Philadelphia Church of God (PCG)

Philadelphia Church of God Leads the Laodicean Era (Part 1)
When Gerald Flurry wasn't anything in his own sight or mind God used him and now, unfortunately, it appears to have gone to his head, all the new revelation (simply a deeper understanding of some things), and he forgets that all truth is from and belongs to GOD and that God can use a donkey to deliver it (1 Cor. 4:7). Gerald Flurry has become so swollen in his own imagination that he fails to see that he is the leader of LAODICEA! He knows what warning God is giving the Laodiceans, of which he is chief! He had better heed his own words...

Philadelphia Church of God Leads Laodicean Era (Conclusion)
"It's certainly not my place to determine if what you believe God has shown you is true or not, but would you mind presenting Mr. Flurry with an abbreviated version of what you feel is inspired... as I highly doubt that he would have time to read your whole book."

Stephen Flurry and The Philadelphia Church of God
Stephen Flurry, son of Gerald Flurry, pastor general of the Philadelphia Church of God (based in Edmond, Oklahoma), has published a book that Amazon sells, Raising the Ruins: The Fight to Revive the Legacy of Herbert W. Armstrong.

The Work of God Must Go Forward!
The Work of God must go forward. The only work that's left to do now is focus on the NATIONAL LEVEL. We must get out God's ultimatum and fast! Europe is on the rise and Jerusalem is getting international attention (Zech. 14:2). Soon God's two witnesses will rise and shine in a world of darkness (Isa. 60:1-2). God's about to restore His lamp to the Middle East! (Rev. 11:3; 1 Kgs. 11:36; Amos 9:11; Zech. 12:8).

PCG: Carrying on Business as Usual
If you truly saw what is coming on this Earth, and had a vision of tomorrow, you would know that the Gathering Storm darkens as you sip champagne and boast that you're rich and in need of nothing, woefully ignorant that the Two Witnesses will soon be wearing sackcloth and fasting, not wining and dining at black tie dinners!

The Church of God Must Warn the World!
We know that certain prophecies were not to be fulfilled until these "last days." Therefore their sealed messages weren't to break their silence until the appointed time (Dan. 12:9). With the advent of the nuclear age, we've been living, for the first time in history, with the weapons of mass destruction that can erase all life from off planet Earth! (Matt. 24:21-22).

Politics in the Church of God Hinders Progress
Gerald Flurry refused to go forward with Beyond Babylon and fell backwards, treading old ground and is now going in circles, business as usual, as Europe rises and Judah and Israel have yet to be warned.

Worldwide Church Of God All Over Again?
Let’s see to it that Philadelphia Church of God (Judah) doesn’t go the way of the Worldwide Church of God (Israel). These biblical principles still apply: don’t put undue trust in men; work out your own salvation, it’s not a group affair; beware the scholarly approach that demands you rely on men - not God’s Spirit or personal Bible study.

The Watchmen
"I have set Watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem"God has called us to do a Work! Anyone can and should do good works in private, but God has called us collectively to COME OUT OF THE CLOSET and deliver His Message! We're to help save individuals and nations from the coming Holocaust!

Politics in the Church of God Hinders Progress

Many Sabbath-keeping Church of God members (various groups and organizations associated to one degree or another with Herbert W. Armstrong) are sincerely opposed to offering any Church of God literature or religious material for sale, since Herbert Armstrong taught us to "buy the truth and sell it not."

However, such Church of God members should remember that Mr. Armstrong later permitted his books to be made available for sale in bookstores, informing the brethren and co-workers in a letter dated September 12, 1985:

"There is a very large audience which would never request this book [Mystery of the Ages] if offered free - who would never send their name and address to us - but would gladly buy a copy in the bookstore. By putting it in the bookstores we will reach a very great audience that we can reach in no other way. We will not sell the book ourselves, but it cannot be made available to this large audience of book buyers unless the bookstores do put a price on it." (Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, Volume 2, page 638).

Some have been upset that Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall is sold. I remind them of Herbert Armstrong's words above and Paul's rhetorical response to some in his day over this principle that we're commanded to not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain and that a worker is worthy of his hire. Besides, Beyond Babylon is available to for FREE or read online for FREE. God knows I am certainly not in this for the money, but gladly share the plain truth of the Bible and history as I am able, knowing it is truly priceless information.

I am also an individual, not a Church organization receiving regular tithes and offerings who therefore have no need to sell anything, as they're equipped to offer it all, ideally, for free. I don't believe any Church of God organization should sell Church of God literature. However, those out in the field, not part of the administration or headquarters, have a God-given right to do as necessary.

Yeshua didn't condemn selling sacrificial animals but was righteously indignant that such commercial activities were taking place in the Temple courtyards and at exorbitant prices. Many were making a killing rather than offering a service.

A member of the Philadelphia Church of God recently corresponded with me on this and other Church of God issues.

Didn't you try and impose your book on God's ministers and church?

Not at all. Gerald Flurry refused to go forward with Beyond Babylon and fell backwards, treading old ground and is now going in circles, business as usual, as Europe rises and Judah and Israel have yet to be warned.

Maybe you should have waited until the time came.

Don't you believe God goes first to His Church and then His Nation? It was time to bring Beyond Babylon before Flurry, whom I consider to be the leader of this Laodicean era of God's Church.

Do you think you are one of the 2 witnesses?

God knows, but what I do know is that we ought to at least prepare the way for them with Judah and NONE of the Church of God groups reach the cities of Judah.

That would be a honor to be one. I've often prayed about them and in my silliness wished I could be one of them.

It would be an honor and a grave responsibility and the most hated job in the world since rejection would be by many in the Church, initially, and nearly all in the world, with a bloody ending until the resurrection to physical life just before the return of the King, Yeshua the Messiah. No nice dinners or fancy invitations for the Two Witnesses but plenty of murderous misunderstanding and hateful grief.

But I'm just a lay member.....

No such thing as "just" a lay member. Everybody has their God-given place in the Church of God and are equally important for whatever God has called them to do.

Seems to me you focus too much on the physical Jews.

Not at all. Herbert Armstrong always told us to "WATCH JERUSALEM!" Who's in Jerusalem? JEWS! The gospel began and will return there. God's true church is not there now although "Elijah" went there. This must change.

Mr. Armstrong, near the time of his death, said on one of his sermons or Bible studies that they are not so important as he once thought since they don't even believe in Jesus Christ.

I don't believe that at all and don't believe he ever said it. I quote what we know for sure Herbert Armstrong said about the importance of reaching the cities of Judah. It's documented. Shamefully, it's something that hasn't been done yet but the foundation has been laid, even though the Work in Israel is temporarily suspended by government decree as it was in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Mr. Flurry never read your book right?

I don't know. Wayne Turgeon [Gerald Flurry's son-in-law] handed him a print out of it years ago and he returned it to him saying, "He's always sending us stuff." Mr. Flurry even responded to me several times on various issues including his confusion of Mount Carmel with Mount Hermon which I brought to his attention (having been blessed to live next to both of them), and my disagreement with him when he said the pope was the only religious leader to sit on a throne and I mentioned the Queen of England is also head of the Anglican Church (although agreeing with the point he was making against the Roman Catholic Cult).

I would love to find those letters, however during my many moves overseas to Israel I thought I kept them stored at my sister's home but she can't find them. Such letters also include correspondence from Dr. Herman Hoeh years ago about the Jews and their variations in color and why. I met Dr. Hoeh at the Toronto Singles' Weekend (Church of God singles from all over were in attendance) where he spoke and invited us to write him, which of course I did.

Later I sent an autographed copy of a self-published BB (Beyond Babylon) to Flurry's home for him and his wife who said to me (during the Feast of Tabernacles in Louisville) about my name, "What a strong Judah name!"

Dennis Leap said he read parts of it and that it wasn't necessary for him or Flurry to read it, unlike Mr. Armstrong wanting Sardis (Church of God, Seventh Day) to read his manuscript - The United States and Britain in Prophecy - which they DID.

Well, I hear you loud and clear. I do not agree with some of headquarter's decisions but they are just as human as we are and liable to make mistakes, including Mr. Flurry. Sometimes we just have to suffer the wrong and go on.

I readily accept and acknowledge that fact, but if it's a mistake or a sin we learn from it, acknowledge it and go forward all the wiser. Flurry has done none of those humble things. Regardless, I go on without him as he goes backwards trying to play HWA and God in the Temple, grieved to say.

David, I hope and pray for your return to PCG... Mr. Flurry has engaged in personal appearance campaigns and he plans to go to Joseph and Judah this coming year I think. The Key of David will no longer air on TV and we are now focusing on personal warnings.

Remember we are baptized into the Body of Jesus Christ - not into any sect or denomination of men. I remain a member of the spiritual Church of God that isn't bound by membership lists at the mercy of men. Remember Diotrephes? (3 John vs. 9-11).

What do you mean they've scrapped the TV programs (even though I always constructively criticized them - through Wayne Turgeon who used to write me very frequently - that nobody but a very limited religious audience would watch the programs at the hours they were shown). As Turgeon can testify, I also said they needed a toll free number (which years later they obtained); I said they needed a website with Church literature (which years later they have); they need to publish Beyond Babylon freely (which they still don't) and to take out major newspaper ads like HWA to reach EVERYBODY and get EVERYBODY talking about our God-given controversial message.

We do really need better advertisement.

Yes, because I've conducted my own tests and surveys on many internet forums to see that the general public doesn't have a clue who Flurry is, never heard of the PCG and doesn't know the warning message at all. All that money for what? A private club?

Too bad you only see what you think is bad but God has to get his family ready first to marry his Son before He can deal properly with the world.

And how does God do that? Have us stare at our Church navel - Church headquarters as the center of our attention? - or by the way of give, outflowing concern for the good and welfare of OTHERS - like the cities of Judah? Otherwise folks will never feel ready to reach out and will have proven themselves deceived by Satan who doesn't want the Work to GO FORWARD. As we reach out, so help us God, He will work in and through and for us at the same time.

I know everything that is good about the PCG and continue to direct folks to its literature and The Philadelphia Trumpet magazine despite their refusal to send it to me. They even know I've given them contacts in the Middle East, in Jerusalem, Jewish leaders, and that it was me whom God used to contact the mayor of Jerusalem to get the HWA monument repaired (in the Liberty Bell Park in Jerusalem), and then I forwarded the information to Flurry (who didn't even say thank you and wasn't even aware of its woeful neglect that I knew about from being over there so many times). I'll bet you didn't know that, did you?

I had written an open letter to the mayor of Jerusalem, Uri Lupolianski, that was published in The Jerusalem Post. His office contacted me to inquire about what groups or organizations I was referring to that would be interested in undertaking the financial responsibility for the monument's restoration and the rest is history.

The Work of God Must Go Forward!

What's next for the Church of God? Malachi's Message has served its purpose. (A book written by Gerald Flurry, pastor general of the Philadelphia Church of God). Those who have ears to hear have listened to what the Spirit of God has had to say to the Church of God. It's now time to move on.

The Work of God must go forward. The only work that's left to do now is focus on the NATIONAL LEVEL. We must get out God's ultimatum and fast! Europe is on the rise and Jerusalem is getting international attention (Zech. 14:2).

Soon God's two witnesses will rise and shine in a world of darkness (Isa. 60:1-2). God's about to restore His lamp to the Middle East! (Rev. 11:3; 1 Kgs. 11:36; Amos 9:11; Zech. 12:8).

By Gerald Flurry's own admission, Malachi's Message has nothing to say about nations. That's proper, because it was basically his commission to focus in on the Church. Does Mystery of the Ages warn the world? (Herbert W. Armstrong's crown work). How can it when it doesn't even include the words Germany, Beast or Europe in its index? Mystery of the Ages is undoubtedly the most important book written since the Bible to preach the gospel around the world. But doesn't Gerald Flurry understand that's already been accomplished? BEEN THERE, DONE THAT.

The Work of God must go forward, not backwards. It's true that we must always preach the gospel, but now it's time to emphasize a WARNING MESSAGE. The Church has been warned. The world hasn't. We must warn them like they've never been warned before!

There is only one book on earth today (other than the Bible) that clearly warns THE GERMANS ARE COMING! Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall is a hard-hitting book that details the events concerning the rise of the prophetic Beast in Europe, the fall of our Israelite countries, the Two Witnesses, and lets you know why it all has to happen. If you haven't already read it, check it out for yourself! It's available for free online.

Europe—Papal Evangelizing and Political Blitzkrieg

Ron FraserColumnist

Europe—Papal Evangelizing and Political Blitzkrieg

September 15, 2008 | From theTrumpet.com

Events of recent weeks have accelerated the resurrection of an ancient entity in Europe!

Ron Fraser

After the Anglo-Saxon nations gave thanks to their God for delivering them from the tyrannies of fascism, Nazism and imperial Japan, religion rapidly fell out of fashion. A new breed of academics—steeped in the false utopian doctrines of socialism courtesy of Mao’s little red book, flavored by the “God is dead” disciples of Nietzsche—became the “useful idiots” of powers intent on destroying the moral heart of Anglo-America.

By the 1970s they had largely succeeded. Hedonism, underpinned by a credit-based economy, replaced the Anglo-Saxon traditions of thrift and self-sacrifice for the good of all. The rise of feminism, a drug counterculture steeped in such mantras as espoused by pseudo-academic Timothy Leary—“turn on, tune in, drop out”—and the increasingly strident voices of the morally perverse via the homosexual and lesbian lobbies started to influence the minds of another generation. Capital and labor were at each other’s throats. The foreign policies of the United States and Britain lay in the tatters of confusion.

Then, in the late ’70s, along came a president, a prime minister and a pope—and together they changed the whole global scene.

An American B-grade movie star, a British grocer’s daughter, and a Polish priest combined their influence within their respective constituencies to create the catalyst that broke the hold of the Soviet Union on Eastern Europe.

Suddenly, the Berlin Wall came down. Nothing has been the same on the world scene since. Forty years of a great balance of power, within which reasonable stability and a certain level of global peace ensued, collapsed overnight on that fateful day of Nov. 9, 1989.

The Cold War was over. The U.S. strode the world like a colossus, the singular superpower to whom the whole world looked to police the globe and maintain the peace.

That was almost 19 years ago.

Look where the world is today.

What a waste!

Less than two decades following the greatest opportunity in its history, the U.S. is broke, morally corrupt at its core, seemingly rudderless in its foreign policy, the generally perceived pariah of the world, hated by all to almost the same degree as is the formerly brave and stoic little nation of Israel.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, a grand strategy for global dominance currently plays out. It’s an identical strategy to that which has powerfully impacted the Anglo-Saxons three times over the past century and a half, about which those peoples remain largely ignorant at grave risk to the future of their national sovereignty. It’s a grand strategy, the effects of which we have been warning the British and American peoples about for over 70 years.

Believe it or not, rising up yet once more in the heartland of Europe is an ancient entity that has a history of brutal bloodletting extending back over the past two millennia! For 1,000 years of that history, its economic, political and military power has been Teutonic, its spiritual influence centered in Rome.

Historians call it “the Holy Roman Empire”!

Once, Herbert W. Armstrong was a lone voice crying out in a wilderness of the confusion in international relations seeking to warn of this resurrecting phenomenon. He gained his vision of the future from inerrant Bible prophecy. Few listened as he published and broadcast a message, beginning with the years leading up to World War ii and continuing right up to his death at the brink of the collapse of the Soviet Union, warning of the final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire.

For over half a century before these events became a current-day reality, Herbert W. Armstrong prophesied the reunification of Germany and the rise of that nation to lead a combine of European states to world-power status, under the spiritual influence of Rome. He prophesied that the collapse of the Anglo-Saxon nations would coincide with the rise of that power as a global hegemon.

During the past two decades, Gerald Flurry has followed in Herbert Armstrong’s footsteps, tenaciously warning of the great tragedy that awaits the Anglo-Saxon nations in particular for their rebellion against their God, and the ultimate tragedy that awaits this world in the wake of the final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire.

Two recent events have dramatically underscored the reality of the prophecies of both Herbert Armstrong and Gerald Flurry—one involving Germany, the other involving the religion of Rome.

First was the dramatic coup within the Social Democrat Party (spd). It was a veritable political blitzkrieg: Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and former Vice Chancellor Franz Muntefering ousted party leader Kurt Beck; Steinmeier was propelled into the limelight as prime contender for the post of Germany’s chancellor, and Muntefering, a Steinmeier ally, returned to his former post as spd chairman. It was simply, and covertly, designed to push the pro-U.S. faction of Chancellor Angela Merkel into the political backwater, and bring the spd right-wing, pro-Russian cabal to the fore in German foreign policy.

This occurred during the process of state elections leading up to next September’s election for the German chancellorship.

The very fact that, within 24 hours of the Steinmeier-Muntefering coup, headlines appeared proposing that Merkel was being touted for a sideways “promotion” to a “senior EU post” indicated that the knives were out and Merkel’s political career within Germany was fated for a rapid end.

Added to this dramatic turn of events in German politics, two of Pope Benedict xvi’s recent tours have highlighted his papacy’s narrowing its focus onto preparing the scene for a blitzkrieg evangelizing of Europe.

During a visit to Sardinia on September 7, Benedict called for Catholic laypeople to step up their efforts in evangelizing the “the world of work, the economy [and] politics” (AsiaNews, September 7; emphasis mine throughout). That’s pretty well an all-embracing evangelizing agenda!

Rome has always been clever at carrying out its strategy of embedding Catholic laity in labor movements, government bureaucracy, the secret services and the legal profession. Now the pope is calling for those Catholics who hold positions of influence within society to heed the clarion call from Rome to saddle up for a new global crusade!

During his Sardinia speech, Benedict called for “a new generation of committed Christian laypeople capable of seeking with competency and moral rigor solutions of sustainable development” (ibid.). Those solutions, in the pope’s terms, must stem from the “cultural treasures” that the pope referred to in a more recent speech as the ancient monasteries of Catholicism embedded in Europe!

Hard on the heels of the Sardinia speech, Benedict sped to Europe’s most secular state, France, to begin garnering the wayward French nation back into Rome’s fold. In this effort, he recruited the support of France’s President Sarkozy, who currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union. The way for the pope had been prepared by influential EU parliamentary President Hans-Gert Pöttering, who visited Sarkozy concurrently. A devout German Catholic, Pöttering has previously offered a standing invitation to Pope Benedict to come to Strasbourg and personally address the European Parliament.

With his visit to France last week coinciding with the anniversary of his controversial speech given in Regensburg, Germany, last September, the key phrase within his oration to this wayward French daughter of the church, given in Paris, juxtaposed cuttingly with a statement he made about Islam a year ago.

In the Regensburg speech, the pope sent a powerful message to global Islam by quoting a 14th-century Byzantine emperor as declaring that the Prophet Muhammad brought “things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” By contrast, during his speech in Paris, Benedict declared that “Amid the great cultural upheaval resulting from migrations of peoples and the emerging new political configurations, the monasteries were the places where the treasures of ancient culture survived.”

Get the point? Benedict contends that the European culture is rooted in the ancient traditions of Rome, protected through the ancient monastic system of the Roman Catholic Church. It is that tradition, of the universality of the ancient religion of Rome, toward which Pope Benedict was inviting France, and by inference, the whole of Europe, to return. It is that religion which, alone, throughout its perpetually resurrecting history, was able to bind the diverse nations of Europe together each time the Holy Roman Empire arose in the past to dominate Europe and the world.

What we are witnessing through these recent key events in Europe is simply the old cycle of history repeating itself, just one more time. The final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire is increasingly, and inevitably, asserting itself in European and global politics. The political events in Europe—especially Germany—in recent weeks, most particularly since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Georgia on August 8, overlaid with the words and actions of Pope Benedict xvi over the past year, have catapulted the final resurrection of that ancient Holy Roman Empire forward into a new aggressive phase.

You need to update your awareness of what is happening in Europe. These events are destined to affect every man, woman and child within the Anglo-Saxon nations in a way that will stagger their minds as to the swiftness of their happening and their overwhelmingly destructive power on the economies and the populations of the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand!

To get a clear perspective on just what is really occurring on the world scene today, why it is happening, and, most crucially, the time context, read our book The United States and Britain in Prophecy. It will lead you to understand the real meaning of the great global events that are occurring today. Events that are leading, beyond doubt, to a prophesied grand clash of civilizations that will be but the forerunner to the establishment of the greatest of civilizations ever known to man! •

Ron Fraser’s column appears every Monday.
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Previous columns by this author:

• A Vision of Real Hope!
• A More Vital Election
• Russia, Germany and Europe’s Future

Is Nazism Still Alive?

Brad MacdonaldColumnist

Is Nazism Still Alive?

September 11, 2008 | From theTrumpet.com

History shows Nazism went underground after World War II. How long will it be until it reemerges to torment the world again?

Brad Macdonald

“One day we shall come back. Until then, à bientôt.”

Those ominous words—à bientôt, “bye for now”—were spoken by an anonymous German military spokesman on Nazi radio on Sept. 1, 1944. By that time, defeat was knocking on Hitler’s door. But that didn’t deter one of his cocksure officers from going on radio to forecast the future resurrection of the Nazi death machine. Think about that: The slaughter-fest that was World War ii wasn’t even over, and the Nazis were declaring their return!

The most frightening thing about that man’s sinister prophecy is that he was not alone: At the end of World War II, tens of thousands of Germans believed and hoped Nazism would one day return to haunt the Earth.

In fact, documented history proves that as World War II came to a close, Nazi leaders actually began to make elaborate preparations for the future resurrection of Hitler’s Nazi death machine!

That might sound absurd to the Western ear.

That’s because most people today believe Nazi Germany was utterly defeated by the Allied powers. That’s understandable. Photos of postwar German cities and countryside show a razed nation. The German nation was well and truly thrashed by the Allied powers.

What too few understand today is that Nazi ideology and the Nazi movement—which caused World War II—were never eradicated!

Since the Second World War ended, a steady stream of evidence has surfaced proving that the Nazis—even as early as 1943—concocted and enacted a strategy to perpetuate Nazism after the war ended. This history is not being discussed in classrooms or written about by modern (revisionist) historians, or used as context in observing current trends in Germany. We can bury the truth through neglect, but we can never negate it.

The truth: The Nazi movement that caused the Second World War became a thriving underground movement.

Herbert W. Armstrong, editor in chief of the Plain Truth magazine, was among the first to report on the Nazis’ efforts to burrow underground. One of his strongest warnings occurred after the war on the night of May 9, 1945, while he was attending the landmark United Nations conference in San Francisco. Mr. Armstrong told listeners of his World Tomorrow radio program that night that while the battle against Nazism was over, the war against Nazism was not (emphasis mine throughout).

We don’t understand German thoroughness. From the very start of World War II, they have considered the possibility of losing this second round, as they did the first—and they have carefully, methodically planned, in such eventuality, the third round—World War III! Hitler has lost. This round of war, in Europe, is over. And the Nazis have now gone UNDERGROUND. In France and Norway they learned how effectively an organized UNDERGROUND can hamper occupation and control of a country. Paris was liberated by the French UNDERGROUND—and Allied armies. Now a Nazi underground is methodically planned. They plan to COME BACK and to win on the third try. …

This Nazi underground will introduce a new kind of internal warfare and sabotage, to divide and conquer! It will stir race hatred, class prejudice, strife among ourselves, religious bigotry while professing to champion religious tolerance especially toward the religion of the coming United States of Europe.

What bold, sweeping statements!

Some today disregard those statements because they believe they were only based on Bible prophecy, which, as Mr. Armstrong taught for decades, speaks of a coming resurrection of Nazi Germany. Those critics ought to study history. Bible prophecy definitely underpinned Mr. Armstrong’s powerful statements, but those statements were and are powerfully substantiated by a widening stream of documented evidence.

Herbert Armstrong was not alone in warning that the Nazis had gone underground.

In 1945, the British Ministry of Economic Warfare estimated that the Nazis looted nearly $27 billion from the European nations they had conquered. As the war came to a close, most of that loot was stashed away by the Nazi Party for the financing of international underground activities for the years to come. In 1945, in a book titled The Plot Against the Peace, Michael Sayers and Albert E. Khan exposed the vast preparations by the Nazis during World War ii to take their movement underground:

Since 1943, Nazi money, jewels and other valuables have been streaming across the Reich frontiers and finding their way by clandestine channels into Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and North and South America. … With these vast hidden sums at their disposal, the Nazis have already reconstituted and reorganized their wartime international fifth columns and set up new propaganda agencies and terrorist leagues for the postwar period.

Get that: The German General Staff, which historically has been a blend of industrialists, Junkers, and political and military leaders, was making plans to perpetuate Nazism underground after the war as early as two years before World War II ended!

“The German General Staff,” wrote Sayers and Khan, “has always regarded military defeat as merely a temporary phase of the war. The war goes on. Battle strategy becomes underground conspiracy; artillery is replaced by propaganda, wartime espionage becomes postwar political intrigue, terror, assassination and secret preparation for new military attack.” Study German history. You’ll see that is precisely what occurred during the 20-year hiatus between World Wars I and II.

World War I never ended in the minds of many of the German General Staff. The guns stopped blasting and the soldiers limped home, but the war never stopped. War preparations merely went underground, and for a season artillery and rifles were replaced by propaganda, politics and economics. “Even the final decision of war is not to be regarded as absolute,” wrote influential 19th-century German military theorist Karl von Clausewitz. “The conquered nation often sees it only as a passing phase, to be repaired in after times by political combinations” (“Vom Kriege,” meaning, “On War”).

Politics and economics have been as effective as instruments of war in the hands of the German General Staff as guns and bayonets.

Edwin Hartrich wrote about this reality in The Fourth and Richest Reich, a book exposing in detail the postwar economic revival of Germany and the nation’s remarkable and rapid transformation from a bombed-out country to the largest and most influential economy in Europe. A journalist specializing in European affairs during the Second World War, Hartrich describes the surprising lack of Nazi leaders in Germany by the end of the war.

Allied forces found plenty of Nazi soldiers and sympathizers as they began to occupy Germany, he said, but they were surprised at how little evidence there was of Nazi leaders and organizations. Hartrich explained this surprising dearth:

It was soon obvious that many high-ranking Nazis, especially members of Himmler’s dreaded Gestapo, the SS, and S-D organizations, had disappeared; they were hiding behind false identification papers until such time as they could escape to South America or some other receptive asylum for ex-Nazis.

Nazi leaders had made plans to flee Germany months, even years, before Allied tanks and soldiers moved in to occupy the German state. These Nazi leaders, many of whom were incredibly rich and extremely well-connected, fanned out across Europe and the globe. More importantly, very few had any plans for retirement. Many sought to perpetuate their evil craft and became eager participants in the globe-encompassing Nazi underground!

Among the evidence testifying to the Nazis’ desires to rise again were the warnings of Soviet leader Josef Stalin. Notice what he told his people, and the world, on Nov. 6, 1944:

After the defeat of Germany she will, of course, be disarmed, both in the economic and military-political respects. However it would be naive to think that she will not attempt to restore her power and develop new aggression. It is known to all that the German leaders are already now preparing for a new war ….

Remember, Stalin and Hitler had a warm relationship prior to World War II. Russia and Germany even signed a non-aggression pact in 1939, and many fretted in the early months of the war that Moscow would actually side with the Germans. Stalin understood Adolf Hitler and had terrific insight into German history and Nazism: He knew that Germany would attempt to restore its power and that Nazi leaders, even during World War II, were preparing for another war!

Further evidence of the Nazis’ efforts to take their movement underground surfaced in 1996, when the American government released a newly declassified U.S. intelligence document. Arthur Spiegelman wrote about this document for Reuters on May 10, 1996:

Realizing they were losing the war in 1944, Nazi leaders met top German industrialists to plan a secret postwar international network to restore them to power, according to a newly declassified U.S. intelligence document. The document, which appears to confirm a meeting historians have long argued about, says an SS general and a representative of the German armaments ministry told such companies as Krupp and Röhling that they must be prepared to finance the Nazi Party after the war when it went underground. They were also told “existing financial reserves in foreign countries must be placed at the disposal of the [Nazi] Party so that a strong German empire can be created after the defeat.”

The document, detailing an August 1944 meeting, was obtained on Friday from the World Jewish Congress, which has been working with the Senate Banking Committee and the Holocaust Museum to determine what happened to looted Jewish money and property in the Second World War. A U.S. Treasury Department analysis in 1946 reported that the Germans had transferred $500 million out of the country before the war’s end to countries such as Spain, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Portugal, Argentina and Turkey where it was used to buy hundreds of companies.

It’s important we note the composition and scope of this underground Nazi movement. It was more than the relocation of a few SS officers and political leaders, or the purchase of a few companies by which Nazi loot might be laundered. It was a large-scale calculated dispersion of thousands of Nazi industrialists, scientists and political and military leaders to various locations and regions around the world. With billions of dollars in purchasing power, Nazi leaders bought hundreds of companies around the world and filled many of them with former Nazis willing to perpetuate the Nazi dream of world domination.

Unlike the German state, the underground Nazi movement at the end of World War II—with billion-dollar bank accounts and a vast network of influential business and political leaders around the world—was positioned to thrive!

Those who accept this reality now come face to face with two pressing questions: Is Nazism still alive today? And, how long before it reemerges to torment the world?

The best way to answer those questions is to look toward the “more sure word of [Bible] prophecy” (2 Peter 1:19). Regular readers of the Trumpet know there are multiple prophecies in the Bible referring specifically to a soon-coming German-dominated European empire. If you haven’t already, you can learn about many of these prophecies in Germany and the Holy Roman Empire. A prophecy in Daniel 8 is particularity fascinating when considered in the context of the underground Nazi movement and its soon-coming emergence onto the world scene.

Read verses 23 through 25: “And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached the fullness, a king of fierce countenance and understanding dark trickery and craftiness shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; and he shall corrupt and destroy astonishingly and shall prosper and do his own pleasure, and he shall corrupt and destroy the mighty men and the holy people. And through his policy he shall cause trickery to prosper in his hand; he shall magnify himself in his heart and mind, and in their security he will corrupt and destroy many” (Amplified Bible).

These scriptures are referring to the emergence of a brutal regime in the end time that will be headed by a “king of fierce countenance.” Consider the terms used by the Prophet Daniel: He’s clearly talking about a fierce, conniving and evil man, and an organization that thrives on deceit and trickery, brutality and corruption. Are there any better terms to describe the Nazis and their efforts to burrow underground at the end of World War I?

“In times of chaos and social upheaval,” wrote Edwin Hartrich, “men of vision, daring and talent find sudden buoyance and rise through the turbulence to the surface of events.”

Watch Europe. Germany and the European Union are experiencing chaos and social and political upheaval right now. Conditions are ideal for the emergence of a daring and talented visionary, a man with a fierce countenance and prone to trickery and deceit. Bible prophecy says this man will soon emerge on the world stage. When he does, will he have connections to the Nazi underground? •

*******************

The Secret Nazis

Germany Behind the Mask

The EU is a German Ruse

Is Germany in Danger of Backsliding?

Arnold's Office Refuses to Comment

Germany's Fourth Reich Spreads Its Wings Over the World

Will The Atlantic Times address the German threat?

The Intelligence Summit Misses the Mark: the German-Jesuit Threat to World Peace

Which Day Is The Christian Sabbath?

Which Day Is the Christian Sabbath?

By Herbert W. Armstrong

Does it make any difference WHICH day we observe—or whether we keep it? Does the Bible establish SUNDAY as the LORD’S DAY? Was the Sabbath given for the Jewish people only—while Christians are commanded to keep SUNDAY as the LORD’S DAY?

Table of Contents

Chapter 1	But Does It Make Any Difference?
Chapter 2	Who Made and Established the Sabbath?
Chapter 3	God—Not Moses—Gave the Law
Chapter 4	A Special Eternal Covenant
Chapter 5	Which Day for Gentile Christians?
Chapter 6	Why Israel and Judah Made Slaves
Chapter 7	Is Sunday Mentioned in the New Testament?
Chapter 8	The Amazing Truth About Christian Fellowship

***************

Remember the Sabbath
Did you ever stop to think why Christians keep Sunday? Did they get it from the Bible? Is there a clear-cut command that says, "Thou shalt keep Sunday?" Why did Jesus worship on Saturday? Was it only because He was a good Jew? Or does it go beyond that?

Herbert W. Armstrong

Herbert W. Armstrong

As Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall testifies:

Herbert W. Armstrong was a God-send to restore long lost truths; stood against traditional Christianity's error and taught the plain truth of the Bible; restored our Hebrew roots; warned world leaders about a German-dominated European Union and offered the hope and comfort of Christ's return to save us from its nuclear holocaust; he brought God's Church back on track, and he died, full of faith and wisdom, leaving a lasting impression on those who continue the quest for God's Kingdom.

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Herbert W. Armstrong Was Ahead of His Time!
Mr. Armstrong was ahead of his time. The principles of prophecy he spoke of remain absolutely true: a final revival of the unholy Roman Empire is prophesied and the EU is forging ahead with that Frankenstein Monster now.

The Plain Truth About Herbert W. Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God
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Was Herbert W. Armstrong Elijah?
Was Herbert W. Armstrong the prophesied individual to come in the power and spirit of Elijah, as taught by the former Worldwide Church of God and still believed by many of the branches of the Sabbath-keeping Church of God?

Herbert W. Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God Mentioned in Israeli Newspaper
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Is All Animal Flesh Good Food?
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Those who truly are Christians understand that the Christian thing to do, especially in light of the fact that the worst accusations against Herbert W. Armstrong would be thrown out of court, dismissed for lack of evidence, is to give Herbert W. Armstrong the benefit of the doubt, as we would want, knowing we're to love our neighbor as ourselves...

www.DavidBenAriel.org

Berlin's Secret Pact With Moscow

Stephen FlurryColumnist

Berlin’s Secret Pact With Moscow

August 22, 2008 | From theTrumpet.com

What it means for the United States and the rest of the world.

Stephen Flurry

In a speech given on Monday to students at Herbert W. Armstrong College, editor in chief Gerald Flurry said that Russia’s attack on Georgia earlier this month signaled the beginning of a dangerous new era in history. As columnist Robert Kagan put it, “Historians will come to view Aug. 8, 2008, as a turning point no less significant than Nov. 9, 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell. Russia’s attack on sovereign Georgian territory marked the official return of history, indeed to an almost 19th-century style of great-power competition, complete with virulent nationalisms, battles for resources, struggles over spheres of influence and territory, and even—though it shocks our 21st-century sensibilities—the use of military power to obtain geopolitical objectives.”

To counterbalance the revival of Russia’s imperialistic aims, as we have been warning over the past two weeks, look for the German-led European Union to rapidly accelerate its drive toward militaristic unity! And as we have been saying for years, this resurgence of both power blocs—called the king of the north and the kings of the east in Bible prophecy—will result in a non-aggression pact between Germany and Russia modeled after the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement.

This has been the lesson of history. As my father told HWAC students during his lecture, every time competition intensifies between Russia and Germany, the two historic foes form an alliance with one another. But they don’t last long. The strategic agreements are made just before the outbreak of full-scale war!

Where We Are Headed

Basing his projection on the sure word of Bible prophecy, 47 years ago, Herbert W. Armstrong said that Russia would one day frighten Germany and the rest of Europe to “lose confidence” in America’s ability to protect them from the Russian bear (co-worker letter, Oct. 23, 1961). This, he said, would result in two things: hastening the development of European unification and the establishment of a non-aggression pact between Germany and Russia.

Mr. Armstrong’s flagship publication, the Plain Truth, offered this analysis in May 1962: “When a Russo-German deal is made, you can be sure that the doom of the United States and Great Britain is on the horizon. A German-Soviet agreement—a second Rapallo—would be the greatest disaster which could befall the West.”

After Mr. Armstrong’s death in 1986, the Trumpet magazine lifted his mantle and continued proclaiming his same prophetic warning. Even before Vladimir Putin grabbed hold of Russian power and revived its imperialist goals, the Trumpet declared: “Russia is back, albeit economically wounded, and swallowing its pride momentarily ….”

You would be hard-pressed to find any other news source predicting the resurgent rise of Russia in 1999, when it was entangled in civil war and wallowing in economic impoverishment. The Economist, for example, wrote on Dec. 18, 1999—on the eve of Russian parliamentary elections:

Reform of Russia’s dreadful economy—smaller now than that of the Netherlands—has, for instance, barely been mentioned [in parliamentary debates]. … Cynicism abounds, especially about the corrupt new order that has replaced the coercively deadening old one. It is matched by dismay at the degradation into which Russia has sunk, even though most Russians—Communists included—know that a return to a Soviet-style past is unthinkable.

What a different take than what we had at theTrumpet.com! “With Russia looming again on the horizon across the Polish plain, Germany gets the jitters,” we wrote in June 1999.

Germany will never trust nato in a European adventure again. Apart from this, Germany has never, ever trusted Russia! So—revive the old Ribbentrop-Molotov pact! … We believe that a similar pact will soon be concluded between Russia and Germany.

Four years later, in August 2003, we wrote,

Russia currently faces a choice between a stronger alliance with the EU or the U.S. Putin is at a crossroads, but political and economic possibilities reveal which direction he will take. Now the strategic partnership between Russia and German-led Europe will further solidify both power blocs’ global weight. It will help propel Europe to superpower status.

Then, just last year, we posted an article under the headline, “Russo-German Pact Imminent.”

In April of this year, we wrote about the prophesied rise of both Germany and Russia. “Germany is conquering the Balkans, and Russia has its eye on Georgia,” we said four months ago. “As these powers compete against each other, watch for a new Molotov-Ribbentrop pact to emerge. It may be that dealings are already under way to conclude such an agreement.”

This week, my father made this statement to our HWAC students: “I believe it is very likely Germany and Russia have already cut a deal.” He continued,

I believe Germany may well have been complicit in Russia’s plan to attack Georgia! If Russia formed an agreement with Germany over the Georgia situation, then Russia would know the only possible other nation it would have to be concerned about is the U.S. And Russia knew that America was too weak to do anything about it!

That was Monday. On Wednesday, Stratfor filed this prophetically electrifying report about the crossroads Germany is now at in Europe:

Berlin is now reassessing its allegiances to Washington and NATO, which would keep the country locked into the policies it made as an occupied state. Or Germany could act like its own state and create its own security guarantee with Russia—something that would rip NATO apart. …

Stratfor sources in Moscow have said that Medvedev has offered Merkel a security pact for their two countries.

Stratfor has yet to confirm the report, but history and prophecy tells us everything we need to know, even if there is still some question about the timing.

What we know is this: Germany’s relationship with nato is nearing its end! As Stratfor notes, “[I]f Germany and Russia make some sort of deal, it will be open season on American influence in Europe.” An independent, 10-nation superpower is rising out of Europe that will soon force all American military personnel to withdraw from the Continent.

Then, the German-led Euroforce is prophesied to turn against the West, catapulting the whole Earth into a nuclear World War III— so says your Bible!

Now understand the significance of these latest prophetic developments. Over the past two centuries, every time Germany has double-crossed the West, it has first entered into a non-aggression pact with Russia in order to shore up its defenses to the east.

What this means, as my father told our students on Monday, is that the secret non-aggression pact between Germany and Russia—a deal that may already be in place—is not a sign of peace.

It is a precursor to war!

(Gerald Flurry’s August 18 speech will be excerpted in the October print version of the Trumpet. For a free subscription to the magazine, go here.) •

***************
Bible Prophecy States EU to Form Core Group
EU industry commissioner Gunter Verheugen, when asked by the German daily Die Welt how he sees the European Union in 20 years' time, responded: "I believe… we will have a political union, but maybe not with all states that now form part of the EU."

Is Germany in Danger of Backsliding?
We left it up to the Germans to "deNazify" their country! Now Germany appears to be backsliding as the Nazi German spirit is beginning to stir again, getting ready to break free from imposed shackles with a fury, and come back with a vengeance from the abyss, threatening to wreak havoc upon the world.

The Secret Nazis
Herbert W. Armstrong warned the Nazis only went underground and a declassified US document confirms it...

Germany Behind the Mask
For over 50 years, Herbert W. Armstrong warned that a German-led European combine would thresh the nations. When Germany lay in ashes after WWII, Mr. Armstrong had no doubt Germany would be back with a vengeance and he pounded this theme home through the pages of The Plain Truth magazine read by millions worldwide.

Will The Atlantic Times address the German threat?
It is not in Germany's mind today, or its present peaceful people, to wage war against us, but that will all change overnight, after a head-on collision with the Islamic leader of a confederation of Muslim states, their mahdi, whetting Europe's appetite for more blood and morphing the...

Herbert W. Armstrong

Herbert W. Armstrong

As Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall testifies:

Herbert W. Armstrong was a God-send to restore long lost truths; stood against traditional Christianity's error and taught the plain truth of the Bible; restored our Hebrew roots; warned world leaders about a German-dominated European Union and offered the hope and comfort of Christ's return to save us from its nuclear holocaust; he brought God's Church back on track, and he died, full of faith and wisdom, leaving a lasting impression on those who continue the quest for God's Kingdom.

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Just What Do You Mean...Kingdom of God?
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Herbert W. Armstrong Was Ahead of His Time!
Mr. Armstrong was ahead of his time. The principles of prophecy he spoke of remain absolutely true: a final revival of the unholy Roman Empire is prophesied and the EU is forging ahead with that Frankenstein Monster now.

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Herbert W. Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God Mentioned in Israeli Newspaper
One of the Worldwide Church of God beliefs is that there will be a politico-military mess that will take place by next year. In their opinion, Germany, and maybe even Italy, will attempt to conquer the world. That attempt will ignite a world war that will take two thirds of the world's population, but that afterwards there will begin a true peace for planet Earth. The members of the Worldwide Church of God will be among those that survive and they believe that eventually their beliefs will be accepted by all the Earth.

Is All Animal Flesh Good Food?
Were all animals made clean? What about the unclean animals shown to Peter in a vision? Here is a straightforward Bible answer, giving the New Testament teaching. This subject is important to your health and well-being!

Accusations Against Herbert W. Armstrong
Those who truly are Christians understand that the Christian thing to do, especially in light of the fact that the worst accusations against Herbert W. Armstrong would be thrown out of court, dismissed for lack of evidence, is to give Herbert W. Armstrong the benefit of the doubt, as we would want, knowing we're to love our neighbor as ourselves...

The Plain Truth About Easter by Herbert W. Armstrong

The Plain Truth About Easter

by Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986)
1973

The Resurrection was not on Easter Sunday! Easter is not a Christian name, but the title of the idolatrous "queen of heaven." Here's an explanation of the true origin and meaning of Lent, Easter eggs, and sunrise services!

WHY DO you believe the things you believe, do the things you do?

The chances are you never stopped to ask yourself that question. You have been taught since childhood to accept Easter as the chief of the Christian holidays.

You have supposed it is part of the true Christian religion to observe Lent, "Holy Week," "Good Friday," to buy hot cross buns at the bakery, to have colored Easter eggs, to dress up and go to church Easter Sunday—perhaps to attend an Easter sunrise service!

Because of the "sheep" instinct in humans, most of us believe a lot of things that are not true. Most of us do a lot of things that are wrong, supposing these things to be right, or even sacred!

Ishtar the Pagan Goddess

What is the meaning of the name "Easter"? You have been led to suppose the word means "resurrection of Christ." For 1600 years the Western world has been taught that Christ rose from the dead on Sunday morning. But that is merely one of the fables the Apostle Paul warned readers of the New Testament to expect. The resurrection did not occur on Sunday!

The name "Easter," which is merely the slightly changed English spelling of the name of the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian goddess Ishtar, comes to us from old Teutonic mythology where it is known as Ostern. The Phoenician name of this goddess was Astarte, consort of Baal, the sun god, whose worship is denounced by the Almighty in the Bible as the most abominable of all pagan idolatry.

Look up the word "Easter" in Webster's dictionary. You will find it clearly reveals the pagan origin of the name.

In the large five-volume Hastings Dictionary of the Bible, only six brief lines are given to the name "Easter," because it occurs only once in the Bible—and that only in the Authorized King James translation. Says Hastings: "Easter, used in Authorized Version as the translation of 'Pascha' in Acts 12:4, 'Intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.' Revised Standard Version has substituted correctly 'the Passover.'"

Apostles Observed Passover

The World Almanac, 1968 edition, page 187, says: "In the second century A.D., Easter Day was, among Christians in Asia Minor [that is, in the Churches at Ephesus, Galatia, etc.—the so called "Gentile" churches raised up by the Apostle Paul] the 14th of Nisan, the seventh month of the Jewish [civil] calendar." In other words, the 14th day of the first month of the sacred calendar, and it was not then called by the name of the pagan deity "Easter," but by the Bible name "Passover."

Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and the holy days God had ordained forever were all observed by Jesus, and the early apostles, and the converted Gentile Christians (Acts 2:1; 12:3; 18:21; 20:6, 16; I Corinthians 5:7-8; 16:8). Passover is a memorial of the crucifixion of Christ (Luke 22:19). Passover, observed by the early true Church, occurred not on Sunday or any fixed day of the week, but on a calendar day of the year. The day of the week varies from year to year.

Easter is one of the pagan days Paul warned Gentile converts they must not return to observing (Galatians 4:9-10).

How, then, did this pagan festival enter into and fasten itself upon a professing Christianity? That is a surprising story—but first, notice the true origin and nature of Easter.

Its Chaldean Origin

Easter, as Alexander Hislop says (The Two Babylons, p. 103), "bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven. . . ."

The ancient gods of the pagans had many different names. While this goddess was called Astarte by the Phoenicians, it appears on Assyrian monuments found by Layard in excavations at Nineveh as Ishtar (Austen H. Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, Vol. II, p. 629). Both were pronounced "Easter." Likewise, Bel (referred to in the Old Testament), also was called Molech. It was for sacrificing to Molech (I Kings 11:1-11, especially verse 7. where Molech is called an abomination) and other pagan gods that the Eternal condemned Solomon, and rended away the Kingdom of Israel from his son.

In the ancient Chaldean idolatrous sun-worship, as practiced by the Phoenicians, Baal was the sun god; Astarte, his consort or wife. And Astarte is the same as Ishtar, or the English "Easter."

Says Hislop: "The festival, of which we read in Church history, under the name of Easter, in the third or fourth centuries, was quite a different festival from that now observed in the Romish [and Protestant] Church, and at that time was not known by any such name as Easter. It was called Pascha, or the Passover, and . . . was very early observed by many professing Christians. . . . That festival agreed originally with the time of the Jewish Passover, when Christ was crucified. . . . That festival was not idolatrous, and it was preceded by no Lent" (The Two Babylons, p. 104).

Where Did We Get Lent?

"Howbeit you should know," wrote Johannes Cassianus (John Cassian) in the fifth century, "that as long as the primitive church retained its perfection unbroken, this observance of Lent did not exist" (First Conference Abbot Theonas, chapter 30).

Jesus observed no Lent. The apostles and the early true Church of God observed no Lenten season. Then how did this observance originate?

"The forty days' abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess. Such a Lent of forty days, in the spring of the year, is still observed by the Yezidis or pagan Devil worshippers of Koordistan, who have inherited it from their early masters, the Babylonians. Such a Lent of forty days was held in spring by the Pagan Mexicans. . . . Such a Lent of forty days was observed in Egypt . . ." (The Two Babylons, pp. 104, 105). In fact this Egyptian Lent of forty days was observed expressly in honor of Osiris, also known as Adonis in Syria and Tammuz in Babylonia (Sabaean Researches, by John Landseer, pp. 111, 112).

Do you realize what has happened? God Almighty commanded His people to observe the Passover forever! (Exodus 12:24.) This command was given while the Israelites were still in Egypt, prior to the Old Covenant, or the Law of Moses! It pictured, before the crucifixion, Christ's death for the remission of our sins, as a type looking forward to it. At His last Passover, Jesus changed the emblems used from the blood of a lamb and eating its roasted body to the bread and wine.

Jesus did not abolish Passover—He merely changed the emblems, or symbols used. All the apostles of Christ and true Christians of the first century true Church observed it on the 14th day of the first month of the sacred calendar. It is now a memorial of Christ's death, reaffirming, year by year on its anniversary, the true Christian's faith in the blood of Christ for the remission of his sins, and the broken body of Christ for his physical healing.

But what has happened? Do you realize it? All Western nations have been deceived into dropping the festival God ordained forever to commemorate the death of the true Saviour for our sins, and substituting in its place the pagan festival in commemoration of the counterfeit "savior" and mediator Baal, the sun god, named after the mythical Ishtar, his wife—actually none other than the ancient Semiramis, who palmed herself off as the wife of the sun god, the idolatrous "queen of heaven."

This is not Christian! It is pagan to the core!

Yet scores of millions are deceived into observing this form of heathen idolatry, under the delusion they are honoring Jesus Christ the Son of the Creator God!

Easter does not honor Christ! And yet, have you not been like a blind sheep, following the other millions in observing this custom? "The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent" (Acts 17:30).

Dyed Eggs

But did you know that dyed Easter eggs also figured in the ancient Babylonian mystery rites, just as they do in Easter observance today? Yes, these are pagan, too.

It is recorded in Edward Davies' The Mythology and Rites of the British Druids, page 210, that the ancient Druids bore an egg as the sacred emblem of their idolatrous order.

Eggs were sacred to many ancient civilizations and formed an integral part of the religious ceremonies in Egypt and in the Orient.

According to James Bonwick: "Eggs were hung up in the Egyptian temples. Bunsen calls attention to the mundane egg, the emblem of generative life, proceeding from the mouth of the great god of Egypt. The mystic egg of Babylon, hatching the Venus Ishtar, fell from heaven to the Euphrates. Dyed eggs were sacred Easter offerings in Egypt, as they are still in China and Europe. Easter, or spring, was the season of birth, terrestrial and celestial" (Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought, pp. 211-212).

Why do people who believe themselves to be Christians dye eggs at Easter? Do they suppose the Bible ordained, or commands, this heathen custom? There is not a word of it in the New Testament. Certainly Christ did not start it, and the apostles and early Christians did none of it!

Then why should you do it today? Why follow heathenism and try to convince yourself you are a Christian? God calls such things abomination!

Easter Sunrise Services

You think Easter sunrise services are beautiful? Listen! God was showing the Prophet Ezekiel the sins of His people in a vision—a prophecy for today! "Turn thee yet again," said God, "and thou shalt see greater abominations than these [Ezekiel had just been shown, in vision, idol worship among professing people of God]. And he brought me [in vision] into the inner court of the Eternal's house, and behold . . . between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with . . . their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east. Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing . . . that they commit the abominations which they commit here? . . . Therefore will I deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them"! (Ezekiel 8:15-18.)

Do you grasp at this most abominable thing is?

It is the identical thing millions are doing every Easter Sunday morning—the sunrise service—standing with their faces toward the east, as the sun is rising, in a service of worship which honors the sun god and his mythical idolatrous consort, goddess Easter. Yes, deceived into believing this is Christian, millions practice every Easter the identical form of the ancient sun worship of the sun god Baal! Throughout the Bible this is revealed as the most abominable of all idolatry in the sight of the Eternal Creator!

How Easter Crept Into the Church

Such is the origin and early history of Easter.

How, then, was this pagan festival injected into professing Christian religion, as a substitute for an ordinance of God?

Before revealing briefly the astonishing account of this great deception, two facts must be firmly fixed in mind.

First, Jesus and the apostles foretold, not a universal, widespread popular growth of the true New Testament Church, but a falling away from the truth on the part of the great majority. Prophesying a popular, universal falling away from the faith once delivered, to the Thessalonians Paul stated, "The mystery of iniquity doth already work," only some 20 years after the Church began! He referred to the very "Chaldean Mysteries," of which Easter and Christmas were the two chief festivals!

Second, although Jesus said the gates of hell would never prevail against His church, yet it is prophesied in the New Testament to be the "little flock"—never as a great, large, popular universal church (Luke 12:32).

This is the very fact the world does not realize today!

TWO Churches---One False, One True

In New Testament prophecy two churches are described.

One, the great and powerful and universal church, a part of the world, actually ruling in its politics over many nations, and united with the "Holy Roman Empire," is brought to a concrete focus in Revelation 17.

This church is pictured with great pomp, ritual and display, decked in purple, scarlet and gold—proud, worldly, boastful. She is pictured as a universal deceiver—all the Western nations spiritually drunk with her false doctrines, their spiritual perception so blurred by her paganized teachings and practices they are unable to clearly distinguish truth! She boasts she is the true Church, yet she is drunken with the blood of the saints she has caused to be martyred!

But how could she have deceived the whole world, as foretold in God's Word? Surely, the Protestant world isn't deceived!

Oh, but it is! Notice, verse 5, she is a mother church!. Her daughters are also churches who have come out of her, in protest, calling themselves Protestant—but they are fundamentally of her family in pagan doctrines and practices!

They, too, make themselves a part of this world, taking active part in its politics—the very act which made a "harlot" out of their mother!

The entire apostate family—mother, and more than 400 daughter denominations, all divided against each other and in confusion of doctrines, yet all united in the chief pagan doctrines and festivals—has a family name! They call themselves "Christian," but God calls them something else—"Mystery, Babylon the Great"!

"Babylon" means confusion! God always names people and things by calling them what they are! And here are the identical ancient Babylonian Mysteries now wrapped in the false cloak labeled "Christianity"—but in fact it is the same old "Babylonian Mystery System."

But where, then, was the true Church?

TRUE Church Small—Scattered

Did the true Church of God, of which Jesus Christ is the living, directing Head, become perverted—did it merely apostatize into the system described above?

No! The gates of hell have never prevailed against the true Church of God, and never will! The true Church has never fallen! It has never ceased!

But the true Church of God is pictured in prophecy as the "little flock"! The New Testament describes this Church as continually persecuted, despised by the large popular churches because it is not OF this world or its politics, but has kept itself unspotted from the world! It has always kept the Commandments of God and the faith of Jesus (Revelation 12:17). It has kept God's Festivals, not the pagan holidays. It has been empowered with the Spirit of God!

That Church never became the great popular church, as the Protestant world supposes! That Church has always existed, and it exists today!

Then where did it go? Where was it during the Middle. Ages? Where is it today?

First, remember this Church was never large, never politically powerful, or a world-known organization of men. It is a spiritual organism, not a political organization. It is composed of all whose hearts and lives have been changed by the Spirit of God, whether visibly together, or individually scattered.

Under the lash of continual persecution and opposition from the organized forces of this world, it is difficult for such a people to remain united and organized together.

Daniel prophesied the true people of God would be scattered (Daniel 12:7) Ezekiel foretold it (Ezekiel 34:5-12). Jeremiah, too (Jeremiah 23:1-2). Jesus foretold it (Matthew 26:31). The apostolic Church was soon scattered by persecution (Acts 8:1).

Ignored by Most Histories

You don't read much of this true Body of Christ in the secular histories of this world! No, the world little notes, nor long remembers, the activities of this "little flock," hated and despised by the world, driven to the wilderness by persecution, always opposed, usually scattered! But there are enough references to it in authentic histories to show that it has continued through every century to now!

The prophecies bring this Church into concrete focus in the 12th chapter of Revelation. There she is shown spiritually, in the glory and splendor of the Spirit of God, but visibly in the world as a persecuted Commandment-keeping Church driven into the wilderness, for 1260 years, through the Middle Ages!

Even in Paul's day, many among those attending at Antioch, at Jerusalem, at Ephesus, at Corinth, and other places, began to apostatize and turn away from the truth. Divisions sprang up. Those individuals, unconverted or turned from God's truth and way of life, were no part of God's true Church, though visibly assembling with those who were. The "mystery of iniquity" was already working inside these visible churches. This apostasy increased! By the year AD 125 the majority in most churches, especially those Gentile-born, were continuing in many of their old pagan beliefs and practices, though professing to be Christian! Gradually, a smaller and smaller portion of the visible churches going by the name "Christian" remained truly yielded to God and His truth, and led of His Spirit. After Constantine took virtual control of the visible, professing Church in the early fourth century, this visible organization became almost wholly pagan, and began excommunicating and persecuting all who held to the true Word of God! Finally, it became necessary for real Christians, who, even as a scattered people, alone composed the true Christian Church, to flee from the jurisdiction of Rome in order truly to worship God! Thus, the visible, organized Church which rose to power was the FALSE Church—the fallen woman of Revelation 17.

Injected Into the Church

Nothing illustrates this very fact more vividly than the actual history of the injecting of Easter into the Western Church.

Here is the quick, brief history of it, from the Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th edition, Vol. VIII, pp. 828-829):

"There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers. . . . The first Christians [the original true Church] continued to observe the Jewish [that is, God's] festivals, though in a new spirit, as commemorations of events which those festivals had foreshadowed. Thus the Passover, with a new conception added to it, of Christ as the true Paschal Lamb and the first fruits from the dead, continued to be observed.

"Although the observance of Easter was at a very early period in the practice of the Christian Church, a serious difference as to the day for its observance soon arose between the Christians of Jewish and those of Gentile descent, which led to a long and bitter controversy. With the Jewish Christians . . . the fast ended . . . on the 14th day of the moon at evening . . . without regard to the day of the week. The Gentile Christians on the other hand [that is, the beginning of the Roman Church, now substituting pagan for true Christian doctrines] . . . identified the first day of the week with the resurrection, and kept the preceding Friday as the commemoration of the crucifixion, irrespective of the day of the month.

"Generally speaking, the Western Churches [Catholic] kept Easter on the 1st day of the week, while the Eastern Churches [containing most of those who remained as part of the true Christian Church] followed the Jewish rule. [That is, observing Passover on the 14th of the first sacred month instead of the pagan Easter.]

"Polycarp, the disciple of John the Evangelist, and bishop of Smyrna, visited Rome in 159 [sic] to confer with Anicetus, the bishop of that see, on the subject, and urged the tradition which he had received from the apostles of observing the 14th day. Anicetus, however, declined. About forty years later (197), the question was discussed in a very different spirit between Victor, bishop of Rome, and Polycrates, metropolitan of proconsular Asia [the territory of the Churches at Ephesus, Galatia, Antioch, Philadelphia, and all those mentioned in Revelation 2 and 3—the Churches established through the Apostle Paul]. That province was the only portion of Christendom which still adhered to the Jewish usage. Victor demanded that all should adopt the usage prevailing at Rome. This Polycrates firmly refused to agree to, and urged many weighty reasons to the contrary, whereupon Victor proceeded to excommunicate Polycrates and the Christians who continued the Eastern usage [that is, who continued in God's way, as Jesus, Peter, Paul, and all the early true Church had done]. He was, however, restrained [by other bishops] from actually proceeding to enforce the decree of excommunication . . . and the Asiatic churches retained their usage unmolested. We find the Jewish [true Christian Passover] usage from time to time reasserting itself after this, but it never prevailed to any large extent.

"A final settlement of the dispute was one among the other reasons which led Constantine to summon the council at Nicaea in 325. At that time the Syrians and Antiochenes were the solitary champions of the observance of the 14th day. The decision of the council was unanimous that Easter was to be kept on Sunday, and on the same Sunday throughout the world, and that 'none hereafter should follow the blindness of the Jews.' [That is, in plain language, the Roman Church now decreed that none should be allowed to follow the ways of Christ—of the true Christian Church!]

". . . The few who afterwards separated themselves from the unity of the church [the politically organized Church], and continued to keep the 14th day, were named 'Quartodecimani,' and the dispute itself is known as the 'Quartodeciman controversy.'"

Thus you see how the politically organized church at Rome grew to great size and power by adopting popular pagan practices and how she gradually stamped out the true teachings, doctrines, and practices of Jesus Christ and the true Church, so far as any collective practice is concerned.

True Christians Kept Passover

The New Testament reveals that Jesus, the apostles, and the New Testament Church, both Jewish- and Gentile-born, observed God's Sabbaths, and God's Festivals—weekly and annually! Take your Bible and carefully read Acts 2:1; 12:3-4 (remember the word "Easter" here is a mistranslation in the King James Version—originally inspired "Passover," and so corrected in the Revised Standard Version); Acts 18:21; 20:6, 16; I Corinthians 16:8.

Eusebius, historian of the early centuries of the Church, speaks of the true Christians observing Passover on the 14th of Nisan, first month of the Sacred Calendar.

"A question of no small importance arose at that time. For the parishes of all Asia, as from an older tradition, held that the fourteenth day of the moon, on which day the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should be observed as the feast of the Savior's passover . . . the bishops of Asia, led by Polycrates, decided to hold to the old custom handed down to them. He himself, in a letter which he addressed to Victor and the church of Rome, set forth in the following words the tradition which had come down to him:

"'We observe the exact day; neither adding, nor taking away. For in Asia also great lights have fallen asleep, which shall rise again on the day of the Lord's coming, when he shall come with glory from heaven, and shall seek out all the saints. Among these are Philip, one of the twelve apostles . . . and, moreover, John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord . . . and Polycarp in Smyrna, who was a bishop and martyr; and Thraseas, bishop and martyr from Eumenia . . . the bishop and martyr Sagaris . . . the blessed Papirius, or Melito. . . . All these observed the fourteenth day of the passover according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith"' (Ecclesiastical History, book V, chapters XXIII and XXIV).

But as the false, paganized church grew in size and political power, decrees were passed in the fourth century AD imposing the death sentence upon Christians found keeping God's Sabbath, or God's Festivals. Finally, in order to keep the true way of God, many Christians (composing the true Church) fled for their lives.

But another large portion of the true Church of God, failing to flee, yet remaining true to God's truth, paid with their lives in martyrdom (Revelation 2:13; 6:9; 13-15; 17:6; 18:24).

They loved obedience to God more than their lives! Do you?

But through all generations, through every century, though persecuted, scattered, unrecognized by the world, many true Christians have kept alive the true Church of God—the Church composed of those who have the Holy Spirit of God.

What God Did Command

The "communion," often called the "Lord's Supper," is actually the Passover—as the ordinance should more properly be called. On observing the Passover, as on every practice, Jude exhorts "that ye should contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the saints."

Now that we know the pagan origin of the Easter celebration, let's clear away the web of error that covers the truth about keeping the Passover, the memorial of Christ's death.

Let's examine the way Jesus observed this ordinance, because we can't be wrong if we follow His example. In Luke 22:14-20, we read, "And when the hour was come, he [Jesus] sat down. . . . And he took bread, and gave thanks, and broke it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you."

Notice, it was "when the hour was come," that Jesus introduced the unleavened bread and the wine. There was a definite time—a definite hour—when He held this ordinance as an example for us.

Notice, too, He commanded them to observe it—"This do"! And why? "In remembrance of me," said Jesus. He instituted this New Testament way of keeping the Passover, on that tragic night, the very eve of His death.

In Matthew's account, the Bible shows that this ordinance was at the very time of the Passover, "as they were eating" (Matthew 26:2, 26). Jesus knew that His time had come. He was our passover, sacrificed for us (I Corinthians 5:7).

The Passover had always been held on the eve of the 14th of God's first month, according to the Sacred or Jewish Calendar. It was the night of the final and last Passover supper that Jesus introduced these New Testament emblems—the unleavened bread and the wine—in place of the lamb that was always slain annually. (For a full explanation of the original Passover as God instituted it, see Mr. Armstrong's booklet Pagan Holidays or God's Holy Days—Which?)

Remember Jesus commanded: "This do in remembrance of me." Why? Because the Passover was commanded "forever."

The Passover was to be observed annually, along with the Days of Unleavened Bread. "Thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance in his season year to year" (Exodus 13:10). Jesus set us an example (I Peter 2:21), observing this ordinance at the same time once a year (Luke 2:42). Suppose the Israelites in Egypt had observed this ordinance at some other time than that set by God? They would not have been saved when the death angel passed by that night! God does things on time. He has given us an exact time for this ordinance. Jesus instituted the New Testament symbols "when the hour was come."

The Ordinance of Humility

In giving us their accounts, Matthew, Mark and Luke describe the taking of unleavened bread and wine. But John relates another part of this ordinance.

In the 13th chapter of John we notice that after the Passover supper was ended (verse 2), Jesus took a towel (verse 4)and began to wash His disciples' feet (verse 5).

"So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you" (John 13:12-15).

If any of you are wondering if this ordinance of humility is a command to you, then turn to Matthew 28:19, 20. Here Jesus said to these same disciples: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them . . . teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded YOU." So they were to teach us to observe all things whatsoever Jesus commanded them!

Kept Once a Year in the Apostolic Church

In I Corinthians 5:7, 8, Paul tells the Corinthians: Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven . . . but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." And in the 11th chapter he gives the directions regarding this ordinance.

Some misunderstand verse 26 which says: "As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup," by interpreting it "take it as often as you wish." But it does not say that!

It says "as often" as you observe it, "ye do show the Lord's death till he come." Even Jesus commanded, "This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me" (verse 25). We do it in remembrance of the Lord's death—a memorial of His death. As you know, memorials are celebrated annually, once a year, on the anniversary of the events commemorated. So we observe the memorial of Christ's death annually. And just as often as each year comes around, we are to "show the Lord's death till he come," by keeping this memorial.

Christ instituted this ordinance on the eve of His death. It was the 14th of Abib, by God's Sacred Calendar, in the very beginning of the day. God starts days at sunset, not midnight. So, later that same day, after Jesus had gone out to Gethsemane, Judas Iscariot led the crowd to seize Jesus. Then He was crucified later that same day, in the daylight part of this same 14th of the month Abib.

By following the example of Jesus in observing this sacred ordinance at the same time He did—the very same time the Passover was forever commanded to be observed—we continue to remember His death, annually, on the eve of the crucifixion.

Some always question the meaning of Paul in verses 27-29 in I Corinthians 11. The apostle is not speaking about a Christian being worthy or unworthy to take it. It is speaking of the manner in which it is done. We take it unworthily if we take it wrongly, in the wrong manner. Once we learn the truth about its observance, and yet take it at any other time than when God says, then we take it unworthily. We take it unworthily if we do not accept the body and blood of Christ. So let's not take this most sacred ordinance to our condemnation, but take it worthily instead!

"Easter" a Mistranslation

Following the example of Jesus and the apostles, the early Church observed the Passover, and the Days of Unleavened Bread which immediately followed. Notice Acts 12:3. The Holy Spirit of God inspired these words: Then were the days of unleavened bread." But in the next verse we read of "Easter."

We have already seen that "Easter" was injected into the Church years after the time of Christ. Again, this word Easter" is a mistranslation. The original Greek word is pascha, meaning Passover. In every other place, exactly the same word is used in the original and always rendered Passover. Many other translations, including the New King James Version, faithfully render this verse in Acts as "intending after the Passover to bring him forth to the people."

So this verse, instead of mentioning Easter, really proves that the Church, ten years after the death of Christ, was still observing Passover.

What Does "Break Bread" Mean?

There are some denominations that read Acts 20:7 as a proof that the "Lord's Supper" should be taken each Sunday morning! First notice that this was after the Days of Unleavened Bread (verse 6). Paul was preaching a farewell meeting, not on Sunday morning, but on Saturday night. It was after midnight (verse 7), that they broke bread because they were hungry. When they "had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day," Paul departed.

So this was just an ordinary meal!

The same expression "break bread" is found in Acts 27:34, 35. "Wherefore I pray you to take some meat . . . he took bread . . . and when he had broken it, he began to eat." Also Acts 2:46: "And breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness." This could not possibly have been the "Lord's Supper" or, more properly, Passover, because Paul says that if we take it to satisfy our hunger we take it to our condemnation (I Corinthians 11:34). In that day, everyone "broke bread" at ordinary meals, because they did not have the kind of bread that we slice. Jesus broke bread because it was at the Passover supper, while eating a meal.

We need to return to the faith once delivered. Let us humbly and obediently observe this sacred ordinance as we are commanded, at the scriptural time, after sunset, the 14th of Abib according to the Sacred Calendar. (If you haven't as yet read about the observance of this ordinance, see How Often Should We Partake of the Lord's Supper?)

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Christians Kept the Passover

Jesus Christ kept the Passover. So did the Apostle John. And so did some Christians in Scotland even until the 7th century AD.

This information comes from no less an ecclesiastical authority than the church historian Bede. His Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation would astound many who have assumed that Christ and the early apostles all kept Easter.

He writes that "John, following the customs of the Law, used to begin the Feast of Easter [actually the Passover] on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month, whether it fell on the Sabbath or on any other day" (III, 25).

The Apostle John was the author of five books of the New Testament and the "disciple whom Jesus loved." Yet he kept the Passover on the 14th day of the first month (Nisan) just as God commanded in the time of Moses. That is the plain statement of this early Catholic theologian!

But where did John's custom come from? From the very example of Jesus Christ! "Nor did our Lord, the Author and Giver of the Gospel, eat the old Passover or institute the Sacrament of the New Testament to be celebrated by the Church in memory of His Passion on . . . [any other day], but on the fourteenth" (Eccl. History, III, 25).

Bede thus reiterates what the Bible itself plainly tells us—that Christ partook of the old Passover and then substituted the New Testament symbols of the bread and wine on the 14th of the first month.

The custom of keeping the New Testament Passover, after the example of Christ and John, persisted among isolated groups for centuries. Bede tells us that some faithful were still keeping it in Scotland in the 7th century! (II, 19.)

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