IN FOCUS
Church of God-eim    PO Box 3332 . Modesto, CA 95353    www.cog-eim.org

"The WONDERFUL WORLD TOMORROW"
A WORLDWIDE BROADCAST

Time is flying! The world is plunging ahead to its self-imposed DOOM! Circumstances that were not even thought of a few short years ago are surfacing in our nation. This year the ten commandments were all but thrust out. Now, acceptance of gay “marriage” is being forced on our citizenry. This downward plunge will not stop, it will only escalate.

Will America and other western nations turn away from this total moral decline? In all probability, NO – The only thing holding up Christ’s return now is when GOD ALMIGHTY decides that the Gospel of the Kingdom of God has been preached to the extent HE wants it to (Mat.24:14). For over one year now, God has allowed this small group to preach His powerful Message over radio, coupled with the internet, reaching remote areas that were impossible heretofore. Do you realize what a miracle this is? All the while, PROPHECY continues to march on!

As this world plunges toward its destruction, God's Work Is still moving ahead! The WONDERFUL WORLD TOMORROW broadcast is Covering central, northern, and much of southern California along with a large area of the Midwest and Southwest. We are actively searching for more markets, looking now toward the East coast. The internet adds to this effort, enabling us to go into the most remote areas of the world with God’s end time message! We are striving with all our might to do the work that remains to us to be done.

Our major problem, of course, is that the laborers are very FEW! God tells us in the Bible to PRAY that He will send forth more dedicated LABORERS in His work -- for it is LATER THAN WE THINK! We have but a short time left to finish the Work of God. Many of us have been praying to this end. We also need Co-Workers who can give us a helping hand and be blessed for their faithful tithes and offerings.

Think about the experience of God's people of old time, in the days of King Hezekiah of Judah. And WHAT A TYPE of God's Work is being done thru US TODAY -- God's people of these very last days!

LISTEN! It is thrilling! Can we be as loyal as they were?

Begin with II Chronicles 29: "Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old ... and he did that which was right in the sight of the Eternal. ... In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Eternal, and repaired them" (Verses 1-3).

Beginning 1995 God called out this small group to continue the work of preaching the gospel to all the world. We struggled through various affiliations until God brought us out to where we could, because of our singleness of mind, begin again to preach the true gospel to the world, unhindered.

Just as the richly ornate and costly TEMPLE God had built by King Solomon in Jerusalem had fallen into disuse, and disrepair and dirt and filth, SO IN OUR DAY the very source of instruction for God's worship -- the Holy Bible -- had become once again, misinterpreted, twisted, distorted, and His TRUTH dragged in the FILTH of pagan teachings and practices! But God thru us and others like us has maintained His TRUTH -- the faith once delivered to the saints. Gradually God led this small group to begin a work of reaching the greater world again, while casting out the filthiness which unfaithful ministers and members allowed to distort and pervert the TRUTH in the very Church of God itself. Notice the ancient TYPE of this!

"And he (King Hezekiah) brought in priests and the Levites, and gathered them together in the east street, and said, ... Sanctify now (set apart for GOD'S USE) yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Eternal God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place" (Verses 4-5). Then the king added: "Be not now negligent; for the ETERNAL hath chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, and that ye should minister unto Him ..." (Verse 11).

Yes, in the same way, God has chosen YOU and me, to stand before Him and to serve Him, in His work for these last days!

"And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves and came, according to the commandment of the king, by the words of the ETERNAL, to cleanse the house of the ETERNAL ... and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the ETERNAL ..." (Verses 15-16).

In like manner, as they set themselves apart, dedicated to the physical task of cleansing, repairing, and restoring the Physical building of the temple, so we in these last days responded to God's call and permitted Him to set us apart, dedicated to the spiritual commission of preaching this GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD into ALL THE WORLD as a witness to all nations, refusing to water down the TRUTH, the TRUE GOSPEL, and the LAW OF THE ETERNAL!

Notice, their work started small by a few:

"Then Hezekiah the king rose early, and gathered the rulers of the city, and went up to the house of the ETERNAL. And they" (the few of them) "brought seven bullocks. and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven he goats, for a sin offering for the kingdom." (Verses 20-21.) These sacrifices and offerings were
substitutes and types of our acceptance of the sacrifice of CHRIST, and our own offerings of our time and money for the SPIRITUAL mission of these last days. And, in like manner comparing to the Old Testament physical example, God called us to offer ourselves and our financial offerings, through faith in the sacrifice of CHRIST, to continue the great SPIRITUAL mission of God for our day!

Continue the thrilling parallel: "And he set the Levites in the house of the ETERNAL with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David ... for so was the commandment of the ETERNAL by His prophets."

They did according to GOD'S ORDERS, IN THE BIBLE! So do we!

"Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the ETERNAL with the words of David." Did you know that the ETERNAL has inspired the WORDS of the songs and psalms (hymns) that His people ought to sing? But do the churches today sing them? NO! They sing words written by misguided men -- flowery words that say just the opposite of the
TRUTH of the Bible -- words that are LIES if the Bible is the TRUTH! Isn't it as wrong to SING a lie as to tell a lie? It’s important to remember this during this time of watering down and lukewarmness.

Now notice verse 31: "... and the CONGREGATION brought in sacrifices and thank offerings; and as many as were of a free heart burnt offerings."

"But the priests were TOO FEW." (Verse 34.) Yes, just like today, our ministers are TOO FEW! But God has given us a very powerful tool that enables us, who are only a few, to reach the entire world!

And the burnt offerings WERE IN ABUNDANCE, ... So the service of the house of the ETERNAL was set in order." (Verse 35.) Can we today, be of as willing hearts as those carnal-minded people -- when WE have God's HOLY SPIRIT? Yes, we can. And it shows in what God is allowing us to do!

Next, beginning chapter 30, King Hezekiah wrote letters to all Judah and Israel that they should come to God's Temple at Jerusalem to keep God's Passover -- asking these people who had drifted from God and from His ways into the worship of pagan gods and the practices of pagan customs. He asked them to TURN AGAIN to GOD (Verse 6). Many of them laughed the king's messengers to scorn (Verse 10). Yet "there assembled at Jerusalem MUCH PEOPLE to keep the feast of unleavened bread" (Verse 13). This is a time for turning to God – again- in the case of many in the greater Church of God! Would it be wrong to pray for this for our brethren who have strayed from the truth? No, it wouldn’t.

And, (verse 21 -- Moffatt translation): "For seven days the Israelites present at Jerusalem held the festival of unleavened bread with great delight; the Levites and the priests sang praise to the ETERNAL day by day WITH ALL THEIR MIGHT."

WE NEED TO CONTINUE TO SERVE OUR GOD WITH ALL OUR HEART AND MIGHT!

"So there was GREAT JOY in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon ... there was not the like in Jerusalem!" (Verse 26). The people then, like people today, had gone away from God's ways and His commands and HIS festivals, into the ways of the pagans. But notice with what JOY and REJOICING they came back to GOD'S ways! How about us, TODAY?

Then, chapter 31, verse 4, the king commanded the people to resume TITHING of their income. What happened? "As soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel brought IN ABUNDANCE" their tithes (Verse 5) -- "and the tithe of all things brought they in ABUNDANTLY."

What a thrilling parallel to our mission TODAY! Today our need is GREAT! God's Work must keep GOING AHEAD! Today God's Work needs your tithes and offerings as never before! If those people, who did not have the blessing of God's Holy Spirit, could respond in such ABUNDANCE -- how much MORE ought we, today?

Here we are, seeing the tide turning on America and all the western world, seeing corruption overwhelm western society. Europe, as we have been showing in our Eye on Europe column, continues to move in the direction prophecy has foretold. We knew this is what would happen just prior to Christ’s return. We are now seeing it happen right before our eyes on a daily basis. Things are escalating! Now isn’t the time to get sleepy or take what we know for granted. REALIZE THIS! Except for God’s will, there is no reason world events should be unfolding as they are. The world could be going in the exact opposite direction! Instead, this world is about to meet its creator.

We need to put the work of God FIRST, ahead of everything else in our lives! IF we place it first on our list, praying about it every day, God will surely BLESS US, and we will see this work go forward powerfully! We will hear those words of commendation at Christ’s return: “Well done thou good and faithful servant(s).”

(This article was extracted from a 1961 coworker letter by Herbert Armstrong, updated and edited for this web site.)