The Philadelphia Church

The following Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The readings and commentary for this week are more in line with what has become usual; for the following will most likely be familiar observations. The concept behind this Sabbath’s selection is the third woe.

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The person conducting the Sabbath service should open services with two or three hymns, or psalms, followed by an opening prayer acknowledging that two or three (or more) are gathered together in Christ Jesus’ name, and inviting the Lord to be with them.

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Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”

And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.

In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, their hair like women's hair, and their teeth like lions' teeth; they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails. They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.

The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come. (Rev 8:13–9:12 emphasis added)

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The fifth Trumpet Plague is the first of three woes, with the sixth Trumpet Plague being the second woe:

“And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”

These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come. (Rev 11:3–14 emphasis added)

The testimony of the two witnesses is not the second woe: it so happens that the end of the two witnesses’ testimony of 1260 days and the end of the sixth Trumpet Plague coincide. It is the sixth Trumpet Plague that is the second woe, and it is the seventh Trumpet Plague that is the third woe. What’s not seen in John’s vision is the end of the seventh Trumpet Plague.

Doubled day 1260 (halfway through the seven endtime years of tribulation) will see the kingdom of this world given to the Son of Man; thus, on the same day that the ministry of the two witnesses ends, the sixth Trumpet Plague also ends and the kingdom is given to the Son of Man. Giving the kingdom, now, somehow constitutes the seventh Trumpet Plague and the third woe: “‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever”’ (v. 15) … how can it be that the kingdom of this world being given to the Son of Man (Dan 7:9–14) is part of the third woe? And when does the third woe end? There is a solid declaration that the first woe has passed, and a solid declaration that the second woe has passed. It would be reasonable that a declaration is made when the third woe has passed, and no such declaration is made in John’s vision, which suggests that the end of the third woe is outside of John’s vision.

The angel that declares the three woes—“Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth”—separates those who dwell on the earth from those who do not dwell on the earth; for the three woes do not pertain to those sons of God who dwell in heaven. Pause for a moment and consider the significance of the angel’s declaration:

·       Those who dwell on the earth are “marked” by the place where they dwell;

·       A son of God who dwells anywhere other than on the earth will not be affected by the three woes and as such is “unmarked.”

When beginning a critical analysis of any subject, one of the first things to be determined is what is and what is not “marked”; what represents difference? Those things that are marked are somehow different from a similar thing, and by determining what is marked, a basis is created for discussing values among things. Take for example:

·       Israel on earth is “marked” by Sabbath observance (Ex 31:13, 17);

·       Israel is the firstborn son of God (Ex 4:22) and is to serve the Lord (v. 23);

·       Thus, the firstborn son of God is identifiable at a distance by Sabbath observance.

Can any Israelite fail to keep the Sabbath and still be recognized as the firstborn Son/son of God? How would this son of God stand out in a world filled with the sons of Adam? And the answer is, the person wouldn’t stand out for the person doesn’t bear the mark or sign of God. The person would not be a son of God for the person isn’t so marked regardless of ancestry or ideology.

·       Sabbath observance as part of keeping the commandments will mark those who serve God anciently and in this endtime era;

·       Sabbath observance will mark Christians who are of God during the 1260 days of the Affliction, when the kingdom of this world still belongs to the Adversary;

·       But in the 1260-day-long Endurance, when the Kingdom has been given to the Son of Man, those who are of the Antichrist will “mark” themselves with the cross, or the tattoo of the cross [Chi xi stigma].

The following is of great importance and has not been understood by Christendom: Because the kingdom of this world remains with the Adversary in the Affliction, except for Christians redeemed by blood, all people remain bondservants of the Adversary. But not all Christians are of God, especially after the Rebellion of day 220—those Christians who are of God must be “marked” to somehow distinguish them from those Christians who have rebelled and are of the Adversary. Because the kingdom remains with the Adversary, those Christians who are of the Adversary need no marking; they are “unmarked.” It is only those Christians who are different that need marked … in this present era, all peoples are sons of disobedience except for those individuals the Father has drawn from this world. The generic Christian has not been drawn from this world by God, but comes to Christ as one of the violent intent upon taking the kingdom of heaven [the kingdom of the heavens, plural] by force. This generic Christian doesn’t bear the mark of God, and actually rejects identification with God, choosing instead to take to the self the mark of the cross.

After the Second Passover liberation of Israel, all Christians will be redeemed by the blood of uncovered firstborns (the death of a third of humankind), will be born of God, and will be born filled with “life” so that there is no indwelling sin or death inside any Christian … every Christian not previously born of God will be, and the Christian will be born as a mature but naïve son of God; will be born spiritually as the first Adam was “born” physically outside of the Garden of God. Every Christian will be tempted as Adam and Eve were tempted, and Scripture records that most will rebel against God in the great falling away (2 Thess 2:3) when the man of perdition is revealed.

Some Christians, born of God and having tasted the goodness of God, have already fallen away, being devoured by wolves bringing damnable heresies into the Church, with the Sacred Names Heresy being perhaps the worst of the worse lies foisted upon disciples. These Christians, though physically alive, are dead spiritually and will not be liberated from indwelling sin and death at the Second Passover. They have already been rejected, and there is nothing to be done for them for they will be physically killed between day 220 and day 580 of the Affliction.

Today, the Sabbath (or Sabbath observance) separates circumcised-of-heart Israelites from Christianity in a way analogous to how physical circumcision separated natural Israelites from Egyptians prior to the first Passover … Pharaoh’s daughter instantly recognized Moses as one of the Hebrew babies because he would have been outwardly marked by circumcision. But hearts cannot be as easily examined as penises: it is only by what the person does that circumcision of the heart can be seen.

But Sabbath observance of itself is of no value if the Christian’s thoughts remain focused on the things of this world such as Sabbath observance and keeping the commandments … for the Christian, keeping the commandments must form the natural application of faith that has this culturally uncircumcised person believing the writings of Moses and hearing the words of Jesus and believing the one who sent Jesus into this world (cf. John 5:46–47; 24). No person can “force” God to give the person a second breath of life by keeping the commandments, for until born of God no person can really keep the commandments, what Jesus told Pharisees (see John 7:19), for the person remains the bondservant of the Adversary; remains a son of disobedience.

Paul writes,

For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. (Rom 2:25–29)

Outwardly marking a person via circumcision of the penis is of value if the second reason given by the Lord for why Pharaoh was to release Israel pertains: Israel, as the firstborn son, was to serve the Lord (Ex 4:23). To serve the Lord requires the Israelite to keep the commandments. Thus, the outwardly circumcised male who does not keep the commandments is, before God, as an uncircumcised person from the nations whereas the uncircumcised person who keeps the commandments by faith (there is no other reason for this person to keep the Sabbath) will have his or her uncircumcision counted as circumcision: this uncircumcised person “marks” him or herself though Sabbath observance as a “Jew,” or Judean.

Now, the person who dwells on this earth is of this earth and is not of heaven: dwelling on this earth marks the person as being of the first Adam as opposed to being of the last Adam. So “dwelling on this earth” as a marker denotes lifelessness, or a lack of life that only comes from heaven—going a bit farther, when the new heaven and new earth come, the former things (this earth and all who dwell on it) have passed away (Rev 21:1, 4). Thus, dwelling on this earth becomes a euphemism for death or lifelessness.

Following the Second Passover liberation of Israel, all Christians, regardless of sect or denomination, will have life: they will be born of God and born filled with or empowered by the breath of God. They will not be lifeless; yet when they rebel against God on day 220, God will send over them a strong delusion so that they believe what is false (2 Thess 2:10–12). They will, because they have indwelling life, be like the angels that left their habitation of obedience and are now held in the Abyss, sentenced to death and awaiting the execution of their sentences. They will be condemned to death, but before they are cast into the lake of fire, their judgments must be made complete by them living through the three woes.

Argumentatively, the above declarative statements “steps over” quite a lot of unexplored territory.

If faith must be made complete, what James understood but what Martin Luther was never able to grasp—we shall digress to address this subject:

James wrote,

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit [breath] is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. (James 2:14–26 emphasis added)

Before jumping to Paul, consider what it is that James writes: Abraham believed God and had his belief counted to him as righteousness, but Scripture was not fulfilled when Abraham believed God as his heir. The fulfillment of Scripture required that Abraham’s belief/faith be tested.

Paul uses the example of Abraham’s faith (see Rom chap 4; Gal chap 3) as the faith Christians are to possess or emulate. He says that

just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” [the citation is from Gen 15:6]. Know then that it is those of faith who are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. (Gal 3:6–14)

Luther and many other theologians not born of God have found a conflict between Paul and James, and because of their indwelling carnality have sided with a poor reading of Paul, who here, when combatting a heresy as deadly as the Sacred Names Heresy, overlooks the point that James makes:

Abraham believed the Lord when the Lord said that Eliezar of Damascus would not be Abram’s heir, but that Abram’s seed would be as the stars of heaven (Gen 15:2–6). However, the son of promise was not to come through the slave woman Hagar, but was to come through Sarah; so not all of Abraham’s sons were of promise. Only one son, Isaac, was of promise and before Abraham could count Isaac as the ancestor of his seed, Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac in a test to see whether Abraham really believed the Lord:

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here am I, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” (Gen 22:1–12 emphasis added)

With God, it isn’t enough to believe Him and have the person’s belief counted as righteousness. Peter writes,

To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: / May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. / His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. (2 Pet 1:1–9 emphasis added)

According to Peter, faith alone is insufficient for salvation: faith must be supplemented by virtue (by doing!) So faith alone was not enough in the days of Abraham, as James understood, and it isn’t today, as Philadelphia understands. God will test faith by causing the person to act on his or her faith.

Paul assumed that the person [Gentile] who believed God would keep the commandments not as a matter of social obligation as the Jews kept the commandments (sort of) but as the outward manifestation of faith; for elsewhere Paul writes, “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified” (Rom 2:13), and “Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law” (Rom 9:31). So contrary to how Christian theologians read or reread what Paul wrote in his epistle of the Galatians, Paul knew that Israel had a law that would have lead to righteousness if pursued by faith, and Paul knew that it was the one who had the works of the law written on the heart who would be justified.

It has become a common practice to use Paul against Paul, but Peter addressed those who do so:

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Pet 3:11–18 emphasis added)

Abraham’s faith was counted to him as righteousness, but righteousness was incomplete until tested and manifested in sacrificing Isaac … virtue must be added to faith, with virtue manifesting itself in keeping the commandments by faith.

Abraham’s faith was seen when he told the young men that he and the lad would return, but that was not enough to satisfy God: Abraham still had to climb the mountain, still had to lay out the wood, still had to bind Isaac, and reach out with knife in hand. And so it is with disciples who have the faith of Abraham—they have to act on their faith, with these “acts” causing disciples to keep the law … keeping the law doesn’t save a person, but rejecting the law does condemn a Christian.

The third woe has somehow gotten lost, but not really: it is easy to work in the hypothetical or to speak of events that will happen decades or centuries in the future. It is easy to dismiss prophecies that are never about “good” things happening to Israel: Jeremiah told Hananiah the false prophet in the presence of the priests and the people,

Amen! May the Lord do so [break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar]; may the Lord make the words that you have prophesied come true, and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the Lord, and all the exiles. Yet hear now this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet. (Jer 28:6–9 emphasis added)

John’s vision and the events described in his vision were not understandable until they were “soon” to occur, with the concept of these events being “soon to take place” serving as a stumbling block for Christianity.

The events described in John’s vision are “marked” by their nearness in time—this marking of “soon to take place” separates them from two millennia of historical happenings that could possibly be mistaken for these endtime events. Therefore, genuine disciples know that John’s vision did not pertain to late 1^st-Century Roman emperors because of the marker of “soon to take place.” Endtime disciples know the letters to the seven 1^st-Century churches can only be types or copies of letters to seven 21^st-Century churches because of that “soon” marker. Likewise, disciples know the four horsemen are not four world conditions (from Matt chap 24) that have been in evidence since the 1^st-Century as too many false prophets teach or have taught. That “soon” marker requires that the first four seals of the Scroll are removed in the same time frame as are seals five, six, and seven. And removal of the sixth seal would seem to closely match proposed doomsday scenarios beginning with the December solstice of 2012.

Before returning to the third woe, disciples need to be reminded that when the Lord made the prophet Ezekiel “‘a sign for the house of Israel’” (Ezek 12:6), the Lord also said, “‘Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, “The vision that he sees is for many days from now, and he prophesies of times far off.” Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord God: None of my words will be delayed any longer, but the word that I speak will be performed, declares the Lord God’” (vv. 27–28).

The mirror image of saying, The vision he sees is for many days in the future, is endtime teachers of Israel imitating Peter crying, Wolf, wolf, until no one listens to them … today, those who would teach Israel say the time is short, but they have been saying the time is short for so long that they are not believable. They have, by beating the alarmist drum for most of a century, turned endtime disciples deaf.

Consider the hysteria that Herbert W. Armstrong sought to engender in his December 8^th, 1947, Co-Worker Letter (all of the emphasis is his):

Armstrong’s letter continues its alarmist tone while giving details about the founding of a college in Pasadena, California … if time were really as short as Armstrong portrayed time, why was he starting a college?

Con man, huckster, charlatan—yes, Armstrong was all three, but he was also a minister called by God to do a work, only not the work that Armstrong did. Armstrong exemplifies the worst in Christian fear mongering, but what tone should the message take warning humankind that a third of men will be killed at the Second Passover, a fourth more will be killed by Death, the fourth horsemen; then a third of remaining humankind will be killed in the sixth Trumpet Plague, leaving only a third of today’s seven billion people alive when the kingdom is given to the Son of Man. Now, there shall be one more killing of a third of remaining humankind, and this will be when Christ Jesus returns. This means that the harvest of firstfruits will number approximately 1.6 billion [7 billion x 2/3 x ¾ x 2/3 x 2/3 = 1.6 billion], with this number including both those who remain alive and are glorified when Christ comes and those who enter the Millennium as physical human beings.

The numbers are cold, sterile. The sudden death of 2.3 billion human beings seems more of a sanitation problem than the mass catastrophe that it will be, but the alarmist language used by Armstrong and others rings hollow on this side of the Second Passover.

Let it here be clearly stated that the Bible does not make the theological claim that the United States will be destroyed, for the United States is not endtime Israel, is not the prophesied “Israel” that will be recovered from the North Country. All of Armstrong’s prophetic understanding was contrary to Scripture; for endtime Israel is the nation that is circumcised of heart; it is the Christian Church; and it is already in spiritual captivity (i.e., in bondage to disobedience, lawlessness) as ancient physically circumcised Israel was in captivity in Egypt. Circumcised of heart Israel needs liberated from Sin & Death at the Second Passover as outwardly circumcised Israel needed liberated from Pharaoh at the first Passover.

William Miller in 1843, then again in 1844, and the Seventh Day Adventists ever since have used the time is short alarmist call to shear disciples as if they truly were sheep. These prophetic alarmists have cried, Wolf, wolf, for so long that circumcised of heart Israelites respond to them with disbelief and indifference similar to that displayed by the house of Israel in Jerusalem when hearing the warnings of Ezekiel. And all of this was before Armstrong began his ministry in the late 1920s; so to be heard in a noisy room, Herbert Armstrong had to yell louder than everyone else in the room, and with first the Great Depression then World War Two as his amplifier, Armstrong made himself heard as he built for himself a house that could not long stand; for the house he built was constructed on the fears of men [and women], and not on the foundation Paul laid, with this foundation being Christ Jesus.

No house constructed on fear will ever stand for long. Eventually people will come to terms with their fears, will adjust their lives to accommodate their fears, and will get about their business, leaving God in their wake. For them, God was helpful in the foxhole, but He’s a little too restrictive when the war ends. For them, God needs to remain that icon in the corner, the one collecting dust until times are again tough. Then maybe he can again help out if he promises to go away when better times return.

No house constructed on fear alone is of God, a reality Armstrong overlooked in his enthusiasm to scare wallets out of pants’ pockets.

A discussion of the third woe begins with the declaration that for the human being (regardless of what this person’s religious affiliation presently is) who endures to the end of the age without taking upon the person the tattoo of the cross during the last 1260 days of the age—for this person, the third woe is not “a woe,” but a blessing. However, for everyone else—

·       For the Christian who rebelled against God on day 220 of the Affliction and has managed to live until the end of the age,

·       For the little one who didn’t trust God enough to refuse the tattoo of the cross after day 1260 and who has managed to live until the end of the age,

·       For the third part of remaining humankind that returned to lawlessness after being born of God and being born filled with spirit—

The third woe will permanently end whatever hope these people had used as a life raft to sustain themselves for seven very long years, and to sustain their hope of returning to rule by We the People.

Once the Affliction begins, there will be no going back to rule by We the People even though the man of perdition will valiantly attempt to reinstall this blown engine in a rebuilt chassis—and in doing so, he will lead a rebellion against God, with this rebellion occurring on or about Christmas in the year of the Second Passover.

Too much background had to be addressed before this reading could “flesh out” the third woe, and because of the presentation of this background, this reading has become long enough that it like other readings will have to be continued—

The three woes affect human beings who dwell on this earth, not the inner sons of God whose home is in heaven. The marker of “dwelling on earth” identifies who will experience this third woe.

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The person conducting the Sabbath service should close services with two hymns, or psalms, followed by a prayer asking God’s dismissal.

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"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

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