Untitled Document

God's Purpose Here Below

Leviticus 23 states:

2 "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts. (Leviticus 23:2)

26 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 27 "Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. 28 And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. 29 For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. 30 And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. 31 You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 32 It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath." (Leviticus 23:26-32)

Now these festivals have very great meaning for us. But the thing we need to realize is that each festival has its own meaning. But they are not separated one from the other. God has a great Master Plan. Herbert Armstroong often mentioned how Winston Churchill was speaking to the United States Congress in Washington and how he said that "there is a great purpose being worked out here below." And there is; God is working out that purpose. Most people are totally unaware of it; they know nothing about it. But God has a master plan for working out His purpose. There are seven successive steps in that master plan.

Now that plan has a spiritual purpose, of course. The physical man began with the first Adam, but the spiritual creation of God, in humans, begins with the second Adam, who's Jesus Christ, and He is called, in the Bible, the second Adam. And so these festivals picture the beginning with Christ.

Herbert Armstrong stated:

The Passover shows the killing of Christ, in other words, that was His death for us. He took on Himself our sins, and one of the things that we should see today, especially if you read back in Leviticus 16 — which also talks ab about the Azazel or Az-ah-zel goat; I don't know how you pronounce Hebrew words. That is the Hebrew word and it really means, "The devil." And it was the putting away of the devil. The one thing that that makes plain is this, that the lamb was recognized which represented Christ, in the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus, shows that Christ did not take the devil's sin. He only took human sin. But the real villain, the real one who is guilty of your sins and mine is Satan the devil. And too often we lose sight of that fact.

Let's look at Leviticus 16:

8 And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. 9 And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering, 10 but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel. (Leviticus 16:8-10, ESV)

Although Jesus was our Passover lamb sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7-8) and He only was slain once (Hebrews 9:28), we also see a ceremony other than Passover where Jesus is ceremonially slain, but this time represented as a goat.

Why?

Many have speculated, but there look to be scriptural clues, along with the fact that this happens before the release of the second goat.

The original Passover only resulted in the children of Israel being passed over for their sins. In this age, those who are true Christians claim the sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God, on His final earthly Passover for paying the penalty for our sins. Like the ancient children of Israel, real Christians are a small minority of the population of the world (Luke 12:32).

Since God's desire is for all to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth, we see Jesus sacrifice pictured twice in the biblical holy days. The Holy Days picture God's plan of salvation. From the start of the Christian church in Acts 2 to present, we have been in what can be called the 'church age.'

This age lasts until Jesus returns, which He does on the seventh and last trump (1 Corinthians 15:52), which is one of the trumpets pictured by the Feast of Trumpets. After the church age is over, Jesus' sacrifice will be accepted by more than the elect of the church age. It is NOT because Jesus will get sacrificed again.

Jesus is the "author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2). Passover shows is part of why He is the author and the Day of Atonement helps show us He is the finisher (as does His return with the last trumpet on pictured by the Feast of Trumpets).

So, although the Greco-Roman-Protestants tend to think the atonement was just a past event, this understanding of the Day of Atonement points to a future time--and shows an aspect of God's plan of salvation that most seem to have missed.

Let' look again at Leviticus 16:

20 “And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat. 21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. 22 The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness. (Leviticus 16:20-22, ESV)

Since the Bible calls Satan "the god of this age" who has "blinded" the world (2 Corinthians 4:4), they have been blinded and have not yet been covered by the sacrifice of Jesus, but this will happen for all who will be called--either in this age or the age to come (Matthew 12:32). Showing the sacrifice of the live goat, ceremonially, after the church age ends, helps show that the sacrifice of Jesus was not just for those called in the church age.

But showing the sacrifice prior to the other goat being released, this shows that Jesus was not taking away the sins of Satan. Instead, we see the sins of the people placed on the head of the Azazel goat.

Back to some comments from Herbert W. Armstrong:

We were born in this world as little tiny babies knowing absolutely nothing. Lately, I've been comparing the birth of the human baby, in some things I've been writing, I've been comparing the birth of a little baby a little bit to the birth of a calf or, for that matter, you take any other animal.

A little calf will get up and, in less than five minutes, usually — I think it might be one or two minutes in some cases — he will struggle to get on his legs and his four feet and he will soon be up on his four feet and the little calf, then, he starts to walk. And he knows where to go. He knows he goes for his dinner, first thing. He knows where it is. And his mother, the stupid old cow just stands there, stupidly, and vacant mindedly — only she doesn't have a mind.

She has a brain, though, but there's not much in it. She just stands there, waiting. She doesn't have to tell the calf what to do.

But a newborn baby doesn't know how to eat; he doesn't know where to go; he can't walk for about a year. And he doesn't know much to start. He has a mind that is actually unfilled with knowledge. But you'd be surprised how much that baby learns the very first year.

You know that every one of you learn more the first year of your life than you have learned in any other year since. Now you learn more the second year than you've learned in any other year since that, too. And you learn more the third year than you've learned since that.

And you might begin to think I'm saying that, "Well, you knew more then than you know now." No, no, not at all because the third year you added what you already knew the first year and the second year. And you also added by the tenth year what you learned the first nine. Knowledge is cumulative and as we get a little older we add each year to what we knew before. And even though you learn a little less each year, a very, very little less, it all depends on your mind, too. Some people learn faster than others; some apply themselves more and apply their mind.

I was just thinking this morning, if I can just talk awhile, instead of getting down to the lesson here in my notes, I was just thinking how young people, and up until they get into the mid-twenties, at least, they like to do physical things.

They want to be physically active; they're just jumping around. Notice little kids, why, you'd think they'd get tired and wear themselves out, little kids: one, two, three, four years old. No they don't; they just keep going all day they're so active.

Adults are not so much interested in how fast we can jump around in physical movement. But we should like to use my mind more.

Now the trouble is so many people want to stop using their minds. And they stop that when they're — well, they think education is something you go to college, or go to school, to get. You get a certain education in the earlier grades and in high school. But, if you want to get a more adult education, you go on to college.

It's like buying something — like a loaf of bread; you go to the grocery to buy a loaf of bread. They don't like to bake bread at home anymore, so they go to the grocery and buy it. When you go there, you pick up a loaf of bread. It's already wrapped and they may wrap it again in another piece of paper. And you pay your money and you take your bread and you walk out with it.

Well they think that's the way you get education. You go to the college, the university; you pay tuition; you're there so long; you walk out; and they give you an education. And, you know, that's precisely what does happen.

False Education

Anyway, most people go to school to get an education. I was thinking about — Herbert W. Armstrong wrote an article for that first issue of the Plain Truth in 1927. Now that article has never been published. but he had an artist draw a sketch. Now it was a pen and ink sketch, not in color, just in black and white, pen and ink. But it showed a schoolroom and children sitting at their school desks, about seventh, eighth grade, something like that, maybe ninth or tenth grade, but just kids in grade school. And in each child there was a funnel stuck in his head, stuck right down into the top of his head. And the teacher had a great big pitcher. And on the pitcher it was labeled, "Ready-made Propaganda," or, "Untruth." And she was pouring that down into the funnels in each kid. And each kid was getting what was poured into his mind, and a lot of it was not true.

Herbert W. Armstrong said:

Now that made me think about the time one of my own grandchildren was in, oh, I don't know, maybe the sixth, seventh, eighth grade, something like that — maybe the fifth grade. The teacher asked him to recite before the class. She said, "Larry, tell us, who discovered America?" Why he said, "The Indians, of course." She said, "Why Larry, you know better than that; you know Columbus discovered America!" Well he said, "Well no ma'am, I don't; I don't know that. Weren't the Indians already here to welcome Columbus when he arrived?" What do you think happened to Larry? He got flunked! Because he was supposed to memorize what was stuck into his head; it wasn't true at all. Columbus didn't discover America; the Indians were already here.

And so much of what is taught in education today is wrong. And what has been taught this world is wrong! And I want to say something about that as we go along. And that has something to do with the meaning of this day when we understand it.

Now one thing I wanted to mention is that in God's Master Plan there are seven main, general stages. There are many other little parts of the plan in between, you know, but there are the seven major steps in the plan. And they are in direct sequence and one has to do with the other. They follow in a time order.

First was the crucifixion of Christ and that was to square us up to the penalty that hangs over us because every one of us has sinned. Now why have we all sinned?

Alright, now a little baby is born without much in its head. But the baby learns more in the first year than it's going to learn any year in school, later. Believe it or not that's true.

Satan's Broadcast

Now then, during that first year of life, there is an invisible Satan. I'm going to come to that a little later. He is "the prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2). And he is a spirit being; he is a very powerful being, very powerful! He just simply surcharges the air with an attitude of hostility, an attitude of selfishness, self-centeredness, of vanity, but also of lust and greed, of coveting, of wanting more, wanting to get more — like politicians. They want to get more power. And they have a feeling of competition or hostility against others. They're very selfish. And Satan begins to get that into a little child's mind the first year before they're even one year old. That was gotten into your mind, every one of you, before you were a year old; and into my mind, too. We're all like that.

And, consequently, we become selfish. We begin to say, "I love me; I don't care about you." We may not say it, but that's what's in our minds. It's the way we, it's an attitude we have. It is an attitude. Satan doesn't broadcast, as I've said so many times, he does not broadcast in words, in sounds, in music, or anything like that. He broadcasts, merely, in attitudes, just in attitudes. You don't hear it; you don't see it with your eye; you don't hear it with your ear. You can't taste it, smell it, or feel it. But it gets in to your mind. And the result is that that is the way of get. And that is the opposite of the way of God's Law.

God's Law is the way of love, which is give. God's Law is outgoing, love toward the other person. That is, "loving your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18). But it's "loving God more than yourself," above all, "loving God with all your mind, heart, soul, and strength" (Deuteronomy 6:5 paraphrased). That is the law of God!

And what is sin? "..sin is the transgression of the law" (I John 3:4) or as the NKJV states, "sin is lawlessness." And every one of us has transgressed that law because Satan began putting that attitude in our minds that very first year.

Now that has something to do with the meaning of this festival, today.

Why this particular festival? Now the second festival after the crucifixion of Christ — we all had the penalty on us. And Satan is the real guilty one. Remember that. He is the one that God holds guilty, but God holds us guilty, too. And our penalty is death. Satan's penalty is not death. He has even a bigger penalty I have to say. I don't think most of you realize what that is, but that's true.

However, Christ took the penalty of all human beings. But it doesn't apply until after God calls us and God grants us repentance and we come to be willing to repent and we come to believe, not only in Christ, but we believe

Christ and we believe God, that is, we believe what they say. We believe the Word of God, the Bible.

Now the spirit of Satan started coming into us before we were one year old, every one of us. And we are, well it gets to be, really, not just second nature, they say it becomes 'second nature', but it becomes what we call 'human nature.' But it's what Satan inoculates. If in college they inoculate things into your mind, some of which is true and some of which is not true, Satan inoculates things in your mind and nearly all that is not true.

Spirit of God

But when we come to God, and God calls us, we had been filled with that human nature. That's that antagonism; that is that self and self-glory and the spirit of competition and feeling against others. And then we receive the Spirit of God that is the "love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" (Romans 5:5). But also it is the Spirit of God that opens our mind to understand His Word, the Bible. And God begins to show us His way and that's the way of love toward God and love toward neighbor, that's the law of God. And we have to "grow in that grace and [the] knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (II Peter 3:18)

Now, when Christ comes, His Church will have made itself — herself — ready (Revelation 19:7). We went into that ten days ago.

But, why this festival? Let's go into this now, today. And I'm not going to go, as I said, back into Leviticus 16 and Leviticus 23. I want to get to the meaning of it. The purpose of these festivals is to bring to our minds, and our ministers should preach every Holy Day the meaning of that day as a step in the great overall plan — Master Plan — of God to work out His purpose. And what is His purpose? He is reproducing Himself. He is taking out of little babies born with a mind that has great capabilities, but nothing in it much, yet — that is no knowledge in it. Knowledge begins to come in after birth. And He takes human beings, as we grow up, and those that He has called, God takes and remakes.

Lump of Clay

Well, we are like a piece of clay and He is the Master Potter. And He takes that to mold us, fashion us, change us from the way Satan has made us into His own character until we become like Him. We inherit and we receive His character into us little-by-little until we have it. We don't have much of it when we are first converted. It's a growth. Of course you can be converted when you receive the Holy Spirit, but you haven't grown very far, yet. You're a 'babe in Christ.' You don't know much; you haven't got much of the Holy Spirit, yet, not like Christ had.

But, Christ is making out of us GOD BEINGS! We're to be God Beings, just like God is a God Being, just like Christ is now very God! And we are children of God. We're only begotten children, now, in this life; we're still made of mortal clay.

You could cut that hand of mine off right there and I wouldn't have it anymore; it would just be gone. I hope no one ever does that. But once God makes me a God Being, I'll be composed of spirit; a knife going through it wouldn't harm it a bit. And when you and I are made spirit beings we will have self-containing life, we'll be composed of spirit. We won't have to breathe air to get our life. We won't have to eat food and drink water to live; we won't have to refuel ourselves all the time and keep breathing air. We will just have everlasting life. You know we won't even need to sleep at night?

Day of Atonement

Well now let's get back to this. Why this particular festival, this Day of Atonement? It's to remind us of the reason for the world's conditions today and to remind us of how soon we're going to have utopia and to remind us of the CAUSE of all of the troubles in the world today. Not only what are those troubles, but what is the CAUSE of the troubles in the world today and HOW is God going to end it.

Now if you ask me to sum up the cause of all the troubles in the world today, I could sum it up with one word, 'get.' People live the way of get. It's a violation of God's law, that's what it is. Or I could sum it up in two words, 'human nature.' And human nature is what Satan starts inoculating into the human mind during the first year of every baby's life. THAT'S SIN THAT IS IN US! Paul says that "sin dwells in me" (Romans 7:7). He said it's the law, another law, dwelling in him (Romans 7:23), Paul says, the apostle Paul. And that's what it is.

We're here, today, to learn how that got there. And to learn why we have been sinners, how we came to be, and how God is going to make it possible to call the whole world to Him, how's He going to change that human nature, and when, and all about it.

Now this is a very important day, today, and I want you to get the meaning. I'm not going back to read about the 'scapegoat' or the one that really means Satan the devil. I'm going to go on with the main meaning of this festival, today.

Most of us fail to realize the condition this world has gotten into; we just fail to realize it. Nations are being overthrown at the rate of about one a month. And many nations are in the process of being overthrown right now. There's trouble all over; violence is everywhere. There's been trouble in Central America. There has been, there's trouble in the Middle East. There is the matter between Russia and Ukraine.

Herbert W. Armstrong said:

Now we've got trouble. We've got a presidential election coming on in this country. And it's just fight, fight, fight. It's a case of "who is a racist and who isn't." So now they get up and apologize to each other and say, "No, I didn't mean the other guy's a racist." Well, that's what he did mean, but he says he didn't mean it. Anyhow, it's each one against the other. Each one wants to get that power of the oval room in the capital, or rather, in the White House, in Washington, D.C.

44 years later, we here much of the same!

Yet, not too many years from now, we're going to come to an absolute utopia and there's something standing in the way of that. And that's what we've got to know about, today. That is the purpose of this festival, today. That's the message God wants me to give YOU today. God wants this message, it's "meat in due season (Matthew 24:45). He wants this message to go to you.

Family in Trouble

Well, as I say, there's trouble all over the world. Perhaps the most significant trouble in the world, of all of the troubles, is the breakdown in the family unit and in the marriage custom that God, Himself, introduced.

Now why; why is there so much trouble in breaking up marriages and breaking up homes and families? The family unit must be trained in the ways of God because God is a family; God is the divine family. And we are to be children of God and born into that family and we have to learn to live as a family. We need to learn to live as a family. That's why God gave us the family relationship: a husband and a wife become a father and a mother, and then the children. And you know kids are not together with their parents; and parents are not together with their children. Parents don't teach their children anything.

In the 21st century, there is the pushing of gender confusion and perversion on a level never before seen so widespread on the planet--and yes, it is anti-family as well.

Well, there is a family unit. And that's the thing people don't realize. And any book you pick up hasn't anything to do with that.

God gave us sex to be a giving of love in marriage, and don't you forget it! That's what it is, a giving of love and affection and tender care and a feeling for the good and the welfare of the other one, instead of selfishness. It's not a selfish thing, not in God's eyes. It wasn't supposed to be. So it's another thing where we misuse it. Anyway, God's great overall purpose is reproducing Himself and it gets in to the family relationship.

Modern Origin of Sexual Sin

Herbert W. Armstrong said:

Now look at some of the facts today in this regard. The seed of the sexual revolution was sown by a man named Freud. He was the founder of what we call 'psychoanalysis' or 'psychology'. I don't mean 'psychology' but 'psychiatry'. And that was around the turn of the century. And a few followed him, but it didn't get to the world, yet. It didn't get to the world until after WWI. Then, after WWII, it really began getting to the world.
I was married before we got into WWI. And at the time I was married I found that my wife had had no sex education whatever. I found she just loved children; we wanted to have children. But my wife didn't know much about sex; she didn't know what she needed to know.

Look at the facts today. Now that gained impetus especially after WWII. And in the sixties it really gained impetus. In the seventies it doubled, the sex evils doubled in the seventies. And now it is predicted that by the end of the eighties that a virgin standing at the altar to be married will be a very rare thing, indeed, probably not one out of a hundred.

Now we have a lot of "sex education," yet it is often filled with a lot of false education and promotes sexual immortality and perversion as normal. Such should never be.

Marriage Soon Obsolete

Herbert W. Armstrong said:

Marriage, as such, is on the way out. And we have all kinds of definitions of the family, today: a group, two men, two women, a mixed group, any kind having sex any way they wanted. This world is rotten! I want to tell you it's filthy and rotten to the core! We're way down beneath the gutter; we're down beneath the cesspool!

Right now, one-half of all marriages are ending in divorce. One-half! Ten or fifteen years ago it was about one-third in many parts of the United States. And some places only about one-half, I mean, no, about a third were ending in divorce. And then it got to be a third. But today it's about one-half — one out of two weddings are going to result in divorce.

Today there are more and more United States men and women that are living alone, unmarried. Now they may be having a lot of sex, but they're not married. Relatively few United States families have a working father and a stay-at-home mother and children. That's the world you live in! That's what Satan has done by what he began to put into the minds of little infants the first year of their life!

And yet parents aren't teaching their children what they need! They need teaching before they get to school! And when they get to school they get education based on God's, or Satan's, lie of evolution!

That's the kind of world you're living in today. They call that 'modern enlightenment.' Put quotes around that word, 'enlightenment'. It's anything else, it's gross ignorance. And yet people think that's okay. Why do they think it's okay? You talk to the average young teenager and then the late teens. You take a girl even today — girls aren't like they were when I was a young man dating girls. If a girl would ever have a sordid sex relationship she'd thought she'd lost her honor; she was damaged goods; she was ruined for life. She felt that way and her conscience hurt her. And everybody else, if they knew about it, looked on her that way.

Huh, that's out of date today. And today the idea is if society has changed and looks at things differently, whatever people want to decide and want to accept makes it right.

That's what Satan has been inoculating into the minds of all of us from the time — SATAN KNOWS you learn more the first year than any year of your life, the second, the third, and the fourth year, and that's when he's busy inoculating into the minds of our little children. AND YOU PARENTS: are you teaching your little children those first two, three, four, five, six years, before they even go to school? And you need to teach them more when they're in school to counteract a lot of the lies being fed to them in school, if they're in a public school.

And since Herbert W. Armstrong said that, governments in many places, including the State of California, have forced schools to teach sexual perversion and immorality as good and acceptable.

Now, many people are blinded. And people don't realize these things. And if I would talk to the average girl, let's say between eighteen and, oh, twenty-six or twenty-seven, they think I'm very old-fashioned. They say, "Well that's old-fashioned. They don't think that way anymore." And of course the way they think they think that's right. Why? Their minds have been blinded; they don't see the truth. They're blind to it; they can't see it. Why?

The Apostle Paul wrote:

3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. 6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:3-6)

Satan is the one who has blinded the eyes of the people.

When we object to sin, we are not preaching our personal opinion, but that of the Creator God.

Many want that censored and eliminated. Many assert that calling out sin is hate speech that should be censored and even prosecuted.

The Bible teaches:

1 Cry aloud, spare not;
Lift up your voice like a trumpet;
Tell My people their transgression,
And the house of Jacob their sins. (Isaiah 58:1)

Jesus said:

16 "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. 17 But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. (Matthew 10:16-17)

The prophet Amos was inspired to write:

13 Therefore the prudent keep silent at that time, For it is an evil time. (Amos 5:13)

Sometimes, we need to be wise as serpents and keep silent. Yet, we still have been pointing out the sins of the house of Jacob and those in the world.

Herbert W. Armstrong said:

So the thing is people today, the average person — now realize this, brethren, because we come to church on the Sabbath; we read the Bible; we have this knowledge; you read the things that I write and the other ministers and what the local pastors preach and so on and you may know these things. You know that the average person out there on the street and in the world just simply does not know these things at all.

They're totally blinded to them; they're ignorant of them. Why? In the first place, they are not consciously aware of God.

I said to a woman not too long ago, "You don't believe in God." She says, "I do, too, Mr. Armstrong, don't you ever dare say anything like that to me again! Don't you dare say I don't believe in God!" Now that's the way a lot of people feel. But she probably hadn't been thinking about God for a long, long time. Most people think that way off somewhere is God, but He's gone way off somewhere. And God is in the great recesses of their mind, way in the background of their mind and they, consciously, do they think about God from the time they wake up in the morning until they go to bed at night? Never. Are they aware of God and the presence of God, that God is real, that God exists? No! They have heard that God is there. ...

Now, on the other hand, they are just as ignorant and unaware of Satan. People don't realize there is a Satan! They don't know how real Satan is! They don't realize what he's been doing to them ever since they were less than one year old! They don't realize!

Now you read in, for instance, the sixth chapter of Ephesians, we are not having, wrestling in our troubles against other physical or material people or things, but "against spiritual wickedness in high places" KJV. Here is the NKJV:

11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (Ephesians 6:11-13)

Herbert W. Armstrong said:

We are to put on the whole armor of God so we can stand against Satan the devil and his demons! And he is still sitting on the throne of the earth! He is not administering the government of God; he did away with the government of God. The government of God is being administered in God's Church only, today. But Satan is still there and Satan still has the POWER; he still has that power! And the people just don't understand.

Now the purpose of today's festival is to cause us to realize that power of Satan and what God is going to do with him and how it came and how we're to be delivered from it and what is going to happen.

Alright now let's begin a little farther back; let's go clear back to Job in the thirty-eighth chapter. It is speaking here of the very creation of the earth.

We begin in verse one:

1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:

2 "Who is this who darkens counsel
By words without knowledge?
3 Now prepare yourself like a man;
I will question you, and you shall answer Me.

4 "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding. (Job 38:1-4)

It has been speculated that Job had laid the foundations of great buildings, perhaps the greatest building that had ever been built on the face of the earth up until that time.

It may be that Job designed and built the Great Pyramid for the Pharaoh of Egypt. He was not a Pharaoh of Egypt. He was just someone the Pharaoh employed to do it, but he was a very great man and he had built that building and he thought he was pretty good. And, of course, he had his own righteousness that he maintained.

Continuing in Job, we read:

5 Who determined its measurements?
Surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
7 When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:5-7)

So, there we find the beginning of the creation of the earth and angels were there and angels were put on this earth. And it was created for them and they were so happy about it they shouted with joy.

And so, before there was a single human being ever created, angels were put on this earth. Now that may have been a million, a billion years before Adam, I don't know. And no scientist knows. There's no way you can know, at all. But God set a throne on earth and He put a super archangel on that throne.

Origin of Satan the Devil

Let's turn to Isaiah fourteen and just notice about this archangel whose name was Lucifer:

12 "How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
13 For you have said in your heart:
'I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.'
15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit. (Isaiah 14:12-15)

Now, how great and how, just how great was this Lucifer who is destined to fall? We turn next over to Ezekiel twenty-eight and I'd like to have you notice beginning with verse fourteen where it speaks of him again and it says:

12 "You were the seal of perfection,
Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God;
Every precious stone was your covering:
The sardius, topaz, and diamond,
Beryl, onyx, and jasper,
Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold.
The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes
Was prepared for you on the day you were created.

14 "You were the anointed cherub who covers;
I established you;
You were on the holy mountain of God;
You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. (Ezekiel 28:12-14)

God originally set him there; He set him on the throne. Now there were two super archangels whose wings spread out and covered the throne of God. You find that in a design of the tabernacle that God had given to Moses, back in the writings of Moses, if you want to refer to it back in your Bible (Exodus 25:19-22).

Continuing in Ezekiel:

15 You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created,
Till iniquity was found in you. (Ezekiel 28:15)

Iniquity is lawlessness. He began to break God's law instead of enforcing it. Now in verse seventeen it says:

17 "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty;
You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; (Ezekiel 28:17)

Herbert W. Armstrong said:

So there is the description of Satan the devil. He had angels under him; he led them into hostility against the government of God.

Now God's government is based on the law of God. All government is based on a constitution or a basic law. And the basic law of the government of God is simply the way of love: an outgoing love toward God and toward neighbor — outgoing love — love toward others, not toward your own self. And sin is the transgression of that way or that law.

Now Satan transgressed it. Satan believes in vanity, self-exaltation. He believes in hostility toward others. He believes in all of those things. And so the government of God became inoperative — no longer operating. The government of God was not here any longer. But the throne was there; Lucifer was still there; and his name was changed to Satan and Satan still sits on that throne! And he still has power! But it's not the power of the government of God because the government of God was gone from the earth! And the only place God has set that government is in His Church! And the people that would have been hostile in the church and some have gone out of the Church of God and said, "I don't want any more of that government of God in the Church!"

That's what God is working toward; that's why we have the Church! We are trained to be governed by the government of God so we could be helping Christ to govern with the government of God when He makes us into God beings! Oh God help us to understand that. Well, Lucifer became Satan.

Relatively very few today truly accept the government of God (see The Bible, Peter, Paul, John, Polycarp, Herbert W. Armstrong, Roderick C. Meredith, and Bob Thiel on Church Government). Philadelphian era government is rejected even by most Christians, who are Laodicean, a term that means that "people decide" or "people judge" by standards other than what the Bible actually endorses.

Herbert W. Armstrong said related to the sin of Lucifer and his angels:

Now, as a result of that sin, the earth became waste and, well, in a state of decay; and waste and emptiness. And so you turn back into Genesis and you read of that in the very first chapter of Genesis that:
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was [or it had 'become.' It should be 'became' instead of 'was'. And the same Hebrew word is translated, 'became' in other places in Genesis] without form and void [that's tohu and bohu]. And darkness was on the face of the [earth]." (Genesis 1:1-2)

And the tohu and bohu are Hebrew words that mean, "waste and empty and in a state of decay." It became that way as a result of the sin of the angels. They were supposed to improve the earth, physically even.

Even though they're spirit beings, they were to improve the physical earth and they didn't. They ruined it.

Man was given the chance. And what has he done? Man has polluted every physical thing on this earth! Man is physical, himself. He's polluted himself; he's polluted himself morally. He's polluted his water; he's polluted the air we breathe; he's polluted the soil that must produce us the food we eat. That's what man has done.

Related to what happened in Genesis 1:1-2 and the renewal, check out the article: How Old is the Earth and How Long Were the Days of Creation? Gap Theory?

A Physical Renewal

But now we turn to one of the Psalms, the one hundred and fourth Psalm and verse thirty where it is just speaking about God. It says:

30 You send forth Your Spirit, they are created;
And You renew the face of the earth. (Psalms 104:30)

God renewed the face of the earth through that creation!

Herbert W. Armstrong said:

A lot of people don't know that's in the Bible — that the earth had become waste and decayed and God renewed the face of the earth for man!

Now we go right back to the first chapter of Genesis again, and you find the earth, as Satan left it:

"Darkness was on the face of the deep [It was all covered with water. And it was waste and empty]. And the spirit of God moved upon the water [now He sent forth His Spirit to begin to create, or renew the face of the earth]. And God said, Let there be light." (Genesis 1:2-3)

The first thing He did was to produce light where Satan was in darkness. Darkness will hide sin and evil. Light will expose evil. But light also reflects beauty so you can see it. You see, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (I John 1:5). God believes in beauty. I believe in beauty. ...

Well, Satan is still sitting on that throne, remember that.

Now, God created man in His image. And the twenty-sixth verse you find after He made cattle after the cattle kind, dogs after the dog kind, and elephants after the elephant kind, and all of that. Now we come to the time when God says: "Let us make man after our image, in our likeness" (Genesis 1:26). In other words, "Let us make man after the God kind".

Now a little calf is made after the cow kind, or bull kind, whatever it is that kind. But we are made after the GOD kind. We're to BECOME God! We're to receive the Spirit of God that impregnates us and puts eternal life — temporarily and in a begettal sense — in us until we become the children of God now in this life, but not yet born.

All this 'born again' stuff is going on right now, and a lot of 'born again' people getting into politics, so I wrote something on that I think maybe some of you have read that I wrote the other day. This last 'Newsweek Magazine' had a picture of a minister on it. He preaches just before I do on local television here in Tucson every Sunday morning. But even on the television and so they have that there.

Well, now God created the first man, Adam. Adam was like a newborn infant, a child when he was created, in the sense there was no knowledge in his head. But he had a full, adult mind, not a little infant mind. He had a mind that was capable of receiving knowledge (3) as an adult. How old was Adam when he was created? Of course a few minutes old, or a second old, or something like that, whatever. But I would say that he would've appeared to be either about twenty years old or about thirty years old. And I would say, more likely, about thirty. But he was created as a thirty year old man, suddenly created and nothing in his mind yet. And so God began to teach him.

He was created late on a Friday afternoon. The Sabbath was coming on. And as the Sabbath came on that evening, until after sunset, God began to teach him until time he should get to bed and get a little bit of sleep. I don't know if they had any beds. They probably just slept right out in the beautiful garden where the earth was warm and beautiful there, anyway. And so God talked to them until the time for them to go to sleep. And then the next morning, when they were awakened, God talked to them on that Sabbath day. And He told them the truth. And He told them about His government; and He showed them how the government of God was gone. And He showed them about His law. And that the penalty for breaking that law is death. And He said, "If you disobey you will surely die!" (Genesis 2:17 paraphrased) He couldn't have said that if He hadn't told them about the law that was going to inflict that penalty on them. So I know that He told them about His government.

You don't find all of that in Genesis. It only gives you just a little skim through of a little tiny synopsis. But he knew it and he knew he could have rejected the way of Satan, accepted the way of God's government, and God would've put him on that throne, and he could have ruled.

Adam had to make a choice for his children that would come. Adam was the progenitor of all of his children. And his children are simply the world that have come from him. We've all been born from Adam. And Adam was the progenitor, and he had to make a decision for THE WHOLE WORLD that came from him!

Now in the tree, in the Garden of Eden, I should say, were two trees. The one is the tree of life; the other was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The tree of life represented the Spirit of God. He could freely take of that, which means that the Spirit of God was opened to Adam and Eve.

Also, there was the tree of taking to themselves the knowledge of good and evil, instead of believing God on what is good and what is evil. In other words, God tells us by His law what is right and what is wrong. God's law tells us what is sin. Would Adam obey the law of God? Or would he reject the law of God and say, "I'll make up my own law and decide for myself what is sin and what is righteousness." Adam had to make that decision.

Now part of the law of God that God, I'm sure, explained to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is that the husband is the head of his wife. You see that's out-of-date today. Not many people believe that today, that the husband is to be the head of his wife. But how is he to head his wife? I heard a man say, "Well come on, hen," to his wife. He just called her a 'hen'. He was the 'rooster' I guess. No, a husband is to love his wife. And God's teaching, as Paul gives you in the fourth chapter of Ephesians.

"Husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it." (Ephesians 5:25)

That's how much Christ loved the Church. That's how much a husband is to love his wife. But God has made him the ruler.

Look, women today say, "I want to live 50-50". YOU CAN'T DO THAT; THERE IS NO '50-50'! Anytime a wife is going to go 50-50 she's going to 'wear the pants' and rule her husband!

Now we've got a lot of women today, they believe in the ERA [Equal Rights Amendment]. Up with women, down with men! Who was the founder of the ERA movement; do you know? Well, I'll tell you, mother Eve was. Eve knew, Adam knew the man was to be the head of the family. But he was to do it in love and out of consideration and concern for his wife. But he didn't want to do that.

So, now they had been instructed. Satan is pretty clever. He got to Adam through his wife, Eve. So he found Eve and we come to the third chapter of Genesis and Satan came to Eve. And he didn't say, "Look, worship me instead of God." He didn't say, "Believe my way instead of God's way." He started saying, "Look, God isn't quite fair, is He? Did God let you have all of the trees in the garden?" "Well, no," Eve said,

"No. He said all but one tree; all but one tree. But He said, of course, if we touch or take of that tree, we'll surely die." He said, "Well now look, you can't believe God. You can't believe what He said. You won't surely die. You're an immortal soul; you're not going to die. And look, why don't you take of that? Look at the mind you have; look what a wonderful mind you have! And you take knowledge to yourself. And you be God, yourself. Why don't you be God? God is selfish!"

You see that's what Satan taught from the beginning. God gave him this earth and he said, "Look, God's got all of these others — God's got Jupiter; He's got Mars; He's got Saturn; He's got all these other planets; He's got all the other galaxies and all of the other places outside of even our Milky Way galaxy and God keeps all that to Himself. He only gave me this little earth."

Now he says here to Eve, he says, "God didn't give you all of this, did He? He was selfish." He tried to make her resentful; he tried to get her in a hostile spirit against God and said, "You decide for yourself."

"[So] when she saw the tree was pleasant to the sight and she thought it would be good for food and desired to make one wise [it appealed to her mental, intellectual vanity] she took of that tree and did eat [and took to herself the decision of the knowledge of what is good and what is not good, and what is good and what is evil, in other words, what is sin]. And she gave to her husband with her." (Genesis 3:6 paraphrased)
She took him by the nose and led him along, and he just, poor weakling, he went along and let his wife lead him to the slaughter. And wives are trying to do the same thing today. Now they got the ERA movement today.

Well, then we come to what actually happened over here in Genesis, you read through the third chapter of Genesis, and remember that Satan is still on that throne. And so finally here's what God said after Adam and Eve had made their decision. Adam had made the decision for the whole world, not just for himself alone. And now the Eternal God said, this is Genesis three, verse twenty-two, near the end of the third chapter of Genesis:

"The [Eternal] God said, Behold, the man is one of us, to know good and evil: and now, LEST he put forth his hand, and take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever [lest he do that]: therefore, the LORD God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life lest he go back, or his children after him, and take of the Spirit of God and live forever in sin." (Genesis 3:22-24 paraphrased)

Man had decided to take himself the knowledge of what is right and what is wrong. In other words, he rejected the law of God and he elected to go the way of breaking the law of God and of sin. And, lest man live forever, there's a penalty of sin!

The vast majority of people today continue to decide what is right and what is wrong irrespective of what the Bible says.

Herbert W. Armstrong then said:

Listen, my brethren. Why did God drown ALL HUMANITY in the days of Noah except just Noah and his family? GOD DROWNED ALL HUMAN BEINGS! Why? Wasn't God terrible; wasn't that awful?

God wasn't cruel. That was the kindest thing God could do because they were only bringing misery and suffering and unhappiness on themselves! And

God took away all that suffering! And He's going to resurrect them all right back into life more than a thousand years from now. And when He does, Satan won't be there.

Satan was leading them; Satan was instilling all of this in their minds when they were little children — less than one year old. Satan was bringing them up when the world was filled with violence; it was filled with every sex evil, just like it is today.

Sex is one of the main things. God had forbidden sex outside of marriage. A lot of people don't like that, today; they don't like the ways of God! "I WANT TO DO WHAT I WANT TO DO!" You go the way you want to go and you will end up in death; you will end up in pain and suffering. In the 21st century many have gotten to the point where they actually believe that men can marry men and women marry women. They even praise such abominable reltaionships!

God doesn't deny anything that is good for us. God only denies the things that are going to harm you because God loves you! God loves me.

Herbert W. Armstrong said:

You know before....I pray for all you people and if I don't think to do it in the daytime, I do it before I go to sleep at night {In my, Bob Thiel's} case, it is before I get out of bed in the morning}. And I find I'm getting drowsy I'll say, "Well, God, remember all of our brethren and all of our ministers and remember everything I pray", when I'm so drowsy I can't sleep any longer.

But listen, first, before that, I thank God for God, that He is God and that He does exist, and for His love and what that means. And that there is One so wonderful, so filled with love, and Who has all of the power. After all, the Supreme POWER is in the One who is good and who is love. And that's the way it's all going to wind up someday. And God is calling you and me to help wind it up that way and I hope that we will.

That said, Adam is the progenitor of the human race. God made that decision on the whole world and God cut mankind off. He drove man out; He barred re-entrance to the Garden of Eden, lest they get of the Holy Spirit and gain eternal life. God was cut off — God cut the Holy Spirit off until the government of God could be restored. And that required the second Adam to come and do what the first Adam failed to do, which was to resist Satan and to accept the government of God and restore the government of God based on the law of God! And sin is the transgression of that law, so it would be the way of righteousness instead of the way of sin. And, until that government is restored, mankind is cut off from God!

Herbert W. Armstrong said:

Now God has called you and me to be part of the Church that, we are to be trained under the government of God that is in His Church, now, so we could help rule with the government of God that is ruled in love and teaching the way of love, when Satan won't even be here anymore. And then He can call other people to be converted. And all who have ever died, all those that died in the Flood, all of ancient Israel who died and God never gave them the Holy Spirit, they're all going to be resurrected more than a thousand years from now. And I hope you will be reigning there with Christ, with me, on His throne, and ruling in the ways of God at that time.

We turn now into the New Testament to John, the sixth chapter of John and verse forty-four where Jesus said:

44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; (John 6:44)

Jesus said this, yet many Protestant ministers preach, "Come on to Christ, tonight."

Herbert W. Armstrong said:

Brethren, to understand that, you need to understand all about predestination; which is in two different places in the New Testament. Predestination has to do with who God is calling, when, and not with whether you'll be saved or lost. It has nothing to do with whether you'll be saved or lost. It does have to do with who is going to be called and when they're going to be called. It does have a lot to do with that. BUT ALL HAVE BEEN CUT OFF FROM GOD! AND NONE CAN COME TO CHRIST, except God the Father calls them!

Alright, now after the Flood — and God had called Noah at the time of the Flood — and before that, all I we know is that Abel is called, 'righteous,' by Christ. And Enoch walked with God. And Noah was a man who was righteous, but he was perfect in his generations by race and did not intermarry. And you need to read what I've written recently on that.

And, however, finally God began His Church with Abraham. Now you say, "The Church?" Yes, I mean the Church. Abraham will be in the resurrection. You bet you! And He called Abraham. Then He called the other prophets. He called the nation Israel, but He didn't give the nation Israel the Holy Spirit, except just the prophets. And the New Testament Church is on the foundation of the apostles that Christ called, and made His apostles, AND the prophets. ...

Now humankind has been cut off for 6000 years, until the government of God is restored, all except those that the Father has called. Now He called Abraham, the prophets, and He's called His Church. The Church is the firstfruits in the sense we're the first body that has been called to receive the Spirit of God and will be the first group, or body, the body of Christ, as a group to be born into the Kingdom of God — the first harvest, the firstfruits, or the first spiritual harvest of God's harvest.

Bride of Christ

Yes, those called and converted in this age who endure to the end will be the first group born into the Kingdom of God.

Herbert W. Armstrong aslo said:

Now why did God call Abraham; why did He call the prophets; why did He call the Church? I preached to you that just ten days ago. It was to prepare a bride for the family of God, to prepare us in living under the way of God and obeying God and the law of God so that we can administer the God — the law of God, I mean — and the government of God in the Kingdom with and under Christ.

But why? The answer is: God is reproducing Himself. Now God is a family. The Kingdom of God is simply the God Family that will be ruling with the government of God and ruling over the whole earth. And Christ will be sitting on that throne where Satan is sitting now, the throne of the whole earth. Christ will then be sitting, but He says, "If we overcome," and that's overcoming Satan, overcoming yourself, overcoming this world, and if we overcome, we will be sitting with Christ on His throne, or in His throne. It's 'in' in the Bible. Maybe we should say, 'on,' whichever. Now this means that Christ, with some of us, is going to replace Satan on that throne, going to replace Satan on that throne!

Now, where does that leave us, today?

Let's turn to the book of Revelation, the twelfth chapter of Revelation:

7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, "Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. 12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time." (Revelation 12:7-12)

Herbert Armstrong said:

"There was war in heaven" [and that's now near our time] ... The devil knows that he has but a short time and I think he's already come down.

Well, no that was not the time. I do not believe that Revelation 12:12 was fulfilled last century. He had thought that the persecution from the Attorney General from the State of California was evidence of that, but it was not.

The time being discussed in scripture about Satan being cast out of heaven seems to be the trigger for the wave of pre-tribulation persecution of Revelation 12:13 and Daniel 11:29-35. Perhaps as soon as 3-4 years from now.

Now just as Lucifer went up to heaven once before, long before Adam was created and was sent back down, he was to go once more. And this was a time just before the second coming of Christ. He's going up there for one last battle! But Michael is given power; Michael is an archangel of the same power. And he and his angels are going to conquer Satan and his demons.

Herbert Armstrong stated:

Now you go back and where did persecution come from; who was persecuting Christ? It was the Roman government. Who persecuted the early Christians? It was the Roman government. And government never persecuted the Church as a whole. Individuals have been persecuted. I've been persecuted; I've been opposed, yes, but not the Church as a whole until that came. And I think that does show the wrath of Satan. And so that might be part of what is here in the twelfth chapter of Revelation. I just say it might be; I'm not definitely saying that, definitely.

Well, definitely it was not the fulfillment of Satan being cast down, but it is true that persecutions have long come from governmental and religious authorities and more of that will be coming (see also Persecutions by Church and State).

Herbert W. Armstrong stated:

Now, what is being pictured now? When Christ comes, He comes to a world where Satan is still on the throne; where Satan is still inoculating little babies in the first year with the whole attitude of get instead of give, of hostility toward others instead of love, of carnal mindedness, of material mindedness, of selfishness. And how is Christ going to rule the world; how is He going to sit on the throne with Satan there? He can't really sit on the throne and start re-organizing the government of the whole world until Satan is removed. So, here's what this pictures, today.

Now we come to the twentieth chapter of Revelation. And I want you to notice now what is pictured, today. We come to the first verse; take the first three:

"And I saw an angel come down from heaven." (Revelation 20:1)

In the nineteenth chapter it shows the Second Coming of Christ. Let me just go back a little and read that as I did ten days ago.

"Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him [that is the nineteenth chapter and verse seven]. And give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready." (Revelation 19:7)

And it shows — and then it shows Christ coming. And He's: "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS" [and coming to rule the whole earth]. (Revelation 19:16)

Now the twentieth chapter follows right after that (the coming of Christ). And here it says:

"And I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years." (Revelation 20:1-2)

Now first Satan is only going to be bound and taken away from us for one thousand years. Later, after that Satan is going to be taken away forever. But first he's going to be taken away for a thousand years.

"And [the angel] cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up [and whatever that bottomless pit is, it doesn't describe it here]. And he shall not deceive the nations anymore till the thousand years shall be fulfilled: and after that he will be loosed for a little season only." (Revelation 20:3 paraphrased)

Now you go on and read in the twentieth chapter and it goes right on and here it says:

"I saw thrones, and they sat on them [Christ will sit on that throne, but many of us will sit on thrones with Him]. And judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them who were beheaded for the witness of Jesus [that were martyred because of Satan] and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads [those that will be converted and saved in the Laodicean church after the Great Tribulation. That hasn't even come, yet]. But the rest of the dead will not live again until the thousand years are finished. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. They're going to live and reign with Christ a thousand years." (Revelation 20:4-6 paraphrased)

Now then it comes to something that'll happen after the thousand years and we'll have to picture that later. We're coming to the great Feast of Tabernacles which pictures that thousand years.

But before the thousand years, Satan is to be taken and thrown into the bottomless pit and taken off of that throne so Christ can sit on it. And this Day of Atonement pictures that and pictures Satan being sent away! And you read of it, if you will read back in the fourteenth, or the sixteenth chapter, rather of Leviticus, how he's taken away to a land desolate and uninhabited, picturing the taking of Satan away.

And the Kingdom will be ruling over all living so that they, then there will be no Satan and we can all be, in the whole world can then be AT-ONE-MENT with Christ.

Yes, the time will come when Satan is put away--the millennial kingdom of God will be established. That is part of the meaning of Atonement.

In this age, those who are true Christians claim the sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God, on His final earthly Passover for paying the penalty for our sins. Like the ancient children of Israel, real Christians are a small minority of the population of the world (Luke 12:32).

Jesus was the atonement:

10 In this is love: it was not that we loved God, but he has loved us, and he sent us his Son, the atonement for the sake of our sins. (1 John 4:10, Aramaic Bible in Plain English)

10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:10, NIV)

It was Christ Himself who was slain for the sins of all humankind, and who then assumed the office of our perfect, sinless High Priest in heaven as we read in Herbews"

17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:17)

20 where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 6:20)

26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; (Hebrews 7:26)

Did the resurrected Christ begin to do what the Aaronic high priest did in type on the Day of Atonement?

17 There shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the Holy Place, until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself, for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel. 18 And he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord, and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around. 19 Then he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, cleanse it, and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel. (Leviticus 16:17-19)

7 But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance; 8 the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. 9 It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience— 10 concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation.

11 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:7-14)

And so we can understand today that the slain goat for the Lord actually represented the crucified Jesus. The high priest, by taking the blood of this slain goat through the veil to the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies (a type of God's throne), represented and symbolically did, in a prophetic sense, the work of the risen Christ, who ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven, where He has been interceding as our High Priest since His resurrection.

This age lasts until Jesus returns, which He does on the seventh and last trump (1 Corinthians 15:52), which is one of the trumpets pictured by the Feast of Trumpets. Satan will be bound for a thousand year at that time.

After the church age is over, Jesus' sacrifice will be accepted by more than the elect of the church age. It is NOT because Jesus will get sacrificed again.

God has a loving plan of salvation and a loving plan to deal with Satan.

That is basically the meaning of the Day of Atonement.

Thiel B. Herbert W. Armstrong modified sermon The Meaning of Atonement. https://www.cogwriter.com/atonement-meaning.htm 2024 1002

Back to COGwriter home page