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DOES GOD EXIST?


CHAPTER 15


PREPARE TO MEET THE TRUE GOD  


Even though God does not show Himself face to face to human beings, that does not mean He has abandoned humanity. He has a great plan to bring humanity to Himself and develop a personal relationship with each and every human being who wants to. 

As already described, when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and decided to make their own decisions, God removed them from the Garden of Eden and told them to go and develop their own societies. He allotted humanity 6,000 years for this experience. That way was symbolized by the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil.’ The way humanity would develop would be a mixture of good and evil. Which is what we find in all the world’s religions, some more evil than others with some good mixed in.

But God has a plan of salvation for all of mankind. He has a plan to give every human being ever born one chance to qualify for salvation. And salvation is qualifying to receive eternal life as a free gift from God and become His literal sons and daughters. As God’s literal sons and daughters, we will see God face to face as He is, in His glorified spirit state, because we too will be spirit beings, and work with Him for eternity. We will be gods, as a son of God is a god. That state of affairs is described in Revelation 21:3-5, “3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.”

The plan of salvation is pictured in the seven annual holy days described in the Bible in Leviticus 23. To get a full understanding of that plan, I recommend reading the following booklets published by the United Church of God, available free of charge at the Church’s website www.ucg.org. The booklets are titled:

1.  God’s Holy Day Plan: The Promise of Hope for All Mankind,
2.  The Road to Eternal Life

Briefly, here is God’s plan for salvation of mankind as pictured by the seventh day Sabbath, and God’s seven annual holy days.

The seven day week pictures the duration of God’s plan for salvation, with each day picturing 1,000 years. Humans work the first six days of the week. Then comes the seventh day rest. To parallel this, God has allotted 6,000 years for humans to choose to live the way they want, and experience the pain, suffering, anguish mixed with some joys, and then ultimately death. Those 6,000 years are nearly ending. After that God will send Jesus Christ to set up His Kingdom Who will then govern all nations. All of humanity will be taught God’s way of life, and experience justice, peace, abundance, excellent health with supernatural healing if necessary, happiness and joy. 

The process of offering a chance for salvation for every human being is termed “God’s calling’ in the Bible. Every human being is not being called today to offer him or her salvation. The truth is that only a very few are being called today. Calling of different people at different times to receive their chance for salvation is depicted in God’s seven annual holy days.  

God took the three harvest seasons in the biblical land of Israel to picture how and in what numbers He will spiritually harvest human beings for eternal life in His Kingdom.

In Israel, there are three harvest seasons: the first harvest season is the early-spring harvest, second the late-spring harvest and the third the early-autumn harvest season. The spring harvest seasons are the seasons of the smaller harvest, and the early-autumn harvest season is the time of the greater harvest. God's plan of salvation for mankind is an exact parallel of these harvests. First comes the smaller harvest of souls for God's kingdom during the first 6.000 years of man’s history; then comes the greater harvest of souls to eternal life in the 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ in God’s Kingdom. 

Let us briefly look at what all the seven annual holy days picture in God's master plan for salvation of mankind.

1) The Passover

Two of God's festivals: the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread are celebrated during the first harvest season, the early spring harvest season, in March-April in our modern calendars.

The Passover for the ancient Israelites was an annual reminder that God spared or passed over the firstborn of Israelite slaves, when He slew all the firstborn of Egypt at the time of the Exodus. They were spared because they had put the blood of a sacrificed lamb on their doorposts.

The sacrifice of the lambs without blemish foreshadowed the sacrifice of the sinless Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God without blemish, for the sins of mankind. Every human being has sinned and come short of the glory of God as stated in Romans 3:23.  As a result all of us have earned the death penalty, as Romans 6:23 says, “23 …the wages of sin is death.” Jesus as our Creator sacrificed his life to pay the death penalty on behalf of each and every human being so that our sins could be forgiven. That is what the Passover pictures for the Christian.

2) Feast of Unleavened Bread 

The second feast during the early spring harvest season is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, immediately following the Passover. During this feast, God commands His people to put leaven (or yeast) out of their homes for seven days (Exodus 12:19, I Corinthians 5:7-8). Leaven symbolizes sin. Therefore, this festival teaches and reminds us annually that after our sins have been forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we are not to remain in sin, but to work diligently to put all sinful thoughts, attitudes and actions out of our lives.  

The early spring harvest season (which comes in March – April) pictures the very first of the firstfruits. And the first of the firstfruits was Jesus Christ, the only soul that has been harvested for God's kingdom during the first 6,000 years of man’s history. And that was pictured by the wave sheaf offering ceremony during the Days of Unleavened Bread.  That ceremony is described in Leviticus 23:10-11: “10 "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. 11 He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.”

3) Feast of Pentecost

The only annual feast during the second harvest season, the late spring harvest season, is called the Feast of Pentecost, also known as the Feast of Firstfruits. On this day in 31 A.D., God's holy spirit was first given to a group of disciples to begin God’s New Testament Church.

The firstfruits are the first agricultural products that mature and ripen. This feast, therefore, pictures the calling out by God of a few people during the first 6,000 years of man’s history, granting His holy spirit to enable them to understand His laws and live a righteous life in order to qualify to receive eternal life through a resurrection at Jesus Christ's second coming. The firstfruits will then reign with Jesus Christ for 1,000 years in God’s kingdom.

Only the firstfruits are being called and judged to qualify to be harvested for God's kingdom at this time. The rest of humanity is not being called at this time and will get its chance for eternal life later.

The Feast of Pentecost, therefore, teaches us that this is not the only time for salvation.  In fact, only a relatively few are receiving their chance for salvation during the first 6,000 years of man's history. Calling of the relatively few as the firstfruits is perfectly pictured by the smaller spring harvest. Most of humanity will be called later, as pictured by the much greater autumn harvest.

This Feast is celebrated during the months of May – June every year.

4) The Feast of Trumpets 

Now we come to the annual Feasts of the third harvest season, the greater autumn harvest season, celebrated during the months of September – October. Four Feasts are celebrated during this season. All these four feasts are about the kingdom of God and its establishment. The first of the autumn feasts is the Feast of Trumpets. 

This Feast teaches us that Jesus Christ will return to earth in great power and glory to take over the kingdoms of the world. Also at this time, the firstfruits – those who are called from the time of the creation of Adam to the return of Jesus Christ – will be resurrected as immortal spirit beings and will reign with Jesus Christ in His kingdom.   

5) The Day of Atonement

The next Feast during the autumn holy day season is called the Day of Atonement. This festival teaches us the need for humanity to be reconciled to God through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the sins of all mankind. It also pictures Jesus Christ as our High Priest interceding for us with God the Father. 

This feast teaches us that true reconciliation with God is not possible until the author of all of humanity's sins, which is Satan the devil, is put away. Therefore, the Day of Atonement also pictures the putting away of Satan for 1,000 years during the reign of Jesus Christ, after all of humanity's sins have been laid on his head, as symbolically pictured by the ceremony described in Leviticus 16:20-24, 26 in which the high priest laid the sins of the people on the Azazel goat [which pictures Satan] and released the goat in an uninhabited wilderness.

This festival is celebrated by fasting for 24 hours to draw closer to God, to picture the reconciliation of mankind to Him.

6) Feast of Tabernacles

The seven-day Feast of Tabernacles represents the next step in God's master plan for salvation of mankind and pictures the 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ on earth as King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:11-16; 20:4; Matthew 17:1-4; Hebrews 11:8-9), assisted by the resurrected, immortal saints. God's kingdom will establish a new, perfect society, ruled according to God's laws, beginning at Jerusalem and then spreading out to all nations.

God's commandments, laws and ways will be taught throughout the earth. Unlike in our time, during the millennium, each and every human being living will be called by God and receive his or her chance for salvation. Therefore, this feast represents the greater harvest of souls for God's kingdom. Satan and the demons will be imprisoned so that they can deceive the nations no more during the 1,000 years. God's rule will usher in an era of universal peace, prosperity, abundance, happiness and joy (Isaiah 2:2-4; Daniel 2:35, 44; 7:13-14).

7) The Last Great Day

The seventh feast called the eighth day or the Last Great Day of the Feast teaches us that after the 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ, God will offer a chance for salvation to each and every human being who has ever lived and died without being called by God.

All such human beings will be raised from the dead as physical human beings and called by God. They will have their minds opened to understand the truth of the gospel message. They will be given sufficient time (100 years, Isaiah 65:20) to repent and qualify to receive eternal life. It thus pictures a time of the greatest harvest of souls for God's kingdom.

We thus see that each holy day season represents an ever-increasing harvest of souls for God's kingdom. The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread during the early spring harvest represented only Jesus Christ receiving eternal life; just one soul being harvested for the kingdom of God, as the first of the firstfruits. The Feast of Pentecost during the late spring harvest season represents the firstfruits being harvested for the kingdom of God during the first 6,000 years of man's history, from the creation of Adam to the return of Jesus Christ. During this time perhaps people in the hundreds of thousands or a few million will have qualified to receive eternal life. The Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day during the autumn harvest season represent the greatest harvest of souls for God's kingdom with tens of billions qualifying to receive eternal life.

The Fate of Those Who Refuse to Repent

Although God will in His great mercy extend the opportunity for salvation to every human being born, some will still refuse to repent and accept God’s way of life. What is their fate?  

The Bible reveals that, rather than be tortured forever in an ever-burning hell, their lives will simply be permanently extinguished. They will cease to exist, and will be as though they had never been.

Revelation 20:15 reveals that, after the final judgment depicted by the Last Great Day, "anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire."

Revelation 21:8 adds, "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

These verses make absolutely clear that the fate of the incorrigible is clearly death, not eternal life of torture. Their lives will be extinguished forever. Even their memory that they ever existed will be forgotten.   

Paul also made it plain that the punishment of the wicked is death. He states in Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death…" Malachi the prophet also described the fate of the incorrigibly wicked in Malachi 4:1-3: "'For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,' says the Lord of hosts, 'that will leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves. You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,' says the Lord of hosts."  

The fate of Satan and the demons is indicated in Ezekiel 28:18-19: “18 You [that is Satan] have defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of you, it shall devour you, and I will bring you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold you. 19 All they that know you among the people shall be astonished at you: you shalt be a terror, and never shall you be any more.”  

A normal fire that can consume human beings and material things does not consume spirit beings like Satan and the demons. But God will prepare a special fire that will consume Satan and the demons as well with the rest of humanity that failed to repent.  This is mentioned in Matthew 25:41: “41Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”

All those who were called during the first 6,000 years of man’s history but failed to qualify to receive eternal life, and died, will have to be physically resurrected to then be burnt alive in the Lake of Fire. This is the third resurrection. Daniel 12:2 describes it this way: “2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life [during the first resurrection at the return of Jesus Christ], and some to shame and everlasting contempt” [after the 100 years of the White Throne Judgment are complete]. 

The third resurrection is not called the third resurrection by name. But with a clear understanding of the sequence of the resurrections and their purpose, it is evident that the third resurrection will be a resurrection to physical life for humans. 

Revelation 20 mentions all the 3 resurrections. The first two resurrections have already been described. Verses 12-15 state; “12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it [these would be those who drowned in Noah’s Flood as well as the who perished in voyages through the seas and oceans]; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the Lake of fire.”   

Verses 12-13 describe the second resurrection to physical life. The dead who are made alive are judged according to their works (meaning how they live their lives) by what is written in the books of the Bible to finally have their names either written in the Book of Life or excluded from it. At the end of the 100 years of the White Throne Judgment, those who by their conduct fail to qualify to have their names written in the Book of Life will be cast into the Lake of Fire. They had died a physical death earlier which was the first death. After being cast into the Lake of Fire they die the second death which is permanent. These people are still living after the second resurrection. But in the third resurrection will be the very small number of people who received their chance for eternal life during man’s first 6,000 years of history, and during the 1,000 years of God’s kingdom, but failed to qualify to have their names written in the Book of Life. They are the ones who are resurrected in the third resurrection, called the resurrection ‘to shame and everlasting contempt’ in Daniel 12:2. These along with those from the second resurrection who are still alive are left standing on earth when the earth is set ablaze to consume it. They together die the second permanent death in this Lake of Fire. 

Burning up of the incorrigibly unrepentant in the Lake of Fire completes God’s plan of salvation for humanity as depicted by God’s seven annual holy days. 

A New Beginning With A New Heaven and a New Earth

As the wicked are consumed, the fire continues to burn and purify the earth, as written in II Peter 3:7, 10-12 (NKJV): “But the heavens and the earth which now exist are kept in store by the same word, reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men…But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.”  

After the entire earth is burnt up and consumed in this fire, the next event to occur will be a new earth and new heavens. This is prophesied in Revelation 21:1-3 (NKJV): “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

The New Earth with the new holy city, the New Jerusalem, will no longer need oceans and seas to sustain physical life because only spirit beings, the immortal sons of God, will inhabit it from then on. God the Father will also dwell among them.  

The apostle Peter also mentioned the new heavens and the new earth in II Peter 3:13: “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.”

Isaiah also mentions the new heavens and the new earth in 65:17-19, 66:22: “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create…”

God’s Purpose in Creating Humanity

Perhaps now we can understand God’s great purpose in creating mankind in His own image as explained by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong through whom God founded the modern era of His true Church.  

God first created the angels. Three angels of apparently the highest rank of archangels were Lucifer, Michael and Gabriel. After they had learnt God’s way of life and government, God then created the earth and the rest of the material universe. He then sent one third of the angels under the leadership of Lucifer to earth to finish its creation.

Ezekiel 28:12-15 (NKJV) describes Lucifer this way: “Thus says the Lord God: "You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. 14 "You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. 15 You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.”   

Thus God created Lucifer a perfect spirit being, but he apparently led one third of all the angels who were under his command to rebellion against God. Then God saw that He could create a perfect being with incredible talents, but He could not create perfect holy righteous character in that being by fiat. 

Mr. Armstrong writes in his book “Mystery of the Ages” p. 101:

“Character cannot be automatically created by fiat. Godly spiritual character is the habitual action and conduct of the person or created entity to come to knowledge of the true ways of God, and to exercise the will to follow those ways even against opposition, temptation or self-desire to the contrary. Character must be developed with the assent, will and action of the separately created entity. It is imparted by God and must be willingly received by that entity.”

When Lucifer and the angels under his command rebelled against God, they demonstrated that they had not developed perfect, holy and righteous character.  Otherwise they would not have rebelled against God and His government. Mr. Armstrong continues on pages 93-95:      

“As God surveyed this cataclysmic tragedy [the destruction of the earth and other parts of the universe caused by Satan’s rebellion], He must have realized that since the highest, most perfect being [Lucifer who became Satan]…had turned to rebellion, it left God himself as the only being who would not and cannot sin…

“God saw that no being less than God, in the God family [currently with only two members in it – God the Father and Jesus Christ as the Son], could be certainly relied on to never sin. To fulfill His purpose for the entire vast universe [which was to finish its creation by beautifying it], God saw that nothing less than himself (as the God family) could be absolutely relied upon to carry out that purpose in the entire universe.

“God then purposed to reproduce himself, through humans, made in his image and likeness, but made first from material flesh and blood, subject to death if there is sin unrepented of – yet with the possibility of being born into the divine family begotten by God the Father…And that is why God put man on earth.”

Mr. Armstrong writes on p. 103:

“Man was [is] to improve the physical earth as God gave it to him, finishing its creation (which sinning angels had deliberately refused to do) and, in so doing to RESTORE THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD, with God’s way of life; and further, in this very process FINISHING THE CREATION OF MAN by the development of God’s holy, righteous CHARACTER, with man’s own assent.

“Once this perfect and righteous character is instilled in man, and man converted from mortal flesh to immortal spirit, then is to come the INCREDIBLE HUMAN POTENTIAL – man being born into the divine family of God, restoring the government of God to the earth, and then participating in the completion of the creation over the entire endless expanse of the universe… [Thus] God shall have reproduced Himself untold millions of times over.”    

God says in 2 Corinthians 6:18: “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” God always means what He says, and has the power to accomplish what He says.

John the apostle also wrote 1 John 3:2: “Beloved, now we are the children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

Thus our human potential is to be born into God’s divine family as His literal sons and daughters, with a spirit body like His, and rule the entire universe with Him. 

Next Colonize the Entire Universe

Here is proof that we shall rule the entire universe. 

God has promised all things, meaning the entire universe, to those who overcome and became His immortal sons and daughters. This is stated in Revelation 21:7 (NKJV): “7 He who overcomes shall INHERIT ALL THINGS, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.”

Hebrews 2:6-8 (NKJV) also states: “6 But one testified in a certain place, saying: "What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You take care of him? 7 You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of Your hands. 8 You have put ALL THINGS in subjection under his feet." For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him.”

The picture is quite clear. The New Jerusalem will be the center of the universe where God will dwell with all His immortal sons and daughters. But they will not be confined to the earth. They will have inherited all things from God the Father and Jesus Christ, meaning the entire physical universe to work with and rule. God will have set His immortal sons and daughters over all the works of His hands that He has created.

God said through Isaiah the prophet about the earth in Isaiah 45:18: “For thus says the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he has established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else.” If God created the earth to be inhabited, He certainly would not have created more than 100 billion stars with their planets in each galaxy with more than 100 billion galaxies in the universe to lie waste and empty. He created them to be inhabited at some time like the earth.

Thus after God’s plan of salvation for mankind is complete, and human beings have become literal immortal sons of God with God the Father dwelling among them, there will be a new beginning. What has been accomplished on earth, God’s sons will then accomplish in the rest of the universe, which Satan and the demons disqualified from doing. They will have proved to God the Father that even when they are sent to the remotest corner of the universe, they will not rebel against Him as Satan and the demons did after they were sent away from heaven to rule the earth. God’s sons and daughters will administer God’s government throughout the universe.

God actually prophesied through Moses that God will allot the universe to humans become immortal in Deuteronomy 4:19 (NKJV), “19 And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage.” 

These things cannot be imagined by our limited minds but God has revealed them to members of His Church through His holy spirit as Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 (NKJV): "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit." 

Catastrophes Before Establishment of God’s Kingdom

We are now living in the very end of the end times. The world is about to explode into the Third World War with Germany, China and most of India allied against America, British Commonwealth nations and the Jewish state of Israel. One fourth of mankind, or more than 1.85 billion people will lose their lives in this word war and its aftermath of famines and disease epidemics. But that is only the beginning of sorrows as Jesus prophesied in Matthew 24:3-8, “3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.”

The precise sequence of events is provided in the book of Revelation as the messages contained in the seven seals. The world war is mentioned in the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse prophecy, the end result of the war is mentioned in Revelation 6:8, “…And power was given unto them [the four horsemen] over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”

The Third World War will be followed by the three-and-a-half year long Great Tribulation, which is the time of unprecedented trouble for the British, American and Jewish people as a result of defeat in war and national slavery. After two and a half years of slavery, three more world wars are prophesied to occur within one year resulting in the destruction of much of the world’s population. The precise sequence of end-time events in described in detail in my booklet “World in Bible Prophecy,” available free at my website www.ChurchofGodMessage.com. A 15-page brief version is also available at my website titled “Summary of Sequence of End-Time Events”

There is a Way of Escape

Jesus Christ described the Great Tribulation as a time when the world will be brought to the brink of total annihilation. He said in Matthew 24:21-22, “21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.”

We have used only the sure words of prophecy (2 Peter 1:19: “19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts”) to show what will happen in the world in the very near future. These words come straight from the Bible, describing the horrors the world will soon be plunged into. But there is a way of escape from these catastrophic events.

Only one group in the world is promised protection throughout the entire three and a half years of the coming Great Tribulation: members of God’s true Church with the Philadelphian attitude as described in Revelation 3:7-11 (NKJV), “' 7 "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: 8 I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name…10 Because you have kept My command to persevere, I ALSO WILL KEEP YOU FROM THE HOUR OF TRIAL WHICH SHALL COME UPON THE WHOLE WORLD, to test those who dwell on the earth. 11 Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.”

Millions of others besides members of God’s Church will survive, as mentioned in Revelation 7:8-17, but after having experienced the horrors of the first two and a half years of the Great Tribulation, “9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb [another name for Jesus Christ], clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; 10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. 11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, 12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. 13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? 14 And I said unto him, Sir, you know. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sits on the throne shall dwell among them. 16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. 17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

But when the 7.4 billion population of the world is taken into consideration, the percentage surviving may be 2-5% or less. Those are very poor odds of surviving the troubles that lie ahead. The best chances of survival are promised for members of God’s Church as described above, who keep God’s word, meaning all His commandments and doctrines, have not denied that they worship the true Jesus Christ of the Bible, persevere in doing God’s work of warning the world of the coming catastrophes, proclaiming the most wonderful news of the return of Jesus Christ to earth and the establishment of the Kingdom of God, and endure to the very end while diligently doing these things. I have described it in my book "The Only Guaranteed Way to Escape End-Time Catastrophes" available free at my web site.

God has laid before us the choice He offers to all human beings. But each and every human being must individually choose and take action. So the choice to become members of God’s Church and do God’s work in order to receive guaranteed protection during the Great Tribulation, or stay in the world and watch along as events unfold and engulf everyone is entirely yours.

How you can Join God’s True Church 

If you would like to become members of God’s true Church, you must first learn more about God's way of life and then make your choice. You can do so by reading the literature published by the United Church of God. Two small United Church of God booklets that could be read in a total of about 2-3 hours explain what steps an individual must take to receive God’s free gift of eternal life, and what the fundamental beliefs of the true Church of God are. These booklets are titled “The Road to Eternal Life” and “Fundamental Beliefs of the United Church of God.”

All literature is offered free of charge upon request by the United Church of God. It can also be read online, or downloaded free at the Church's web site www.ucg.org. You can also write to the United Church of God at: United Church of God, Post Office Box 541027, Cincinnati, OH 45254, USA. In the USA you can also request literature on the phone by calling toll free at 1-888-886-8632, or from anywhere in the world at 1-513-576-9796. You may also request a free subscription to our monthly magazine “Beyond Today” at www.ucg.org. 

The Church also has ministers available almost everywhere in the world to answer any questions you may have or counsel for baptism to become a member of God's true Church.


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