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The Only Guaranteed Way to Escape the End-Time Catastrophes


CHAPTER 21

HOW CAN ANY PERSON MAXIMIZE HIS CHANCE FOR SURVIVAL


​The only difference between Israelites – that is the Americans, the British and the Jews – and people of other nations is that Israelites will be slaves whereas citizens of other nations will be free and many will hold Israelites as slaves.  But the beast and the false prophet are going to seek to impose their religion on all nations and try to control their economies.

Remember, the beast and the false prophet are going to force the entire world to obey and follow their worship system.  All peoples will be forced to worship the image of the beast and accept his mark which may refer to worshipping on Sunday instead of God’s Sabbath, or a literal mark or sign of some kind may be instituted.  But those who refuse to bear this mark will not be allowed to buy, or sell, trade, or hold down a job.  Economic survival will be made extremely difficult for them.  They will also seek to put to death those who refuse to do so.  Every human being will be forced to choose.  The beast and the false prophet will have to use threats but rely on rulers of various nations to carry out the threats. However, it is one thing to try to force people to comply with your edicts with threats, but quite another to be able to carry out those threats.

On the other hand, God will not rely on human beings to carry out the death sentence He has pronounced on those who worship the image of the beast.  He will carry out the death sentence Himself through the plagues of Revelation 16 and the greatest ever earthquake in the history of mankind and a hailstorm of hailstones weighing 100 lb. each.  Besides billions will die in the wars that precede these plagues.

So remember, the surest way to not survive the Great Tribulation is to succumb to death threats and pressure from the beast and the false prophet.  Once before in human history the world succumbed to pressure from the descendants of Lamech and followed their worship system and persecuted those who obeyed the true God as taught by Noah, and his forefathers, the preachers of righteousness.  They all drowned in the Flood.  God carried out the death sentence He had pronounced on them through Noah, and He will carry out the death sentence this time as well.  Jesus did say that the days of His second coming will be like in the days of Noah.

Another test for people of other nations will be how they treat their Israelite slaves and members of God’s Church.  Vast majority will treat them brutally.  Under Satan’s influence, human beings can commit heinous crimes.  Nations will hate the Americans, the British and the Jews because of their prosperity and will treat them vengefully.  God will allow this to be used as a test for all nations.

God has prophesied through Obadiah the prophet in verse Obadiah 1:15: “15 "For the day of the Lord upon all the nations is near; As you have done, it shall be done to you; Your reprisal shall return upon your own head.”

The day of the Lord refers to the last one year of the Great Tribulation.  God says as nations treat their Israelite slaves, they will be treated the same way.  Those who murder them will themselves die.  Those who inflict pain and suffering on them will themselves go through the same torture, pain and suffering from many plagues.  And as Isaiah 14:2 indicates Israelites will take them captive whose captives they were.  So literally people of other nations will write their own sentence by the way they treat their Israelite slaves.

For many nations there is another advantage in keeping their Israelite slaves alive.  War will overtake all nations.  They could obtain the help of their Israelite slaves in their war efforts.

There is good news and bad news in this.  There is bad news for those who inflict pain, suffering and death on their Israelite slaves.  But there is good news for those who treat them with mercy and kindness.  Rulers and men of all nations can turn this into a mutually beneficial relationship.

God says Israelites will loathe themselves in their slavery and let their masters know that they are in slavery because they have violated their ancient covenant made at the time of the exodus from Egypt with the true God.  But before God made a covenant with Israel, the same covenant was made with all of humanity in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve and all their descendants.  This ancient covenant with all of humanity is to obey god’s law and receive His help and protection.

Those people of all nations who seek to listen and learn from their Israelite slaves and members of God’s Church, repent of their own sins in violating God’s laws, reject the false satanic worship system of the beast and the false prophet, and refuse to take on the mark of the beast can receive God’s protection.  That is the greatest good news for all nations.  God says many untold tens of millions will do just that.  They will repent of their sins at the preaching of the two witnesses of Revelation 11 and their Israelite slaves(Revelation 7:9-17).

The great good news in all this is that tens of millions of all nations will survive.  But remember this requires active repentance, and turning from your previous way of life to the true God and our Lord Jesus Christ and accepting His sacrifice for the payment of the death penalty on our behalf for our sins.  The terrible news is that the other billions on earth will not survive because they will have actively or passively joined the side of the beast and the false prophet, or because of envy mistreated their Israelite slaves.  These are the billions that will obey their national leaders, participate in the great world war just ahead, then in the war between the beast, the King of the North and the Islamic leader, the King of the South, then the war between the 200 million man army of the east against the armies of the beast.  Then hundreds of millions will perish in their attack on Jesus Christ and hundreds of millions more in the greatest ever earthquake and the hailstorm of 100 lb. hailstones.Perhaps many tens of millions will randomly survive all this because of God’s mercy. But that is not maximizing one’s chance of survival.

Maximizing one’s chance of survival for any human being on earth depends on actively rejecting the worship system of the beast and the false prophet, treating all human beings, including your Israelite slaves humanely with mercy and kindness, and actively repenting of your sins and turning to the true God instead with all your heart, mind, soul and strength at any stage of the process.  However you have to repent before it’s too late and all these world events overtake you and kill you and your family.  The earlier a person repents and turns to God, the greater the chances of his coming out alive through the Great Tribulation.

Conclusion of the Whole Matter

So let’s hear the conclusion of the whole matter.  What can any individual do to survive the Great Tribulation?

Remember what is at stake for members of God’s Church.  They are the firstfruits to God’s kingdom.  They will always be closest to God for eternity in ruling the universe with Him.  What kind of people would a king choose to be closest to him in his kingdom?

Certainly the king would choose people that he can completely rely on to do his will.  This means they have completely embraced his way of life and vision for the future, are convinced that it is the best way to live and will totally obey the king.  A king would not want any coward near him.  He wants people who are courageous enough to put their life on the line in order to protect the king, maintain his kingdom if called upon to do so, never compromise with the king’s way of life, and even die for their beliefs if they have to.  And the king would not want lazy, lukewarm people around him.  He would want people who always have fiery zeal to do his work and business.   Solomon said in Proverbs 22:29, “29 Do you see a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.”  Such people will stand before the King of the universe.

In His messages to the Philadelphian and Laodicean eras of His Church, the two kinds of people that mainly constitute God’s Church today, here is what Jesus Christ told what He requires of them:

1)  They must do God’s work of warning the world of approaching catastrophes and then the good news of the establishment of God’s kingdom with fiery zeal.

2)  They must always be performing a self-examination and working diligently to overcome sin.

3)  They must keep God’s word and hold fast to what they have, which is the truths restored to them by God through the prophesied end-time Elijah, Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong.

4)  They must never deny God the Father and Jesus Christ, meaning who they worship as the real Creator and God of the universe.

5)  They must endure to the end in God’s way of life.

World conditions soon will be similar to those in the days of Noah.  Just as Lamech and his descendants forced all of humanity to accept their satanic religion on pain of torture and death in the days of Noah, the beast and the false prophet are going to force their satanic religion on the whole world on pain of torture and death in our day.  Just as Noah preached God’s way of life in his day, God’s Church has been preaching and teaching God’s way of life in our day now for nearly 97 years.  Literally each and every human being on earth will be forced to choose one way or another and required to demonstrate his or her loyalty to that way.  The beast and the false prophet will try their best not to let people sit on the fence.

There are consequences to the choice each of us makes.  Satan and his agents the beast and the false prophet will try to enforce their religion on the world.  They will seek to kill those who don’t follow their religion (Revelation 13:13-17).  They will certainly succeed in killing many who refuse.  But it is one thing for Satan to threaten and quite another to be able to carry out his threats.  God is far greater than him and can protect His own from any of Satan’s devices.  Tens of millions will successfully resist Satan’s threats (Revelation 7:9-17) and survive the Great Tribulation.  But those who give in to Satan’s religion because of free will or succumbing to threats, and worship the image of the beast and take on his mark, are guaranteed to perish when God deals with them (Revelation 14:8-11).

Any one with eyes can see and analyze events around the world.  Prophesied alliances are forming.  There are numerous military hot spots around the world in which global powers Russia, Germany, China and the USA are deeply involved.  In time sequence in Bible prophecy, we are already in the time of ‘delay no longer’ (Revelation 10:6).  The first prophesied event after we entered the time of delay no longer (Revelation 10:11, "You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.") has already been fulfilled with the author’s weekly messages.  The prophesied third world war, pictured in the first four seals of Revelation 6 can begin at any time.  So the time for every human being to make a choice is right now.  Repentance takes time.  Those who want God’s protection to come out alive through the Great Tribulation must choose now.  As each prophesied catastrophic event unfolds, the chances of survival diminish longer a person delays his choice to repent and accept God’s way of life.  Choose wisely and early to maximize your chances of coming out alive through the Great Tribulation.


SUGGESTED READING

1. “Anoint Your Eyes” – Christ’s Warning to His People – by David C. Pack, available free of change at www.rcg.org.
2.  Tools for Spiritual Growth – Published by United Church of God, available free of charge at www.ucg.org.
3.  The United States and Britain in Prophecy; by Herbert W. Armstrong, available from the Philadelphia Church of God at www.pcog.org.
4.  The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy; published by the United Church of God, available at www.ucg.org.
5.  “The Throne of Britain: Its Biblical Origin and Future,” eBook published by the United Church of God, available at its web site www.ucg.org under booklets.
6.  America and Britain in Prophecy, by David C. Pack; published by the Restored Church of God, available at www.rcg.org.
7.  The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy; published by the Living Church of God, available at www.lcg.org.
8.  Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, Vol 1 available from the Philadelphia Church of God at www.pcog.org.
9.  Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, Vol 2, available from the Philadelphia Church of God at www.pcog.org.

There is also other vast amount of reading material available for reading and research for answers to all of life's great questions at the web sites of the various Churches of God.  The web sites are: ucg.org; pcog.org; rcg.org and lcg.org.


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