One encouraging thing is you have a huge number of public servants, who are angels…but hey, you’re judging them, they’re not judging you. That doesn’t mean they couldn’t have an opinion, if God has built into their minds the ability to offer one, and they can certainly carry out things. You don’t have to carry them out. So you’re not standing alone, and maybe it depends on how much character you brought to the table. Because, remember, skills and experience are not transferable. Character—to God—holy, righteous, perfect character—including how much you serve—is absolutely transferable. That is the one thing He cannot give you…but knowledge of how to do everything that you need to do, you cannot possibly bring to Him…or wisdom or these other gifts.

But you have all kinds of problems.…He’s been an addict…What about gluttons? Porn addicts? Smokers? Sex perverts? What are you going to do with whole LGBTQ crowd? Lesbians…They spell…h with a g…homosexual. Strangely, they spell “gomosexual,” like “gay.” I don’t know how they get “gay, maybe it’s…I’m kidding…The LHBTQ…I will not call them “gay,” they lead miserablelives…bisexual and transsexual people.

A Farewell to Arms

This is likely, highly likely, to be the final Ambassador Watch or Otagosh posting. Those who know me as more than a cantankerous blogger also know that I've been fighting, without great success, a serious health situation. In the time I have left there are clearly other priorities, and I commend Gary's blog as a great place to keep "in the loop".

I guess I want to say that there's very little I regret. If I've horribly offended anyone unjustly, I apologize. There are a lot of good people in the COGs, battling on, as we all do, according to our best insights. The blogs will stay up, for what they're worth, even if only curiosity value.

Special thanks to everyone who has engaged in creative conversation here.

Gavin.

Gavin Rumney, the webmaster at the Ambassador Watch site (an anti-Church of God website), has once again decided to quit his site:

It is too bad that his blog will stay up. As far as Gary’s blog, that is a reference to the anti-COG site Banned by HWA.

Anyway, Gavin, in my view, had a lot more integrity years ago. But after he broke a promise he had made to me, and I called him out on it, he turned more towards hate. His promotion of the Banned by HWAsite is a further example of that.

Anyway, Gavin Rumney has posted enough untrue comments/innuendoes about me and various others that he should pull down what he has. 

Gavin Rumney as well as others running anti-COG sites have hated true Christians without cause.

I wish those who support the anti-COG websites would realize that those truly in the Church of God are not treating them improperly.  Yet, they hate us.

The Bible warns against being an accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10), and bearers of false witness (Exodus 20:16).

Matthew 7:15-20The Message (MSG)

15-20 “Be wary of false preachers who smile a lot, dripping with practiced sincerity. Chances are they are out to rip you off some way or other. Don’t be impressed with charisma; look for character. Who preachers are is the main thing, not what they say. A genuine leader will never exploit your emotions or your pocketbook. These diseased trees with their bad apples are going to be chopped down and burned. 

Matthew 24:4-8The Message (MSG)

4-8 Jesus said, “Watch out for doomsday deceivers. Many leaders are going to show up with forged identities, claiming, ‘I am Christ, the Messiah.’ They will deceive a lot of people. When reports come in of wars and rumored wars, keep your head and don’t panic. This is routine history; this is no sign of the end. Nation will fight nation and ruler fight ruler, over and over. Famines and earthquakes will occur in various places. This is nothing compared to what is coming. 

Sadly, because many involved with the anti-COG websites do not have a real love of the truth, they do not seem to care about their false assertions and conclusions.

The anti-COG websites often cause offense to ones getting interested in the truth.  Jesus said:

6 Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes! (Matthew 18:6-7)

Gavin Rumney and several others at the anti-COG websites remain in my prayers.

Lacking knowledge of Christ’s multiple comings, many assert He comes and immediately vanquishes all enemies, establishing His Kingdom. Revelation appears to say this, but consider I Corinthians 15:25, which shows something entirely different, saying Christ “must reign, till He has put all enemies under His feet.” Those who would suggest He arrives, reigns for a split second, then annihilates all enemies are simply ignoring this verse, with many others.

But the problem gets even bigger.

The gospel writer Luke records a curious exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees: “When He was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, He answered…The kingdom of God comes not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (17:20-21). “Within you” is correctly translated “in your midst”—so Christ meant that just His presence can signal the Kingdom’s presence. He was not saying God’s Kingdom was within leaders He called hypocrites, serpents and fools! The Pharisees demanded knowledge of the Kingdom’s arrival because they anticipated a Messiah who would sweep the Romans away and set up a world government—with themselves administering it! It is evident that Jesus had nothing like that in mind. Notice the Kingdom was to arrive “without observation.” The meaning of the Greek is without “inspection” or “ocular evidence.” Ocular relates to the eyes. So Christ said God’s Kingdom arrives in some unseen way.

This coming is distinct from both Haggai and Revelation, which plainly describe all nations looking for—and AT!—Christ’s appearing. Jesus was not confused about His own coming, and would have to make sure we were not either. He does this.

Understand. Christ’s initial coming has nothing to do with the false Protestant belief that Christ secretly “raptures” His servants to heaven. Nowhere does God’s Word say Jesus takes Christians back to heaven with Him. (Many verses prove this.) You will see plain passages showing He establishes God’s Kingdom on Earth, using servants that are here. This will become clear.

Prophesy Against the Nations.

This third book is somewhat larger in content than the other two books. It explains why God has mercifully given seven more years of time to the remnant Church, the Church that was scattered, and to this world before Jesus Christ returns to establish the government of God on earth. 

It has already been explained how God had determined prior to 2008 to allow great physical tribulation—without His intervention of mercy—which would have brought incredible destruction above and beyond that of World War III. Before 2008, the world had been judged by God to receive unimaginable destruction that would come from unleashing the FULL destructive power of the Seven Trumpets mentioned in the Seventh Seal of the Book of Revelation. If that had been the case, the world would not have had the same potential to seek for the magnitude of that destruction to be lessened or halted because of such a judgment against it. However, God is now going to allow mankind to receive of His mercy.

This new book tells of God’s revelation to grant great mercy to mankind. That mercy will be extended to those who will listen so that hundreds of millions more will potentially now have opportunity to live on into the soon coming period of the millennial reign of Jesus Christ on this earth. However, unlike the second book, 2008–God’s Final Witness, this new book will not be promoted until very strong Thunders begin to sound and the affects of the First Trumpet are felt. There have been many Thunders strike ever since they first began on 9/11, but nothing of the magnitude of what is yet to occur.  Post Feast Update

I’ll tell you an interesting story. When I wrote my literature, I found something. It’s just the way my writing is. If I were like Mr. Armstrong, I probably would not need to do this. He was a great writer. I’m an okay writer who worked hard and you know, kind of got better. That’s the way I would describe myself.

I would write a booklet and then I would come back through and make another pass, and I would see certain things I couldn’t see when I wrote it. I would give the pages to my wife and she would install them. Then she would hand me the booklet again, and I would read through it again and see things that time that I couldn’t see because the other things I had installed blinded my ability to see it. I would continue to read it. It was a lot of work, believe me. Those who think the literature…“How did you write it all?…don’t realize I read and reread…and I am not a fast reader…I read and reread, just in editing my literature, anywhere from 10 to 40 times—6,000 pages—so you can do the math; that is just the books and booklets.

I would, eventually, know that the book or booklet was done when I could not read through and find anything else; then I said, “That is it. Print it!” That usually was six or seven times. The longer ones, I would sometimes add more parts. Whenever I did that, I would read all the way through a book. For instance, Anoint Your Eyes started at two hundred (and I think) sixteen pages and ended up 270, because I would always want to add other things to it. That’s a little different situation.

Some of the earlier booklets I went through many more times, because I just wasn’t a very good writer in my opinion, and you know, Why The Restored Church of God? I edited 44 times. That was the first booklet, but I got better, I had to or I would have been dead soon, or my wife would have been……

Just what is a dystopian society?

• A dystopia is considered a fictional society usually portrayed as existing in a future time, when the conditions of life are extremely dismal due to deprivation, oppression, or terror. 

Sound familiar? Remember the Good News magazine that spewed out the WCG’s view of what God’s utopia would look like? It was heaven on earth. But to enter into this wonderful time (the kingdom) would require you to do unending somersaults of law keeping, tithing, and blindly obeying those who really did not care for you or your family.  

Remember the Plain Truth? Have you ever read Meredith’s or Flurry’s rag? They fill your mind with a hopeless air of despair. 

The propagating of these ideas and others into the minds of their audience that future race wars are coming, or economic collapse is just a few short years away, are an ideology the ACOG’s place into print within their magazines in order to form opinions, prejudice and to mirror church doctrine. This conditions the membership not to jump ship and chance that they will be caught up in the fray when the projected SHTF moment materializes. Anyone who has spent a decade or more in one of these groups can attest that a SHTF moment is always just a few years off.

What the ACOG’s fail to foresee is the results of their endless negative prognosticating. When a human has confidence and optimism, the very joys of life itself stolen from them, you take away the zeal for life, you squelch the will to live. You destroy the individual. What you have left is a shell of the former and a slave which needs to be constantly managed in order to maintain his or her direction forward.  

The Dystopian standard-bearer (an advocate or champion of a particular cause or ideology) often feels trapped and is struggling to escape and questions the existing social, political, or in our case, religious systems. 

Where the Kingdom Begins

The almost universally believed destination of Christ’s Return is Jerusalem. But is this what God’s Word says? Christ will of course ultimately rule from there—countless scriptures show this—but is this where His tiny mustard-seed Kingdom begins? Does His first-century coming provide a clue?

Notice Jesus was born to Mary in “a city of Galilee, named Nazareth” (Luke 1:26)—well north of Jerusalem! Far from a prominent city, Nazareth was scoffed at as a kind of dead-end backwater by Jerusalemites. After Jesus called the apostle Peter, He then called Philip who reported to Nathaniel that they had found Christ. Not convinced, Nathaniel asked, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). Clearly Christ’s first century coming was to an unexpected place. His arrival shocked and confused the masses: “Others said, this is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee?” (7:41). Both Nazareth and Galilee were looked down on by the elites of Jesus’ day.

Christ started His ministry away from Jerusalem—a pattern we will see holds.

The prophet Micah further establishes the Kingdom moves to Jerusalem: “O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto you shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem” (4:8). It does not say the Kingdom—Christ’s rule long before events in Revelation, after which it picks up again to continue for 1,000 more years—is built in Zion or starts in Zion. (Nor does it say it arrives there from heaven.) Micah says it “comes” there, meaning it was initially somewhere else. Of course it was—in a location called “His place!”

Let’s look at one last description of the Branch in an unusual context. The setting is a great war that afflicts the nations of modern Israel—and the disastrous effect on Jerusalem and the tribe of Judah: “Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground. And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man [the survivors of the war], saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by your name, to take away our reproach” (Isa. 3:25-4:1).

Many other Bible passages detail the war that Isaiah references—where it starts, how it spreads, who it affects, and its unimaginable severity. This is a completely separate event that occurs long, long before Armageddon, but this is not our subject here. Those who think the world is already at war between clashing cultures will soon realize today’s events are essentially NOTHING. Conditions will grow infinitely worse and eventually engulf all the nations of the West. What is coming is beyond imagination. Therefore most will be caught completely off-guard.

Isaiah continues, showing what is happening alongside the war. Let’s read what no one ever sees: “In that day [by this time, when the devastation of war has grown great] shall the Branch [the growing, maturing sprout] of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth…excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel [from the war]. And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remains in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem [many will have died]: when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning” (vs. 2-4). Fiery judgment is involved, including the furnace we read about. Read Isaiah 31:9.

By this point the Branch and the Kingdom—having already been on Earth for some time—are flourishing! This is the result of the previously mentioned “Marvelous Work,” covered momentarily. The fruit is called “excellent and comely,” meaning an “ornament.” Christ is called “glorious” and “beautiful.” The latter meaning “in the sense of prominence; splendor (as conspicuous)”—by this time the Kingdom has become the opposite of small and hidden! It is conspicuous and prominent! At this point many millions of people will have come into the Kingdom. Try to make all of this—any of it!—fit the popular narrative! No one is teaching it, yet it is the truth of your Bible visible in PLAIN SIGHT on the pages.

Isaiah 59 brings another perspective of Christ coming to Jerusalem—again, years after His Kingdom began small: “The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, says the Lord” (vs. 20). Then chapter 60 begins, “Arise, shine; for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen [risen, not descended] upon you [remember, from a depressed place, underneath and below view]. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall ariseupon you, and His glory shall be seen upon you” (vs. 1-2). Ponder this. If Jesus started His journey in heaven, He would be described as descending—not rising—on Zion! Do not miss this! Many verses do confirm Jesus comes from heaven to His people. It is several years later that He comes to the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14:4) and shortly after that to Zion, which is adjacent to it.

Location of Christ’s “Place”

Certain passages further prove Christ relocates to Zion, and these provide clues about which nation He will come to. A prophecy for our time—the latter days—that almost no one talks about is found in Numbers 24. The prophet Balaam foretold, “In the latter days…there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre [Ruler] shall rise out of Israel [not Judah]…Out of Jacob shall come He that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remains of the city [this is Jerusalem]” (vs. 14, 17, 19).

Called the “Star” here, other passages describe Christ as the “Sun of Righteousness” (Mal. 4:2), “Day Star” (II Pet. 1:19) and the “Bright and Morning Star” (Rev. 22:16). He brings His dominion—His rule!—to Jerusalem and Judah from a different modern nation of Jacob (Israel). This cannot be referencing Christ’s birth location because He was born of Judah, and in Judea. Many scriptures covered in my thorough book America and Britain in Prophecy make clear the distinction between Judah and the other 11 tribes of Israel. In fact, the very first reference to “the Jews” in the Bible shows them at war with Israel (II Kgs. 16:1-6)! The modern Mideast nation called Israel is in fact Judah, with the democratic, English-speaking nations of the West identified as the descendants of the rest of the tribes of ancient Israel. Jesus Christ first comes to one of these countries, NOT Judah!

Isaiah 41 contains more proof: “I have raised up One from the north, and He shall come” (vs. 25). “North” means “hidden, dark; used only of the north.” It continues, leaving no doubt this is Jesus Christ: “He shall come upon princes as upon mortar [establishing His authority over all earthly leaders], and as the potter treads clay. Who has declared from the beginning, that we may know?…and I will [at this point] give to Jerusalem One that brings good tidings” (vs. 25-27). Here is a prophecy of Christ being “raised up”—think “growing up”—sprouting from—a northern country(a modern Israelite nation of the West) to defeat His enemies.

This intervention, coupled with good tidings—the true gospel—is absolutely necessary given that horror begins in Jerusalem the very day Christ’s little Kingdom begins.

“Marvelous Work and Wonder”

During the mustard seed Kingdom, vast numbers will come to know these Bible truths in what God, through the prophet Habakkuk, calls a “marvelous Work.” Notice: “Behold you among the [nations], and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days, which you will not believe, though it be told you” (1:5). In Scripture, a “Work” represents God’s servants’ teaching and warning all who will listen. Will you believe advance report of this Work?

The prophet Isaiah powerfully underscores what Habakkuk foretold: “Behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder [a miracle]: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid” (29:14).

Paul also cited Habakkuk in the book of Acts, altering it slightly: “Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets [Habakkuk]; Behold, you despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you” (13:40-41).

This means we should expect a gigantic, Earth-rattling Work—one so far-reaching it will stagger the mind—one that cannot be fully comprehended until it’s seen—that upon hearing of it most won’t believe it! 

A basic summary. Christ first comes to His people—His Temple—in good times, bringing His Kingdom “without observation.” It begins in microscopicfashion and is hidden! It is also initially led by a little flock under Christ. He will at first hide His presence by being sprout-like. During this first phase of the Kingdom will come terrible punishment on the nations descended from Jacob, making them finally ready to receive God’s Kingdom. The Kingdom will be growing in number of subjects before Christ transfers a ready-to-be greatly expanded world government to Jerusalem. From there He will rule all nations with a larger group of saints coming from His by then much larger flock. It is at this point He will build the glorious Third Temple on Mount Zion (Ezek. 40-48).

You’ve received precious knowledge—kept secret from the world. It is not the popular traditions—fables—of modern Christendom, but Jesus’ plain words—now understood in our time. God has been waiting for thousands of years to establish His Kingdom on an Earth that desperately needs it. Yet it will not come as billions expect. Think. You’ve heard word of the Kingdom before it comes. There is great advantage in this! Christ is today preparing a specially chosen team of qualified administrators in advance of its arrival to rule under Him.

"Could ______ (insert person, event) be a fulfillment of _____________(insert Bible verse)?

It's been some decades since my Old Testament Class in College (DePauw, not Ambassador, so suspect already), but I seem to recall that the Prophets of Old always said "this is happening because" or "this will happen unless." ...they spoke with some degree of decisiveness, unlike COGWriter, who leaves himself a fair amount of wiggle room.

Announcements:  I am reviewing and updating all literature and the free Downloads page has been removed from the ashininglight.info site

I have been on a very steep learning curve throughout these past years and I want to do a final version of the books including all changes, updates and points learned over the years. 

Besides growing in doctrine over these years, the very purpose of writing these books – and making my mistakes – has been to learn to write and format books properly in preparation for publishing final solid doctrinal volumes just before the tribulation.

Besides a solid doctrinal refresher on the New Testament over the next months as the crisis approaches, I want the books to contain the most accurate and updated material possible.

There is no guarantee of steady electricity or internet in North America during the tribulation and most of the Ekklesia will be caught up in the tribulation. 

My goal is to have about ten solidly doctrinal books ready by the 2017 Fall Feast. The deadline is due to the strong possibility that the abomination may be set up late in 2017 and the tribulation will begin about 75 days after he is set up. If it takes another year, there are still many more things to do. 

Okay, really quickly, I might throw out an interesting point of, we’ll call it the illogical logic. Imagine that there was no First Dominion followed by the Kingdom in Zion…and God wipes out an entire Earth for things they never knew. People of all nations and religions—no matter the ignorance—didn’t even know about Christianity, and God pours horrible plagues on them, and they had no idea why He did it.

According to what we read, He would have to wipe out everybody who didn’t believe the truth, and that would leave the Church…Now, think about this. Then He would turn the Church into spirit, and the Millennium would open with not so much as Adam and Eve to rule over. You wouldn’t have anybody. Based on all that you saw, if the few men left were merely the Church…and the Church is going to be turned to spirit…where are the nations in the Millennium? Never mind how unrighteous and unjust God would be for destroying people over things they never understood. On the other hand, all of that goes away if there is a First Dominion and a Kingdom ruling from Zion.

……So, if the elect were the only people on earth, then you’d wipe out the earth, turn them to spirit…nobody there and the Millennium is basically a wasteland for 1,000 years without even two people to start over. See the problem?

Never mind explaining away how God says, I’m not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to the knowledge of truth…and I would have all men to be saved, but I’m going to just blastand wipe them all out, and they’re not going to have a clue why I did it. You would wonder why, under those circumstances, they almost could blaspheme such an unrighteous god. 

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming…[Time is going on. Well, we’re in those times now. That’s one of the problems of the last days, by the way, there are scoffers]…for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

“For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word [the Word of God] are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (II Pet. 3:1-7). So there is a day that the heavens and earth are, sort of, being reserved and kept in the store against this day of judgment and destruction—that’s perdition, judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

Deuteronomy 18:21-22The Message (MSG)21-22 You may be wondering among yourselves, “How can we tell the difference, whether it was God who spoke or not?” Here’s how: If what the prophet spoke in God’s name doesn’t happen, then obviously God wasn’t behind it; the prophet made it up. Forget about him.

He told the people then that they were waiting for it. How could Peter say that if he believed it was after the Millennium? He told them they were waiting for it in their lifetime. Don’t fault Peter. I’ve told you that God’s apostles get things wrong. They can—but it’s usually timing. Mr. Armstrong didn’t say there is no New Heavens and New Earth; there is no New Jerusalem. He got the timing wrong. But I would say, we would all agree that he was a lot closer than Peter, who said it was going to come in the lifetime of that generation, because they thought they lived in the last days…

“Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless [despite the fact there’s all this tremendous heat, and destruction], we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness” (vs. 12-13).

You cannot get around that. I’ve read that since I was 18 years old in college. How is that? But the Church taught otherwise. Brethren, I never left and said, “This can’t be God’s Church! They don’t even know when the New Heavens and the New Earth are.” I didn’t know either. I just looked at that and thought, is there some other day of the Lord, when these will pass away? Now I know. Now I understand. It wasn’t our time. We weren’t supposed to know it.

But you cannot get around these verses. They’re immutable. They’re impossible to get around. That’s why Christ keeps weaving into all of this, My Word stands forever. Don’t despise My Word. It’s purified seven times. Every word of God is pure, and so on and so forth…

“Wherefore, beloved…[a little motivation part here] seeing that you look for…[it means “wait for,” look it up] such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless…[How ready are you at this point on the Sabbath, brethren, to hear that? Boy, oh boy. Be found without spot, blameless.]…And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation…[He wants us to make it. If the scoffers say, “I don’t know where He is. God is slack.” Forget that! God is giving people a chance to make it. He wants everybody to make it!]…even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him has written unto you;

“As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood…[God wrote certain things in Paul’s epistles, so that people would go there and foul it up, if they are unlearned and unstable]…which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest [which means “twist”] as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (vs. 14-16).

If people leave over this, they don’t want to serve God…They’re rebellious. They’re going to be out if they don’t repent. Let them go. I don’t know that any will leave. This is a big understanding. I repeat, it’s impossible to miss. It’s immutable. God has written it, as it were, in blood, stone, and steel. You can’t get around it with His Spirit revealing it to us. If they leave—saying “Mr. Armstrong didn’t teach this!”—then they’ve rejected his greatest teaching, which is, “Don’t believe me. Believe your Bible.” Hundreds of times I heard him say it.