Last Days Timeline, A literal interpretation of biblical prophecy, second edition by Gregory Supina - HTML preview

person or a group of people can know what God wants to say to them.] : Hear this, you elders; give ear,

all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your

fathers? Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to

another generation.

“What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left,

the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has

eaten. Awake, you drunkards, and weep, and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the

sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. For a nation has come up against My land,

powerful and beyond number; its teeth are lions' teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness.

It has laid waste My vine and splintered My fig tree; it has stripped off their bark and thrown

it down; their branches are made white.

“Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth. The grain offering

and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers

of [Yahweh]. The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns, because the grain is destroyed, the

wine dries up, the oil languishes. Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil; wail, O vinedressers, for

the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished. The vine dries up; the

fig tree languishes. Pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are dried up, and

gladness dries up from the children of man.

“Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in

sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld

from the house of your God. Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and

all the inhabitants of the land to the house of [Yahweh] your God, and cry out to [Yahweh].

Alas for the day! For the day of [Yahweh] is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it

comes. Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

The seed shrivels under the clods; the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are torn down

because the grain has dried up. How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed

because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep suffer. To you, O [ Yahweh] , I

call. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flame has burned all the trees

of the field. Even the beasts of the field pant for You because the water brooks are dried up,

and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

(Chapter 2) “Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the

inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of [Yahweh] is coming; it is near, a day of

darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon

the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be

again after them through the years of all generations. Fire devours before them, and

behind them a flame burns. The land is like the garden of Eden before them, but behind them

a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them. Their appearance is like the appearance of

horses, and like war horses they run .

 

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“As with the rumbling of chariots, they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling

of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle . Before

them peoples are in anguish; all faces grow pale. Like warriors they charge; like soldiers they

scale the wall. They march each on his way; they do not swerve from their paths. They do not

jostle one another; each marches in his path; they burst through the weapons and are not

halted. They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls, they climb up into the houses, they

enter through the windows like a thief. The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble.

The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. [ Yahweh] utters

His voice before His army , for His camp is exceedingly great; he who executes His word is

powerful. For the day of [Yahweh] is great and very awesome; who can endure it?

“‘Yet even now,’ declares [Yahweh], ‘ return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with

weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.’ Return to

[Yahweh], your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in

steadfast love; and He relents over disaster. Who knows whether He will not turn and

relent, and leave a blessing behind Him, a grain offering and a drink offering for [Yahweh]

your God?

“Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people.

Consecrate the congregation ; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants.

Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. Between the vestibule and the

altar let the priests, the ministers of [Yahweh], weep and say, ‘Spare Your people, O

[Yahweh], and make not Your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should

they say among the peoples, “Where is their God?”’

“Then [Yahweh] became jealous for His land and had pity on His people. [Yahweh] answered

and said to His people, ‘Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be

satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. I will remove the

northerner far from you, and drive him into a parched and desolate land, his vanguard into

the eastern sea, and his rear guard into the western sea; the stench and foul smell of him will

rise, for [Yahweh] has done great things.

“Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for [Yahweh] has done great things! Fear not, you

beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit; the fig

tree and vine give their full yield. Be glad , O children of Zion, and rejoice in [Yahweh] your

God, for He has given the early rain for your vindication; He has poured down for you

abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before. The threshing floors shall be full of

grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will restore to you the years that the

swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, My great army, which I

sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of [Yahweh]

your God, who has dealt wondrously with you.

“And My people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst

of Israel, and that I am [Yahweh] your God and there is none else. And My people shall

never again be put to shame. ‘And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My

Spirit on all flesh ; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream

dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those

days I will pour out My Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth,

 

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blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to

blood, before the great and awesome day of [Yahweh] comes.

“And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of [Yahweh] shall be saved.

For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as [Yahweh] has said,

and among the survivors shall be those whom [Yahweh] calls.

(Chapter 3) “‘For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah

and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of My people and My

heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided

up My land, and have cast lots for My people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute,

and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it.

“What are you to Me, O Tyre and Sidon [two cities on Lebanon’s west coast, in the South Governorate,

south of modern Beirut, where thousands of Hezbollah terrorists currently reside] , and all the regions of

Philistia [the ‘regions of Philistia’ are the places now called the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in Israel, where

thousands of terrorists currently reside as well]? Are you paying Me back for something? If you

are paying Me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily. For

you have taken My silver and My gold, and have carried My rich treasures into your temples.

You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove

them far from their own border. Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you

have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head. I will sell your sons

and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the

Sabeans [an ancient kingdom in Yemen, Eritrea and Ethiopia], to a nation far away, for [Yahweh] has

spoken.’

“Proclaim this among the nations : Consecrate for war; stir up the mighty men. Let all the

men of war draw near; let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your

pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, ‘I am a warrior.’ Hasten and come, all you

surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. Bring down your warriors, O [Yahweh].

Let the nations stir themselves up and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will

sit to judge all the surrounding nations.

“Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats

overflow, for their evil is great. Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! [The ‘valley of

decision’ is the ‘Valley of Jehoshaphat.’ This phrase can also be translated as the ‘valley of judgment.’ When the

beast’s armies, the enemies of God and Israel, reach that valley, or what may be called Armageddon, they will

be judged and sentenced to death.] For the day of [Yahweh] is near in the valley of decision. The

sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. [Yahweh] roars from

Zion, and utters His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But

[Yahweh] is a refuge to His people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.

“‘So you shall know that I am [Yahweh] your God, who dwells in Zion, My holy mountain.

And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers [those who do not worship Yahweh] shall never again

pass through it. And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow

with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come

forth from the house of [Yahweh] and water the Valley of Shittim.

“‘Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to

the people of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall be

 

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inhabited forever, and Jerusalem to all generations. I will avenge their blood, blood I have

not avenged, for [Yahweh] dwells in Zion.’”

When God, through the prophet Joel, tells the elders and inhabitants of Israel about His future “day of Yahweh,” He asks them: “Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?” (1:2). Clearly, this is a rhetorical question indicating that the events of this prophecy will be so extraordinary that no event before it will be comparable to it., not even Israel’s Exodus from Egypt, nor any other previous miracles of God. This word from Yahweh God, which Joel was about to disclose, is not about contemporary events, nor about past events. It was about God’s final and permanent redemption and salvation for all the survivors of the greatest war that would ever occur in the history of that land. Joel forces us to conclude that this prophecy, his whole book, logically must be about future events occurring during the end times, in the days of the Messiah’s return to rule all Israel and the world, in the days which all the other prophets wrote about. This book is about terrible future events that will have no equal in the past and will never be equaled again, but also about the greatest blessings that that the truly elect survivors in Israel will ever receive throughout all history.

When Joel exhorts the people of Israel, “Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation” (1:3), he is signaling to them that this prophecy will be fulfilled after many future generations. But God wants Israel to remember this prophecy, both as a warning to prepare themselves for this terrifying event, and as a comfort to encourage them to realize that all will turn out very well in the end. It also indicates that this is an important prophecy, critical for the survival and well-being of Israel’s future generation living during those end times.

God begins by talking about a plague of “locusts,” which most in Israel would consider to be a plague of God’s wrath against their lies and sins. And this would be an extremely devastating plague, a total destruction. For God declared: “What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten” (1:4). Perhaps the words translated as “locust” in some instances here should be translated as “grasshopper.” There are many kinds of grasshoppers, and only some species which can be called locusts. Only locusts can develop two behavioral phases, solitary (normal) and gregarious (with physiological changes, when they swarm). Also, each kind of grasshopper or locust will feed on different kinds of vegetation. So here Joel is comparing grasshoppers and locusts to various kinds of armies, with various kinds of warfare that will consume everything in their land.

Every army has different kinds of troops that specialize in specific kinds of tasks and are sent out at different times during a war. There are spies and those who gather intelligence. Some demoralize and sabotage troops, perform acts of terrorism or spread divisive propaganda. Then raiders and other kinds of saboteurs will interrupt logistics which bring supplies to the enemy. There are shock troops, regular troops and so on. And all these kinds of troops exist in modern armies, just as they did in the ancient armies of Joel’s day. So here Joel is saying that armies of invaders will send all kinds of troops to utterly devastate Israel, in every way possible during the end times. Some will cut down or kill Israel’s soldiers and people, some will swarm to destroy everything in their path, and others will hunt down and murder survivors or resistance fighters after this, until the entire land is destroyed.

But Israel will not be prepared for this invasion. It seems that some in Israel will be traitors who will side with the beast and actually believe that they have an arrangement with him which will prevent him from attacking their land. For God warns Israel: “Awake you drunkards, and weep, and wail, all your drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth” (1:5). In other words, many in Israel will be deluded by the sweet talk of the beast, and think they dwell in safety,

 

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but will soon wake up with a severe hangover and realize they were wrong. Their reasoning will be impaired by false and artificial impressions, by liars, until this invasion actually begins to take place.

Here God also proclaims that “a nation” (Hebrew = goy, singular) will “come up against My land, powerful and beyond number” (1:6). Yet, later, He also prophecies about other nations will be with this one nation. And this fits with the prophecies of the Revelation, and other prophecies. For, by this time, the beast’s Roman kingdom will have become the dominant world power and able to entice armies from other humanistic nations to join him in an attempt to utterly destroy God’s “holy land.”

God said this nation and its allies “has laid waste My vine and splintered My fig tree; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches are made white” (1:7). In other words, the nation of the beast will kill the most coveted economic sources of the land, grapevines and fig trees, which make life sweet and enjoyable. But branches will be “made white,” meaning this will purify some individuals in Israel. And this would occur before the final invasion, and before Yahweh Messiah comes to save Israel. Therefore, the enemies who will attack Israel later, will attack after stealing Israel’s prosperity, which is after they are an independent nation and they can enjoy some luxuries.

Now God tells Israel to “lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth” (1:8). This imagery is clear. Israel is a “virgin” bride, fully married to her Husband, the Messiah, by a binding covenant which cannot be broken, though her marriage had never been consummated. Yet Israel is wearing “sackcloth” and mourning, because she believes her Husband is dead, and her hopes have vanished. Her Husband was bound to her in “her youth,” more than two millennia before these end times began, before the beast rose to power. And she has waited for Him all that time, but now sees her own end coming in despair, with those vast armies of her enemies. But Yahweh the Messiah is coming to save her. He is not dead, but risen, and will not forsake His bride of Israel.

Then God begins to describe what is done to Israel by her enemies: “The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of Yahweh. The priests mourn, the ministers of Yahweh” (1:9). For all the produce of her land has been stolen or destroyed by that army represented by his metaphor of the locusts or grasshoppers. And notice once more, in this prophecy about the end times before the Messiah returns to save Israel and rule the earth, there will be a “house of Yahweh,” a third temple period in Israel, with “priests,” the “ministers of Yahweh,” just as the Revelation says.

Of course, some say this is describing an attack by real locusts devouring the land of Israel, locusts whom God will send to punish Israel for its sins committed in the days of Joel or at some other time in history. But that interpretation is absurd for a number of reasons. First, Joel is obviously talking about an event involving “a nation” in the distant future, after many generations. And, since there were devastating locust swarms attacking the land in every generation of Israel, up to the twentieth century, before the source of locusts had been found and before the invention of pesticides and modern agricultural practices, this would mean that Joel was prophesying nothing but normal events, not about a critical event to one generation living in the distant future, just before Messiah returns.

Second, we need to understand the use of figurative language in general, especially in the Scriptures. Almost all biblical metaphors use a familiar and well-known symbolic elements to provide a better understanding of something that is not as familiar and not as well-known. A metaphor is almost never about the unfamiliar, certainly not in the Bible, nor in most secular writings, not unless it is intended to be humorous. And Joel is obviously not joking here. So what in this prophecy would be the familiar and figurative element, and what would be the unfamiliar and literal event which that symbolic element represents? Well, plagues of locusts were very familiar to the Israelites in those days. Locusts attacked many parts of Israel almost every year, and sometimes several times a year. In

 

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some years the locusts wiped out everything. Everyone in Israel had experienced severe locust attacks at one time or another. On the other hand, no Israelites were familiar with the kind of invasion Joel was talking about, one that will not be equaled by any invasions that occurred before it.

God’s prophecy through Joel spoke about the largest army Israel was ever destined to face in all history. His contemporary generations of Israelites had never even experienced any invasion like it, not even by the Assyrians, Babylons and Romans, nothing that devastated their land so completely. And Joel likely wrote this in times after the Assyrian and Babylonian invasions, since he wrote it during a time when Greeks were powerful, which did not occur until after the fourth century BC.

Therefore, Joel was clearly using the well-known and familiar experience of a plague of locusts as a metaphor to describe the most destructive invasion of Israel in history, by a massive army who came not merely to conquer, but to destroy and annihilate, at sometime in the distant future. It is absurd to think the opposite, that one “nation” of human soldiers attacking Israel was a metaphor figuratively describing a literal attack by locusts. Clearly, God prophesied that this is a future, powerful “nation,” with an army “beyond number,” who will figuratively have “lions’ teeth” and “fangs of a lioness,” coming to devour, not just conquer. This is one of several clues God provided to help us identify this future “nation,” which must be the enraged beast seeking revenge for a rebellion against himself in Israel and the Middle East. God’s true prophets were often told to utter clues like this, and these clues allude to other Scriptures, which clarify one another, just as this prophecy does to those ones.

Daniel, an earlier prophet, also said the fourth beast, which is a kingdom or nation, had “great iron teeth” (Dan. 7:7,19). Later John alluded to both Daniel’s and Joel’s prophecy about this nation with lion teeth, when his prophecy in the Revelation described the beast as having “the mouth of a lion” (Rev. 13:2). So John was actually amplifying Daniel’s description of the fourth beast. And Daniel said the fourth beast was different from the previous three beasts. And John described Daniel’s fourth beast as a compilation of all three of the previous beasts: (1) the lion = Babylon, (2) the bear = Persia, and (3) the leopard = Greece. Now, since the head of all four was the first kingdom (i.e., the head of the statue of the four kingdoms was Babylon, see Dan. 2:38), we must conclude that the head, mouth and teeth of the fourth beast is the head of a lion, figuratively, of course. Like Babylon, the Roman kingdom and its leader would react to Israel’s rebellion in ravenous, vicious, deadly way.

John said the beast had the “mouth of a lion” because it had the head of a lion. And the teeth of the lion’s mouth must be the teeth of a lion, as Joel prophesied. All who know Scriptures well, can see that Joel’s invading nation must be the kingdom of Daniel’s fourth beast, which John simply calls “the beast.” And this is confirmed by other clues in other parts of Joel’s prophecy. For instance, Joel’s invader is a “northern army” (Joel 2:20), while Daniel said the king of an appointed time in the end times (referring to the beast in the end times) will comes from the north to invade Israel and other lands (Dan. 11:40-41). So the beast’s European lands are west of Israel, but his armies will likely land at the port of Haifa, in northern Israel, then proceed east and south the Valley of Megiddo (Jezreel Valley), according to prophecies. So, from the perspective of the prophets, that “nation” of the beast will come from the “north,” and all of the prophecies agree on this detail about the beast.

Here Joel prophesies to the people who will live during the time of the invasion of Israel in the distant future, pleading with them to repent. Wearing “sackcloth” was a common sign of those who grieved with godly sorrow seeking repentance into God’s truth. But, if Israel needs to repent at this time of the beast’s final invasion, then they must be reprobates, must not yet be an upright, faithful land in the days before those invasions. For they will need to repent. Therefore, this prophecy is about an invasion of an apostate and sinful Israel in the end times. Thus, the people of Israel were

 

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prophesied to return to their land as apostate sinners who would prosper, but suffer many wars, all before the beast comes. Then the beast shall come just before the Messiah returns. And that time is drawing near. So some Israelis who will live during the time of the beast’s invasion may have even been born already, in our day. Some of these will side with the beast and perish on the day of the Messiah Yahweh. But the elect among them will either repent after death or when He will return.

Clearly, if offerings are stopped in the temple when this invasion occurs, just as Daniel also prophesied (Dan. 9:27), we know there will be a temple and Levitical priests ministering in Jerusalem before the destroying invader, who is the beast, comes. For God’s temple in Jerusalem is is the only place on earth where Jews can make grain and drink offerings to Yahweh. But notice how it says only the grain and drink offerings will be stopped by this invader at this time, since they are the gifts of the people to the priests, and they will have nothing to spare. Yet Daniel prophesied that the evil “prince” (the beast) would stop sacrifices and commit “the abomination that causes desolation” after he occupied Israel. And how could they make those sacrifices if there is nothing left in the land to offer? Thus, this “abomination” will occur after the beast’s first three and a half years of His reign, before his vengeful return near the end of his seven-year reign. The beast will subdue Israel and gain allies in the land at the beginning of his reign, thinking he now owns Israel and has stopped the worship of Yahweh there and in the lands surrounding Israel. But, while he is absent for a few years, warring with lands to the east and north, Israel and the Middle East will find faith and overcome the beast’s occupation forces. Then the beast will return to destroy and annihilate the land.

This means that, before the beast invades Israel the second time, there will still be fields of grain, fig and fruit trees, vineyards and agricultural produce harvested in the land. Then most of it will be destroyed or plundered when the beast invades the second time. “The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns, because the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil languishes” (1:10). That is, this description suggests that Joel is only speaking about the beast’s second invasion of Israel at this point in the prophecy. While the secular beast rules Israel after his first invasion, there will be some production of kosher food, until the beast withdraws to fight against nations from the north and the east. After this, Israel may have relative peace, until the beast returns near the end of his seventh year, pouring into Armageddon, utterly destroying everything in his path. Then the Messiah Jesus will return and Israel will be delivered forever from the beast and from all their other enemies. After Jesus comes, on “the day of Yahweh,” Israel will never hunger or thirst again, and they will never need to raise up armies to defend against any kind of enemy. Peace will come to the entire world.

Presumably, the ministers of God, the priests, will be mourning ‘because grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of God,’ because the beast will cause all kinds of physical and spiritual problems which accompany the withholding of these offerings. Through an artificial famine, created by the burning and looting of the beast’s invading armies, grain and drink offerings will be too much for the people to bear. They will need every scrap of food for their children and themselves and, even if they could faithfully starve themselves to make those offerings, they would need kosher grain and wine to do so. Yet the beast, a radical secular humanist, clearly will not allow them to grow kosher grain and wine, not in the way God’s Law prescribes. Then we can also assume the priests will be forced to stop ministering on behalf of God. And, if no one serves God, how will the people be taught about God and His ways? As a result, if the people are not taught, the land will fall into darkness. The people will be ensnared and plundered by every deceiver, taken captive by every ruthless exploiter and enslaved by every sin. So this will indeed be a serious matter when the grain and drink offerings will be withheld. Yet God will cause circumstances to counter this effect.

 

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God’s command for Israel, at that time, is to repent: “Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil; wail, O vinedressers … because the harvest of the field has perished…. Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail ministers of the altar. God in, pass the ght in sackcloth, O ministers of God … Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of Yahweh your God, and cry out to Yahweh” (1:11,13-14). The purpose of this fast, as well as the reason they will “put on sackcloth and lament,” is to repent from lies and sins. And, because God will command it at this time, the elect in Israel will be caused to do so, through circumstances and thoughts beyond their control, through the power of God to alter their wills. This will be the time when God is preparing their hearts to receive their Messiah, Jesus, when He comes to deliver them.

If nothing went wrong, if Israel was comfortable in their erroneous thinking and sins, they would not repent on the day He returned. Thus, when the beast will occupy Israel for the first half of his reign, censoring their faith and oppressing all religious beliefs except the worship of himself. Life will become very difficult for all the people. Then there will be some reprieve from his humanistic and autocratic rule for two or three years. But he will return in a blind rage and destroy much of the land. Then God will cause repentance. The rulers or elders, together with all the people in the land, will assemble in the temple grounds and pray to God for guidance, then work very closely together just to survive. This will not be a time to be selfish and greedy, for those kinds of sins will cost many lives.

Each biblical or Jewish day begins with the hours of darkness, after the sun sets, and is completed by the hours of daylight, until the next sunset. Likewise, “the Day of Yahweh” will begin in darkness, even with a destructive storm that will tear down all the trees that are rotten at the core, and rip apart all that is constructed with inferior materials and lacking the solid foundation of the Rock of hope. “Alas for the day! For the day of Yahweh is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes” (1:15). This will be a terrifying time for all God’s elect, especially in Israel. They will get no sleep during this terrifying night. But the “destruction” will not be for the elect. Rather, that day will see the beast’s entire international army, as numerous as the worst plague of locusts ever experienced, die in the land. All the beast’s kingdom and all the non-elect bullies on the earth will perish at the same time, on that same day as well. This is the night of the seventh trumpet and the seven bowls of God’s wrath within that time. None of the non-elect and willful haters of God shall escape that day.

“Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of Yahweh is coming; it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people [i.e., this refers to the beast’s invading international armies]; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations. Fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is like a garden of Eden before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them. Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like war horses they run. Before them peoples are in anguish; all faces grow pale. Like warriors they charge; like soldiers they scale the wall. They march each on his way; they do not swerve from their paths.” (2:1-7). This will be a very well-trained army of seasoned veteran soldiers who have all seen active duty before they began this invasion of Israel and the Middle East. But Jesus will destroy them all, and an army like them will never be seen “again after them the the years of all generations.” For peace will cover the earth.

“The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. Yahweh utters His voice before His army, for His camp is exceedingly great; he who executes His word is powerful. For the day of Yahweh is great and very awesome; who can endure it?” (2:10-11). It does not matter how perfect the beast’s army might be. The fact remains that they will be trained to destroy and kill. But destruction and killing are far easier tasks

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than building up and maintaining life. And all of God’s armies are, first and foremost, trained to build up His kingdom and maintain life in it. So God’s armies will always be far superior to the armies of Satan. God’s “camp is exceedingly great; he who executes His word is powerful,” backed by both the creating and destroying power of the Almighty, able to overcome and manipulate the minds and bodies of the enemy, as well as nullify their works, by restoring and rebuilding all they destroyed, and by saving the lives of those they strive to kill. Jesus and His angels will easily defeat the armies of the beast, even by causing them to war against one another. Then the day will dawn.

All who refuse to worship the beast as their saving god, by putting his name or a mark of his identity on a hand or on the forehead, will not be allowed to legally buy, sell or produce anything, at least in the lands ruled by him. And the beast’s henchmen will make it very difficult to buy or sell on the black market. For the beast will control all sources of goods and services, and have many spies, as all dictators do. The beast, like all the humanistic fascists of the past, will try to exert complete control over the entire population, in a typically psychopathic way, by forbidding the sale of food and all essentials to anyone who refuses to serve him alone, as their only god. He will declare that this must be done to maintain order in the chaos which he himself has created. But he will actually be doing this just to appease his very inflated ego, and to cause his opponents the worst and most slow, painful death he can possibly inflict upon them, a death by starvation and deprivation. Yet some secular Jews, even some devout Jews, shall be willing to serve the beast as their chief god, since he will be another and even more evil and more cunning reincarnation of Hitler and Trump.

Therefore, just as Joel did when he saw this vision of the end times, Israel will also begin to call upon Yahweh God, when those days of the beast’s invading armies come. For, at that time, God will irresistibly command this to all His elect in the land: “Yet even now … return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to Yahweh your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding ind steadfast love; and He relents over disaster. Who knows whether He will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him, a grain offering and a drink offering for Yahweh your God?” (2:14). Here, when God sees the spirits in the hearts of His people truly repent, and not merely with an outward display of emotions from the mind of flesh, He will restore their land and leave such a great blessing that they will have plenty to give as grain and drink offerings. For His free and unmerited grace and mercy know no limits for His elect children. He is slow to anger, full of love for them.

When the vain beast withdraws most of his troops from Israel and the Middle East after his first invasion at the beginning of his seven-year reign, he will likely do so with the confidence that his humanistic system is so rational and good that no one would ever rebel against it. But his loveless and amoral system will be empty and unacceptable to the elect spirits who know real love, who bear an inherent discernment between good and evil. Thus, according to the prophesies of Daniel, the beast will lose control over Israel and other parts of the Middle East, after God causes their spirits to become dissatisfied with that beast’s lies and futile, humanistic materialism. And this will infuriate the egocentric beast, who will believe that he alone can save the world through his foolish, violent, oppressive rule over all people and all things. Thus, by the end of his seven-year reign, he shall return to Israel and the Middle East with a massive army, this time for revenge, to kill and destroy.

And this second invasion occurs after Israel is somewhat prosperous, since it will be “like the garden of Eden” as the beast’s armies march through and burn all, to make all “desolate.” This means that, during the first invasion, the beast seems to create an artificial famine, by forbidding those who refuse to worship him to buy or sell food or anything else. He will use humanistic economic systems to subjugate the people, to force them to comply with his dictatorial policies and demands, to even

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worship him as their great savior. But it will not take them long for Israel and other lands to restore their own economic systems, with social security and health care for all, after the beast leaves. Thus, within the next two or three years, Israel and other lands will look like the “garden of Eden” again.

Since the beast will obviously be very angry that Israel and other lands dared to destroy his so-called “perfect” humanistic system of oppressive control, then restored the worship of God to replace the worship of himself, that beast will think he was too “soft” of those people. So his solution will be a “stronger” and typically humanistic terrorism to restore “order,” by murdering and destroying all who oppose his will. The beast’s army will come with what appears to be horses and chariots, that is, to Joel in ancient times. But Joel said “their appearance is like the appearance of horses,” and “as with the rumblings of chariots” (2:4,5). So God caused Joel to see this future army, and record what he saw in a phenomenological language. But, like John did when referring to the army of 200 million during the time of the sixth trumpet (Rev. 9:13-21), Joel was describing a modern army riding on machines that he could only relate to the likeness of horses and chariots, like motorcycles and motorized vehicles of various kinds. And they will likely be armed with modern weapons too.

Also, by this time, the beast’s armies have been joined by allied armies from all over the world, making it a massive force. And they will attack Israel on “a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness.” This could be referring to the darkness of the fifth bowl of God’s wrath, which would still be covering the beast’s lands and Israel at this time. But, as previously mentioned, that day will be unique, like no other (Zech. 14:6-7), with no sun, moon or stars to determine the time of that day. So that day might be very long, spanning 72 hours or more. At any rate, it will be a day which throws the armies of the beast into panic, and long enough for the various allied armies to kill very many of the other allies in that army. And the darkness will only add to the mass confusion.

Also remember, the word translated as “mountains” here would be better translated as “hills.” And here Joel is saying that these soldiers will have vehicles that will “leap” or swiftly rise to the tops of the hills with “the sound/noise” (Hebrew = qol) of flames and devouring fire. Here Joel may have seen a vision of vehicles that look like chariots or wagons, that would be transport trucks, armored vehicles and tanks, all capable of climbing hills at a much faster rate than anything Joel had ever seen, with internal combustion engines that he saw belching fire or smoke out of their exhaust pipes.

Here Joel describes a well-disciplined, well-trained and effective army, unlike the armies he saw in his day, where each soldier marches in rank and never panics. Thus, the “peoples are in anguish” and “all faces grow pale.” Since Joel says these are “like warriors” and “like soldiers,” but likely wearing camouflage outfits with bullet-proof vests and modern army gear, his vision obviously saw men who did not look anything like the warriors and soldiers of his day. Yet they attacked and killed like the soldiers did in his day, only in a way that was so effective that their march did not even pause when they faced enemy fire, which suggests modern armies in configurations behind tanks and such. In the days of Joel, walled cities or towns were the most difficult places to invade and usually involved lengthy sieges, then battles with many casualties. But this army of the beast instantly overcame any resistance in the cities and towns, presumably because they were so well-trained and numerous, but likely also because they bombed unwalled cities and towns before entering them, then moved through them with tank support. In his vision, Joel also saw how “the earth quakes before them; the [skies] tremble.” In the phenomenological language of a prophet living more than two thousand years ago, this may refer to air support and missiles, along with the rumbling of very heavy tanks.

Even while the enemy is busily engaging in their terrifying and extremely effective attack against Israel, we see how “Yahweh utters His voice before His army.” This is another way of saying that

 

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“the day of Yahweh” was beginning, and God would now command His army of angels to attack the beast’s invading army. This will be the day of Israel’s repentance, for God repeats: “Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people” (2:15a). But then He also declares: “Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber” (2:15b-16). This portrays a sense of extreme urgency, as if it were “the day of Yahweh,” the day that Jesus will return. And it is a day of mourning, just like the mourning of the people which Zechariah described (Zech. 12:7-14). For God says, “Between the vestibule and the altar, let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep and say, ‘Spare Your people, O Yahweh, and make not Your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, “Where is their God?”’” (2:17). This is the day that Paul wrote about, when he taught that “all Israel will be saved,” and also that, “there will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob” (Rom. 11:25, WEB).

Joel makes it perfectly clear here that the human defensive efforts would be completely ineffective, so the people need God to intercede on their behalf. Therefore, on “the day of Yahweh,,” this prophecy declares that this will happen: “Then Yahweh became jealous for His land and had pity on His people. Yahweh answered and said to His people, ‘Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations. I will remove the northerner far from you, and drive him into a parched and desolate land, his vanguard into the eastern sea, and his rear guard into the western sea; the stench and foul smell of him will rise, for [God] has done great things’” (2:19-20). As Jesus descends on that day, He will provide all that His priesthood of Israel needs to sustain the health of their bodies. Then the beast’s armies from the north will be driven back upon the land they had burned, all they made “parched and desolate. The “vanguard” or troops sent ahead to kill those who fled from Jerusalem on the eastern side, as the beast’s main troops attacked from the west, will die fleeing into the Dead Sea. And the “rear guard,” back at the Mediterranean ports, will die fleeing into that sea. The bulk of the forces will die in the land, leaving a “stench and foul smell” everywhere. Nothing will be left of the beast and his army.

After Jesus brings back the evening light of the sun, and lands on the Mount of Olives, He will walk to the temple for the evening sacrifices, and begin to restore the lands in and around Israel, as well as upon the whole earth. Then it will be said, “Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for Yahweh has done great things!” (2:21). The farm fields and wilderness will be green, and the living creatures in them will thrive. Seasons will come in their appointed times, “the early rain for [their] vindication” and “the latter rain, as before.” The harvest shall be plentiful, restoring all that the beast’s armies had destroyed. God will be praised because He will govern “wondrously” with His people, even with many miracles, so that Israel will “never again be put to shame.” They will all realize that Yahweh God is in the Messiah, that He is “in the midst of Israel,” and there is no other god besides Yahweh in Jesus (2:21-27). Then, when His priesthood serves faithfully in trust, Jesus will pour out His power upon them, so they might minister to the world in His name, through love in their spirits.

This is when God told Israel, “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out My Spirit” (2:28-29). For Israel shall become the host of all the elect servants of God throughout the entire world, all who come to worship and learn from Jesus. None shall oppose Yahweh Jesus for a thousand years after that, because all will remember His wrath against the wicked on the day of His advent. All will remember His words: “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood,

 

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before the great and awesome day of Yahweh comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom Yahweh calls” (2:30-32). History will be corrected and both the physical and spiritual realities will be seen at last. There will be no more humanistic delusions about the past which God sees in real time, for truth will reign.

When we look at all that Joel, Daniel, Isaiah, John and the other prophets or apostles say about Israel on the day Jesus returns, we must conclude: (1) Many apostate, sinning and secular Jews will be already living in Israel before Jesus returns; (2) many religious Jews will also be living in Israel and making sacrifices in the third temple period before Jesus returns; (3) the falsely religious Jews will not be acceptable to God because of their traditions invented by men, those who place their faith in physical rituals and outward appearances of religion but not in God; and (4) all the elect Jews, whose spirits call on the real Yahweh because Yahweh’s Holy Spirit calls them, will survive His coming.

Of course, the grain and drink offerings were actually given to God’s servants, the priests, so they could eat them for their daily sustenance. Only the priests could eat them, not the others. Therefore, when it says that Yahweh will “relent” and leave a “blessing” of grain and drink offering (2:14), then shall pour out His Holy Spirit upon them all, He was implying that all in Israel will be His priests. All “sons and daughters” of Israel, even all “male and female slaves,” will serve Yahweh Jesus in His name, as His priesthood serving the Gentile priesthood of the world together with Him in Israel. Just as the Aaronic priesthood served other Levites and Israel, so will the Jews serve the Gentiles.

God commands His people to repent with weeping, to “call a solemn assembly” and to “consecrate the congregation,” putting away evil and turning hearts to what is good and from God. Every true servant of God in all time has delivered this same message to God’s elect, while telling them exactly how they have lied and sinned. More importantly, every true servant of God has carefully expounded on what God considers to be right and loving in His own eyes of God. The era of the sixth seal is coming soon. Then the elect will take this matter very seriously and gather in solemn assemblies to consecrate themselves, to separate themselves from false churches and from Satan’s world order, especially from that devil’s religion of Roman humanism. Soon many elect will dedicate themselves to serve God for His purposes and in His actual name, that is, according to His will and commands.

Then the elect will earnestly seek God’s true will and begin to be honest about God’s intended meanings of His words granted through the prophets and apostles. Furthermore, their meetings will be public and transparent, not clandestine meetings to dream up new ways of selling a fake religion, not to lure more people into false churches so they can steal more money from them. In the future, even little children will hear all that is discussed in these assemblies, with deep interest, for even their elect spirits will want to truly know their God and His ways. In a time of crisis, after they know God is their only hope for real salvation, after they realize they can no longer place even a shred of faith in man, nothing will be more important to them than gaining a true knowledge of the real God.

On the day Jesus returns, and after all Israel repents to Him, God will release His loving zeal for His elect Jews. His wrath will suddenly turn against Israel’s enemies and not one of those invaders will be left standing by the end of that day. God is very thorough in His wrath, and none in the valley of Armageddon will escape Him. The beast, and Satan himself, shall be cast into hell within hours after Jesus appears. God has claimed Israel as His own possession for all eternity, and its people as His children forever. Israel will always bear God’s blessings and His name, but also bear His discipline.

Israel has earned some of God’s reproach through their spiritual adultery, by teaching traditions of men and devils, and by refusing to use the name of “Yahweh” in their prayers, as Yahweh directly

 

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commanded them use it. So God has disciplined them more than He has disciplined the non-elect who commit similar sins. For God is the Father of elect Jewish spirits and chastises His own children, not the children of another father. This “reproach among the nations,” among Gentiles, will continue as long as Satan’s world order exists, and will not stop until Jesus destroys it. But a part of His destruction of the devil’s world order will be the destruction of false churches and synagogues.

The beast’s works will be like those of the Roman-like fascists, like those of Hitler and Trump. The humanists of the earth will follow the beast with blind faith, thinking the beast’s destructive lies are the only truths they can trust, fully confident that he cannot be stopped, rejoicing in this “fact.” For they will desire an unjust world ruled by the beast, one that feeds their carnal lusts at the expense of all their other siblings in the family of humankind. All realities and truths will be mere “fake news” to them, since they will become so deluded that they will not be able to trust anything but the lies of their worshiped human gods. But we must not let ourselves become like them, and pray that God does not hand us over to Satan’s delusions for the destruction of our flesh. We are to fear God more than the beast or anyone else, and place our trust in Him, by trusting His intended meaning of His own just and loving words. In the end, only faith in Him will save us from a deluded and futile life.

True faith from the minds of our spirits shall result in gladness of heart and inner rejoicing. God has infinitely greater power than the beast, and God’s ways are infinitely more trustworthy. In the Messiah Jesus, the whole of Yahweh dwells, and His body of flesh will descend to save all loving souls from the beast, by casting the beast into hell while he is still alive, with his father, Satan. Jesus alone bears genuine authority over all that exists. Whatever Jesus commands is done—not just by the hands of those who fear Him, but by all that exists, through His omniscient power within Him. Jesus’ Spirit merely thinks a thought and it is done. Since Jesus alone bears this true authority, He alone defines truth. For He alone created all effective and extant truths. He alone caused all things to exist and causes all to continue to exist according to His created principles. He alone designed all the ways that all created spiritual and physical existence can function most effectively, efficiently and harmoniously. So none but His ways are truth. Anything that deviates from His ways is false, is either less effective or outright destructive, causing disharmony and will eventually even death.

Humanists, who now run the false churches and the world, cannot even begin to imagine the nature of Christ’s true authority or truths. This is why they invent their own lies which they falsely call the “truth.” All they are capable of acknowledging is a lie, a fake authority, a delusion of power which they force everyone to accept as the only “reality” and “truth,” as they ridicule and persecute all who actually do proclaim and practice real and effective truths. The families of whole nations, down to the smallest family units, preach the religion of humanism, the worship of humans through esteem and service, saying humans are the “heads” of others. All replace our God Jesus, who is the only true Head of every individual. Before humanists will recognize any family, business, church, society, organization or governing body, they require it to be structured as a hierarchical structure with some human serving as its “head.” So the flat organizational structure of a true church of real believers, with Jesus as its one Head over all, seems impossible and unreal to them. They cannot see how Jesus our God can be the only Head of every man, nor how a body of His awakened elect can do what God calls, convicts and commands each elect spirit to do individually, yet in perfect harmony with all the others in that body. A true church can accomplish far more loving, good, effective and beneficial works than any organization headed by a human being. And Jesus will soon create true churches.

Since the true church will never be ruled by a hierarchy of human beings, a humanist cannot accept the true church as real. To humanists, it is impossible for God to govern the everyday lives of all His people, because they believe a human god must “take responsibility” to “lead” the people, instead of

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Jesus. And they cannot see how their hierarchical systems, which they insist upon, actually transfer all “responsibility” for their many inevitable failures onto scapegoats, whom they forcibly cast down to the bottom of their hierarchies, or completely outside their hierarchy, or unjustly persecute with a vengeance. Then their fake successes, which are deadly errors in disguise, are attributed to their human heads, to their human gods who actually have not done any of the real work at all. In the end, only the marginalized and outcasts actually bear all the real consequences of all the foolish works of these fake human “heads” in their humanistic organizations, because humanists exploit whomever they can overpower. Humanists have always nourished themselves on the blood, sweat and tears of the souls they could unjustly crush through the use of lies and brute force. They are all exploiters.

Humanists have always deflected all blame away from themselves, though they are the principal causes of most evils upon this earth today. Nor do their heads ever really “lead.” Their heads simply deceive with motivational rhetoric, or force acquiescence, all to fulfill their carnal desires. And, in reality, all their “heads” are merely the weakest and most blind puppets of Satan. The devil pulls the strings of circumstances, then whispers a few words in their ears, so they will run to do his bidding. For God handed them over to become the slaves of demons. So their “greatest” are the least of all.

But, in the true church, the created innate natures and earthly lives of God’s awakened elect children are shaped by the teaching and training that God, their Father, which He grants to the minds of their spirits. His Spirit personally pours whole concepts of truth into their spirits, then trains them through the circumstances He personally causes. Ultimately, God either saves souls or hands souls over to Satan. And not one human is ever able to gain any true authority over one’s own life at all, much less over the lives of others. God alone possesses all authority. And God, by His loving nature, cannot even stop Himself from serving His creations through love, which necessitates His rule over all that He is causing to exist in real time. Thus, in the end, only His loving justice will prevail in heaven and on the earth. Whether or not humans want it, God will set elect spirits free and cast out the rest.

Jesus, the Creator of the earth and the heavens, will renew all physical existence when He returns, restoring the earth to a condition that resembles its original state. So, just as it was in the beginning, there will be no authoritative hierarchies of men, since all will be able to appeal directly to Jesus regarding any matter, large or small. There will be no oppressive financial or military systems that allow the elite to oppress others. Although there will be men appointed as judges (i.e., as teachers of God’s Word and decision makers based on His Word), literally all will directly serve Jesus as their highest authority, as the Head of every man, without any interference from anyone or anything. Jesus will personally teach each elect man’s spirit, so that every elect man will know Him and His ways.

And Jesus will be readily accessible to every man, woman or child at all times. For His Spirit is not confined by space and time, so all will be able to pray from their spirits to His Spirit. Thus, once He awakens, purifies and restores His relationship will all the elect of the world, He will never allow any hierarchical system of different classes of elite to maintain “order” ever again. He will build a system where each individual works according to one’s own God-given abilities and teachings, with neither greater nor lesser esteem than the others. For Jesus will rule the whole earth according to His teachings, which are now found in His creations and in His Word. Then all goods and services will be freely obtained to all and from all, according to individual needs, as they were in the beginning. Each will freely give one’s excess time, energy and resources, then freely receive all that one needs.

If all joyfully work at the occupations they were created to do, where all do what each one’s spirit most strongly desires to do through one’s body of flesh, all that needs to be done will be done. For each inherently desires to do a variety of spiritual, intellectual and physical works, but specializing

 

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in certain kinds of works, and God has made each to fulfill a niche in His kingdom. Then all the awakened elect will work together as one, not in competition with each other. When some need help in their primary occupations, such as farmers at the harvest, many will pitch in and help. When one is sick, others will take up the slack. In this way, all will be administered directly through the will of our God Jesus, personally worked through the spirits of His elect, in a perfect harmonious balance.

And equality, with loving personal relationships between all, will be achieved, although Jesus will also appoint some men to teach and to convey His will to His people, since all elders will be fully equal to all others, and focusing on serving for the good of all others, not on power, wealth nor any other self-indulgent purposes. The only authority anyone will be allowed to bear will be limited to whatever they receive directly from Jesus, to accomplish His will. None will bear any personal authority whatsoever. None will be able to force another to do anything according to one’s own personal will. God’s elect shall be truly free, that is, able to genuinely fulfill all of their hearts’ good desires. All the elect will be taught to be truly wise—able to walk according what their spirits learn from God, and able to subjugate their flesh with their minds of their spirits. And this kind of true wisdom does what is good and beneficial for all, according to God’s will. Since the elect shall only will to do wise good, they will be allowed to do whatever their spirits want to do, in total freedom.

But, for now, the loveless and unwise non-elect dwell among us. And these non-elect, who want to lie and sin to appease their own selfish, exploitative desires of their flesh, in ways that harm or kill others. So the non-elect must be carefully monitored and restrained, although only as much as is necessary to protect others. And they can perform occupations where it is impossible for them to harm others or hold authority over others. And truth must be publicly taught to all, and must take precedence over all, guarded and protected for all. And it must be real truth, not the speculations and philosophies of men, although those too must be openly discussed. Algorithms in mass media must present truths and facts as the primary options for the people, above all financial, political or private considerations. Then crimes and wars will be rare, and “swords” will be made into a “plowshares.”

Life is so complex that humans cannot rule over it, neither human societies nor natural systems. The only works that each human can do are those which God teaches and trains one to do, in a system where everyone trusts God to care for all the other aspects of life. We must serve God by serving His creations in the ways God enables each to serve, no more and no less. For instance, technology will likely advance exponentially through an almost infinite increase in access to knowledge about God’s creations, but will not advance through the hierarchical systems we now employ for education and in research institutions. For keeping order is not achieved by maintaining class systems in hierarchies. And, actually, the same principle applies to all knowledge. Rather than hierarchies, we merely need to recognize whom God calls, teaches and trains to do each kind of work, then freely share all that is known about that kind of work. Then we need teachers whom God has called to teach and share that information in an effective way. For teaching is an art, and a very personal connection with students.

Knowledge must be used to fulfill God’s commands to love Him, to love His people and to love His creations, not to make a few elite psychopaths wealthy and powerful. This includes His commands to care for the garden of the earth and to “name” or take responsibility for the well-being of animals. So knowledge will advance and will be freely obtained for whatever good things anyone needs, when Jesus restores the earth. But it will no longer be allowed to control or harm anyone or anything as a god. Knowledge will be granted for a joyful, willing service to God, His people and His creations.

When it says that Israel “shall never again be put to shame,” it means they will never again fall into the kinds of lies, delusions and sins that they fell into throughout all their past generations, and will

 

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never again need to be punished like they were in the past. They will never see any famine, drought, warfare, persecution, oppression or any other kind of corporate discipline from God. For they will not lie and sin as a nation again. But how can this happen? If there was such a thing as a “free will,” where each individual is able to create the one’s own nature and essence, where all one’s own core attributes are self-made and self-shaped, then this could never occur. Israel and the world “shall never again be put to shame” only if God is the only one who creates, predestines and shapes us all.

Yet this prophecy will be fulfilled, because God is indeed the only one who teaches and trains each individual elect spirit and all life. For the whole concept of “free will” is simply a vain attempt to make oneself into one’s own god, nothing but an irrational, selfishly perpetuated, pagan myth. In reality, we are what God makes us to be, spiritually and physically, and cannot possibly be anything other than what He has caused us to be. We only inwardly desire whatever God created the core attributes of our spirits to desire, and what He shaped our spirits to desire. The innate nature of our elect spirits was entirely inherited from God when we were created in His image, and was then further molded by God’s inner teachings and His training throughout our lives. Therefore, when Jesus returns and grants repentance to the spirits of all the elect, then all those awakened, taught, trained elect shall desire and do God’s will. Therefore, they “shall never again be put to shame.”

From generation to generation, each Jew will become a faithful priest of Christ, serving only Jesus with all of one’s heart, as the hosts, examples and assistant teachers of all the Gentiles coming to see Jesus. Literally all Jewish people will come to personally know Yahweh their God. For all will be taught by Jesus directly. Our God Jesus will make all this happen. Jesus will change them. He will enable all to be truly faithful. In this way, He will serve them in all the ways they always hoped He would, as their personal teaching and training God, and they will truly worship Him as their God.

The word “afterward” (2:28) might be better translated here as “in the end times” (Hebrew achar = “end” or “last part,” although it also means “after”). For this prophecy is a summary of the end times, culminating in the Day of Yahweh, when Jesus will return. The “end part” will be when Jesus shall pour out His Holy Spirit, causing His people to prophesy (utter the words that He commands them to speak), dream prophetic or instructive dreams, see visions of events, and so on. What Joel called the pouring out of God’s Spirit is what John called the sealing of the saints during the era of the sixth seal, then throughout the era of the seventh seal, including the millennium of His rule on earth. And when it says He “will pour out [His] Spirit on all flesh,” we must understand the word “all” (Hebrew = kol) to mean “all kinds of” elect souls, that is, without any distinction made between Jews and Gentiles, for it obviously does not include the non-elect God-haters following the beast.

In the last chapter of this prophecy, God reveals why He will judge the nations of the world, and reaffirms that He will save Israel. God declares, “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat” (3:1-2). So God will restore Judah and Jerusalem, with Jews and His temple, before He will “gather” the beast’s international armies in the land, with their base camp set up in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which is also called Armageddon. God first returns a relatively large population of Jews to Israel, enough to build His temple and form a significant resistance to the beast’s armies. And these Jews are not yet repentant, although many are God’s elect and will repent later, on “the Day of Yahweh.” Then the beast will rise to power, and attack Israel, as per all the other prophecies.

The name of the Valley of Jehoshaphat (or ‘Valley of judgment’ or ‘Valley of Decision’) is not actually known through past writings or archaeology. But it will be a wide open area in Israel with good roads to Jerusalem. Also, its name implies that it is a place where a significant event occurred

 

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in the days of Jehoshaphat. So it may refer to a valley less than about a day’s journey east or south of Jerusalem where an eastern coalition of armies from Moab, Ammon and Edom destroyed themselves in Jehoshaphat’s time. This coalition of enemies gathered to war against Jehoshaphat and Israel but, on their way to battle, God filled their minds with such extreme anger against one another that they fought among themselves, until most were killed and the rest fled. When Jehoshaphat and his army arrived to confront this coalition in the valley, they found dead bodies with their equipment and supplies abandoned on the fields. So Israel’s armies gathered up the valuables and returned to Jerusalem, to worship Yahweh and give Him thanks for His deliverance from their enemies. But the biblical account of this event (see II Chron. 20:1-30) does not provide the location of that valley, and these events occurred between about 873-849 BC. So the location of that valley in no longer known.

Some say all this occurred in the Kidron Valley sitting between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. But that is far too close, and not likely. Besides, Joel said God will gather an extremely large enemy army, “all kinds of nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.” This must refer to the beast and his many international allies, a massive army of hundreds of thousands with equipment like modern weapons and vehicles. Since the Kidron Valley is actually in Jerusalem, if Jesus waited until the beast’s massive armies reached that Kidron Valley, Jerusalem would have already been bombed and most of it would be in ruins, with most of the people dead or wounded before Jesus appeared in the sky on “the day of Yahweh.” There would not be much left in Jerusalem for Jesus to return to, and the temple above that valley would be severely damaged, almost unusable for the evening sacrifices. Also, Jesus would have a very difficult time walking from the Mount of Olives across a virtual river of blood and bodies in the Kidron Valley, into the eastern gate of the temple.

So, considering the other prophecies about “the day of Yahweh,” the Valley of Jehoshaphat cannot be the Kidron Valley. Therefore, it is far more likely that Joel is prophesying included the beast’s shock troops sent east and southwest of Jerusalem in advance of the main army, but that army’s main base was located in a valley miles from Jerusalem. And it is in a valley where the main base of the beast’s armies will camp that most will die on that day, and many in a similar way, with the armies of the beast’s coalition killing one another. Joel is saying that the beast’s main army camp will be in the same valley where the armies of Moab, Ammon and Edom were doomed by God in Jehoshaphat’s day. As for the shock troops, they too will perish on that day, since none in that army will survive.

Previously, Joel referred to a part of the beast’s large army, the “vanguard’ (front troops), being driven into the “eastern sea,” likely meaning the Dead Sea (2:20). This can happen if that vanguard will be positioned east of Jerusalem, but likely would not occur if they were located in the Kidron Valley or anywhere west of Jerusalem. If they were located at Jerusalem or west of it, they would join the rest of the army as they retreated toward the “western sea” (i.e., the Mediterranean coast). So here Joel was saying that some of the “vanguard” will be separated from the main body of the army, located nearer to the “eastern sea,” after circling around the stronghold of Jerusalem to attack Israel’s troops fleeing east, after surrounding Jerusalem. But it would not be the “vanguard” which would be located in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. It would be the main body of the beast’s army located there.

Thus, when the beast’s army enters that valley and sets up its main camp there, it will be a sign that Christ’s return and Jerusalem’s salvation will happen within days. Jesus will return after the beast enters this final stage. And He will not find them innocent or repentant. So Jesus will destroy them all, beginning by causing the international armies to kill one another, as they did in Jehoshaphat’s day. The main body of the beast’s armies will be in Armageddon, below Megiddo, as the other prophecies state. And Joel calls that valley “Jehoshaphat” because those multinational armies will destroy one another as they did in Jehoshaphat’s day. Joel is using a figurative name for the valley.

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The factious and ruthless humanists in the beast’s army will deserve their fate, because of the sins Joel mentions here. Our God Jesus “will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of [His] people and [His] heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up [His] land, and have cast lots for [His] people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it” (3:2b-3). And this is not merely referring to the sins of that generation of Roman humanists in the beast’s army, but the sins of all generations of the beast.

The four kingdoms described by Daniel, and especially the fourth Roman kingdom of the beast, which Christ’s Revelation to John also prophesied about, were the ones who did all this evil to God’s land of Israel and to God’s people, to His heritage. The first three kingdoms of the beast, Babylon, Persia and Greece, committed all these sins. Then Rome crushed the land of Israel in AD 70 and AD 135, expelling most of the Jews remaining in the land. Rome, over the past two millenniums, was the one who truly “scattered them among the nations.” And it was the beast’s Roman kingdom which had “divided up” God’s land of Israel among other Roman humanists, including the Muslims. And factions of Roman humanists, including the Muslims, have re-divided that land many other times during the ensuing centuries, eventually turning that fertile land into a wasteland. Rome also took many Jews home as slaves. And Romans were extremely sexually immoral people who loved their drink. So they did not spare slaves from their drunken lusts. Nor did the more sober Muslim slavers refrain from sexual immorality. Clearly this part of the prophecy is mostly referring to the Roman Empire, the fourth kingdom prophesied by Daniel, the world power which the future beast will rule.

Then Joel suddenly digresses and prophesies about Tyre, Sidon and Philistia. These refer to the lands we now call Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, where the Hamas and Hezbollah are now warring against Israel. And God asked them, “Are you paying Me back for something?” (3:4b). God knows that their death cults are simply lying to themselves, deluding themselves and causing their own destruction. So God states: “If you are paying Me back, I will return your payments on your own head swiftly and speedily” (3:4c). For they are thieves and enslavers, vile sinners. And they tried to steal God’s land, which God put in the stewardship of Israel forever. God Himself testifies against them: “For you have taken My silver and My gold, and have carried My rich treasures into your temples. You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border. Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head. I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for Yahweh has spoken” (3:5-8). The Sabeans lived in what is now Yemen, Eritrea and Ethiopia. And Iran (Persia) is now supporting the terrorists in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Yemen. But God has brought His people back to Judah, and they are warring against all the places mentioned by this prophecy of Joel.

Irrational revenge against God Himself is what those terrorists really want, in their frustration over the suffering of their people, although they themselves have caused their own suffering and deaths. And, yes, they are a displaced people. But their allies displaced thousands of Jews, who all found a home in Israel. Meanwhile, the vast majority of those terrorists came from Egypt, Syria and other surrounding nations, but did not return to those lands after they caused themselves to be displaced through their senseless acts of violence and antisemitism, although Israel did adopt thousands of them who were not violent and antisemitic. Then their own homelands did not want them back either, since they were far too irrational, radical and violent. So now they now lie and say they murder the innocent for their god. But the real God also rejects those terrorists, whose leaders spend their ill-gotten wealth on weapons and luxuries while their people starve. So God will destroy them.

 

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Since we see this prophecy about Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen currently being fulfilled, even through the agency of foreign nations whom God has called to support Israel, through the power of God to influence and cause human agents to think and do His will on earth, we know the end times are near. Joel prophesied about those lands as a sign to us, that the eras of the sixth and seventh seals will be upon us soon, that the days of the beast’s attempt to destroy Israel and the Middle East draw near. For Joel’s prophecy speaks about the beast’s international armies coming to Israel begin in very next verses. In harmony with all the other end-time prophecies, God’s prophecy here is definitely about the beast’s Roman kingdom after he becomes the dominant world power and tries to destroy Israel.

So, not long after those terrorists meet their end, God says this will happen: “Proclaim this among the nations: Consecrate for war; stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, ‘I am a warrior.’ Hasten and come all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there” (3:9-11a). So this is clearly an international army coming against Israel, as the Revelation and other prophecies also proclaim. But the very next line is: “Bring down Your warriors, O Yahweh” (3:11b). And “bring down” means from heaven, referring to the angels with our God Jesus as He descends from the sky on “the day of Yahweh.” Jesus and His angels will destroy those international armies of the beast.

Then God tells us where this will occur, and how it will happen: “Let the nations stir themselves up and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great. Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of [Yahweh] is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. [Yahweh] roars from Zion, and utters His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But [Yahweh] is a refuge to His people, a stronghold to the people of Israel” (3:12-16). So this alludes to a harvest with a sickle and to the crushing of grapes in a winepress, just as the Revelation and other prophecies do, regarding the destruction of the beast’s armies at Armageddon, which Joel calls the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And this will be done to protect God’s people, the elect in Jerusalem and Israel. Since the “evil is great” in the beast’s armies, God’s judgment will destroy them all, leaving none alive. All this will be done in one unique day, without the light of the sun, moon or stars, in the darkness of God’s wrath. They came to murder Israel, but God executes them.

Here the prophecy confirms that God will call many nations to join the beast in his enraged invasion of Israel, as it says in the Revelation. They will even sacrifice the production of food on their agricultural lands, by fashioning the metal in their farming tools into weapons, so they can fight in this war through their hatred of God and His people of Israel. They will starve their people so they can murder the Jews. Even the weakest humanist among them will hate God and the Jews so much that he will give up his day job to make himself into a “warrior.” Clearly, this accurately describes the antisemitism of fascists in Europe and around the world. And the beast will be what we now call a fascist. For he will be esteemed and served, worshiped by his people, who believe his lies as their only truths, while they reject all genuine facts and truths as lies. Then they will murder and plunder their siblings in the family of humankind, to become a self-serving kingdom of privileged enslavers.

In the Revelation, during what is called the sixth bowl of God’s wrath, God will send three unclean spirits out from the mouths of the beast and his propagandist, the false prophet. These demonic and deluding spirits will rile up the God-haters all over the world, so they might join the beast in his final war against Israel (Rev. 16:12-16). Ultimately, God will cause all the nations who hate Him to gather their fighting men, the strength of their nations, in Israel, to be judged and destroyed. God will command demons to stir up the antisemitic, God-hating humanists of the world and make them eager

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to murder the innocent in God’s promised land. Through the lies of those demons, they will become enraged against God and against all that is just and true, then rise up to defend their “right” to make their own unjust laws and their “right” to brutally enslave or murder other human beings. Like the humanistic Greeks, Romans, Communists, Nazis, so-called “Christian” popes and dictators, Muslim dictators, capitalist dictators and other humanists before them, the beast and his allies will insist that they alone have the right to demand that their lies and whims must be catered to by the entire world.

They will rage with great indignation against all who oppose them, against everyone who rejects their irrational, unjust, evil and destructive ways, which they will call necessary to preserve “order” in all the lands of the earth. And they will hate most the religions of biblical Judaism and biblical Christianity, since those religions do not allow men to worship themselves or other moral men. As humanists defending the religion of Roman humanism, they will gather to invade Israel, because Israel rebelled against the demonic beast. The humanistic armies of the beast and his allies will try to destroy everyone and everything in the land, simply because that land perpetuates the worship of God through the religion of biblical Judaism which is fulfilled by biblical Christianity. Yet God will expose the ruthless, destructive, vile nature of these humanists, even as He calls them to attack Him, the Source of all just love. All these humanists will assemble from all their nations to utterly annihilate every trace of pure, biblical Judaism and Christianity. But their own religion of humanism will be crushed to dust instead. God will allow them to conquer His land to a point, but only so He can gather them in His land for their judgment at the Valley of Jehoshaphat. As soon as they enter that valley, God will judge and slay them. They will not touch Jerusalem, nor His elect Jews there.

As mentioned, the Revelation (14:14-20) uses the same metaphors for the same event, to describe how the beast and his armies will be slaughtered at Armageddon: a sickle will be gathering the harvest and the grapes will be crushed in a winepress. John also told us that the beast will come after God brings darkness to the beast’s land (Rev. 16:10-11). Both Joel and John prophesied the same things about God’s destruction of the armies of the beast and his world-wide allies, who had come to war against God and to destroy Israel. This judgment from Yahweh will not result in the repentance of the beast’s armies, since nothing in their non-elect spirits can desire repentance into God’s truth and ways. For the inherent nature of their spirits is the same as their father, a liar and a murderer from his beginning. So that day will end with their doom. All will perish by the hands of Jesus.

The one and only Creator and God is a blessed refuge to His elect children, their stronghold, although all are sinners. Some elect have sinned as bad or worse than the non-elect whom God will destroy in hell. But there is a great difference between the two. For the elect have spirits made in God’s image, spirits made able to actually love in a just way, as God also loves. And, since all real love is built upon truth, the elect desire truth, and are able to repent into God’s truth. So, yes, God will also judge His sinful elect children. But His judgment of His elect will be to correct them, by teaching them the fullness of His truth for their repentance into it, and by training them in His just ways, so they might love fully, joyfully, wisely, justly, grounded in His created realities. God’s kind of judgment always seeks first to cause repentance in all who are able to repent. God only punishes those who willfully refuse to repent into a knowledge of truth. So Jesus will judge the elect too, but only to convict the minds of their spirits, to cause true and godly sorrow which leads to repentance.

To know Yahweh is to see all that He is, all His attributes and His inner nature, realizing that He is a Spirit whose core nature is just and real love, who is the Source of all just, pure love. As the elect (whose human spirits were created in God’s image, with His attributes) begin to know Yahweh, they begin to love Him and worship Him directly from the minds of their human spirits, in verity, reality, and truth. To know that God is Yahweh is to place all your confidence and trust in Him and His love,

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where one can no longer place any faith in oneself or anyone else. Yahweh, Jesus, is our only God, the only Source of all we inwardly desire. All who do not truly know Yahweh, all who are unloving “strangers” to Him, will also be unloving “strangers” to His elect children as well. Then, as those “strangers” suffer the consequences of their own lies and sins, they will falsely accuse His elect of causing their suffering, in the same way they falsely accuse God Himself. Their hatred of both God and His elect is itself a lie, but they will never be corrected by the truth, because they hate the truth.

Our God, Yahweh the Messiah, will not grant those lying and hating “strangers” access to His holy presence in Zion, where He dwells. Yet we, His elect, both Jews and Gentiles, shall freely approach Jesus and our Father there, in spirit or in body, after Jesus returns. This is why, after God spoke about His judgment of “strangers” in the beast’s armies, He then prophesies this: “So you shall know that I am [Yahweh] your God, who dwells in Zion, My holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it. And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of [Yahweh] and water the Valley of Shittim” (3:17-18). That is, when Jesus returns, only His elect Jewish and Gentile children shall enter Jerusalem and stand on His holy mountain called Zion, within the temple walls, to pray and to hear the teachings of Jesus.

The Valley of Shittim or Valley of Acacias or Abel-shittim, likely refers to a place on the other side of the Jordan River, opposite Jericho, where Moses repeated God’s law to Israel (in Deuteronomy). It is also where Israel was enticed into harlotry with prostitutes from Moab and Midian through the wicked cunning of Balaam. So this prophecy seems to be saying that fresh water will flow from Jerusalem down to the Jordan River, and overflow or flood into the other side to purify it. This also implies that some land on the other side of the Jordan will once more belong to Israel. Here Joel confirms what other prophets and apostles said, that the Messiah, Yahweh, will restore the land of Israel when He returns. Not only will Jesus restore all that was damaged or destroyed by the beast, but also all that was taken captive and destroyed by the wicked throughout history. And He will give it back to Israel, all the land He promised to Abraham, all the land to the Euphrates River and some lands east of the Jordan river. These lands will no longer be dry and fruitless, but will become rich agricultural lands producing even milk, able to support many cattle and goats, as well as crops. Then Jesus our God will restore most other places on the earth too, everywhere that His beloved elect live.

The last three verses are God’s summary and final statement of the days in after Joel’s lifetime, the future times until the end times: “Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the people of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem to all generation. I will avenge their blood, blood I have not avenged, for [Yahweh] dwells in Zion” (3:19-21). What is said here about Egypt and Edom (south and east of the Dead Sea, later called the Idumaea, whose people converted to Judaism during the Hasmonean dynasty) was fulfilled after Joel’s time, up to this very day. So these verses should not be included with the with the other prophecies about the end times in the previous verses.

Here Joel’s prophecy was saying that “Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom a desolate wilderness” until just before the end times, just as Judah would. And all those lands did become desolate until recent times. However, God also said people would inhabit Judah and Jerusalem throughout that time, and implied that these people would be the indigenous Jews. And Jews did live in Judah and Jerusalem throughout history, from the days of Joel until their expulsion by Rome. Even then, Jews lived in Judah, and Jerusalem again, until the Zionists began to bring far more Jews back to their land in the 19th century. But all these lands were ruled and exploited by other nations, so all became a sparsely populated wastelands in the passing centuries. Even Jerusalem was all but

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forsaken, except for its religious significance to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Yet none completely forgot about them, since the Scriptures spoke about them. And all would be blessed in the end times.

God was speaking about Egypt and Edom when they practiced false belief systems in Joel’s day, when he gave this prophecy. Egypt and Edom were defined by pagan religious and cultural precepts that opposed God. And it was their religions which caused them to do evil. Yet all that defined Egypt back in Joel’s day has completely passed away. And all that defined ancient Edom, the land which plundered Judah during the Babylonian and Persian invasions of Judah, has since been eradicated, even by the time of the Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires. The Edomites of Joel’s day were later called Idumaeans, and were forcibly converted to Judaism by the Maccabees in about 125 BC. After that, Edom did not exist. Furthermore, the lands of Egypt and Edom also saw much destruction too.

Thus, in these verses (19-21), God primarily prophesied about the destruction of their religious and belief systems. In stark contrast, the religion and culture of the prophets like Joel (biblical Judaism and pure Christianity) has been preserved to this very day. And all generations of true Jews, as well as true Christians, have always prayed for Judah and the city of Jerusalem. Also, there have always been Jews inhabiting Judah and Jerusalem, and always will be, until the earth ends. But prophecies never say that, in the end times, Egypt and Edom will be “a desolate wilderness.” Rather, Edom is now part of Israel, and Egypt is to become a Christian nation in the end times, even prosperous after Jesus returns. Therefore, the main point of this last statement (in verses 19-21) is simply to say that God would “avenge” the injustice done to His people of Judah, by Egypt and Edom, at a time after this prophecy. For both Egypt and Edom killed and plundered Judah and Jerusalem. Yet God has almost completed that work. And, during the end times, God will save the elect in Egypt and Edom.

God appoints a right time for all things. His vengeance waits for the right time, so all who can repent will have time to repent, and depart from the wicked whom God will punish. First God exposes the lies and delusions which cause a people to do evil with His truth, which He proclaims through His Word, through His creations and through human agents like His prophets. After this, and after the elect repent into His truth, God judges and punishes the wicked remaining in that land. God will strike down those who deliberately continue to do evil after He exposes it, those who love the darkness of those lies and delusions more than the light of truth, after His elect have flesh from them.

But the elect must realize that one of Satan’s lies is that all have “free will,” that all can become true Jews or true Christians by choice, that all are potentially God’s people and all are able to repent into the truth. This simply is not true. And when Satan tells that lie, he also convinces the elect to remain with the non-elect in false synagogues and churches, where those non-elect perpetuate the lies and delusions they love most, while clouding and nullifying the real truth. And, since the elect remain among the non-elect, without rebuking and leaving them, God will not judge those institutions that perpetuate evil in the land. When the elect believe such lies, they prevent God’s justice from working to cleanse a land, although God continues to proclaim His truths and will judge some individuals.

As elect spirits awake and repent into the truth, the non-elect immediately begin to hate them and separate themselves from those elect. So this makes it very easy for the elect to separate themselves from the non-elect—that is, as long as the non-elect are unable to gas-light those elect, are not able to convince those elect that they are “divisive” and wrong about believing the truth, that the elect must let the non-elect rule over their lives because only the non-elect know what is good for them. When this mutual separation occurs, then God’s vengeance can justly judge and destroy institutions which perpetuate lies and delusions, which do evil and slander God’s name. For only then can His vengeance destroy the wicked without also destroying the innocent with them. But, if God struck

 

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down the unjust as soon as they did evil, He would need to kill both the elect and non-elect together, and even Satan might be able to justly accuse God of being unjust. Therefore, whether we like it or not, we must wait for God to determine the day of His vengeance through His wisdom, according to His insight. But elect spirits must also let God prepare them for that day, and separate from the liars and evildoers. We must not let the emotions of our flesh guide us, but only God, allowing His Holy Spirit to command all our thoughts regarding all things, especially in matters pertaining to justice.

The Book of Zephaniah

Like the book of Joel, almost the entire prophecy of Zephaniah is about the time of the seventh trumpet, about the days just prior to “the great day of Yahweh,” when Jesus returns. So, like the book of Joel, the whole book of Zephaniah will be presented at once, instead of dividing it into parts under various headings. And it too serves as a good summary and introduction to the prophecies about the time of the seventh trumpet. Of course, Zephaniah prophesied about Babylon invading Judah in 597 and 586 BC. But this was because Babylon is the head of the beast. So he spoke of the final Roman beast when he spoke of Babylon, and saw Babylon’s sixth-century invasion as a precursor to the future beast’s invasion. Zephaniah merged his prophecies about the ancient and end-time Babylon.

Still, we need to realize that Zephaniah prophesied during the reign of Josiah, the king of Judah (c. 715-686 BC). He penned these words not too long after Assyria invaded and deported many from the northern tribes of Israel in about 721 BC. This was before Babylon rose from within Assyria to be a great power, and likely also after Sennacherib destroyed Babylon in about 689 BC. He prophesied this when Babylon was at its weakest point in history, long before Babylon seized control of Assyria in about 612 BC. Since Babylon was not a significant power then, and since Zephaniah prophesied this long before God’s revelations to Daniel and the latter prophets, he called the Babylonians the Chaldeans, and these early prophecies about the beast are not as clear as they are in Daniel or in the Revelation. Yet—since Zephaniah was of royal blood (he was the great-great-grandson of Hezekiah, a previous king of Judah)—he acquired an inside knowledge of Israel’s royal court, both its secular rulers and its priesthood. Thus, he likely prayed long and hard about their hypocrisy. So God granted him this prophecy in answer to his prayers. Consequently, his prophecies expose much deep-rooted corruption in the church (Israel), and relates this to the kind of corruption we will find in the church before Jesus returns. As a result, this prophecy confirms and expounds upon many latter prophecies.

Zephaniah 1:1 to 3:20 (ESV): “The word of [Yahweh] that came to Zephaniah the son of

Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of

Amon, king of Judah. ‘I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth,’

declares [Yahweh]. [This is misleading. The word translated as ‘everything’ is the Hebrew word ‘kole,’ and

must be translated in context. The word ‘kole’ can mean literally ‘all’ or ‘everything,’ but often means ‘all

kinds of, all manner of, many different kinds of,’ and so on. In this context, it is irrational to translate it as

‘everything,’ since this prophecy clearly states that God will leave much of the world as an inheritance for His

people. The only rational translation is something like: ‘I will utterly remove many kinds [of people and things]

from the face of the earth.’] ‘I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the

heavens and the fish of the sea, and the rubble with the wicked. I will cut off mankind from

the face of the earth,’ declares [Yahweh]. [Again, this is misleading since it implies that God will

remove all men and all creatures from the earth. In the context of this is simply saying that many men and

creatures will be removed from the earth (killed). Some interpolated words should be removed and other

changes made, so it may be interpreted: ‘I will remove man and beast. I will remove birds of the sky and fish of

the sea, and idols (or enticements) with the wicked. I will cut down men upon the face of the earth.’]

 

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“‘I will stretch out My hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem;

and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal and the name of the idolatrous priests

along with the priests, those who bow down on the roofs to the host of the heavens, those

who bow down and swear to [ Yahweh ] and yet swear by Milcom, those who have turned

back from following [Yahweh], who do not seek [Yahweh] or inquire of Him.’ Be silent

before the Lord [ Yahweh]! For the day of [Yahweh] is near; [Yahweh] has prepared a

sacrifice and consecrated His guests.

“And on the day of [Yahweh’s] sacrifice—‘I will punish the officials and the king's sons and

all who array themselves in foreign attire. On that day I will punish everyone who leaps over

the threshold, and those who fill their Master's house with violence and fraud. ‘On that

day,’ declares [Yahweh], ‘a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate, a wail from the Second

Quarter, a loud crash from the hills. ‘Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar! [Mortar likely is the

marketing district of Jerusalem.] For all the traders are no more; all who weigh out silver are cut

off. At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are

complacent, those who say in their hearts, “[ Yahweh] will not do good, nor will He do ill.”

Their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste. Though they build houses, they

shall not inhabit them; though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them.’

“The great day of [Yahweh] is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of

[Yahweh] is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there. A day of wrath is that day, a day of

distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of

clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and

against the lofty battlements. I will bring distress on mankind, so that they shall walk like

the blind, because they have sinned against [Yahweh]; their blood shall be poured out like

dust, and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them

on the day of the wrath of [Yahweh]. In the fire of His jealousy, all the earth shall be

consumed; for a full and sudden end He will make of all the inhabitants of the earth .

(Chapter 2) “Gather together, yes, gather, O shameless nation, before the decree takes effect

—before the day passes away like chaff—before there comes upon you the burning anger of

[Yahweh], before there comes upon you the day of the anger of [Yahweh]. Seek [Yahweh],

all you humble of the land, who do His just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility;

perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of [Yahweh].

For Gaza [This region is still Philistine, since the word ‘Palestine’ is Latin for Philistine.] shall be deserted

[or ‘relinquished, forsaken’] , and Ashkelon [also a Philistine city, destroyed in 1270, today a city of Israel

about 13 kilometers north of the Gaza Strip, sometimes called Ashqelon] shall become a desolation [or

‘silent, quiet’]; Ashdod's people [Ashdod was once a Philistine city, but was captured by Israel in 1948. It is

now Israel’s largest port, about 20 kilometres north of Ashqelon.] shall be driven out at noon, and Ekron

[once a Philistine city on the border of their territory, now ruins located about 13 kilometers west of Ashdod]

shall be uprooted [or ‘exterminated, done away with’]. Woe to you inhabitants of the seacoast, you

nation of the Cherethites! [The word Cherethites or Kerthites likely refers to the origins of the Philistines,

as a sea people who came from Crete.] The word of [Yahweh] is against you, O Canaan, land of the

Philistines; and I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left. And you, O seacoast, shall be

pastures, with meadows for shepherds and folds for flocks. The seacoast shall become the

possession of the remnant of the house of Judah, on which they shall graze, and in the

houses of Ashkelon they shall lie down at evening. For [Yahweh] their God will be

mindful of them and restore their fortunes.

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“‘I have heard the taunts of Moab [near the Dead Sea in Jordan] and the revilings of the

Ammonites [northwest Jordan], how they have taunted My people and made boasts against their

territory. Therefore, as I live,’ declares [Yahweh] of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Moab shall

become like Sodom, and the Ammonites like Gomorrah, a land possessed by nettles and salt

pits, and a waste forever. The remnant of My people shall plunder them, and the survivors of

My nation shall possess them.’ This shall be their lot in return for their pride, because they

taunted and boasted against the people of [Yahweh] of hosts. [Yahweh] will be awesome [or

‘terrifying’] against them; for He will famish [emaciate/starve] all the gods [rulers/judges/powerful

people] of the earth, and to Him shall bow down, each in its place, all the lands of the nations .

“You also, O Cushites [Sudan and Ethiopia], shall be slain by My sword. And He will stretch

out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria [Iraq/Syria], and He will make Nineveh

[now desolate ruins in Iraq, beside the Tigris River] a desolation, a dry waste like the desert. Herds

shall lie down in her midst, all kinds of beasts; even the owl and the hedgehog shall lodge in

her capitals; a voice shall hoot in the window; devastation will be on the threshold; for her

cedar work will be laid bare. This is the exultant city that lived securely, that said in her heart,

‘I am, and there is no one else.’ What a desolation she has become, a lair for wild beasts!

Everyone who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist.

(Chapter 3) “Woe to her [Jerusalem] who is rebellious and defiled, the oppressing city! She

listens to no voice; she accepts no correction. She does not trust in [Yahweh]; she does

not draw near to her God. Her officials within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening

wolves that leave nothing till the morning. Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men; her

priests profane what is holy; they do violence to the law. [Yahweh] within her [Jerusalem] is

righteous; He does no injustice; every morning He shows forth His justice; each dawn He

does not fail; but the unjust knows no shame.

“‘I have cut off nations; their battlements are in ruins; I have laid waste their streets so that

no one walks in them; their cities have been made desolate, without a man, without an

inhabitant. I said, “Surely you will fear Me; you will accept correction. Then your

dwelling would not be cut off according to all that I have appointed against you.” But all

the more they were eager to make all their deeds corrupt. Therefore wait for Me ,’ declares

[Yahweh], ‘for the day when I rise up to seize the prey. For My decision is to gather

nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out upon them My indignation, all My burning

anger; for in the fire of My jealousy all the earth shall be consumed.

“‘For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of

them may call upon the name of [Yahweh] and serve Him with one accord. From beyond

the rivers of Cush [in all of Africa] My worshipers, the daughter of My dispersed ones, shall

bring My offering. On that day you shall not be put to shame because of the deeds by which

you have rebelled against Me; for then I will remove from your midst your proudly exultant

ones, and you shall no longer be haughty in My holy mountain. But I will leave in your

midst a people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of [ Yahweh], those

who are left in Israel; they shall do no injustice and speak no lies, nor shall there be found in

their mouth a deceitful tongue. For they shall graze and lie down, and none shall make them

afraid.’

“Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O

daughter of Jerusalem! [Yahweh] has taken away the judgments against you; He has cleared

 

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away your enemies. The King of Israel, [Yahweh], is in your midst; you shall never again

fear evil. On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: ‘Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow

weak. [Yahweh] your God is in your midst, a mighty One who will save; He will rejoice over

you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing. I

will gather those of you who mourn for the festival, so that you will no longer suffer

reproach. Behold, at that time I will deal with all your oppressors. And I will save the lame

and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.

At that time I will bring you in, at the time when I gather you together; for I will make you

renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before

your eyes,’ says [Yahweh].”

First let me point out how “the word of Yahweh ... came to Zephaniah.” God’s words simply come to a prophet, according to God’s will, not according to any human will. God sends concepts to the spirit of a person and commands that one to utter those concepts to someone or to a group of people in His name. Thus, there is no possible way to learn to be a prophet of God, and He might choose anyone to utter a prophesy, even a little child. And if God chooses to send a message in His name, according to His will, then none can possibly prophecy in one’s own name, to serve oneself according to one’s own will, nor to appease the wills of other souls. So true prophecy is nothing like the “prophecies” we see uttered by evangelicals and frauds today. All those are false prophets. But, when God begins to recreate His true church during the coming sixth seal’s era, we will see true prophecies once more.

Also look at how Zephaniah provided the name of his father, as was customary. But then he listed the names of three other ancestors too, including Hezekiah, to indicate that he was a great-great-grandson of Hezekiah, the king of Judah (715-786 BC). And he thought this was important for his readers to know. For, as a member of the royal family, he acquired information about Judah which others would find far more difficult to obtain. And God likely chose him to give this prophecy because His people would believe his words, that they came with “insider” knowledge. Zephaniah was probably earnestly praying, with great vexation, about the sins of his people, about the apostasy of the church of Israel. So God wanted him to know what would happen to the people, and to tell His people what would occur in the future. Then many elect would believe him when he spoke about the corruption of the church and ruling elders, so we would not dismiss his words as mere bitterness.

All injustice causing suffering and deaths would be dealt with on “the Great Day of Yahweh” (1:14), when the Messiah Jesus returned. While Zephaniah wrote about the God-confirmed corruption of the rulers, priests and people claiming to belong to the church of Israel at that time (in the 7th century BC), he prophesied that this kind of corruption would exist in the end times too, in our day and until “the Great Day of Yahweh.” And this corruption would cause God to pour out His wrath against the church of Israel and the entire world during the end times. In the latter days, false churches, whom John called the Great Prostitute and her harlot daughters, would practice the same kinds of sins that the church of Israel did in Zephaniah’s day. Also, just as a remnant of faithful souls existed in the days of Zephaniah, there would be a remnant of faithful souls serving the real God in the latter days.

In the end times, the faithful will be revived in spirit and faith by Yahweh, which will be during the era of the sixth seal. God will purify His loving elect, so He might spare them on the day of His wrath. And the extent of His wrath will not leave any part of the earth untouched. Beginning with the world-wide earthquakes and striking meteors initiating the era of the sixth seal, and ending with the plagues of the seven trumpets and seven bowls of wrath, no corner of the earth will be safe from Him until the day of His return. Then He will restore the earth for the elect He chooses to keep alive.

 

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God “will utterly sweep away everything” which is not holy, “from the face of the earth” (1:2). Men, the creatures walking on the ground, the birds and the fish will die, and He will “cut off mankind,” meaning He will destroy the economic, political and military power of all human beings, as well as their supporting infrastructures (1:3a). But, above all, He will cleanse all idolatry from Judah and Jerusalem, even by taking the lives of the non-elect who perpetuate those lies and sins. In the days of Zephaniah, those demonic gods included Baal, “the hosts of the heavens,” Milcon and others. And those who taught this blasphemy were not only the priests of those false gods, but even the priests of of Yahweh too. All Israel had “turned back from following Yahweh,” and did not “seek Yahweh or inquire of Him” (1:6). Likewise, the situation is the same today. But now those demonic gods work through the religion of humanism, and do their evil through the human gods worshiped by Israel.

And the sins of Jerusalem will include maternalistic selfishness and greed, which God will bring to an abrupt halt. For “a loud crash from the hills” will come against the gates of that city, causing the “inhabitants of the mortar,” the people who are only concerned about their houses made from the dirt of God’s land, to “wail” in terror and grief. All commerce will cease, and “all who weigh out silver” shall be “cut off” in death (1:10-11). This indicates the final attack by the international armies of the beast just prior to the second advent of Jesus. For the beast will control the economy of the world by then, and those who buy and sell will need the mark of the beast on their foreheads or hands, as a profession of their esteem, loyalty and service, in their worship of him. God will slaughter all of those ruthless merchants on that day, together will all the armies of the beast camped in the land.

Then God declares that He will carefully search for and punish all “who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, ‘Yahweh will not do good, nor will he do ill’” (1:12). Here God is accurately describing the humanistic religions of false “Judaism” and fake “Christianity,” where the people somehow believe that they themselves determine whether “good” or “ill” will come upon them. Theistic humanists may say they believe in a heavenly god, but they worship themselves and other human gods as their chief gods, as the gods who control their destinies. So they sit in complacency, in a certain faith that they can deliver themselves from all harm and death. Then they somehow think they can fill their lives with good through their own efforts, as they indirectly or directly cause the poverty and deaths of their siblings in humankind. But their faith in themselves and other human gods is always misplaced. Their dead or sleeping spirits can only create empty, loveless lives for themselves, as abused slaves of Satan, ruthlessly forced to obey by the demon taskmaster named Mammon. But our God will punish those dregs of humanity and destroy their self-confidence. For those who trust in themselves will be “plundered, and their houses laid waste” (1:13). All their labor will be for nothing, and their pride in their superficial “independence” will prove to be vain lies.

Despite Judah’s ruthlessness towards the poor, or their violence against the innocent, or their exploitative sexual immorality, Zephaniah suggests that their sin of lacking faith in God, by syncretizing pagan beliefs with their worship of Yahweh, is the worst of all their evils. They seemed to think Baal or Milcom were merely different names for Yahweh. And, since they believed these were all names of the same God, they also somehow believed the false doctrines of those pagan gods were equal to the truths taught by the prophets who taught them in the name of Yahweh. But Baal and Milcom were not real gods and nothing like Yahweh. Nor were their ways anything like the just and loving teachings of Yahweh. Baal and Milcom were actually demonic spirits, the deceiving and destructive enemies of Yahweh, opposed to the core principles of loving justice which the real God, Yahweh, taught from the beginning. Yet, solely because of the selfish and carnally appealing nature of those demons, the people of God’s church of Israel actually preferred those demons to their God.

 

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The false churches have always heeded materialistic, ruthless, unjust demonic spirits like Baal and Milcom more than the real God Yahweh. They have always worshiped other gods before God. They even made Yahweh into an idol they could shape and manipulate through their own wills, and each fake church developed its own god named Yahweh through their own imaginations. Each created a different Yahweh in their own human image, a new kind of god made in the likeness of selfishly ambitious ruling demons like Baal and Milcom. Then they were also teaching and prophesying lies in Yahweh’s name, which is the worst form of abusing God’s name, the worst way of taking God’s name in vain. This refusal to trust and serve God above all other gods, this creation of idols to worship instead of God, and this abuse of God’s name broke the commandments of the first three orders, the first three of the ten archetypal commandments which God gave them through Moses, all of which were granted in order of their importance to God. Therefore, Israel was committing all the worst sins they could possibly commit, sins worse than murder, sexual exploitation, theft and lies.

The blatant religious hypocrisy of their false religion, which pretended to worship God, not only slandered God’s good name, but was eating away at the muscles and bones of their body, the church. The priests and their people outwardly looked devout, as though they were worshiping Yahweh, but stole the faith and strength of the most valuable elect among them. They would bow down and swear to Yahweh, but only to a fake Yahweh imagined in their own self-serving minds, as a grand show of religion with outward displays of humility and sincere-looking gestures. Yet absolutely nothing honest, just or loving dwelt in any of them. They were all unjust and supporting unjust leaders, all suppressing justice and hounding their poorer siblings dwelling among them. And remember, back then, when one made an oath before Yahweh, it meant making a sacrifice, then paying a large fine and calling curses to fall upon oneself if one failed to fulfill that oath. It was fully obligating oneself to do whatever one swore to God that one would to do. Yet this became a favorite way for those hypocrites to pretend to be sincere and fear God, to cause their dupes to believe their lies. Yet they will indeed see curses fall upon them on the last day, after their short lives, even eternal damnation.

Hypocrites never truly fear the real God, because God is slow to reveal His wrath, cautious about causing too much collateral damage to His beloved elect, who will all repent into His loving truths on the judgment day. Yet, at the appointed times, God will hold those destroying liars accountable for their false covenants and oaths. So now let elect spirits, all who rejoice in acts of loving good, even if they have been taught to live only for desires of their flesh, learn to heed no other god before God. May Jesus awaken every elect spirit soon, and divide them from the hypocrites and from those who trust only in their own human strength. For deceptions are multiplied and time is growing short. “The great day of Yahweh is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of Yahweh is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there. A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements” (1:14-16).

It is time to hear our God, for He tells us why the plagues of the sixth and seventh seals will destroy most life on earth. He proclaimed: “I will bring distress on mankind, so that they walk like the blind, because they have sinned against Yahweh; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of Yahweh. In the fire of His jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end He will make of all [kinds of] inhabitants of the earth” (1:17-18). Those eras of the sixth and seventh seals shall eliminate both the liars and their lies from the earth, leaving only a remnant of repentant elect to inherit the entire planet, with our God Jesus ruling over all in justice and truth, through His love for those elect and all life. And none will ever again say that He “will not do good, nor will He do

 

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ill,” that God does not judge between the just and unjust. For, once His Word spreads throughout the world, and He separates the elect from the non-elect, He will indeed justly judge with all His power.

But these members of the church of Israel would willingly and gladly heed demons. They preferred the doctrines of foreign gods to the teachings of Yahweh. And, like today, even the elect among them were so spiritually asleep and lethargic that they required brute physical forces to wake them up. For, when they rejected God’s just and loving words and commands, they rejected the abundant life that could only be maintained by their Creator and Teacher, God Himself. They walked according to what was right in their own eyes, trampling over the poor and making themselves into higher gods than God Himself. No awake elect spirit could ever do what they were doing and remain content, especially not after an elect spirit truly knows, loves, esteems and serves the real God. So the only thing an awake elect spirit like Zephaniah could do is rebuke them and wait for God to correct all.

Naturally, the physical body and mind of flesh can overcome a faithful elect spirit at times, but not for long. A mind of flesh can cause one to sin for a moment, but an elect spirit regains control through God’s interventions and power, then repents. Many sins are committed by the elect, even by the awakened elect who know God. However, for each sin, there is godly sorrow with deep regret, and a greatly lowered esteem which one’s spirit has for its own flesh, followed by the spirit’s true repentance into God’s truth. No true worshiper of the real God can deliberately and daily worship men and demonic gods who breed loveless injustice through lies. No one who is found by God can do what the false priests and members of the church did in Zephaniah’s day without first chasing away or murdering the awakened elect who rebuke them. And now we see the theistic humanists chasing away or murdering the awakened elect. So now almost every church and synagogue in every land worships only human gods instead of the real God, and practices exactly the same kinds of hypocrisy that the false church of Israel did in Zephaniah’s day. So it is now time for God’s wrath.

Then those churches and synagogues use lies to justify the selfish exploitation and oppression of women, through male sexual immorality. Yet God made women equal spiritually, merely different in their earthly expression of the spirit’s love. Women simply practice physical expressions of love or hate within the moral and spiritual frameworks that men create for them. So men are to treat women as their other halves, as one with them, as their closest companions who share in all their works, as those with whom they confide most intimately. And, if women are being oppressed, it is a sign that the men are spiritually and morally wrong before God. Then, after they denigrate and dehumanize women, those fake churches, including synagogues and mosques, also lie to justify their exploitation and oppression of other siblings in the family of humankind, even in murderous ways. They lie and sin in every way. They encourage and partake in deadly forms of injustice and crimes, even in unjust wars, all to gain wealth and power in Satan’s world order. And they lie to themselves more and more, until they can no longer discern between reality and fiction, but insulate themselves from the rational rebukes of others, to prevent others from being able to convince them to turn back from all their sins.

There is very little or nothing left to call true, just, of good report or genuinely noble in churches or synagogues throughout the world. And love grows cold in an environment without truth. Due to the fake churches, men now declare that God is dead, although we are drawing very close to the time when the living and very real God is about to strike the whole earth in His wrath. Another thing we see, as these fake worshipers practice lying to themselves and others, is that they begin to find new ways to impair their own judgments and stimulate their self-justifying delusions, like technology to brainwash themselves with lying propaganda and countless other forms of dissipation. Because of this, their empty, loveless and meaningless lives become totally unreal, and all they are capable of ever feeling are emotions of hate and rage in their minds of flesh. They watch their bodies forced to

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speak and do evil, as though in a nightmare where they have lost all control of themselves, but never actually want control, never want to repent. None experience their own experiences, and are totally unable to see either beauty or the repulsive with any real awareness. Since they continuously lie to themselves, all they desire in life is more lies to make their lives artificially seem to be worth living.

But lies can never be truly satisfying, neither inwardly nor outwardly. So their lives feel futile and without purpose, no matter how many lies they invent or find to bolster their fragile little egos. After God hands them over to delusions, they are already as good as dead, with one foot of their spirits in their eternal home of hell. To gain whatever their flesh covets, in a vain attempt to feel alive, those fake churches and synagogues practice every king of theft that God condemned. They appease the rich, begging for their scraps, while they help the wealthy steal from the poor. They bow before the demon Mammon and heed his doctrines of usury, rejoicing in the illicit interest they receive from loans or the dividends they steal from their stocks and bonds. Their businesses sell essentials to the poor at artificially inflated prices and steal wages from their workers, then ignore their social duties and refuse to give God what He requires for His purposes, including environmental needs and so on.

There are not many lies, sins and forms of theft that the fake churches and synagogues are not willing to commit. Yet they think they will get away with these sins and go directly to heaven, as though they were God’s servants, though they spent their whole lives serving only Satan, Satan’s world order and Satan’s non-elect elite in his kingdom. What they stole from God, they used to build up Satan’s kingdom, and increased poverty, injustice, criminal activity and many other harmful or even deadly effects, without the slightest acknowledgment of their own guilt. There is absolutely nothing in their lives that God’s Word would define as a member of His true church. Yet, these have lied so much to themselves that they somehow think they are good Jews and good Christians, worthy of heaven. Yet God’s wrath, both while they live on earth and when they stand before Him on the last day, will prove otherwise. No one ever really escapes punishment for their deliberate lies and sins.

So the liars and sinners of this world fornicate with strange flesh, causing the spread of deadly diseases, broken homes, impoverished single-parent families, abandoned children, bickering, chaos, emptiness, murders and devastation. Then, in greed, they steal, murder and exploit. But, after seeing all this horror that they themselves caused, they shout, “Look what God has done! Surely we cannot believe in such an evil God!” However, God is about to answer and undo all that evil they caused, by destroying them, the evildoers. Then the surviving elect left upon this earth will shout, “Look at what God has done! He has removed evil from the earth! So let us worship our just and holy God!”

It almost seems as though Zephaniah shouted the words of this prophecy. God was rebuking the fake church of Israel, warning them not to pray for His help as long as they remained unrepentant in all their lies and sins, even sins of idolatry and abusing His name, which He considers to be worse than murder. Before praying, they needed to hear what Yahweh declared about their lies and sins, then repent with godly sorrow into the truth. There must be no attempt to justify their unjustifiable lies and sins, no defense of their false teachings. If they did not truly repent from the very spirits in their hearts, they would be slaughtered and pillaged. By this point in time, there was no more room for any kind of discussion or negotiations with God. Now God was only willing to hear inwardly honest, self-abasing words of a spirit’s deep regret, followed by prayers of repentance into His way of life.

Just as we see in the lying synagogues and fake churches today, God was no longer going to hear any of their prayers asking for His help, and refused to save them from the coming pain and slaughter, since they deliberately continued to sin against Him, against the needy, and against literally all His creations. God had enough, and it was time for judgment. This is the situation for the entire world in

 

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our day, now that His Word and even His saving Gospel has reached the ends of this earth. For God is not merely an invention of man. Man is an invention of the one true Creator God. And all humans on this earth owe God the duty of practicing justice and equity through love for all their siblings in th family of humankind, as well as for all His other creations. All must repent into these truths. Now let us stand bowed and silent before Yahweh our God, and repent into the eternal blessings of His ways.

Although Zephaniah and the other prophets prophesied that God’s end-time judgment would occur in the distant future, they often said the “the day of Yahweh is near,” as though it was going to come within months or a few years. Then the apostles did the same in the New Covenant Scriptures, telling us that Jesus is coming on that day very soon. God’s servants did this because that day is coming soon. For time is relative to space, which means to God’s thoughts. Also, all past and future times exist even now. Furthermore, our spirits only perceive a very short earthly life, and it ends after only one thought in one moment of time in the spiritual realm. Then the spirits of the earthly deceased will receive new bodies made of eternal spiritual substances and face God’s judgment. This judgment on that final day is an aspect of “the day of Yahweh” with the second advent of Jesus, the end of that same day. Thus, although the prophets and apostles knew that day would not occur until many generations of earthly time passed, it is always near, since the death of flesh is always near.

Knowing that the Day of Yahweh is always as near as the deaths of our flesh, faithful servants of God seriously consider these warnings about the day of Yahweh, as an urgent call for repentance. The prophets and apostles all knew that they would soon see the great “Day of Yahweh,” when the Messiah would come to judge them and all the earth. Although, in earthly time, that day would not occur until many centuries passed after they died, that day existed concurrently and beside their own lives on earth. And they all knew everyone’s urgent need for repentance as well. So let us realize this too, that the day of Yahweh Jesus, and His judgment, which all must face, stands before us even now.

God prepared the wicked of Judah for a sin sacrifice, for their own sins, just as the Levites might prepare their animal sacrifices by fencing them in and feeding them well until that day. For the sake of all future souls belonging in His priesthood of Israel, both Jewish and Gentile servants of God, He slaughtered this sacrifice for forgiveness and atonement, to purge evil from our lives. Now let us learn from the loveless emptiness of their greedy, selfish lives, and what God did to them due to their ruthless sins, so we and our loved ones might avoid the same fate. A right interpretation of history will teach us to live abundant lives of loving and being loved, so we will not keep making the same mistakes over and over again. For God blesses a land where His compassion and truth rule over all.

And notice the knife God used to cut the throats of His sacrifice. It was the four headed Babylon. God called Babylon to slaughter and plunder His apostate church, and its most deadly blade was its fourth head of Rome. Yet Babylon was a nation admired by Israel for its external wealth, power and glory, although it was a brutal slave society which cruelly oppressed their siblings through lusts of their flesh. The just and loving priesthood God created to teach and revive the world cast aside their calling, and chose to become just like the most favored liars and murderers in Satan’s world order. Israel even dared to syncretize the dark spiritual and moral precepts of Babylon with the pure light of God’s just spiritual teachings and laws. This sacrifice killed themselves and was already dead inside.

God told His apostate church: “Be silent before the Lord Yahweh! For the day of Yahweh is near; Yahweh has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated His guests” (1:7). God made “guests” spiritually clean, so they could eat of His sacrifice. Now the meat of an animal sacrifice was eaten by the priests and by the people belonging to His church of Israel after they had gone to the mikvah (immersion) to pray, after they asked God to consecrate them, to make them ceremonially clean. First God had to

 

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consecrate them, or they could not eat of the sacrifice. So, when this prophecy says God consecrated guests for His sacrifice of His false church, it was saying that God caused some other people to be purified and guiltless, so they could eat of the sacrifice. And one of those guests was the four-headed nation of Babylon. Although the Satanic beast of Babylonians sinned in many ways, their destruction of the people in the church of Israel would not be held against them, for now. Only their sins while they sat at the table, while conquering Judah, and their subsequent sins, would be held against them.

Furthermore, some elect members of Yahweh’s church of Israel and some elect Gentiles would repent into God’s truths, and He would allow those “guests” to benefit from His sacrifice of Judah’s hypocrites, since those elect would learn from the dire mistakes of previous generations. An elect remnant of true priests in His eternal true church would inherit all the spiritual blessings of God, which the wicked false church had abandoned. These elect would not syncretize the humanistic teachings, traditions and laws of the four-headed Babylon with God’s Word, but heed the just and loving truths of the one Creator God, to build abundantly loving lives instead, to be true priests.

When ancient Babylon, the first head of the beast, conquered Judah in the sixth century BC, they killed and deported the most prosperous and most wicked souls in the church of Israel, leaving behind only the meek and the poor, those whom the false church had trampled. Then some of those whom God had spared, among those left behind and those taken to Babylonian, repented into God’s truths. Likewise, on the day of Yahweh, when Jesus returns, all the wicked on earth will be killed, leaving behind only God’s sanctified, chosen elect. And all these will have repented by that day. So we should learn this from the sacrifice of His unfaithful Judah, that His loving justice is better than the glory, power and wealth of Satan’s kingdom, that life is more than what is gained for the flesh.

The day of Yahweh’s sacrifice is the day God destroys the wicked. And that day will be the day Jesus returns. Yet Zephaniah says that one of the reasons for God being so angry on that day will be because His church (Judah) had become so corrupt and hypocritical. In particular, God would punish His church because: (1) they would leap over what is He called “the threshold,” the boundary line of the temple grounds guarding the sanctity of God’s temple, where He dwelt, and entered His presence without guarding their own spirits from corruption, lies and sins; and (2) they would “fill their Master’s house with violence and fraud,” where the word “violence” (Hebrew = khawmawce) might be better translated as “unjust gain,” usually acquired by threatening or extorting money, goods and services from the poor. So God slaughtered the church that claimed to bear His name because they were careless about remaining loving, just and acceptable to God, and because they did not love or care for the needy. Instead, they ruthlessly trampled the poor and sought only to gratify their lusts.

The false church would fill the temple with tithes and offerings obtained from the profits gained through unjust means, by practicing money-making methods that God condemned, such as through fraud, extortion, usury, paying workers unfair wages, exploitation, price gouging and so on. Here Zephaniah was describing the sins of his own church in his day, but he did so to illustrate why Yahweh will be angry with false churches in the future, especially those existing in the days before the Day of Yahweh, not long before Jesus returns, that is, the false churches in our day. This kind of evil was destined to occur in the church thousands of years after the people in Zephaniah’s church had been slaughtered at God’s command. The church of the end times would be essentially the same as the utterly corrupt church in Zephaniah’s day. And it surely is! The church today, both the Jewish Old Covenant branch and the New Covenant branch, are practicing exactly the same kinds of sins.

Now we should know that God will never hold the iniquities of fathers or previous generations against a current generation, not unless the current generations refuses to confess the sins of their

 

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fathers, learn from the consequences of their fathers’ sins, and avoid the lies and sins of their fathers. But, if a current generation approves of the sins of their fathers and practices those same sins, then God will punish that current generation for their own sins. So God’s wrath against the future church in the end times will not be because of sins committed by the church in Zephaniah’s day, nor due to the sins of any other past false churches. If a church remains loving, faithful and just itself, God will bless it, not punish it. But, if a church condones and practices the sins of any past church, God’s wrath will come against that false church which pretends to bear His name. And that punishment will fall the hardest upon the teachers and influencers in that false church, in the same way God punished the false priests, as well as “the officials and the king’s sons” most when Babylon invaded Judah.

In the end times, a Roman beast, the fourth head of Babylon, will destroy the false church again. The beast will burn the false church which John called the Great Prostitute of Rome, and all her harlot daughters will be in her house when she dies. Because the false church is now committing the same kinds of sins that were committed by the false church of Judah in Zephaniah’s day, and because they refuse to repent into the truth, God will destroy it by the hands of Babylon again, but in its fourth and final form of Rome. God has used Babylon against the false church for more almost three thousand years now. For Babylon is in Assyria, and God used Assyria to destroy the northern tribes of Israel (in 721 BC), when that false church became irreversibly corrupt. Then the core and spiritual Roman Empire is the fourth kingdom or fourth head of Babylon, and God used Rome to destroy the false church in the first and second centuries. Furthermore, every time God destroyed the false church, they were syncretizing the ways of Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome with the teachings of Yahweh and were committing exactly the same kinds of sins that the church did in Zephaniah’s day.

False humanistic churches have always superstitiously performed physical deeds which they have called their “worship” of the biblical God, thinking those deeds of the flesh would appease God and protect them from His wrath. But they have always attributed their births, knowledge and wellness to themselves while also blaming other usually innocent human beings for all their woes. So God has very little or nothing to do with their lives or world views. And none have truly worshiped the real God from their spirits and in truth, by esteeming Him above all else and by faithfully serving Him and His creations through the love of their spirits. They have mostly focused on tithes and offerings to benefit their worshiped human gods, often acquired in ways that God considered to be unjust. And they have zealously defended and preserved their unjust, often racist, frequently violent, oppressive and unloving systems, always looking back at their heavily revised histories as though their ugly pasts were Utopias. Their deluded souls long for the days when they were beautiful, good, rich and powerful, although they have always been horrifying, evil, spiritually impoverished and the abused slaves of both men and demons. So the awakened elect reject both them and their delusions about the past. We press on toward the truth, toward an abundant life of just and equitable love for all humans.

God declared, “I will punish the officials and the king’s sons and all who array themselves in foreign attire” (1:8b). God was going to “sacrifice” the corrupt rulers of Judah, who were the rulers of the church of Israel in Zephaniah’s day, because they would “array themselves in foreign attire.” But it was not the physical clothing itself that God hated. After all, even if they dressed our holy God Jesus in the robe of psychopathic pagan ruler, as they did before they crucified Him, it would not detract from His loving, just and utter holiness. So it was their materialistic arrogance represented by that clothing which God hated. Their attempts to exalt themselves over their other siblings in the family of humankind, by wearing the garments of upper-class pagans from demonic hierarchical systems, which made God want to kill them. It was because they wanted to be esteemed in Satan’s world order, because they served Satan’s world order instead of the kingdom of God, that they had to die.

 

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They not only wore the clothing that foreign rulers wore, likely garments of Babylonian officials, but also behaved exactly like those vain and psychopathic foreign rulers, and just like the wealthy and powerful elite in expensive clothing still behave in our day. Even the chief priests dressed and acted just like the secular elite, exalting themselves above their own siblings in God’s priesthood of Israel, even demanding that the more loving, faithful and truly valuable brothers among the priests must bow before their whims, though those elite “heads” of the church neither knew nor cared about God or His ways. God saw this worship of the elite, and the resulting injustices produced through it. So God was about to eliminate the entire vile system, as well as all the deluded souls maintaining it.

I repeat, the act of wearing foreign clothing is not a sin. If you simply dress in a modest, common kind of clothing worn by the locals while you are in a foreign land, that is not a sin, unless there are some unjust motives and intentions involved. Yet these members of the false church were wearing the pretentious robes of the elite pagans, while they were living in Judah, in a way that sought the same kind of inordinate and undeserved esteem that the pagan elite unjustly demanded from their people. So wearing that clothing definitely involved unjust motives and intentions of their spirits.

As those decision-making servants of the people wore pretentious garments, they also forced the traditions of pagan lands upon God’s church, in direct opposition to God’s Law (see Deut. 17:15, 19-20). Those corrupt and unjust rulers, like humanistic rulers today, behaved just like foreign despots who served themselves instead of God’s people and creations, with the same kind of arrogance that those foreign dictators displayed. They purchased expensive foreign clothes for only one purpose, to display their success and outwardly appear to be superior to their siblings. This was a sin because:

1. Clothing indicated which god one worshiped, since foreign gods were fashioned into

physical figures dressed in those same kinds of garments that the rulers of their lands wore,

and the wearers of that clothing emulated the words and ways those demonic fake gods;

2. A person’s garments also indicated one’s occupation and the role one took within one’s

community, but those Jewish rulers used their foreign clothing to suggest they were like the

foreign officials, that they were privileged, esteemed lords set high above all their siblings,

separated from and deserving more esteem than the common people, bearing the “right” to

oppress and dehumanize the lower classes through the unjust laws which they invented for

their own selfish purposes, in unjust ways that God’s Law forbade (e.g., Deut. 17:14-20);

3. Clothing outwardly portrayed the general inner character, desires and values of a person, but

that foreign clothing represented an arrogant, warlike, unjust, bullying, threatening character

which desired and worshiped money and power, not a spirit with God-like love, not a servant

of God who labors for the welfare of the people and for God’s just, equitable, good purposes.

Because all these things were implied by the foreign garments worn by the rulers of God’s church, God condemned them to death, and most of them to an eternal dying in hell. As a member of the royal family himself, Zephaniah knew why the ruling men of Judah dressed in foreign garments. He knew it was because they worshiped foreign gods and themselves, because they highly esteemed themselves above their siblings and ruthlessly pursued wealth and power. Since God hated all these things, their garments vexed the heart of God and Zephaniah. Then Zephaniah also described the sins of the common people in Judah, who not only put up with the sins of those rulers, but wallowed in those delusions, lies and sins themselves. God said, “they fill their Master’s house with unjust gain and fraud.” The priests did not condemn usury, price gouging, unjust lawsuits, exploitation of the poor or any other sins, as long as those sins brought more tithes into the church. And the people did

 

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not care about the harm those sins caused to their siblings in the church, as long as they themselves could live a comfortable and pleasurable life. And that is why God was about to destroy them all.

When this prophecy spoke about the Lord’s or the Master’s “house,” the context indicates that it referred to God’s temple in Jerusalem, since the priesthood of Israel was to have only one Lord and Master, only one Head Teacher and law-making King. So here Zephaniah was indicating how the temple of God was not respected as a place where His people could come to seek God and His counsel, as a place to make sacrifices to share with their siblings, and a place where they could meet to give to the needy in a comforting and personal way. Instead, they thought they were devout by giving tithes and offering, which they obtained through unjust means and through fraud, and would even use the temple to commit unjust acts for more personal gain, as a place to meet business and employment contacts for their own profit. The temple, where God promised to be present and serve them, became a place of fraud, a place to perform deceitful practices—just like churches are today.

Also remember that judgments were made by temple priests, including lawsuits against those who caused harm to the defendants. So some of the rich bribed priests to make judgments which favored themselves, and used those judgments to oppress the poor with the power of the state and the church, with the power of secular and temple “police” who enforced their false claims. Likewise, corrupt rulers and priests would use temple judgments to force their people to comply to their own unjust demands, as they slandered and punished the innocent. And when our God Jesus came to them in the first century, the temple administrators were still taking bribes and kickbacks from merchants, still granting the highest bidder the right to sell sacrifices in the temple grounds at inflated prices, while forcing the people to purchase all their offerings from those exploiters. So our God Jesus had to physically overturn their tables and drive them out of His temple, where His presence resided.

Of course, the false priests would justify this fraud with falsely pious, hypocritical excuses like: “We need that money to maintain the temple’s superficial glory for God’s presence, and we need to maintain the quality of the sacrifices through this money-making system, so only the best will be offered to God.” But, back here in reality, money is not God, and the demon Mammon who rules through money is opposed to all that God is and all that God justly demands from His people. Nor does God, who is a just and truly holy Spirit, want a temple built upon the exploitation of His people. Rather, God desires a simple, modest place of prayer, with an altar build of natural, uncut stones, like His “temples” of the wilderness all over the earth, where His true, loving, just, equitable elect can pray from their spirits. Yet many people back in Zephaniah’s time, and when Jesus walked among us, willingly believed those filthy deceptions of the false priests, and eagerly supported their evil ways.

This is why God will destroy those false churches and synagogues on the day of Yahweh, on the day that Yahweh Jesus returns to the earth. All those hypocrites will indeed die, along with all the non-elect “foreigners” who hate God and His just ways. And we will know that day has arrived because the fourth kingdom of Babylon, the beast’s Roman kingdom, will be attacking Jerusalem on that day. God said, “on that day … a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate, a wail from the Second Quarter, a loud crash from the hills” (1:10). The Roman beast will come to the walls of Jerusalem on that day.

The Fish Gate was a northern gate into old Jerusalem, one of the main gates and close to the temple. The Second Quarter or New Quarter was a development outside the old city walls, basically to the north of the temple. So a cry from these places would indicate that an enemy was coming from the north. But the Babylonians, in the 586 BC, also likely attacked Jerusalem from the north.. They probably entered the city from the Second Quarter, through a gate on the northern or western side of the city. Then they would have pushed south and east until they entered the Fish Gate, to destroy the

 

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temple and the southern part of the city. Likewise, the attack of the beast in the future will also come from the north with the same plan. In the prophecy of Daniel, it actually says the beast will attack twice. During the first attack, he will probably enter Jerusalem in much the same way Babylon did, but will not destroy it, simply occupy Jerusalem and the temple for almost three and a half years. Then he and his armies will leave, likely with a small occupying force and some Jewish traitors in place to ensure his control over the region. But Israel and the surrounding nations will rebel not long after the beast’s main armies depart, then restore their own laws and ways throughout their lands.

So, after another three and a half years, the beast will again attack Israel and head for Jerusalem. Yet he will not enter the city a second time, since he and his armies will be destroyed by our God Jesus before any of his soldiers can set foot in Jerusalem. Still, during the moments before Jesus arrives, the beast will draw close enough to Jerusalem to make the people in the northern parts of the city cry out in alarm. There will be fighting in the hills all around Jerusalem too, even in the surrounding nations, with a very high rate of casualties. But many elect Jews will survive and flee into Jerusalem.

Humanistic churches and synagogues often think their carnal complacency is peace with God. But it is merely a self-indulgent emotion of the flesh, usually centered on financially security, the safety of the flesh, respect from like-minded individuals and hopes of entertainment. And this kind of carnal “peace” is always acquired by the exploitation, suppression and oppression of others in either direct or indirect ways. But all things of the flesh are tenuous and fleeting, vaporized in a moment, and vanish with the death of the flesh. So those who feel this carnal complacency are actually thinking that God does not and will never interfere with their stolen comfort and security. Yet God promised: “I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, ‘Yahweh will do no good, nor will He do ill’” (1:12). The complacent will be punished on earth by being handed over to their delusions which enslave and destroy their inner lives, then possibly punished after death in hell too.

Real peace with God, who is a Spirit, is eternal and entirely spiritual. When God wakes an elect spirit, when He teaches that spirit the truth until it experientially knows Him like a dear Father and trusted Brother, when He trains that spirit to build up love for Him and His creations upon that truth, then peace with God is sown in one’s heart and grows. Those who walk among the needy through their love for them, and care for their needs have peace with God. But the complacent who exploit, bully and unjustly suppress or outright oppress their siblings in the family of humankind, then do the same to God’s other creations, can never have any peace with the real God, no matter how much they delude themselves through the rhetoric and lies of fake humanistic churches or synagogues.

After all, Jesus is a Brother to all His elect siblings, and one with them. Therefore, if one does not feed, clothe or house even the least of His elect siblings, then one would not feed, clothe or house Jesus, who is God, if He came to one in need. So one proves that one hates God Himself. Through sins of neglect and unjust deeds done to obtain carnal complacency, people have made war against God, not peace with God. Faith in the real Creator Spirit, a human spirit’s trust in Him and in His words to make one acceptable to Him, to teach and train one in His ways, one will acquire true peace in the heart and oneness with God. Trust in His salvation, in spite of the many unjust attacks of Satan’s world order against you, in spite of a lack of a carnal complacency felt by the mind of one’s flesh, grants a spirit peace with the Creator Spirit, and with all His angels in heaven. But no one can be complacent in the flesh and receive true peace with God at the same time, because you cannot trust only in flesh and trust only in God at the same time. So choose peace with your loving God!

If you truly love God, and are at peace with God, Satan and his world order will surely attack you, will certainly try to take all the things of the world order, like money and worldly esteem, away from

 

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you—although God often intervenes and provides enough for a modest, godly life, all you need to do His works. But Satan and his human minions can only steal from your flesh, not from God. And God seal’s your spirit to indicate His ownership. Thus, none can steal from your spirit either. Because true faith is entirely from the mind of the spirit, and never from the mind of flesh, none can steal faith from your spirit either, although faith in the mind of flesh can be temporarily stolen, as long as the mind of the spirit allows the mind of flesh to rule over one’s soul. Also, since peace with God is entirely a matter of the spirit, never a matter of the flesh, none can steal that peace with God either.

Therefore, in the end times, God will thoroughly search the hearts of men, deeply into every corner and hidden part, “with lamps” shedding His light upon their innermost thoughts. He will expose all the evil which the complacent ones hide, but find any truth and love in the spirits of His elect. Then all the fleshy complacent members of the church will be punished on that day! But our heavenly Father and beloved oldest Brother will find and build up the truth and love in literally all of His elect children and siblings. By the time our God Jesus sets His feet upon the Mount of Olives, all the survivors will be awakened elect Jews and Gentiles whose spirits know and worship Him in truth. And, by the end of the final day at the gates of heaven, all His elect will be perfected and complete.

Again, we must keep in mind that this prophecy is primarily about the future church existing in the end times, not long before the Day of Yahweh, just before Jesus returns. So the accusations against the church of Judah in his day are also against the false church in the end times. The lies and sins of the false church back then will be the same as the lies and sins of the false churches and synagogues in the end times. And this prophecy’s rebuke makes it clear that the people of the church of Judah had no real fear of God nor any genuine faith in God. They were basically Deists, believing that a creator god exists, but also believing that God was so distant and so unconcerned with earthly affairs that ot would neither bless those who strove to love righteously nor condemn those whose hearts were unjust and loveless. They were only thinking about the welfare and pleasures of their flesh, about money and their own comforts. So the church of the end times will be much like that too.

Yet the main concern of a true church is how to serve God rightly, how to effectively and correctly express the just love that God puts in their hearts, by serving His people and His creations in ways that most please Him. Thus, money is almost irrelevant to true believers, except in matters where they must use it to interface with Satan’s world order, such as to purchase goods and services. But the activities of most churches today revolve around money. Every action of their teaching elders (pastors) and the people is always governed by the dictates of the demon called Mammon. They do nothing, not even Bible studies, without first consulting the demon Mammon about how much he will charge for it. Some even see preaching as a form of salesmanship, to honor their god Mammon.

And, to maintain this dark delusion about money, those fake humanistic churches and synagogues invent a new and more compliant creator god, one resembling the impassive god of the Greek and Roman humanists, a god who never interferes with the affairs of men, a fake god who allows men to rule over their own destinies in all the unjust ways invented by the most ruthless and powerful elite who declare themselves to be the gods of all others in the pagan Roman-like hierarchies established by their churches or synagogues. Thus, those fakes begin to think, “Yahweh will not do good, nor will He do ill.” And that is a big mistake! For those exploitative idolaters will never escape God’s wrath against their sins and crimes, not for all eternity. God punishes them on earth, with countless delusions about life, then will punish most of them in hell, after their perceptions of earthly life ends.

The doctrines of humanistic churches and synagogues, like the Roman Catholic church, have usually included the doctrines of “free will,” which always necessitates some doctrines of a Platonic type of

 

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impassive creator god who does not interfere with the affairs of human beings. But even churches and synagogues that believe in an “enslaved will” are humanistic and teach some Platonic doctrines of an impassive god, since they rely on the accolades of men and form Roman-like hierarchies to rule over themselves, instead of governing themselves according to the will of God’s Holy Spirit. All these false churches and synagogues have adopted from the pagan Roman teachings of Middle Platonism, doctrines of theology, soteriology, anthropology and so on. All make their laws and rules according to the dictates of a deluded elite in an artificial hierarchy, all Roman-like laws and rules.

How can those deluded souls even begin to think a loveless and cruel man can repent by submitting to a magic sacrament or by reciting a magic prayer which forces an impassive god to forgive his sins, so he will go to heaven for all eternity, even as he continues to exploit God’s children and God’s creations for the complacency of his flesh? Those who believe this do not believe that God Himself punishes evil, either by destroying the flesh or by handing them over to those very delusions formed in their minds by their father, Satan. Nor do they believe that God saves the loving elect by causing true repentance into His real truth, by then teaching and training their spirits for salvation, so those elect will flee from those humanistic churches and synagogue. In the minds of humanists, man remains in total control of his own destiny, not God. For, whether they deny it or not, they actually think God does nothing good nor anything ill to anyone. So they believe that the faith of men must rest only in themselves, and in the self-appointed human gods ruling over their artificial hierarchies.

So this prophecy of the end times is an accurate description of humanistic churches and synagogues existing in our day, which is not long before Jesus will return. For most of them are indeed obsessed with money and are complacent, despite the fact that God’s Word says there will be no need for money when Jesus returns and that their complacency will be punished. Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Mat. 6:24, ESV). Yet, since every single decision those churches and synagogues make is based on money, they are indeed serving money, not the real God. Here Jesus indicated that the financial systems of Satan’s world order are all evil and unjust. He also called money or Mammon a “master” or “lord,” that is, an owner of slaves, a ruler over human lives. Mammon is a demon who trains his slaves to look to him for every choice they make in their lives, to obey him in all matters of life. So, do any of the churches today actually comprehend exactly what Jesus was saying here? Do they realize that we can be absolutely certain that Mammon is an enemy of God, that all forms of money will be eliminated when Jesus returns?