Forty Years for Repentance (No. 290)

Herbert Armstrong and his ministry, as well as the so-called prophets of the Watchtower and Bible Tract Society or the Jehovah’s Witnesses, proclaimed the coming of the Messiah in the period 1972-1975.

The fact that the Two Witnesses had not taken their place in Jerusalem did not deter them as they had declared themselves as the witnesses promised by Revelation 11:3-13 (see the paper The Witnesses (including the Two Witnesses) (No. 135)).

They did not at all resemble those prophets of God but that did not deter any of them.

What they had in fact done was to declare their own periods of repentance. The period of forty years, months, weeks or days is an acknowledged period in which God allows individuals, groups, or nations to reflect on their positions and to repent and to come to a position of understanding and compliance with God’s Law and His Plan of Salvation for the individual, or group of people involved.

The prophecies of the Armstrong system, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Adventists have, from their inception, been totally erroneous (see the paper False Prophecy (No. 269)).

All these systems had lost sight of the important keys in the Bible system. The JW ministry had no idea of the Bible Calendar, as they did not keep the Fourth Commandment or any of the biblical calendar structure and taught that God had done away with His own Law. The Adventists only kept the Sabbath and eventually became Trinitarian, losing what understanding they did have.

Armstrong, who had carried on from the Church of God (Seventh Day), had installed the Hillel Calendar into the Church of God and had failed to understand the jubilee system. Hence, the ministry of both these systems were incapable of understanding the sequence of prophecy, as it is unfolded in the Plan of God.

In the same way, the other Churches of God had failed to restore the critical Calendar structure and thus were incapable of dividing the word of truth and sorting fact from fiction.

Much of what they did was also based on false interpretations and translations derived from Protestantism, such as the mistranslation of Daniel 9:25 to apply to the Messiah when there were two messiahs or “anointed ones” involved, and neither messiah was Jesus Christ (see the paper The Sign of Jonah and the History of the Reconstruction of the Temple (No. 013)).

Had they followed the simple logic of the Bible that God had allowed six days for the Creation and the seventh day was the Sabbath Rest of Jesus Christ, and taken that to its logical conclusions as advanced by Peter that a day is but a thousand years unto the Lord, they would have realised that the millennial reign of Jesus Christ had to occur at the end of the six thousand years of the reign of Satan. The time would be cut short but only to save the elect as, if it were not, there would be no flesh left alive (Mat. 24:22).

The time that Satan’s rule was to be cut short could have been determined correctly if they had followed some basic rules. However, they did not do so as they wished to keep the Churches of God “on the boil” so to speak, and to maintain a pitch of activity that might not have otherwise been possible. The result was that the Church fell into the trap that the Lord had delayed his coming, which was not the case.

What was happening was that the Holy Spirit was stirring these people to a position where they were to be held to account and set upon a trail of activity that would result in their judgment, and their inclusion or exclusion from the First Resurrection of the Dead at the return of the Messiah.

Every person that was in contact with the Churches of God over this period of time was given a witness as to the return, but not as they thought it would happen.

From the Bible chronology we know that the sequence began in 4004 BCE with the creation of Adam. Bishop Ussher’s chronology, which determines the dates to 4004 BCE, was issued with the early editions of the King James Bible.

We also know that Adam was brought into judgment and then expelled from the Garden. Satan was also set at odds with mankind from that expulsion. Adam was created as a man and hence a notional twenty years old, but under God’s Laws a person cannot teach and be held accountable as a leader of the congregation until they are thirty. The first jubilee of Satan’s reign would thus have commenced at the end of the year 3974 BCE. A jubilee being fifty years leaves the end of the period of 120 jubilees or six thousand years at 2027 of the current era. The period of the nations, or the time of the gentiles when measured from the creation of Adam ends in the year 1997. It ends in that year when measured from prophecy also against a number of other biblical criteria as we see from the paper The Fall of Egypt: The Prophecy of Pharaoh’s Broken Arms (No. 036). From this time, the period of thirty years for the Mourning of Moses begins and the countdown to the restoration of Israel under Jesus Christ begins.

The period of the thirty years of the Mourning for Moses was outlined in the paper The Last Thirty Years: The Final Struggle (No. 219). In that paper we developed the sequence of the Wars of the End. Those events have been unfolding as we stated in that work. They will lead up to the final events of World War III as detailed in the paper War of Hamon-Gog (No. 294).

1975 was the sixth year and treble harvest year of the last Sabbatical cycle of the previous jubilee. 1976 was the Sabbath and 1977 was the 119^th jubilee year. Thus, the sense of impending activity in the Church was justified, but not as these people thought.

We know that the period of the Last Days saw a period of seven years given as the time of the fall of the nations from the symbolism of the appearance of Jesus Christ at Jericho to Joshua, when he appeared as the Captain of the Army of the Lord (see the paper The Fall of Jericho (No. 142)).

From this time Christ appeared and there were then seven days on which the Army of Israel, which is the Army of the Lord, marched around Jericho and the walls fell down and only the elect were saved. The elect are symbolised by Rahab the harlot who was saved by the red threads of the Passover on her lintels in the wall of the city and the covenant she made with the representatives of the Israel of God.

Thus if we take seven years from 2027 we get 2019 but that is a Sabbath year and the years 2026 and 2027 are also both Sabbath years. The Law has to be read on these years. So over the last cycle from 2020-2026 Christ has to be in position and the elect resurrected to complete the seventh cycle on year for a day basis.

However, we also know from Revelation chapter 11 that the Witnesses have to be in position 1263.5 days before Messiah is here, at the very latest. Thus we arrive at the sacred year 2019/20 to bring many of these matters to a head. We know also that Judah will be converted and restored at this time and so there are even earlier requirements or timeframes to implement in terms of the warning of the Last Days of the coming of the Messiah which is the duty of the Church of God in the last days from Dan/Ephraim. This sequence is explained in the paper Warning of the Last Days (No. 044).

Under the Law of God, the law must be read at the Sabbath years 2012, 2019 and 2026 before the Jubilee in 2027. 2012 should be the third time before the Witnesses deal with the nations and again in 2019/20. The law is read three times so that the third instance of rejection and rebellion is final under the law (the number three denotes completeness). The Law was read three times by the church in 1998, 2005 and 2012.

In any case, the Witnesses must be in place sometime from 2019 for the Messiah to effect the subjugation of the nations within the time frame as advanced by Bible prophecy on a year for a day basis using the time sequences advanced from those prophecies.

The year 2019/20 is seen as the time frame for the end of the reign of the churches and the lampstands as they are under the seven angels of the seven churches. From there on the two lampstands of the Witnesses and the final Lamp of the Messiah are responsible for the illumination of the planet.

The Church has been in the wilderness for almost two thousand years under Messiah from 30 CE with the sacrifice of Messiah and the receipt of the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist commenced his ministry in 27 and Messiah was himself baptised and he declared the acceptable year of the Lord in 27 CE, which is the jubilee.

Thus 27 CE was the jubilee year and forty jubilees or 2000 years ends in 2027. So on a jubilee for a year basis, the Church was in the wilderness for forty jubilees as Israel was in the wilderness for forty years.

The end of that period is the 120^th jubilee. From the year 1975, the Church should have prepared for the jubilee and read the law in 1976 and 1977 and then went on to the procedures as laid down in the Bible. They did not do that and so came under judgment. At any rate the law had to be read as a duty of the church every Sabbath year and as it turned out, a minimum of three times on three Sabbath years before the return of the Messiah. It was impossible for Messiah to have come in 1972-1975.

The period of the Measuring of the Temple is another forty-year period that commenced in the third year of the cycle in 1987. That forty years leads up to the Millennium and deals with the entire process of the restoration as it stands as the Temple of God. The process is detailed in the paper Measuring the Temple (No. 137).

In that period we see also the final twenty-one years begin in the year 2006 from 1 Abib of the 29^th year of the 120^th jubilee as the first year of the Sabbath Cycle. This period is for the Sanctification of the Nations (No. 077).

That process mirrors the 21 days of the Passover sequence. It goes from the New Year, which commences the Sanctification of the Temple of God (No. 241), to the Last Holy Day of Unleavened Bread. It places the years 2012 for the Reading of the Law as the equivalent of the 7 Abib and the Sanctification of the Simple and the Erroneous (No. 291).

2015 is the equivalent of the 10^th of Abib and the triumphal entry of Messiah to Jerusalem. We might expect the post church activities to commence after that time. The year 2019 is the equivalent of 14 Abib in the sequence. The subjugation of the nations mirrors the Fall of Jericho over the seven days of the Feast, which ends in 2026 at the Sabbath year and the declaration of the jubilee year at Atonement 2026 ending at Atonement 2027.

Thus there are a series of sequences set up to occur for the different purposes of the plan of God within the last or 120^th jubilee before the millennial reign of the Messiah.

Instead of the Messiah coming in 1975, or the Witnesses in 1972, or any combination of those events, the churches were being warned and prepared to get themselves ready for the Messiah and told to repent of their sins and cleanse themselves to be ready as brides of Christ. That task they did not do as a body and so the only one capable of being broken down to the Philadelphia system had to be broken down and destroyed. The final fragment of the Sardis system was formed, calling itself the Living Church of God as revealed in prophecy in Revelation 3:1. It retained all the errors of Sardis as it was reorganised by its Sardis ministry.

The JW system was completely rejected as a church and has uttered no correct prophecy since its breakaway from the Churches of God in the 19^th century. Thus it was not broken down in order to do the work of the Last Days. It was rejected entirely, as was also the Seventh Day Adventist system from which the Bible Students separated, from its open declaration of Trinitarianism from 1978 at the beginning of this jubilee. Only individuals capable of being called are taken from those systems.

Whereas the Sardis system under the Churches of God was used to compile some active working systems of the Last Days, the other two, which formed the Laodicean system and its offshoot were rejected entirely as they could not comprehend the basics of the doctrinal issues involved, nor would they turn and hear the word of God and be able to be used. Neither system is accepted as a church. Only individuals from both Sardis and Laodicea go in to the Philadelphia system. Hence the promise is made to that system that they no more go out.

The messages from Revelation chapter 3 are important in understanding what is happening. The sequence from Sardis to Philadelphia to Revelation is not the sequence of eras as they form but rather the passage from one section to another. The core system of Philadelphia was taken out of Sardis as were the Laodiceans themselves over time.

The richer Laodicean system, wealthy in worldly goods, has no spiritual power and is weak, poor, pitiable, blind and naked.

Revelation 3:1-22 And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. ²Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. ³Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. ⁴Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. ⁵He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. ⁶He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. ⁷And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; ⁸I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. ⁹Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. ¹⁰Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. ¹¹Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. ¹²Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. ¹³He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. ¹⁴And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; ¹⁵I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. ¹⁶So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. ¹⁷Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: ¹⁸I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. ¹⁹As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. ²⁰Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. ²¹To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. ²²He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. (KJV)

The fuller understanding of the texts is covered in the paper Pillars of Philadelphia (No.283).

Those systems have forty years, and the individuals have a time, times and half a time to repent finally and sincerely prepare for the Messiah.

Those periods come to an end from the arrival of the Witnesses. The people in them will be brought to repentance and brought into the body of Christ from the periods of the Witnesses, and from the First Resurrection of the Dead, as either spiritual or physical beings. The choice will be theirs alone and the reward theirs alone due to their own errors and choices.

The conversion of Judah is accomplished under the Witnesses and from that time no person can enter the First Resurrection. It will be too late.

Satan will be bound and placed in the bottomless pit for the Millennium from the return of the Messiah.

From the return of the Messiah the nations will be brought down to Megiddo and they will be brought into subjection to the Messiah.

By 2025 the entire world will be in the process of final subjugation for placement in its inheritance and the places in which it needs to be in order to prepare for the millennial system.

In 2026 the last Sabbath Year of this age occurs.

In 2027 the jubilee is blown and the new system takes its place and begins to prepare its own harvests from Atonement.

In 2028 the Millennium commences from the New Moon of Abib, which is the New Year.

From this date there will be no harvests and no rain in due season for those who do not keep the Laws of God and send their representatives to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles (Zech. 14:16-21).

It is of great interest that the religious systems of this world do not have any idea of the time frames under which they work and take no action to identify and restore the Laws of God and the Sacred Calendar (see the paper God’s Calendar (No. 156)).

Everyone in the world will be given the opportunity to repent and to take his/her place in the Kingdom of God. Not many people will achieve the First Resurrection in the Last Days.

Most will fail because they simply will not repent of the traditions of men. Hadithic Islam will fail miserably unless it repents and is baptised. As the Koran says if you do not keep the Sabbath of the Lord you are an ape (see Sabbath in the Qur’an (No. 274); Christ in the Koran (No. 163); The Koran on the Bible, the Law and the Covenant (No. 083) and the Hebrew and Islamic Calendar Reconciled (No. 053)).

All the three main systems of Islam, Judaism and Christianity will become things of the past. They will be part of a bygone age and brought to remembrance no more, along with the people who represented them. Those people will all be in the Second Resurrection at the end of the millennial system.

The legacy they will leave us will take years to correct and the earth will take decades to heal. It will be almost fifty years from 2028 to the Golden Jubilee of Restoration in 2077 before it is healed properly. That jubilee is the fiftieth jubilee since the Restoration under Ezra and Nehemiah. It is the “Jubilee of Jubilees” and the world will be healed and at peace for the thousand years.

In the time after the return of the Messiah we are told that the land will be replenished with a river of water that will proceed from the mountain of God, which is at the Holy Place to the eastern and the western seas. What we have just been told is that there is an underground lake of massive proportions with at least eight new species previously unknown to science. This seems to be the source of the waters of the prophecy.

The people of the Churches of God who do not repent will also have the most to lose. It is a sad loss to go into the Millennium under Jesus Christ as a physical human being when you could have gone in as an elohim, as a spiritual son of God (see the paper The Elect as Elohim (No. 001)).

It is indeed a tragedy to have come so far and done so much and yet fail because of error and indolence. These people will remember the parable of the wise and foolish virgins and weep. Don’t you be one of them! Don’t bury your talent.

No. 290

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