s only one at one time. You can’t have multiple kings on the throne at once. So it’s talking about all the kings are back.

“All the kings of the land of the Philistines and Ashkelon and Azaz, Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod, Edom, Moab, children of Ammon, and all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the isles beyond the sea, Dedan and Teman and Buz, the uttermost corners, and all the kings of Arabia, and the kings of the mingled people which are in the desert. All the kings of Zimri.” I mean, it keeps going on and on and on. All the kings of the north.

Brethren, this is saying that all the kings of the world that have ever existed are back before the day of the Lord. So please, when we read something as simple as God comes before the day of the Lord, the new heavens and new earth come before the day of the Lord, it should now be pretty simple for us to grasp, well, of course, all mankind also has to come before the day of the Lord. But they don’t just come on the day of the Lord for the Millennium. They come well before the day of the Lord for a period of what we’ll now understand as seven years.

So let’s get into this final... we’ve got two big points left, two big points. And the last one is actually, I would argue, is one of the most fascinating points. But I don’t know that you’ve ever even thought about it or talked about it. I know it’s not something that we’ve really discussed a lot in the series, but we’ll get to that in a moment. First, let’s prove when all Israel and all mankind come up before the Millennium, how do we know... how far back did they come? Did they come back three and a half years before the Millennium? Did they come back a hundred years before the Millennium? How long did they come? How far before the Millennium did they come back?

Let’s turn over to Daniel chapter nine. Hopefully for brethren of you who are newer, who come in late in this prophecy series, you’ve come to sit in Sabbath services, and you hear all of these detailed, complex things that Mr. Pack has gotten into, assuming, with the assumption that you have a foundation, hopefully this will lay the foundation for you, that you can better understand and grasp what it is that Mr. Pack is talking about. And when you see the vases that he has sitting there, you can better understand what they mean. The seven, and the one thousand, the seven-year kingdom, and the Millennium.

Hopefully, this has laid a certain foundation for you that is stabilizing, that is helpful to you, and makes sure that you don’t get caught up or hung up on some of the details without having this foundation first. So Daniel chapter nine gets into this seven-year period. Let’s read in verse twenty-four. “Seventy weeks are determined upon your people and upon the holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up the vision and prophecy, to anoint the most Holy.”

“Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem to the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks. Seven weeks and three score and two weeks.” That’s sixty-two weeks plus seven, that makes sixty-nine weeks total. Okay. Let’s just keep this very simple because this can get a little bit more... we’re getting a little bit more into some of the details of prophecy here, but I’m going to try and keep it as high-level as possible.

Basically, what God said in verse twenty-four is that there’s a seventy-week plan that He has in mind to confirm the covenant with all Israel. What He was saying in verse twenty-five and six is that there’s sixty-nine weeks that He’s used up, if I could put it that way. Sixty-nine weeks of the seventy weeks, and there’s one week remaining. So let’s just read that. “After three score and two weeks shall...” that’s after sixty-two weeks, but the sixty-two plus seven makes sixty-nine. So you can imagine it says, “After sixty-nine weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself, and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And He will confirm the covenant with many for one week.”

This is another verse that shows that He’s going to confirm the covenant with many. He’s going to bring all mankind back up, that’s talking about many. He’s going to confirm the covenant with many for one week. One week remains. Now these are weeks of years, if I could put it that way. One week is comprised of seven years. So sixty-nine weeks are over, and they ended at what it says when Messiah is cut off.

Now that’s a mistranslation. What we used to believe was that Christ... that was talking about Christ’s death. The problem with that is this. The word for cut off is the same word that means to cut a covenant. He’s going to covenant after sixty-nine weeks. He’s not going to covenant after sixty-nine and a half, let’s just put it this way. He’s not going to covenant after sixty-nine and a half, He’s going to cut a covenant after sixty-nine weeks are over.

So Christ, this is not talking about... it says the sixty-nine weeks, if I could go back to verse twenty-five, the sixty-nine weeks ended at this thing called unto Messiah the Prince. So when Christ became Messiah the Prince, which was something that occurred after His baptism in the days that He was in the wilderness and so forth, so He became Messiah the Prince at that moment. Think of it as His baptism leading up to the period when He began His ministry. At that point, the sixty-nine weeks were over. And that’s actually something that was always believed by the Worldwide Church of God.

The problem is the Worldwide Church of God saw that the first half of... that His ministry, the next three and a half years of His life before His death, counted in this seventy-weeks prophecy. But they don’t. Because He’s going to covenant for one more week. He didn’t covenant with people in the first centuries. He’s going to have all mankind come back and cut a covenant for seven full years. Okay.

So let me just summarize. The one seven-year week remains in God’s plan. One seven-year week remains in God’s plan. Everyone knows what the final three and a half years look like. The final three and a half years are bad. The final three and a half years have the beast and false prophet and all of the trouble and great tribulation that you see talked about all through the book of Revelation as well. All of those events occur within that bad three and a half years.

But our question here kind of leaves us wondering, what does the first half entail? If we know about the bad half, what happens in the first half, in the first three and a half years? What does that look like? Well, the Bible is more than explicit. We never knew something so simple as what we’re going to discuss right now. We always just believe that we’re waiting for all of this difficulty and trouble and the beast to rise and the mark of the beast to be handed out and whatever. We’ve always believed that that’s the next thing that we’re waiting for. We used to look for ten kings to coalesce in Europe.

We’re not waiting for any of that, brethren, because that’s the second half. That’s the bad half of a seven-year period. We’re waiting for something three and a half years before then. So my question is, what are we waiting for? Are we waiting for a bad seven years? Or is it something very different? Let’s turn back to Acts chapter nine. Excuse me, Acts chapter one. I saw Daniel nine and I said Acts nine. Acts one and verse six. Now the disciples were talking with Christ for about forty days after His death and resurrection. And here we come to verse four.

“And being assembled together...” verse three, they were talking with Christ for forty days, speaking of them about things pertaining to the kingdom of God, “And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise from the Father, which, says He, you have heard of Me. For John truly baptized with water, you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of Him, saying, Lord, will You at this time...” the disciples were standing there with Christ, asking Him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

My question to you is this. If we’re waiting for three and a half years of tribulation and trial and test and difficulty and problems, why were the disciples asking about this kingdom to Israel as though they believe that’s the next thing that they’re going to see? “Are You going to restore the kingdom to Israel at this time?” How is that compatible with expecting three and a half years of great tribulation and day of the Lord and problems and trials and beasts and all kinds of terrible things that they could read about in the prophets? It’s not compatible.

And the thing is, is Christ didn’t rebuke them and say, “What are you thinking? Haven’t you been with Me for all these years now and have learned that the great tribulation is what precedes a Millennium only?” No, Christ’s response was, “It’s not for you to know the times or seasons. I’m not going to give it to you. I’m not going to let you understand when this kingdom to Israel comes.” Christ didn’t rebuke them for their question. Their question was true.

They knew that a kingdom was coming before the Millennium. They knew that that’s what they were waiting for next. They weren’t waiting for some big, horrible trial of three and a half years of great tribulation. That’s not what they were expecting next. Acts three adds, we don’t need to turn there, but I’ll just say this. Acts three verses nineteen to twenty-one adds that the disciples thought God and Christ were coming first for this restitution as well, alongside Elijah.

So brethren, it’s no wonder if we understand that there is a kingdom called a kingdom to Israel, or however you want to describe it, it’s called a kingdom. Let’s just call it a kingdom. There is a kingdom that precedes the great tribulation of three and a half years. Now that we know that, verses begin to start clicking in the Bible. Consider Hosea five. I don’t need to turn there, but I’ll explain it to you. Hosea five talks about the period right in the middle, the transition period between the kingdom portion and the bad portion. The good portion and the bad portion. Hosea five is talking about this month that’s going to start to devour people, and the reason that month is going to start to devour Israel, because that’s when captivity begins. That’s when people start to... the beast starts to take over. And why do they take over? Is because God says he withdraws. God withdraws at that point.

So in order for God to withdraw, he had to be actively working for the previous, for some period of time prior to halfway through the kingdom. He had to be actively working with people. Now I’ll say this, that’s the New Heavens and New Earth, that one does stay there. There are verses that prove that God the Father doesn’t even just come by the millennium. He does come here. Jesus Christ also does come here. But in order to begin this seven-year period, they come here, too. It’s not my purpose to get into that. But I want you to understand the goal of this is to prove simply that these big things don’t happen at the end of the millennium, they happen before the millennium.

That’s the overall goal. But that’s not to say that this is the first time that God comes`2 or the first time that Christ comes is here. There’s many verses that explain that they can come here as well, but it’s not my purpose to get into that. Okay. Now, the last point we’re going to get into is that God’s Church, this is the final point for today, God’s Church has always focused on prophecy. This is a message about proving this is God’s true Church through prophecy. We’re using prophecy as the vehicle. You can prove that this is God’s true Church in many different ways, but this sermon is using prophecy to prove that this is God’s true Church. Because no other Church on earth teaches what we do. We’re the only Church.

We’re the only Church in the splinter landscape. All the other splinters that are out there don’t teach anything like what we teach. We have dismantled what the splinters teach. And I think in very simple ways, using very simple verses, and brethren, believe me when I say this, I could have gone thirty times more verses on all of these things that we’re talking about. Way, way, way more. Way more proof of all the things that I’m talking about today, it’s just that we don’t have time. There’s a reasonable and natural limit, as Mr. Pack says. But God’s Church talks about prophecy. Now, how is that a proof of the true Church?

The fact that we, in The Restored Church of God, are looking so intensely at prophecy is proof that this is God’s true Church. But wait a minute. How is that possible? What does that even mean? Well, let me just say this. A lot of the splinter groups don’t talk about prophecy. They accept what they’ve always believed. The old thinking that there’s a hundred-year period after the millennium. That there’s no kingdom in front of the millennium. They just accept what they were taught many, many decades ago. But even today, don’t really talk much about it. They don’t talk much about prophecy. Christian living is important.

Christian living is very important. But if you turn over to Matthew chapter six, what does it say? Matthew six and verse thirty-three says this, “Seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” Seek you first the kingdom of God. Now, the reason we spend so much time focused on prophecy is because that’s what Christians do. That’s what Christians do. If we’re to seek first the kingdom of God above all things, prophecy should be almost, you could argue, the very forefront of our minds day in and day out. And how do we know that? Because earlier in this chapter was the model prayer.

Matthew six and verse ten says this, verse nine, “After this manner pray, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.” God wants the kingdom to be forefront on our minds. He wants prophecy to be forefront on your mind and my mind day in and day out. This is a prayer that we should ought to pray daily. Not wrote, but this is the form. This is the manner. This is the way in which Christ said, “Pray these kinds of things every day.” And he led with your kingdom come. Now, is it strange that we talk about prophecy regularly? Well, it wasn’t strange because from Christ’s perspective, Christ wants us to talk about and think about prophecy regularly.

Turn over to First Peter chapter one. First Peter one. I’ll get there. All right. In verse ten, verse nine, “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come to you.” So we read here, verse eleven says, “Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify when it testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.” So prophets talked about both Christ’s suffering. That was prophesied, but it’s just fulfilled prophecy. But they also prophesied about the glory that should follow. Consider that.

They weren’t just prophesying about things that would occur in the first century and are only fulfilled by Christ, but they’re things that are going to be fulfilled by Christ that are yet to come. The glory. The glory of the soon coming kingdom, the glory of the millennium, the glory of God the Father, all of these things of prophecy were on the lips of the prophets. But verse twelve is fascinating. It says, “Unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into.”

Angels want to understand these things, too, brethren. But God has, through his prophets, who weren’t able to inquire, we read it in verse ten, of which salvation prophets have inquired, they searched diligently, but God didn’t give it to them to fully understand it. But they gave it to the apostles, and there’s a modern apostle today that understands and is explaining the truths of prophecy to all of us. God is using this same method that he has used for thousands of years, working through prophets to explain things and to be explained through the apostles to all of us today, the many truths of prophecy.

So brethren, we can be very grateful for this. It’s again proof that this is God’s one true Church. What was on the prophets’ lips and minds? They were searching diligently the things of prophecy that you and I have the privilege to be, at the end of the age, ready to receive for ourselves. And we’ll be receiving them as well at some point. We’ll see the prophets. But they sought diligently for these things. They looked at both the what and the what manner of time, the when, if I could put it that way. Just like we’re looking at the what and the when of prophecy. Searching what, verse eleven, or what manner of time the spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify.

Is it strange that we’re looking at both the what and the when as well? That’s what the prophets have always done. Can you think of an Old Testament prophet that didn’t discuss prophecy in his book? Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, all of the minor prophets. Okay, maybe Jonah. Maybe Jonah, but does that mean that Jonah never talked about prophecy or never talked about it at all? Of course not. But that he just doesn’t have anything written in his book regarding prophecy. He wrote certain things about Nineveh. But the Old Testament prophets spoke endlessly. Even going all the way back, think about going all the way back to the preachers of righteousness.

We know that they existed, we know that they were people of God very early on in mankind’s existence. But what is the only thing that was ever recorded by the preachers of righteousness? Turn over to Jude. Jude fifteen, verse fourteen. What did the preachers of righteousness say? The only thing recorded was by Enoch, who said this. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints.” He’s talking about what’s going to happen to begin the millennium. “To execute judgment upon all and to convict all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

Now let’s just add this. Here’s another verse that kind of proves all mankind is back, too. Enoch prophesied that, “The Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all.” Okay? How all is all? Brethren, I could take you... I’m going to actually do a quick exercise. I’m going to show you how prevalent prophecy is talked about in the Bible, in the New Testament in particular. It’s all through the writings. I’m going to do something that I may very well regret right now, which is I’m going to try and open up my Bible to a book in the New Testament and show you how prevalent prophecy is in the New Testament. So let’s see.

Okay, I turned to Revelation. Well, that’s easy. That’s a gimme. I don’t want to do that. That’s too easy. There’s, of course, prophecy in Revelation. Let’s turn over Colossians. Colossians chapter three. Colossians four talks about prophecy. God talks about prophecy all throughout his word. Look at this. The very page that I turned over to, I was hoping that this would work, and it did. I turned to Colossians three in my Bible. It just shows how often the Bible talks about the New Testament disciples and apostles and so forth. They talked about prophecy all the time. And we can prove this by just flipping to a random page in the New Testament and look Colossians three four.

Paul was talking about how when you’re dead and your life is hidden with Christ and God, when Christ who is your life, shall appear, and then shall you also appear with him in glory. Colossians three four. And you can do that for all kinds of different books. If you flip to Philippians, you’ll see prophecy. You flip into the Corinthians, you’ll see prophecy. You go to Romans, you’ll see prophecy. In Hebrews, turn over to Hebrews. Everybody talked about prophecy all the time. So when we talk about prophecy all the time, that’s actually proof that this is God’s true Church.

If we didn’t talk about prophecy, we should actually be wondering, am I in the right Church? Did God call me into the right organization? Is God actually leading this organization if they’re not thinking about the things that are coming in the near future? Hebrews chapter eleven and verse ten. By faith, verse nine, “Abraham sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Abraham, way back when, sought a city afar off. He looked for the kingdom.

He saw prophecy regularly on his mind. So brethren, Paul, over and over again, in Acts twenty, he talked about for three years, he was crying to the brethren about pleading with them, warning them about these wolves that are going to be coming in, in prophecy. Because he was deeply convicted about what it was that he believed. And brethren, I hope today, we all can be deeply convicted about what it is, and what it is that we teach in prophecy, because it’s from God’s word, and therefore, become deeply convicted that this is God’s one and only true Church.

No other organization teaches these things. I hope this sermon has been stabilizing. We covered some of the most basic points from the last ten years that no other Church teaches, but yet these are fundamental truths of prophecy. And we must hold our minds to the big picture. In the spirit of what Mr. Pack gave recently with the sermon about remembrance, we must never forget these big picture elements of prophecy that no other organization teaches. And if we do, we’ll never leave God’s one true Church, the Church that the God of the universe created, and that he is revealing such precious knowledge to, right before he comes.