NOTE: All comments in brackets [ ] or in parentheses ( ) as well as highlighted text (bolded and/or in blue) are from the author of this study.
Bible quotations are in maroon.
Introduction
While in the PCG, we (the author and a few individuals faithful to God’s truth) have been exposed to and had absorbed a great deal of untruth about the meaning of the book of Malachi. We were being taught by a self-appointed false prophet and there was a great deal of confusion in his mind about the truth of God given the Philadelphia Era of God’s church. This person and the so-called ministers of God who support him, are but several of the many human instruments used by Satan the devil, the deceiver and the destroyer and the author of spiritual confusion, in blinding mankind to the truth of God.
False religion including false churches of God, is the means used by Satan to deceive the whole world. Many continue to be deceived by Gerald Flurry and others of his ilk but we are not of those who are deceived. Let us examine what it is that the Book of Malachi is really talking about, to whom God is talking and what events are historical and which ones are prophetic in this particular book.
During the Feast of Tabernacles of 2001, we (the author and a few other faithful) were given the correct understanding of this book while listening for the 2nd or 3rd times to Mr Herbert W Armstrong’s (HWA) sermons. The more one listens HWA explaining God’s truth, the more of this truth actually penetrates and remains in our minds building on one another until all of a sudden a truth which we had never understood before or, of which even, we were unaware but had always been there, suddenly becomes clear as day in our minds. This is what occurred with the book of Malachi.
The truth of God has been added to our minds line by line over the years as we have kept listening to the truth of God as explained to us by God’s apostle and suddenly, we were given understanding of something which had always been there but which we had never seen before. Here under is that understanding which will be clear to any other individual having God’s presence in their minds and who has mastered the foundational truth of God’s Church.
Ancient Israel – A Carnal-Minded Nation
The first verse of the book makes it clear that the prophet’s message is addressed to physical Israel. Malachi is one of the books of the Old Testament, the last one. The Spirit-begotten nation of Israel would not appear for another 400 or more years i.e., on the day of Pentecost. In the book of Malachi, we see the spiritual condition of Israel which was one of having forgotten the law and half-heartedly going through the process of offering sacrifices to God; giving in offering their sick and lame animals; and refusing to be corrected by God through the reprimands given them by Malachi as we will see as we go through the book.
A major point of understanding essential to properly comprehending what is being said in the Book of Malachi is that the physical nation of Israel was a carnal-minded nation which was unable to understand the spiritual truth of God. It was unable to obey even the letter of the law of God as the carnal mind as explained to us by Paul in Romans 8:7 is enmity or hostile against God; it is not subject to God’s law, nor can it be. Ancient Israel’s attitude toward God and His law was the very same as that of the unconverted walking the streets of this 21st century world. Ancient Israel was God’s chosen physical nation, NOT His spiritual nation to whom He would give of His Spirit. God’s presence in their minds would have opened their minds to knowing and understanding His spiritual truth and make it possible for them to choose to obey God or not. Ancient Israel was never called and never understood who was the being that freed them from Egyptian slavery and brought them into the Promised Land.
Ancient Israel as a nation and its priesthood are a stunning example and the undeniable proof to us that without God’s presence in a man’s mind, it is impossible for men to make the decision to submit to God and be subject to His law because it is impossible for men to know of the existence of the true God and of His law. Ancient Israel had the same mind as all the heathen nations around them; they never were a converted nation. The Old Covenant made with ancient Israel did not provide for their ever being given to know God’s spiritual truth. However, ancient Israel was said to be glorious because it served a very important purpose. Israel was used to illustrate a very important lesson which will only be understood by mankind as a whole during the Millennium and the Last Great Day but which today, can be understood by God’s called out and chosen ones who are remaining faithful. The lesson God was teaching through ancient Israel was that without His presence in the minds of men, it is impossible for them to know the true God and to decide to obey Him.
It should be carefully noted that knowing and understanding God’s spiritual truth does not enable men to obey God; it simply makes it possible for them to make the decision to obey or not obey God to the best of their ability until the end of their natural lives. Committing to obey God to the best of one’s abilities is what makes it possible for men’s sins to be forgiven conditional upon maintaining their attitude of obedience to God in all things. Truly converted men remain sinners until their death but God does not impute sin to those He has called and who have chosen to obey Him and are remaining faithful; their sins are then always forgiven by the grace resulting from Christ’s perfect sacrifice.
This understanding along with a right and complete understanding of who and what is God’s New Testament church and what is the purpose for which it was founded by Christ are essential to correctly understanding the book of Malachi. Many of the things God is saying in the book of Malachi have to do with ancient Israel’s attitude of disobedience toward Him; this is the historical part of the book. God also is talking about a time when He will offer a New Covenant to Israel and where those who enter into the New Covenant will become God’s spiritual nation of Israel. This is the prophetic message which is woven in with the historical parts of the book. It is easy to determine which part are historical and which part are prophetic if we understand that ancient Israel was never able to obey God and God ultimately separated Himself from them AND if we correctly understand who and what is God’s Church in New Testament times today — those who have been called out, repented, believed and have maintained their conversions — then we can clearly know when God is speaking prophetically. This will become clearer as we go along.
Let’s understand and have it clear in our mind that ancient Israel was God’s physical church or congregation in the wilderness.
Ac 7:38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, [the God being called the Word who became Christ] and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us
God’s promises to Israel were national and material. The following Scriptures serve to illustrate the major difference between the old and the new covenant. The major and most important difference for the purpose of correctly understanding the book of Malachi is that ancient Israel was only required to obey the letter of the law and that they were not even able to do that much. The verses below serve to confirm this.
Heb 8:6 But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
Heb 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
Heb 8:8 For finding fault with them [the promises of the first covenant], he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant [which has better promises] with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah [their physical descendants returned from their end-time captivity after the 2nd Coming of Christ]:
Heb 8:9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers [The New Covenant will be different from the Old Covenant.] in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
However, there is a time coming when God will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah.
Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Heb 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts [God’s presence in their minds will make this possible]: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
Heb 10:16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
The New Covenant is yet to be made with Israel (the combined houses of Israel and Judah back together as in the beginning before Israel after the death of Solomon separated into the Northern and the Southern Kingdom). It will be made with the descendants of ancient Israel who have remained alive while in captivity and who are resettled in the land of Palestine. When Christ returns the second time, He will spend 3 ½ years confirming the covenant with Israel returned from its end-time captivity (AC BCC 58; specifically, lesson 19). It is at that time that the New Covenant will be made with Israel. This is also the time when Israel will fulfill God’s purpose of being His holy nation and a kingdom of priests(Ex 19:6).
In the Old Testament and under the Old Covenant God had a physical nation made up of individuals who were carnal-minded and unable to follow His law even on the physical level i.e., the letter of the law. They failed to accomplish the purpose for which they had been chosen i.e., becoming God’s holy nation and kingdom of priests.
However in a time which is yet future to our own, God will again use Israel; only this time, He will make a different covenant with the physical descendants of ancient Israel. He will make it possible for them to understand His spiritual truth or as the Scriptures states it: He will replace their heart of stone with a heart of flesh and He will write His law in their minds. However, we need to understand that not all of those called to make the New Covenant will enter into it. Many will not follow their calling (Matt 22:14).
In Malachi, God is speaking of the sins of ancient Israel and of the future glory of Israel during the Millennium and the Last Great Day when those who enter the New Covenant will become God’s Church whose commission will be to teach newcomers to the faith when God opens up salvation to all mankind by making His Spirit available to all.
Joe 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
Mic 4:2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem
All will be called during the Millennium but God’s calling is individual and personal not on a nation-wide basis. And, the mountain of the Lord and Zion are His Church which is not a physical organization in a specific geographical location but a spiritual organism made up of all those who are called, chosen and faithful wherever they may be in the world and whether organized or not in congregations with or without ministers. The truly converted are the temple in which God and Christ dwell, God does not dwell in brick and mortar buildings or in a specific geographical location.
Spiritually speaking, all the individuals in the nations of the world will be called and those following their callings will then be figuratively going up to the mountain of the Lord, the house of the God of Jacob, to Zion and Jerusalem. God’s mountain or nation is a spiritual one not a physical one in a specific geographical location in New Testament times.
One last point which needs to be reviewed and emphasized before we start examining the book of Malachi is to review who, what and why does God have a church.
God’s New Testament Nation
Mr. Armstrong dedicated his last live sermon to the Worldwide Church of God to trying to explain to the Church, what and who is the Church and why, there is a Church. He said he would do his best to try and explain it but still he thought that all those listening to him — including the ministry — would still not get it. The reason they could not understand he stated was because so much Protestantism had rubbed off on them. He said, everybody thinks that they had been called out ahead of the others simply for the purpose of getting into God’s Kingdom and that the others would follow after.
Here is a truth which has escaped the vast majority of those who once sat in the congregations of the Worldwide Church of God while under the direction of Mr. Armstrong and this, with catastrophic results after his death.
God’s church since the days of Pentecost is no longer a physical nation of which one becomes a member by simply being physically born into it. Also, God’s temple since the days of Pentecost is no longer a physical structure made of wood, mortar and bricks. Since Pentecost, God’s church is made up — and this is a vitally important point which is not understood by the many — ONLY of those individuals who have been called, have repented and believed and who have maintained their attitude of obedience to God in all things. Regardless of whether they be part of a visible, physical organization calling itself “Church of God” or whether they be on their own or in little groups, they are the ONLY ones who constitute God’s church on this earth today. Mr. Armstrong emphasized time and time again that God’s church was first and foremost a spiritual organism which can sometimes be a visible organization — as was the case during the days of the Worldwide Church of God under HWA — made up of ONLY those individuals in whom dwells God’s Spirit because they have maintained their attitude of obedience to God in all things. As HWA said repeatedly, being part of an organization calling itself “Church of God” does not in any way make one a member of God’s Church. This understanding is vital to understanding how the Philadelphia Church of God’s foundational book Malachi’s Message is a massive twisting of the Scriptures. It should be obvious to us, if we understand who and what is God’s Church, that anyone who may have been called out and who has not maintained his attitude of obedience to God in all things and is now teaching so-called “new truth” never taught by God’s Elijah, has ceased to be a member of that spiritual organism which is God’s church.
This in turn leads to another point which has caused massive confusion. Is it possible for someone to be preaching falsities and calling his organization “Church of God,” to be part of God’s Church? The self-evident answer is a resounding “NO.” Did Christ say that the many false prophets would be in God’s Church. No, the false prophets would be in the world deceiving the nations. Can the elect i.e., those who have chosen to obey God, be deceived? The Scriptures say that the elect cannot be deceived.
Mt 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
If the elect could be deceived about what is God’s truth; how could they be judged as God does not hold us responsible for obeying Him until we come to the knowledge of the truth. This is why the world, which is blinded to the truth of God, is neither saved nor lost; they are simply not now being judged as they do not know the truth; they are deceived. In the future, in the resurrection of the Last Great Day, their minds will be opened up to God’s truth and they will then enter into judgement.
Another point I would like to dwell on as an aside here, is the almost universal belief among those who once sat in the congregations of the WCG in the days of HWA that the reason why God has a church is to preach the Gospel to the world. Since the death of HWA numerous “churches or God” have arisen with the intent of taking the Gospel to the world. They all want to be doing a “work.” Yet HWA explained that the Great Commission was given ONLY to the apostles NOT to the church. When there is an apostle on the scene, the church is to provide assistance through their tithes, offerings and prayers to the apostle but they are not to individually go out and preach the Gospel to those who are in the world. Preaching the Gospel to those who are in the world is also NOT the responsibility of the ministry. Its responsibility is to teach those whom God calls, the truth, which He, God placed in His church through the apostles and prophets. The reason why God has a church is not for the purpose of preaching the Gospel to the world. The preaching of the Gospel is NOT the means whereby individuals are converted. God has Himself, predestinated those whom He would call throughout the ages and He, God, has blinded all the rest until the 2nd Coming of Christ. God’s church in New Testament time is not being built by the efforts of men — even those who are really part of His church — but by His Spirit as He places it with those whom He has chosen to call since the foundation of the world. We are not placed in God’s church by baptism but by God’s Spirit
I Co 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
If the preaching of the Gospel is the means used by God to bring men to conversion then how were they converted during the 1900 years where the Gospel message was suppressed and even lost by those who constituted God’s true church during the long years of persecution (1260) by the great, false church. Also, how can the preaching of the Gospel have been God’s sign that the end of the age was near, if it had been preached all along?
God’s church is first and foremost a spiritual organism which is sometimes a visible organization. Today, the majority of ex-WCGers, (Worldwide Church of God) are looking for a physical organization which to their mind is God’s church in that as from a physical, visible organization standpoint, it is the one which is closest in physical appearance to what existed in the days of HWA. The many are now sitting in the several so-called churches of God who are all intent on doing a “work” of taking the Gospel to the world.
HWA a few years before his death, made it abundantly clear in a letter (I’ve included it at the very end of this study and I encourage you to read it) that no one would follow him in the work that he, NOT the church, had been given to do i.e., preach the Gospel to the world. Yet since His death, all are itching to raise up an organization to preach the Gospel to the world.
I’ve digressed a bit so I will go back to the main point I wanted to make and that is that anyone who is not holding to all the truth revealed to the church by God’s Elijah have for the most part certainly ceased to be members of God’s church. The false prophets (we would call them teachers today) who are obviously not obeying God, even if former members of God’s church in the days of HWA, are not members of God’s church. All those who were members of God’s church in the days of HWA and who today are sitting in the congregations of the many so-called churches of God are for the most part no longer members of God’s church. The New Testament tells us plainly and clearly that the true servants of God will either be disfellowshipped from these false churches of God refusing to go along with their “new” truth or leave quietly of their own accord. Light and darkness cannot co-exist, two cannot walk together unless they be agreed and the Scriptures cannot be broken.
The false teachers are in the world and in the worlds’ false churches including the many false churches of God that have sprung up since the death of HWA. Those who may have arisen from within God’s one, true church, by their behavior, have made themselves workers of iniquity and are no longer part of God’s one, true church and indeed, cannot be.
With this background information in mind, let’s get on with our review of the book of Malachi and see how God is speaking both historically and prophetically about the only nation that was ever of any interest to Him, the nation of Israel anciently, in our immediate future and eternally.
Malachi History and Prophecy
The first verse of the book tells us that God’s message through Malachi is addressed to ancient Israel.
Mal 1 :1 The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.
This Israel is a physical, carnal-minded nation whose mind is not subject to God’s law and indeed cannot be. These Israelites are those of the tribes of Levi, Judah and Benjamin who came back from captivity under the Persian Empire to rebuild the physical temple of God in Jerusalem which had been destroyed by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar when the same three tribes where taken in captivity to Babylon. They were the Southern Kingdom which became known as Judah whose capital was Jerusalem while the other 10 tribes formed the Northern Kingdom of Israel whose capital was Samaria. After the death of Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel had split into a Southern and a Northern Kingdom. At the time when this message is addressed to them, as the remnant of Israel still in the land given them by God as the Promised Land, they represent all of Israel i.e. the ancient, physical, carnal-minded nation issued from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Northern Kingdom (the 10 tribes which kept the name Israel, had gone into captivity more than 100 years before this book was written and had ceased to exist as a distinct nation).
2 I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,
3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
Here God through Malachi is explaining to Israel that He loved Jacob yet hated Esau who was his brother. Why? They were of the same family, why would one be loved and not the other. One obeyed Him while the other did not. Just being part of the physical nation of Israel is not enough to be blessed by God; obedience is needed.
4 Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.
5 And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel.
Edom in defiance of God, affirms that despite the fact God will not bless him and the nation descended from him because of his refusal to obey Him; he will return and build the places that were made desolate because of his disobedience. God answers that He would again throw down what Esau would build; disobedience would not be rewarded with blessings.
Esau and Jacob are types of how God behaves with those that obey Him and those who will not obey Him. The Jews were not obeying; their attitude was defiant toward God. God was telling them what would be the result of their maintaining this attitude. They had just finished rebuilding the temple and Jerusalem. What they had rebuilt, like those things Esau had rebuilt, would be again destroyed if they would not cease their disobedience. What they had was once destroyed because of disobedience; it would again be destroyed if they would continue in their disobedience. God is warning them and telling them what will occur to them unless they repent and start having an attitude of obedience toward him instead of their defiant and rebellious attitude.
In verse 5, we move from history to prophecy. Verses 4 and 5 are talking about how the people will react in the future (during the Millennium and the Last Great Day; disobedience to God until that time is not a matter of concern for the world whose conversion is yet in the far future at the time of this prophecy) to what Edom has done and how they, those to whom the prophet is giving this message, will see with their own eyes in the second resurrection, how God will be magnified from the border of Israel i.e., how Israel’s future obedience to God will be seen by all nations. Also, a converted Israel returned from its end-time captivity will become God’s holy nation and kingdom of priests which will be the human instrumentality through which God will teach the nations and bring salvation to them after their calling.
6 A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?
God tells Israel that they consider it only normal and right that a son would honor his father and a servant his master, then why is it that since God is a father (of their physical nation through the miraculous birth of Isaac to Abraham) that they show Him no respect. Their attitude continues to be defiant in that they say, tell us how we have not shown you the respect you deserve. They are like children who know they have done wrong and are defiantly asking what it is they have done that is wrong pretending not to know though they have been taught it several times before.
7 Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible.
God replies, your physical offerings (this is a physical, carnal nation) are not in accordance with what was commanded you under Moses. They reply, again pretending not to know how they were dishonoring God asking “Wherein have we polluted thee?”
8 And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts.
God tells them what should have been obvious to them; they are not sacrificing to Him the best of their flocks and herds but their sick, lame and injured animals which are of no value to them. God says, would your human governors be pleased and would you be accepted by them? They had not been faithful in following the physical, ceremonial rituals they had been commanded to follow.
9 And now, I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us: this hath been by your means: will he regard your persons? saith the LORD of hosts.
God through Malachi tells them to repent of their misbehavior and to beseech God to reinstate them in His good graces (would receive physical blessings). God holds the priests guilty : “This has been by your means.” They did not do these things without knowing they were being disobedient and neglectful. And God says will I be partial in the law as you have been? Will I fail to apply my law to you because you are Israel (regard your persons). Will I not take into consideration that you have not been obeying me and bless you as though you had been?
10 Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the LORD of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.
God says, if they will not change their ways, they might as well stop all their ineffectual sacrifices, let the fire go out on the altar and shut the doors of the temple. It is all being done in vain.
11 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts.
In verse 11 we jump ahead to the far future when during the Millennium and the Last Great Day, God’s name will be greatly respected among the nations of the Gentiles. His name will be greatly respected by those individuals in the Gentile nations who will have followed their calling and remained faithful when God pours out of His Spirit upon all flesh. There is a time coming when salvation will be opened up to the Gentile nations while at the time when the book of Malachi was written, God had been only working with the nation of Israel. This is a prophecy that God would open up salvation to the Gentile nations. They should have understood they were special to God only in as much as they obeyed Him.
12 But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, The table of the LORD is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.
The priests respond that those things God gives them as blessings are also polluted (this is why they sacrifice their lame and sick animals to Him) and that His blessings are not worth the effort, they are contemptible. They’re excusing themselves for their offering the lame and the sick to God in supposed worship of Him. They were saying, God if you would give us good things as blessings we would not offer you our sick animals. Here we see a huge attitude problem.
13 Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the LORD of hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the LORD.
And the priests come out and plainly say how boring they found it to have to offer sacrifices and to worship Him through the rituals they had been commanded to perform by God through Moses. God asks them, should I accept your offering of sick, lame and torn animals?
14 But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am [in italic, not part of inspired text; should be, I will be] a great King, saith the LORD of hosts, and my name is [will be] dreadful among the heathen.
God answers His own question by saying, cursed be the deceiver who has in his flock the animals commanded for sacrifice but who offer instead a sick, lame or torn animal. He will not accept their offering. God says He is a great king and His name will be dreadful among the heathen. The “I am” there is in italic and not part of the inspired text. It should read, I will be a great king and my name will be dreadful among the Gentiles. He was not then a great king nor was His name dreadful among the Gentiles but it will be during the Great White Throne Judgment when the sheep are separated from the goats and there is wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Mal. 2 :1 And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.
All throughout, God is addressing the priesthood of ancient Israel not New Testament priests whose continuing membership in the Church is wholly based on their continued attitude of obedience to God in all things. Once they are no longer obeying God as would be the case were they to become corrupt priests, they would no longer be members of God’s church whether continuing or not to assemble with true believers. There can be no corrupt priesthoods in the New Testament Church which is first and foremost a spiritual organism made up of only those individuals who are actively trying to obey God in all things.
2 If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.
Here God is saying to the priests that if they will not obey Him, He will send a curse upon them and even, that He has already cursed them. God knew they would not obey. He would remove from them those things with which He had blessed them; He would curse their blessings; the blessings they were given would become a curse to them because of their taking them for granted and greatly abusing the prosperity and security they enjoyed to grow in evil doing rather than in obedience. They would go back into captivity and be scattered among the nations.
3 Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.
They would go back in captivity after a huge slaughter of their own. God said their children or seed would be corrupted (with evil doing); He would spread dung (feces) on their faces, even the dung from the animal that they sacrifice on their (not God’s) solemn feasts. This is what happened when the Romans overran and burnt Jerusalem and destroyed the temple.
4 And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.
This is speaking of a time when these priests and Israel would know their sinfulness which they refuse to acknowledge now as we have seen in previous verses. This is the time of the second resurrection for them when their minds will be opened by God’s Holy Spirit and they will then realize they had not kept God’s physical commands/rituals/ceremonies and were being rebellious.
This is described in the book of Zechariah:
Zec 3:1 And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.
Joshua here represents all of ancient Israel which was unconverted and in this sense, he also represents the unconverted nations of the world and what will happen to them and to the people of ancient Israel at the time of the 2nd resurrection, the period of the Great White Throne judgment.
Zec 3:2 And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
Only 10% of the nations constituting end-time Israel will survive the massive carnage that will occur during the Great Tribulation(GT). End-time Israel was about to be fully consumed or be exterminated at the hands of its captor (it was a firebrand pullet out of the fire before it was fully consumed by the flames) when God intervenes to cut the GT short because of the righteousness of His Philadelphian saints caught up in the GT. These are those that convert during the GT; those that converted before and remained faithful are in a place of safety; the Laodicean Era Church appears only after the events of the 6th seal; the Great Tribulation is the 5th seal and consequently, the Philadelphia Era has yet to end when the GT occurs; it will only end with the start of the Laodicean Era after the events of the 6th seal. God tells Satan that He has chosen Jerusalem (Israel, ancient and modern, and by extension, the world (all are carnal-minded unconverted nations; in time, those of the nations of the world who convert become spiritual Israel.))
Zec 3:3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
God’s people are clothed with fine, white linen which is the righteousness of the saints which is Christ’s righteousness imputed to them; not in filthy garments which are symbolic of sin. Joshua, a type of Israel and of the unconverted world, was full of sin.
Zec 3:4 And he [the Lord] answered and spake unto those that stood before him, [the angels that serve God] saying, Take away the filthy garments from him [Joshua]. And unto him [Joshua] he [the Lord] said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
Here we see the Lord forgiving Joshua’s sins. Christ’s perfect righteousness is imputed to Joshua because Joshua has obviously indicated his willingness to obey God now that he has been given the ability to know the truth; otherwise God would not be imputing Christ’s righteousness to him and forgiving his sins (I have cause thy iniquity to pass from you).
Zec 3:5 And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD [Christ see Act 7:38] stood by.
A beautiful, clean mitre is set on Joshua’s head; his mind is regenerated by receiving God’s Spirit, he becomes a new man with a mind now able to want to obey God when before he had a mind that could not obey God; he was unknowingly blind to God’s truth and consequently was not able to choose it even if he would have wanted to.
Zec 3:6 And the angel of the LORD protested unto Joshua, saying,
Then, the angel of the LORD which is the Lord of Hosts (The Word who became Christ Act 7:38) as made clear in the next verse, strongly urges Joshua to do something which is also explained in the next verse.
Zec 3:7 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.
The LORD of Hosts is Christ, the Logos or Spokesman through which God the Father speaks to mankind through the Holy Bible which is Christ in writing (Heb 1:1-2). Christ tells Joshua, ancient Israel, and the world in the 2nd resurrection: your sins have been forgiven you and you will inherit eternal life in God’s kingdom (I will give you places to walk among these that stand by, the eternal beings or angels which are presently part of God’s kingdom and the saints of the first resurrection that occurred at Christ’s 2nd Coming). But there is a condition, Joshua and all those called by God the Father must commit themselves to obeying God in all things to the best of their ability as long as they are alive.
God’s covenant will be with Levi i.e., all true servants of God that obey Him. Levi is a type of those who are obedient to God. All those who obey God are the ones with whom God’s new covenant will be made; starting with those of Israel that will commit to obeying Him when given to know the truth with the process gradually extending to the whole world. Truly obedient Christians are spiritual Levites. And here being a Levite is simply a type of the obedient Christian. God is not here talking only about the Old Testament priesthood being obedient to Him but eventually, when the time comes, of all those in the world who commit themselves to obeying Him when given to know the truth.
It should be remembered and firmly kept in mind that only the sons of Aaron were the priests in ancient Israel. Much confusion has been caused by many wrongly believing that all Levites were priests and that when God is talking about the Levites, he is talking about the priesthood. He is only talking about the priesthood when He is talking about the sons of Aaron. In other words, some of the Levites were priests, the sons of Aaron but not all Levites were priests. In fact most of them were not priests but they had a role in assisting the priests with their ministry.
Exodus 32: 26 Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD’S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.
Numbers 3:3 These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the priests which were anointed, whom he consecrated to minister in the priest’s office.
Numbers 10:8 And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow with the trumpets; and they shall be to you for an ordinance for ever throughout your generations.
Mal 2: 5 My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.
Verse 5 explains very well what covenant God is talking about. God had covenanted with Levi as an individual because he obeyed God and respected His authority. He will make the same covenant with all those who will obey Him. All God is saying here is what He has been saying all along up to that point in the Old Testament, He is the God of those that obey Him and He blesses those that do and curses those that don’t.
Mal 2: 6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.
7 For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
8 But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.
In verses 6-7-8 God continues to explain why He had covenanted with Levi. At the same time He explains what the role of the priest should be. He is the custodian of the truth of God, he was to administer God’s law (on a physical level) over the people of Israel. In New Testament times, the ministry is to be a custodian of the truth given the church through Christ who gave it to the apostles as the founding members of His New Testament Spirit-begotten Church.
In our case, the truth was given to the Church by God’s Spirit through God’s end-time apostle who was the end-time Elijah to come and restore all things. And what is the “all things” he restored.
He restored the truth given by Christ to the apostles which are the foundational truth of God’s Church. They are sure as they came directly from Christ, who was God in the flesh, to the apostles. These truths were to be transmitted from one generation of true Christians across the centuries to our time and beyond but because of the great persecution that came upon God’s Church (1260 years) most of these fundamental truths were lost to God’s Church. This is why Christ said someone in the end-time would come in the spirit and power of Elijah to restore them to God’s Church before the coming of the great and dreadful Day of the Lord. For a thorough and detailed explanation of why and how these truths were to be restored to God’s Church, I refer you to the following study: Administration of God’s Plan of Salvation During the Millennium
The role of the ordained ministry is to teach the Church the truth God placed in His Church by the apostles, the foundational truths of God’s Church which once mastered make it possible for true Christians to study their Bible and find other truths God left for them to discover on their own. God commands true Christians to study their Bible and this command could not have been given if Christ had given the Church all knowable truth to His disciples. The following studies provide detailed explanations of individual Christians responsibility to grow in knowledge and understanding :The Ministry and God’s Truth and Unity in God’s Church.
The ministry is simply the helper of our faith or joy as the Bible calls it; they are not the ones who can make God’s truth understandable to Church members. This is done by God’s Spirit dwelling in them.
2Co 1:24 Not for that we [Paul and those appointed by him to teach the Church] have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.
And, Paul also very clearly states that He and the ministers appointed by him do not have dominion over true Christians’ faith. In other words, they cannot force someone to believe something they have not chosen to believe. What one believes is one’s faith. And what one believes of the truth of God is as a result of God working in the minds of the truly converted revealing and giving understanding of His spiritual truth to them (1Co 3:5-6) which they are free to accept or refuse. (Deu 30:19)
Church members are to check out all things taught them against their Bible (Acts 17: 10-11; 1 Th 5:21). They are not to follow men i.e., believe their teachings without checking them against the Bible. Mr. Armstrong urged all that heard him not to have blind trust in him but to check all he taught against the Bible. Paul, said as much to the Corinthians when he told them:
1Co 11:1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
And the clear implication is, if you should see that I am not following Christ, then don’t follow me.
This is the case when there is a functioning ministry which for the greatest part of the existence of the one, true church there has not been and, nowadays we are back in the situation where the Church is without ministers.
What is to happen when there is no ministry? Paul tells us in I Corn’s 3:10 the following:
1Co 3:10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
Paul clearly says that the truth given him and the apostles and restored to the one, true church by God’s end-time Elijah, is the foundation. It is not the whole building, more things can be added to it. And, true Christians are to build on the foundation of truth given the church. And Paul while a captive in Rome wrote in Philippians 2:12:
Php 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Christians are individually responsible for working out their own salvation whether or not there is a ministry in existence; and the more so, when there isn’t any.
I Cor’ns 3:10 makes it clear that Christians are to build on the foundation of truth they have received. God commands that Christians grow in knowledge and understanding and in the grace of Jesus Christ. This growth in knowledge must include understanding for the knowledge of the holy IS understanding.
Pro 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
The world only has knowledge; it has no understanding; it can only repeat but without understanding the words of the Bible. It is the same for true Christians for many things in the Bible which they read and do not understand; in time, with regular study, they can come to understand some of those things they did not understand before and have spiritual growth while for the world this is impossible.
We get spiritual growth and are live spiritual embryos feeding on the truth of God and growing in readiness for our birth as glorified spirit beings. But, we must have continuous growth or starve spiritually and a dead spiritual embryo will not be born again as a glorified spirit being at Christ’s 2nd coming. The parable of the talents makes it clear that God expects growth in individual Christians (Matt 25:25-30) and that the basic way of doing so is by studying the Bible first to ensure that what is being taught is in accordance with the Scriptures then by Christian themselves, studying the Scriptures to get more truth directly from the Bible. Of course, it should go without saying, that one has to have first fully mastered the foundational teachings restored to the Church by HWA before venturing on their own to study the Bible; otherwise, confusion is sure to follow.
Going back to Malachi 2, we read in verse 9
9 Therefore have I also made you [the ministry, the priests] contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.
The Levites have lost the honour and respect they would receive from the people if they were impartial administrators of the law but because of their partiality in administering the law they are contemptible and base.
10 Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
Their common father was God through His creation of the human family through Adam but in their case it was Jacob and they were all brothers and sisters as his descendants and should not have been partial in the application of the law. The covenant of the fathers which are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was that they would obey God and that obedience included the honest administration of the law over their brothers and sisters.
11 Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
The people have forgotten God and are committing idolatry having adopted as their god the gods of the heathen nations around them and marrying women from the gentile nations around them.
12 The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts.
The punishment for all, whether a simple man, a teacher or a well educated man, or one that is preaching, is that they will no longer be part of the nation of Jacob and this includes the priests also. All who forsake God, no matter what office they hold, will cease to be members of the nation of Jacob or Israel, physically speaking in ancient Israel and spiritually in New Testament times.
13 And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.
They are not blessed because of their refusal to stop sinning, yet do they cry out to God to bless them, to accept their offerings which are contrary to what God had commanded them. A very carnal attitude and approach to God saying essentially, God please bless us in our sins.
14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
Again, they say they don’t understand why they are not being blessed. God in answer tells them of another one of their sins which they continue to do. They take wives and God says He is a witness to their marriage, and they are unfaithful to them, committing adultery. But God says, once married, she is to be your life long companion; she is the one whom you have promised or covenanted to be the husband of for the rest of your life. There is to be no other ones. And spiritually speaking, God was Israel’s husband which Israel has forsaken and went whoring after other gods which are not gods; has committed spiritual adultery.
15 And did not he [the Lord] make one? [In marriage, the husband and the wife become one] Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore [why are they made one; a family] one? That he might seek a godly seed. [That their children may be raised in the fear of God, be a godly seed.] Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
In this verse, God reminds them that it is He who has instituted marriage, He is the one who has commanded that once married, they become one, one family for life and a new entity which cannot be divided or separated by the authority of men as it was through God’s authority that they were made one. And their children are a gift from God if they be begotten in a God-ordained marriage. They are then a holy seed. Their parents are holy to God through their obedience and their children would then also be holy and thus a holy seed conceived and raised in the admonition and fear (obedience to) of God as God commands. (Genesis 2). Therefore, God says, take to heart what I am telling you in this matter and let none of you be unfaithful to your wives or abandon your wives for other women you find more attractive or abandon Me your spiritual husband.
16 For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, [to follow the the truth that you have been given] that ye deal not treacherously.
They were putting away their wives contrarily to God’s command. God reminds them to stop sinning in this way and trying to hide it from God. He gave this sin as one more example of why He was not blessing them when they were saying one more time, that they didn’t understand why He wasn’t.
17 Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?
Again, the priests/people say they don’t understand how they are wearying God with their words. And God tells them that they weary Him when they teach that you can sin and still be acceptable to God (a universally accepted teaching in the false religions of this world) or that they don’t have to worry about God’s judgment as they are not immediately punished when they sin and therefore God is not judging them. But God says:
Mal. 3: 1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
Here there is a break in God pointing out to Israel their sinful ways. He says for them to behold, He will send His messenger (John the Baptist) to prepare the way before His (Christ, the Spokesman) first coming as a human being to die as the perfect sacrifice for sin. This verse allows us to understand that it is the God personage that will later be born as Christ that is speaking here to Judah. This messenger will prepare the way before me, Christ. God the Father, the other God personage will only come to this earth after the 3rd resurrection and the creation of a new earth.
Here is a prophecy of a messenger to come to prepare the coming of the messiah. This messenger would be John the Baptist who prepared a people for Christ’s first coming by teaching water baptism as the sign that men have repented of their ways (disobedience to God) and have committed themselves to obeying God to the best of their abilities in all things until the time of their death.
2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.
In Malachi 3:1 God is talking about the first coming of Christ as a human being to die for the sins of all mankind. In the 2nd and 3rd verses, God is talking of the Second Coming of Christ to restore all things to the end-time remnant returned from captivity and resettled in the Promised Land. There will then be a period of 3 1/2 years during which Christ will confirm the covenant with Israel. It will be the time of Israel’s calling spoken of by Paul in Romans 11. At the end of Christ’s end-time ministry (Dan 9:27) with Israel, those of the remnant returned from captivity that follow their calling and convert become part of God’s holy nation and kingdom of priests, His Church. Christ did not sit (rule, reign) as a refiner’s fire at the time of His First Coming. The time of the priests’, Levi’s and all of Israel’s purification is yet future. It will occur after Christ’s 2nd Coming.
4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
Those of Judah and Jerusalem that become converted will then be obeying God as they should have been all along and their offerings will be pleasant to Him. In New Testament times, true believers offer themselves as spiritual sacrifices, fully dying to their old ways and adopting God’s ways. We are crucified with Christ and we are a new creation in Christ. Judah and Jerusalem obeyed God at different times of their existence as under David but they were never steadfast in their obedience to God.
5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.
A time is coming when God will punish for sin and bless for obedience. There will be swift judgment meted out. This will occur only after their eyes have been opened to understand the truth of God and they have been given the opportunity to choose to obey or not obey God. The actual punishment of those who sin willfully after having been given the knowledge of the truth will occur at the end of the Last Great Day when the 3rd resurrection to judgment occurs.
6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
God will not go back on the promises given to Jacob, which he received because of the obedience of Abraham. God will not exterminate Jacob’s descendants, Israel, because of their unwillingness to obey Him while a carnal nation cut off from God’s Spirit. They were to become God’s holy nation and a kingdom of priests and this will occur as promised after Christ’s 2nd coming when Israel returns from captivity and goes through a conversion process when Christ’s confirms the covenant with them for 3 ½ years. Israel will be the human instrumentality through which salvation will extend to the nations as God’s Spirit opens their minds for the first time to make it possible for them to understand spiritual truth which is knowable only by revelation.
Dan 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Christ died after a 3 ½ year ministry with Israel then represented by the Jews in Jerusalem (Benjamin, Levi and Judah) but after His 2nd Coming, Israel (the Northern and the Southern Kingdom (Jews)) will be brought back from captivity and Christ will teach them for a 3 ½ year period completing the 7 day (week) ministry started in the OT and cut short by His death. In fulfillment of this prophecy, each day is a year (Num 14:34) as we can know from Christ first ministry which lasted 3 ½ years or 3 ½ days prophetically speaking.
Mal 3:7 Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?
God is telling them that they have always been disobedient even from the days of their fathers. He tells them to cease their disobedience but again they say they don’t know what disobedience God is talking about. So, in the next verse, God tells them of another one of their major sins.
8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
They were not tithing as required and God says this is the same as robbing Him. The first tithe is Holy to God and belongs to Him as is the 2nd tithe (for feast attendance) and the 3rd tithe (payable once every 3 years and which was intended to help the poor among them.)
9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.
Because of their refusal to tithe, they were cursed as a nation. They would not receive any of God’s blessings. Modern-day Israel is cursed as a nation for the very same reason. The nations constituting modern-day Israel have inherited the promises made to Abraham and guaranteed by God Himself and are enjoying a level of prosperity and might no nation in the history of the world have ever had. But the promises would only continue if Israel obeyed God after having received them; prophecy reveals that it will not and that it will have a great fall and go off into captivity and slavery at the hands of their enemies (the modern-day Gentile nations).
10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.
12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.
Verse 10-12 describes how much and in what way God would bless them if they would obey His command to tithe. They would greatly prosper as a people. Even all the nations around them seeing their prosperity would call their land a land full of delight. Still they did not obey. God’ s promise is to Israel as a nation and to individual New Testament Christians and God says to prove Him; pay your tithes and see if God will not fulfill His promise. This has fully occurred in my own life.
13 Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?
God tells them that they have spoken harshly and in strong terms to him. But again they say, what words did we use that were stout against You?
14 Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
In verses 14-15 God tells them again what it was they were doing wrong. They were saying they were obeying God (that was not true) and were getting no benefits out of it. Why keep on doing it then they say? We now do wickedness instead and encourage and exalt those who do wickedness.
16 Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
Then when those who were obeying God heard and saw what those who didn’t want to obey God were doing and saying; they spoke often to one another; they encouraged and comforted each other with the truth of God they had; they sought to stay faithful in their obedience to God by speaking to each other about the truth that they had in common. AND God heard it and paid attention to them AND a book of remembrance containing the names of those who obeyed Him was written and placed before (in front of) God. WHY????
17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
God wants to be sure He will not forget any of them at the time when He makes up His jewels; He will be like a refiner’s fire and a fuller’s soap (Mal. 3:2); all that will be left after this process of refinement and cleansing will be His jewels, those that obey Him and whose name are in the book of remembrance.
A the time of the Great White Throne Judgment He will not punish those who are obeying Him; He will punish all the others who refuse to obey Him.
18 Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not
This is the time of the third resurrection when the wicked will know who indeed it was that was obeying God and who was only putting on the pretense of doing so. They cannot know it now. As we have seen, Israel was saying to God, why is it that you say we are not obeying you: We don’t know; why aren’t you blessing us, etc? They were saying that God should be pleased with what they were doing for in their minds it was the right thing to do. But God says the time is coming when their eyes will be opened and they will know who was and was not serving Him. They will also be given a chance to obey Him when that occurs and to choose whether to obey Him or not. They are not condemned as they never knew the spiritual truth of God nor could they as ancient Israel never had God’s Spirit.
In verses 16 to 18, God talks about those who at that time were in Israel and who were trying to obey Him that when they saw the wickedness of the people, they met and spoke often to one another. God remembered them in a book of remembrance. God takes notice of those who are obeying Him and will give them their reward at the time when Christ comes and brings salvation with Him for all those who fear the Lord.
Mal 4:1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
They had been saying that obeying God is not worth the effort and that it is better to do evil. God responds that there is a time of judgment coming and that those who are obedient will not be punished with those who are not. The disobedient will be burnt up and their existence forever be extinguished. This is the time of the 3rd resurrection and of the judgment (sentencing) of the wicked which are those who have known the truth, rejected it and went back into the world. This is the second death from which there is no possible resurrection. The consciousness of the incorrigibly wicked will cease forever. It is a punishment that last forever but it is not eternal, never-ending punishing.
Great will be the reward for obedience as stated in Mal 4:2.
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun [brilliance is the meaning of the Hebrew word NOT the sun in the sky that will arise] of righteousness arise with healing in his wings [overspreading to cover something]; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
The wicked will be punished but as for those who obey God (fear His name), their lives will be one of prosperity, abundance and safety as calves of the stall who are well taken care of, protected and fed by their owners, which in this case is God. This is symbolically speaking of the fate of those that will inherit salvation at the time of the Great White Throne Judgment as made clear in the next verse.
3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.
The saints of the 1st resurrection and the saints of the Millennium and Last Great Day as glorified, spirit beings will walk over the ashes of the wicked i.e., those who refused to obey God after having had the truth revealed to them and who die the 2nd death in the Lake of Fire from which there can never be any resurrection.
4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
God’s final command and warning to Judah which then represented all of Israel as it was the remnant of Israel at that time is to remember the law, the statutes and the judgments. In other words, having just been told what the reward will be of those who do not obey, they would do well to start obeying as there are very real rewards to obeying God contrarily to what they had been saying a few verses back that the work required to obey God is not worth the effort.
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
In verse 5 God tells them that He would again send them Elijah the prophet. Elijah was already dead when Malachi wrote those words. The Israelites who heard these words would also be dead by the time Elijah would come. God would not resurrect Elijah as there are no resurrection to flesh-and-blood existence until the Last Great Day and the Great White Throne Judgment at the end of the Last Great Day. There would be someone that God would raise up and who would come in the spirit and power of Elijah the prophet. He would restore worship of the true God but only this time it would be to the spiritual Israelites that God would call. This Elijah to come would restore all things i.e., the truth given to the apostles by Christ at the foundation of God’s Church (the foundational truth) which were lost to God’s Church for the most part because of the 1260 of persecution that came upon it.
Mat 17:10 And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?
Mat 17:11 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.
God was giving them hope that despite their sinfulness, He would send them someone that would help them as when Elijah first came. He would give them the truth they needed to know to obtain salvation. They could not know how this would occur; that it was an event far in the future and which concerned a spiritual nation; those begotten by God’s Spirit. Yet, it was a message of hope that God was not abandoning His physical nation; that despite their sinfulness there was hope.
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
The Elijah-to-come was to restore the knowledge of the family, the right role of the father in the family, of the wife, the proper raising of children and as a result the children would once more respect their fathers and mothers who represent God the father and Christ to them. This is what the Elijah was to restore among many other things and this has been done but only in the one, true Church.
Conclusion
As we can all see, this understanding of the Book of Malachi is a far cry from the interpretation that was given it by Mr. Gerald Flurry, one of the most destructive false prophets to come out of the disintegration of the WCG.
The Book of Malachi was never a message to God’s Church after the death of Mr. Armstrong. It was a message of correction from God to ancient Israel who reminded them that they had been unfaithful in following the law of Moses, and the statutes and the judgements. Ancient Israel is defiant and refuses to acknowledge its guilt even going to the point of saying that it was not worth their while to obey God as He was not blessing them. God tells them of the reward and punishment that come with obedience and disobedience and He encourages them by telling them He will send them Elijah who would restore the true knowledge of the family to them and set them back on the path to obeying God before the coming of the great and dreadful Day of the Lord.
We can only be so thankful that the right understanding of this book was restored to us by HWA. We are most gratified that God should now be giving us this understanding. We are the little remnant of the Philadelphia Era of God’s Church who is holding on to the truth restored to the Church by God’s promised end-time Elijah.
God is manifesting His presence among us by continuing to allow us a fuller understanding of the truth restored by HWA.
These are not new truths; they have always been there; we just did not have the spiritual maturity to understand them.Because of the literature and tapes personally produced by Mr. Armstrong, and our continuing study of them and of the Bible, and especially God helping us to understand and encouraging us, we now understand correctly the truth of the book of Malachi.
NO ONE TO CONTINUE MR. ARMSTRONG WORK
OF PREACHING THE GOSPEL TO THE WORLD
Herbert W. Armstrong
Post Office Box 431, Tucson, Arizona 85702
Tucson, Arizona
March 19, 1981
Dear Brethren and Co-Workers with Christ: It has now been almost six weeks since I wrote you. I told you then, that despite Satan’s vicious and often massive attacks to DESTROY God’s Work, it was in the best condition ever.
It was PLUNGING AHEAD in a NEW burst of power, coming in on the homestretch of our race to FINISH the tremendous commission to which the living GOD has called us!
That renewed revitalized SURGE OF POWER has continued! Jesus Christ IS PLEASED with your SACRIFICE to send in enlarged offerings that His Work may leap forward and be enlarged! The increase in results–in new members–in more TV and radio stations–in income to provide for a more powerful lunge forward–in every way there is INCREASE! But so far, it’s only a START! Now we must INCREASE our sacrifices and our EFFORTS!
In recent weeks three new MAJOR TV STATIONS in MAJOR MARKETS have opened their doors to us. The number one television station of Chicago, WGN, has opened. The number one station in the Rocky Mountain area, KOA in Denver, has opened, and also the number one station in the central southwest area–KCMO of Kansas City. These are really POWER- HOUSES! As we move forward, showing Christ we are in earnest and putting HIM and His Work FIRST in our lives, HE also is MOVING FORWARD, opening new doors–blessing the Work–restraining Satan–empowering us in HIS SERVICE!
Plans are moving forward rapidly preparing the opening this fall of the new JUNIOR COLLEGE at BIG SANDY! The faculty is chosen. All faculty members have been chosen, and accepted the assignment. The faculty consists of seven Ph.D.s and 11 M.A.s–a superb faculty, and ALL MEMBERS of God’s Church. We could now qualify for accreditation both at Pasadena and Big Sandy–but we shall not, because the GOVERNMENT of the colleges would have to be according to that which is in force in this world’s educational institutions–GOD’S government would have to go. WE ALREADY HAVE THE HIGHEST ACCREDITATION OF ALL–THAT OF ALMIGHTY GOD!
The Work as a whole has actually started a decisive UPWARD trend since last November. The increase over the year before in the United States is mounting to the 20 percent increase –and in Britain, West Germany, European nations, South Africa, Canada, the Philippines, it is back about 30 percent again–as of the first 35 years of the Work. Australia and New Zealand are showing similar gains. When WE please GOD, He expands His Work He is doing through us!
Brethren, God is pleased with our recent greater efforts and increased devotion to HIS WORK, and is answering our prayers! I have asked you to devote more time and more intensity and fervency to your prayers for the Work at this crucial stage in the very special Work He has given His Church of this particular generation to do. Results show you have responded. BUT I FEEL WE NEED A STILL MORE SERIOUS SENSE OF URGENCY right now–a still deeper dedication to PRAYER at this time. We CANNOT AFFORD TO BECOME LUKEWARM! We cannot afford to let our minds drift from the intense NEED for this very special mission of this particular time in world history, so shortly before Christ’s coming and HIS KINGDOM! It must be FIRST in our minds and hearts–not interests of this world.
Now about the Work itself. I think I should address a certain point at this time. Actually it has been more of a question in the public press than among ourselves. They seem continually to have asked: “Who will succeed Herbert W. Armstrong? Who will rule the Church and all the college assets?” They cannot understand that Jesus Christ is a LIVING Christ–that HE is the Head of the Church, and if they want an answer to that question they would have to ask HIM! To the world, there is no living Jesus Christ in the picture at all. To them this Church is merely an organization of PEOPLE–like a social club, or any other church where a group of PEOPLE have associated themselves together for their own religious purposes.
Few understand just what IS the Church. There are so many churches in the world. People just take churches for granted. But more than 1,953 years ago, Jesus Christ said, “I will build my Church.” Few know WHY He built it–for what PURPOSE. The purpose, primarily, was dual:
1) to proclaim to the world the Gospel Message God sent to mankind by Jesus as God’s Messenger (Mal. 3:1) of the coming Kingdom of God,
2) to call and prepare a chosen people to be born as IMmortal Spirit Persons in the GOD FAMILY, to RULE, with and under Christ, all nations of the earth–and to JUDGE all who ever lived in the JUDGMENT DAY when they shall be resurrected–after the coming thousand- year reign of God’s Kingdom over all nations on earth. Those people now being called and prepared will constitute the spiritual TEMPLE to which Christ shall come the second time in POWER and GREAT GLORY!
The churches of this world know nothing of this two-fold PURPOSE! They have not proclaimed His Gospel Message. They know nothing of His Government, based on His spiritual LAW, and in no way have prepared people to rule in God’s Government with THE LAW OF GOD.
The true Church started out in the POWER of the Holy Spirit of God. But by A.D. 53, when the apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians, that Gospel Message was being SUPPRESSED (Gal. 1:6-7). By A.D. 70 the true Church went underground, a PERSECUTED Church described in Revelation 12. The great false church had risen described in Revelation 17.
By 1927, when God first challenged me into the most intensive, in-depth night-and-day Bible study, the Church had become virtually dead spiritually (Rev. 3:1).
Now HOW HAS GOD WORKED THROUGH HUMANS? He has always worked through one man at a time as a leader. He gave the promises on which all salvation depends to ONE MAN, Abraham. He repromised them to ONE man, Isaac, and again to Jacob. Four hundred thirty years after Abraham, God raised up ONE MAN as leader–Moses. Moses was specially trained from childhood. He didn’t let Moses die until his commission of leading the chosen people to the Promised Land was COMPLETED, when Moses was 120 years old.
God used ONE MAN to lead the Israelites across the Jordan river into that promised land. After Joshua, at first there was no leader. Every man did what was right in his own eyes. The Israelites disobeyed God and soon became a conquered vassal nation. God raised up ONE MAN–a “judge”–to deliver them into freedom again. Again and again the nation sinned and became a vassal nation. Again each time God raised up ONE MAN to deliver them — see book of Judges.
Then God raised up ONE MAN, Samuel, specially prepared from childhood, by which GOD ruled the nation (I Sam. 8:7). The people wanted a KING like other nations (verse 6). God allowed them to have Saul as king. Then God chose ONE MAN, David, to lead His people. He was followed by Solomon, who turned to women and their false gods in later life. With worldly kings, both Israel and Judah eventually went into national captivity, removal from the Promised Land and slavery.
In Jesus’ time the Jews descended from the colony headed by Zerubbabel who built the second temple (to which Christ came the first time). The Jews were a vassal people under the Roman Empire government.
For His Church, at first, Jesus chose ONE MAN, Simon, whom He surnamed “Peter,” meaning a title such as “leader” (John 1:42, Mark 3:16). When Peter and the original twelve had gone to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:6, 15:24) God raised up the apostle Paul, who had supervision over all the churches (II Cor. 11:28).
The apostasy and falling away from God’s basic original TRUTH started about A.D. 54, near the time Paul wrote of the Galatians turning to a counterfeit gospel (Gal. 1:6-7). That spirit of iniquity, contrary to God’s Law, was already working when Paul wrote to the Thessalonians (II Thess. 2:7).
The Church continued, often meeting secretly “underground,” often fleeing, many being tortured and martyred. By 1926 when I first came among that fledgling Church, it was spiritually dead (Rev. 3:1). They still clung to the truth of the Sabbath, the Law of God and the true name. But much original truth had been lost, though it was all recorded in the Scriptures. But, even late in the first century, Jude pleaded for God’s people to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). But by 1926 we had come to the VERY GENERATION of the END TIME–coming close to the time of Christ’s return as all-conquering, world-ruling KING of kings in supreme POWER and GLORY.
What had God FORETOLD for this very time?
Look at significant prophecies. Look at WHAT HAS HAPPENED! Ask yourself, HAVE THESE PROPHECIES BEEN FULFILLED before our very eyes and ears?
Look at Jesus’ prophecy, Matthew 24! He had been showing His disciples the buildings of the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus told them the temple would be completely destroyed (verse 2). Later, on the Mount of Olives they privately asked Him when what He said would happen, and a second question, what would be the SIGN of His Second Coming and the END of the present world’s society and civilization (verse 3). They thought His Second Coming would be in their lifetime.
Actually, the temple was destroyed in their lifetime, in A.D. 70. So first Jesus answered what would occur in their time–although it actually continued until our time. “Take heed that no man deceive you,” He said (verses 4-5), “For many shall come in my name saying I am Christ; and shall deceive many.” The counterfeit gospel proclaimed Jesus as the Christ, but deceived many. That continued to our time. But the Gospel of the KINGDOM OF GOD was suppressed.
Jesus did not answer their second question about His Second Coming until verse 14: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Following this (verses 21-22) would come the Great Tribulation, followed by miraculous signs in the sky (verse 29) and the Second Coming (verse 30).
Paul wrote of the suppressing of the Gospel of the Kingdom at about A.D. 53. That Gospel was not preached until 1934. By 1953, a 19-year time cycle, it had gone coast to coast in the United States. In 1953–a century of time cycles from the suppression of the Gospel–it went out on the most powerful radio station on earth–Radio Luxembourg–and has continued worldwide since. God DOES THINGS ON TIME!
Now consider the prophecy of Malachi 3:1-5. In verse 1, God will send a human messenger to prepare the way before Christ, coming as the Messenger of the New COVENANT. Now what coming of Christ is this prophecy talking about? Read verses 2 to 5. Jesus did none of those things at His first coming–but WILL DO THEM AT HIS SOON SECOND COMING! So the prophecy is, actually, foretelling primarily a messenger to prepare the way for His SOON SECOND COMING!
Yet Mark 1 and other New Testament scriptures identify John the Baptist as fulfilling that prophecy. But REMEMBER GOD’S PURPOSE WORKS IN A PROCESS of DUALITY! John the Baptist was a TYPE or forerunner, of one to prepare the way for His Second Coming. Jesus is to come to His TEMPLE (Mal. 3:1). He came to a material temple of stone, wood, gold and materials A.D. 27-31. To what Temple will He come IN OUR TIME, SOON NOW?
Hold this prophecy of Malachi 3 in mind, and turn to Haggai 2, beginning verse 3. Zerubbabel was governor of a colony of Jews sent from Babylon back to Jerusalem 70 years after destruction of Solomon’s temple, to build a new temple. This also was days of prophets Ezra and Nehemiah. Zerubbabel was builder of this second temple. It was the temple to which Jesus came at His first appearing as a human.
Verse 3, the former temple of Solomon was then as nothing compared to its original physical glory. God commands Zerubbabel to be strong and work to build the temple (verse 4). Verse 6 goes into a far-future prophecy of a time just before Christ’s Second Coming, when God will shake the earth and shake all nations, and the GLORY OF THIS LATTER HOUSE SHALL BE GREATER THAN OF THE FORMER” (verse 9). The temple Zerubbabel built of stone, wood and physical materials was nowhere near as glorious as the former temple of Solomon! This is a PROPHECY speaking about the temple to which Christ shall come the second time, in supreme POWER and GLORY–a temple far more glorious than Solomon’s!
To WHAT temple will Christ come very soon now? Are the Jews going to demolish the Moslem temple, Dome of the Rock, which stands on that site now, and build a new super-glorious new temple? NO! Turn to Ephesians 2:19-22. The Church at Ephesus was composed of former gentiles. They are no longer foreign gentiles, but fellow-citizens with the saints — a spiritual NATION. They are also a FAMILY–of the “household” of GOD–the GOD FAMILY. As a BUILDING they are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being chief cornerstone. As a BUILDING, they are fitly framed together (in UNIFIED ORGANIZATION) growing into a HOLY T E M P L E!
At Christ’s Second Coming, what happens to the CHURCH? Those dead “in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (I Thess. 4:16-17). And where shall we be WITH Him? Where shall HE be? “His feet shall stand in that day (of His coming) on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem” (Zech. 14:4).
The Church, caught up to meet Him in the air as He is COMING, those who have died will be raised IMmortal. But we, if still alive, shall “be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye…and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” to spirit GOD PERSONS (I Cor. 15:51-52). In that CHANGED, glorified SPIRIT immortal condition, we shall be the T E M P L E far more glorious than was Solomon’s temple!
Now back again to Malachi 3:1-5. At His Second Coming (verses 2-5), Jesus is coming to a SPIRITUAL temple far more glorious than was Solomon’s temple.
Zerubbabel built the second temple to which Jesus came the first time. John the Baptist prepared the way before the FIRST coming. But WHO was to build the SPIRITUAL temple to which Christ shall soon come the second time? Who was to prepare the way before His Second Coming?
Remember God does things in DUAL stages. As Zerubbabel built the first temple of MATERIAL stone, wood and other materials, he was a forerunner or type of one through whom Christ would raise up or build the SPIRITUAL TEMPLE–His Church of our time, prior to the Day of the Lord and Christ’s Second Coming. As John the Baptist prepared the way, in the PHYSICAL wilderness of the Jordan River for the first coming of the HUMAN Jesus (both man and God), then coming to His MATERIAL temple, and to His PHYSICAL people Judah, ANNOUNCING the Kingdom of God to be set up more than 1,900 years later, SO God would use a human messenger in the SPIRITUAL wilderness of 20th-century religious confusion, to be a voice CRYING OUT the Gospel of the KINGDOM OF GOD, about the SPIRITUAL CHRIST, coming in SUPREME POWER AND GLORY to His SPIRITUAL TEMPLE, to actually ESTABLISH that spiritual KINGDOM OF GOD.
Brethren, HAS THAT BEEN DONE BY THIS CHURCH?
Did God raise up a one-man LEADERSHIP to be used by Him in building this spiritual TEMPLE and in proclaiming after 1,900 years the true GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD in ALL THE WORLD–to even go to kings and heads of nations (Rev. 10:11)–in bringing the Church back to the FAITH ONCE DELIVERED (Jude 3)?
HAS THIS HAPPENED, IN YOUR DAYS, AND HAS GOD BROUGHT YOU INTO THIS PROPHETIC FULFILLMENT AS A PART OF IT?
HAS ANYONE ELSE DONE IT?
Brethren, HOW did the living Christ prepare me from youth to lead you?
At age 16, on my first job away from my home city, my employer aroused the spark of ambition within me. At age 18, I began fulfilling the “7 Laws of Success”–all but the seventh, which is guidance from God in being led into the RIGHT goal, and general divine guidance. But I was trained in WRITING both advertising copy and magazine articles. I was trained in the magazine and newspaper business. I was led where I would have continual contact with successful men who had built some of the biggest industries and biggest banks in the United States or the world. I was trained in speaking to businessmen.
At age 34, God had me disturbingly CHALLENGED as I had never been before about keeping GOD’S SABBATH. I was forced into the most intensive and in-depth night-and-day study and research of my life. I then believed just the OPPOSITE of what GOD SAYS in His Word. I was trying to prove I was right–to HAVE MY OWN WAY. In that first beginning six months’ deep study of the Bible, I learned I had believed the very opposite of WHAT GOD SAYS.
In that period God OPENED MY UNDERSTANDING to most of the MAJOR BASICS OF GOD’S TRUTH THAT THE CHURCHES AND RELIGIONS OF THIS WORLD HAD LOST — indeed, even the flickering remnant of the TRUE Church had lost!
He opened my mind to HIS LAW. Not only the Ten Commandments and the Sabbath, but the annual festivals and Holy Days. I learned the truth about God’s GOVERNMENT having been established on earth under the archangel Lucifer, and the origin of Satan and PURPOSE of God in restoring God’s Government over the earth. I learned Jesus was born to be a KING, which traditional “Christianity” seems not to know. I learned our identity as being of the lost tribes of Israel, and the difference between the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. This gave me the KEY to understanding PROPHECIES! God revealed to me the symbols and truths of the book of Revelation as revealed through Matthew 24 and Daniel. I learned the Kingdom of God will be ON EARTH.
NO MAN taught me these truths. As the original apostles were taught by Jesus IN PERSON, so was I taught by Jesus Christ IN WRITING. It is the SAME WORD–the SAME TEACHING. I LOST that challenge. I had to GIVE UP MY WAY! I had to give up MYSELF–and give myself to Christ, who had bought and paid for me. It took an inner battle–a struggle against having my own way. I made, in my mind, heart and innermost intention, a COMPLETE SURRENDER to God. I told Him if He could use such a worthless life as mine, He could have it.
Two can’t walk together except they be AGREED! I now AGREED with Christ. I have NEVER DISAGREED. You yourself–every begotten child of God–does, through human weakness, commit sin even after the most deep conversion. None has lived perfectly but JESUS. But when I stumbled through human weakness, Jesus picked me back up on confessing to Him and repenting, and asking help never to repeat the sin. At no point did I DISAGREE nor water down HIS TRUTH.
He used me in building the Philadelphia era of HIS CHURCH–and in proclaiming His Gospel IN ALL THE WORLD!
Now He has brought this Great Commission near its FINISH. Neither I nor you know how much longer will be required completely to finish it!
But as I said at the beginning, some, even in the public press, are beginning to ask, WHO is the “heir apparent,” as the newspapers put it? WHO will rule the Church after Mr. Armstrong?
The answer is, NOBODY!
I have gone to considerable length in this letter to show you how God does His Work among humans through one man at a time. He specially prepared me for the Work He has called me to do. I know of NO ONE ELSE who has been so prepared.
My son Garner Ted Armstrong, as I have said, and he has said, has NOT AGREED with me as I was brought to agree with Christ. Some newspapers have speculated that Mr. Stanley R. Rader would succeed me as Christ’s apostle. But as he himself has said before our brethren, and in the public press, his qualifications ARE ALTOGETHER DIFFERENT. He is a man of brilliant mind and expertise in accounting, finance, law and in many respects in this world’s governments. But he is not qualified to lead God’s people SPIRITUALLY, nor to become the human leader of the Church under Christ, if I have the mind of Christ (Phil. 2:5) and I think I have.
Beginning with the massive legal attack on this Church by the State of California, January 3, 1979, sweeping changes were necessarily made in the organizational structure of the Church and Work. God providentially had moved me out of California to Tucson, Arizona, almost a year before. A new corporation was formed, the Herbert W. Armstrong corporation sole. All tithes and offerings were directed to Tucson. That, for the present, is continuing.
But while God has always worked through one man at a time as leader over His people, He also has given wise instruction, and those He has chosen should heed it. 1) We are not to put our trust in MAN, but in God. On the other hand, through Solomon God says that IN MULTITUDE OF COUNSELORS there is safety.
I have always followed that principle, calling from time to time on various ones competent in whatever field was in question, for advice and counsel before making the decision.
I have used the board members of both the Ambassador College Corporation and the Worldwide Church of God, Inc., board as counselors.
But now, in the corporation sole, under which the day-to-day operations are now conducted, there is no board of directors, and none called for by law. In lieu thereof, I have formed the new ADVISORY COUNCIL OF ELDERS. That Council, at present, is composed of the following experienced elders, all of many years’ faithful and loyal experience as ministers in God’s Church.
The Council of Elders, as of now, consists of Dibar Apartian, Dean Blackwell, Robert Fahey, Ellis LaRavia, Raymond McNair, Leroy Neff, Joseph Tkach, Leon Walker and, as adviser to the Council, Ralph Helge. Now as to any possible successor to me. God has never removed a man called to a specific leadership or assignment or commission until his mission is COMPLETED.
1) Has the commission of carrying the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to the world been completed? How far does God expect it to go? Only HE knows. It has gone to multiple millions. It has gone into all continents. It is still going. I am preparing to speed up its proclamation to the world as we come in on the homestretch. But I DO NOT KNOW, nor does any but GOD know, where that finish line is! WE MAY BE CLOSER TO IT THAN WE REALIZE!
2) The CHURCH for this present era has been raised up. God’s TRUTH has been restored to it. IF, and AS God may reveal any more truth, I will assuredly share it with you. I have done, and am doing, the best I can with God’s help to help you all to GROW in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am doing what I can to HIGH PRESSURE YOU into a DEEPER spiritual life with Christ, a deeper, more fervent PRAYER LIFE.
Perhaps my job in these areas is not yet finished. GOD WILL KEEP ME ALIVE AND ON THE JOB AS LONG AS HE NEEDS ME, and I will serve Him to my utmost as long as He leaves me FREE to do so, and gives me the breath of life.
I have shown you that the book of Haggai is a PROPHECY. Zerubbabel’s temple, to which Jesus came at His first coming, was a TYPE of the SPIRITUAL TEMPLE (God’s CHURCH) to which, in its resurrected GLORIFIED state, it will be the GLORIOUS TEMPLE to which Christ will come SOON NOW IN OUR TIME. Zerubbabel, therefore, was the typical forerunner of one Christ would use to build that GLORIFIED SPIRITUAL TEMPLE–God’s Church of this END TIME.
In Zechariah 4:6 and 9, God says of this former type: “This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power (humanly), but by MY SPIRIT, saith the Lord of hosts.” In Revelation 3:8, Christ says of the leader of today’s Church, “I know thy works; behold I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength (only a little strength humanly), and has kept my word, and hast not denied my name.” This Work in our day has not been done by human strength or power, but by FAITH and the POWER OF GOD’S SPIRIT.
Further, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house (the first temple); his hands shall also FINISH IT!” So far as I know, GOD HAS NOT RAISED UP ANYONE ELSE TO FINISH THIS WORK HE HAS USED ME IN DOING!
God could take my life in the next breath–or He has power to keep me on the job as His instrument for as long as He deems necessary.
I have NEVER SAID I expect to live until Christ comes.
But, just in case of my disability for any reason, to prevent Satan from causing division, I feel God has inspired me to delegate power to the Advisory Council, during any such complete disability, to take full charge of the Work and all its assets and activities.
The CHURCH must not be scattered. It must not become scattered, because there is no COMPETENT, CHRIST-CHOSEN SPIRITUAL SHEPHERD, TO BECOME MEAT FOR BEASTS (human) OF THE FIELD! (See Ezekiel 34:5.) This is a safeguard for YOUR protection.
This letter is already overlong, but I felt important.
I urge all who have not already asked for it, to request the new Lesson 13 of the Bible Correspondence Course.
Brethren, NEVER were your prayers so URGENTLY NECESSARY–both for YOU and the Work–and for me! My life has been threatened–but by faith in God it shall be spared until my work is complete. I now have to ask you to sacrifice and send in special EXTRA generous offerings more than ever before. Time is short. Soon there shall be a FAMINE of hearing the Word of God (Amos 8:11). If we work harder now, SO WILL SATAN. SO PRAY AS NEVER BEFORE!
With deep love, in Jesus’ name, Herbert W. Armstrong
God's Spiritual Nation 