JULY 2020 | THETRUMPET.COM

Coronavirus and the Holy Roman Empire The China-America divorce The beautiful effects of ‘Great Tribulation’ Environmentalism is the new paganism How do you deal with death?

Why the World Targets America (and its president) COVER More and more of the world is taking aim at the United States. Why? (Gary dorning/TRUMPET)

JULY 2020 | VOL. 31, NO. 6 | CIRC. 246,078

“Hungary’s prime minister has abolished democracy. If the EU does not act, authoritarianism will spread in Europe.” spiegel online

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán

FEATURES DEPARTMENTS

FROM THE EDITOR 1 How Do You Deal With Death? 16 WORLDWATCH 28 Coronavirus and the Holy Roman Empire INFOGRAPHIC 18 SOCIETYWATCH 31 The Real Death Rate Can COVID Cure Germany’s PRINCIPLES OF LIVING 33 Religious Divide? 4 The Beautiful Effects of Spend Your Time Wisely ‘Great Tribulation’ 20 COVER STORY 7 DISCUSSION BOARD 34 The Global Ambition to Destroy Is God’s Church Divided? 25 America and Its President COMMENTARY 35 Environmentalism Is the New Paganism The Divorce of Chimerica 12 THE KEY OF DAVID TELEVISION LOG 36

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s Trumpet executive editor Stephen Regular news updates and alerts News and analysis weekly television program Flurry’s television program from our website to your inbox updated daily theTrumpet.com/keyofdavid theTrumpet.com/trumpetdaily theTrumpet.com/go/brief theTrumpet.com FROM THE EDITOR GERALD FLURRY

Coronavirus and the Holy Roman Empire

Europe’s response to COVID-19 has set the stage for dictators to rise.

ne of the most important effects of the global panic In the first issues of the Plain Truth magazine, predecessor over covid-19 has been almost overlooked. Europe’s to the Trumpet, the late Herbert W. Armstrong warned of this O response to the pandemic is accelerating the fulfillment resurrected empire. In the July 24, 1983, issue he wrote: “The of one of the most crucial end-time prophecies of your Bible! very first issue of the Plain Truth magazine appeared February The coronavirus is hastening the arrival of the prophesied 1934—just 50 years ago lacking about six months. The article Holy Roman Empire. starting on the cover page warned of a coming sudden appear- This church-state union has ruled Europe for centuries. But ance of a resurrected ‘Holy Roman Empire’ in Europe—a previous inquisitions, religious wars, crusades and the Holo- union of 10 nations in Europe under one government, with caust have been a mere foreshadow of what the Bible calls the one united military force. For 50 years I have been crying out “Great Tribulation” (Matthew 24:21). to the world the Bible prophecies of this coming ‘United States The Bible says 10 kings will rise in Europe in this end time, of Europe’—a new united superpower perhaps more powerful led by one overarching strongman. These kings will form the than either the Soviet Union or the United States!” Holy Roman Empire. Verse 10 says, “And there are seven kings [this is referring to The coronavirus pandemic is helping the seven heads of the beast, or the seven historical resurrec- usher in these 10 kings! tions of this empire]: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is We need to be thinking about these not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short prophesied kings, who are rising now. As a space.” This prophecy describes a specific moment in time: It result of the recent crisis, various European was when Mr. Armstrong was on the scene and first explaining leaders have taken dictatorial measures. In these end-time biblical prophecies. That was first during the several cases they have done so with direct 1930s. At that time, the “one is”—Adolf Hitler—was leading approval from the Roman Catholic Church. the sixth resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire. Today, the Many people have voiced fear that the recent crisis will “other,” prophesied to continue a “short space,” is soon to arrive. destroy the European Union. But although it may look that way, Other prophecies show that the “short space” this beast will Europe is in fact about to unite in a powerful way. hold power is not much longer than 3½ years—the duration of The Bible reveals that the EU is about to be pared down to the Great Tribulation and Day of the Lord. a 10-nation superstate. This prophecy will be fulfilled very For over 75 years we have been prophesying the arrival of soon—I see biblical evidence of probably no more than two to this empire. Now you can see it coming to pass exactly as God four years, and perhaps even as soon as this year. recorded for us in the Bible. I have been a part of this work for The Apostle John saw this final resurrection of the Holy decades. And it is amazing to me, almost overwhelming, how Roman Empire in vision depicted as a beast with seven heads minutely these prophecies have been and are being fulfilled! and 10 horns. God revealed the symbolism to him. The seven This coming empire will affect your life directly. Its arrival heads are seven successive resurrections of this beast-like will shock every nation on Earth as no power has in modern empire. Revelation 17:1-2 show this empire in an alliance with times. This is the paramount prophecy of the end time. a church, symbolized by a woman. This is an exact prophecy of the Holy Roman Empire—a church-state alliance. Taking Advantage of Crisis As we explain in our free booklet Who or What Is the Pro- God revealed many of these prophecies to Mr. Armstrong phetic Beast?, six of these resurrections have come and gone around the time of World War ii and in the decades thereafter. through history, and the seventh is rising now! God has been warning this world all these years about the The 10 horns of this beast are on the seventh head. The sym- horrifying times ahead, and we need to understand why. bolism is explained: “And the ten horns which thou sawest are In 1984 Mr. Armstrong wrote that he could foresee a massive ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive banking crisis being the trigger for European nations to sud- power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, denly coalesce into a superpower. Today, European countries and shall give their power and strength unto the beast” (verses are racking up debt at rates unprecedented in peace time— 12-13). This prophecy was written nearly 2,000 years ago, and with many countries perilously close to financial collapse. these “ten kings” are rising in Europe today! Italy has been the epicenter for the coronavirus in Europe. Verse 14 states that these kings would “make war with the Its economy took a massive hit. “The economy has basically Lamb”—Jesus Christ. So this is clearly a prophecy of events to been stopped,” said Prof. Nicola Borri of Luiss University. “We

SEAN GALLUP/GETTY IMAGES GALLUP/GETTY SEAN occur right before Christ’s Second Coming. are probably going to see massive defaults. Clearly, Italian JULY 2020 1 banks will be badly hit” (New York Times, March 17). Spain and state. Charlemagne showed how strong Europe could be when France are also suffering serious debt issues. Events in Italy he formed a partnership between Germany and the Roman give us insight into what could happen to all the economies of Catholic Church to create the Holy Roman Empire. That the European Union. empire has risen up repeatedly since that time. Here are some telling headlines from prominent news But this church-state union hasn’t always been a happy sources: “Coronavirus Could Break the EU” (Politico); “With marriage. Usually the two have been drawn together because Borders Going Up Around Europe, Coronavirus Is Devastating of a crisis—an emergency. the EU’s Superstate Pretensions” (Telegraph); “Coronavirus Herbert W. Armstrong believed the same pattern would Tests Europe’s Cohesion, Alliances and Even Democracy” (New occur again in our time—that European nations would unify York Times). EU nations are very divided. That division is pre- suddenly because of a crisis, and that the Roman Catholic venting them from pooling their efforts to deal with the virus. Church would play a huge role in solving that emergency. In Many experts will tell you that Europe is about to break apart. times of crisis, religion has a way of pulling people together! If these nations’ response to the coronavirus does not cause In the book of Revelation, the Apostle John prophesies of a an immediate economic woman who “sitteth upon many meltdown, the debt they are AUSTRIA was the first European waters,” committing fornication accumulating will still come country to go into coronavirus with powerful world leaders due at some point. Some kind lockdown. For doing so, Austrian (Revelation 17:1-2). This woman, of financial crisis is inevitable. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz received which in Bible prophecy sym- When it comes, watch what much praise from the Roman Catholic bolizes a church (e.g. Isaiah 47; happens! A crisis like the cur- Church, Europe’s oldest institution. Ephesians 5:25; 2 Corinthians rent one is exactly what Euro- 11:2), has global influence, guiding pean leaders have longed for to forge a European superstate! a great beast, which represents a political power (Revelation 17:3). One of the EU’s founders, Jean Monnet, said, “Europe will be The Bible also reveals that this church sits on “seven moun- forged in crises and will be the sum of the solutions adopted tains” and has influence over “peoples, and multitudes, and for those crises.” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble nations, and tongues” (verses 9, 15). A mountain is a symbol of said, “Crisis represents an opportunity. Europe always moved government in the Bible. The Catholic Church has combined forward in times of crisis. Sometimes you need a little pressure with six governments of the Holy Roman Empire and will also for certain decisions to be taken.” The founders of the Euro- join the seventh. Beyond that, a look at a topographic map pean project knew that creating the euro—a unified European shows that Rome, headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church, currency—without all the other aspects of a unified govern- is literally situated on seven hills. This is a double proof of ment would provoke economic crisis. Yet they still deliberately the Bible prophecies. And Europe is a continent that unites proceeded with their plan, knowing that crisis would provide “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” The the pretext for transforming Europe into a superpower! description in Revelation 17 of this empire can only refer to the This has happened repeatedly throughout history with the Roman Catholic Church and its alliance with various European other six heads of the Holy Roman Empire. In times of crisis, countries. (For more information about this empire, request Europe has united under one overarching leader. our free book The Holy Roman Empire in Prophecy.) Mr. Armstrong consistently taught that the nations of Europe This prophecy shows that Europe in this end time will see the are going to cry out for political unity. That is what we see hap- rise of various strongmen who ally themselves with the Roman pening today. Europe is weak and divided. The coronavirus is Catholic Church. In the coronavirus crisis, this is happening. only further weakening the Continent. Watch closely to see how Popular satisfaction with democracy is at an all-time low, it responds. The German people in particular cannot live with Cambridge’s Department of Politics noted in January. Euro- the current circumstances. The economic distress of several peans increasingly believe democracy cannot solve their prob- European nations makes them vulnerable—and gives economi- lems, and coronavirus has only intensified this belief. Nations cally strong Germany an opportunity to increase its domination are increasingly taking extreme measures to deal with the of the Union. Leaders of Italy and other nations have accused virus. More and more Europeans are looking for a strongman. Germany of protecting and advancing its own interests at the “Austria has massively restricted civil liberties due to coro- expense of other nations, but they also know that the European navirus,” Zeit Online wrote. “This is understandable in this project will utterly fail without Germany’s leadership. situation, but it is also dangerous” (March 16; Trumpet transla- History shows that Germany is going to act! In the second tion throughout). Considering Europe’s long, painful history of half of 2020, Germany will hold the European Council presi- strong leaders restricting freedoms to realize their ambitions, dency. What timing! In this crisis, when Europe is being forced it is extremely dangerous! to adapt, Germany is in a position to shape the EU’s future Austria was the first European country to go into corona- according to its own liking. virus lockdown. For doing so, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz received much praise from the Roman Catholic Church, Dictators Rise With Rome’s Blessing Europe’s oldest institution. “I am very grateful that the govern- Yet the question remains: How will Europe come together? ment is wise and is taking steps to create trust,” said the arch- Throughout Europe’s history, what has helped it to overcome bishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, in a zib 2 its division has been a unity of purpose between church and special. Catholic leaders backed each severe step Kurz took. 2 THE PHILADELPHIA TRUMPET Kurz applauded the church for its support. “Especially in be imprisoned for five years. Democracy has been replaced by times of crisis,” he said, “the church offers people support and rule of decree. provides important help.” The Guardian wrote that the new law gives Orbán “what Chancellor Kurz seeks regular counsel from the Cath- amounts to one-man rule in an EU state.” Richard Palmer, olic Church, which guides his politics. If you understand assistant managing editor for theTrumpet.com, formulated history, you will find this troubling. This is exactly what the Holy it more clearly: “Coronavirus Brings the EU Its First Dictator” Roman Empire is: an authoritarian state-church combine. (theTrumpet.com/22160). Orbán’s power grab may affect the whole Continent. “Hunga- France’s Connection ry’s prime minister has abolished democracy,” Spiegel Online French President Emmanuel Macron took similar drastic warned on April 3. “If the EU does not act, authoritarianism will measures. He declared war on the coronavirus, mobilized the spread in Europe.” But the EU did not act to punish Orbán—it did army, and made himself France’s commander in chief. He had nothing. And what Spiegel warned of is exactly what the Bible rebellion against government orders forcibly put down. By says will happen: Authoritarianism will spread in Europe! doing so, he surged in popularity. Is the acceptance of Orbán’s dictatorship in the EU a sign Throughout his presidency and especially during the coro- that the time has come for Europe’s 10 kings to emerge? navirus crisis, Macron has also worked to improve ties with It is almost certain that Hungary will be part of the coming the Catholic Church and bring the Vatican more into Europe’s 10-nation European superpower. affairs. For a nation that has been moving in the opposite direc- For decades following World War ii, Hungary was under tion for generations, this is significant. Soviet rule. As our free booklet He Was Right explains, it was Emmanuel Macron was not born Catholic; he chose Roman partly due to the Catholic Church’s influence that Hungary Catholic baptism at age 12 and attended a Jesuit secondary joined the European Union. Hungary has for centuries been school. As an adult, he is said to have turned increasingly ruled by the Habsburg dynasty. The religion, culture and ties secular. But in 2018 at the annual conference of the bishops to Rome outlasted its occupation by the Soviet Union. of France, he promised to restore the “strained” link between The Plain Truth wrote in February 1972: “One of the biggest church and state, and has since worked to fulfill his promise. roles desired by the Vatican is that of mediator between East In a March 2019 letter to European citizens, Macron called for and West. … The Vatican, you can be sure, will continue to do a conference for Europe that would “engage with citizens’ panels its part in courting the Eastern European countries. Its Ostpo- and hear academics, business and labor representatives, and litik has been to bring them back into the ‘fold’ for a long time. religious and spiritual leaders” (emphasis mine throughout). In And that is certainly the path it must continue to travel.” August, he received the new secretary general of the French Bish- This astonishing forecast is proving true! The Catholic ops’ Conference to discuss Church has done its part the reception of migrants FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron to break Hungary’s strong and other subjects. Though declared war on the coronavirus, mobilized ties to Russia, and there are he campaigned as a pro-im- the army, and made himself France’s indications it is enabling migration centrist, he is commander in chief. He had rebellion Orbán’s recent power grab. now pushing one of France’s against government orders forcibly put Orbán has formed an most right-wing agendas. In down. By doing so, he surged in popularity. alliance with the Catholic November, he announced Church and with Calvinist new immigration measures and has grown increasingly critical of churches in Hungary. He handed Hungary’s educational Islamic ideology. In January he announced his plan to “Recapture system back to the churches and cooperates with the Catholic the Republic,” a plan to fight growing Islamism in the country. Church in the Middle East, restoring churches and rebuilding After a telephone conversation with Pope Francis, Macron Christian communities. In 2019, Orbán was listed in “Top 10 met with representatives of religious and secular associations People” of the American Catholic magazine Inside the Vatican. in France. “It was an opportunity to maintain dialogue between Orbán’s cooperation with the Catholic Church is most public authorities and religions during the population’s astonishing if you consider that he himself is Calvinist. He rec- confinement in the covid-19 pandemic,” vaticannews.va/fr ognizes the power the Catholic Church has in his country and reported. The president of the Protestant Federation of France globally and seeks its alliance. This cooperation with Europe’s said: “For Emmanuel Macron, religious denominations bring churches continued while Orbán pursued dictatorial powers. social cohesion. Faced with this global health crisis, he is deter- European leaders are increasingly behaving like dic- mined to call upon all resources, including spiritual resources.” tators and assuming dictatorial power. The people of So Macron seeks to use religion to unite his divided country. Europe are being conditioned to accept more tyrannical leadership. Yet these rising strongmen are not yet united as Hungary, Too the Bible says they will be. The Holy Roman Empire yet lacks Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is also growing more its overarching leader. autocratic in this crisis. Hungary was only mildly affected by coronavirus, yet on March 30, Hungary’s parliament gave One Strongman Orbán dictatorial powers. Now parliament is closed, elections The coronavirus is causing more and more people in Europe to

HELMUT FOHRINGER/APA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES, GONZOLO FUENTES/AFP/GETTY IMAGES FUENTES/AFP/GETTY GONZOLO IMAGES, FOHRINGER/APA/AFP/GETTY HELMUT are canceled, and anyone spreading “false” information can talk about the need for a strongman. Zeit Online further wrote JULY 2020 3 that “the longing for the proverbial strongman, who will ….” While Satan is controlling this empire, God is using it finally takes action, will grow stronger” (op cit). There all to bring people to repentance. He wants them to turn is a lack of leadership to effectively deal with the virus and from the ways of this world and its evils and turn to Him! economic issues. People want that vacuum filled. When we see a news source talking about Europeans longing Led by Germany for a “strongman,” it really arrests our attention! We have been Isaiah 10 tells us that this empire will most certainly be led by prophesying about this individual’s arrival for many years— Assyria, which is biblically prophetic language for modern-day and now, news sources are talking about it more publicly than Germany. The Germans are a great people in many ways, but ever. The greater the crises it experiences, the more its people they have also started two world wars, and your Bible says they will cry out for a strongman to guide them and deal with this will be responsible for starting a third! problem. (Read more about this in our last Trumpet issue: “Will Germany has already risen to unmatched power within Coronavirus Wreck the EU?”—theTrumpet.com/22172.) Europe. From the beginning of the European unification proj- Bible prophecy shows this strongman is coming! Here is ect, Germany has worked to dominate and even domineer. If how the Prophet Daniel describes this individual: “And in the it had really repented of its sins of World War ii, in which over latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come 60 million people died, it would not be doing that today. to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark Britain left the European Union because it could see what sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not was happening and would not submit to that. Bible prophecy by his own power, and he shall destroy wonderfully [mightily, it also made clear that Britain would not be part of the EU, which should read], and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy is why we foretold its exit for decades. the mighty and the holy people” (Daniel 8:23-24). This strongman In 1978, with Britain firmly entrenched in the European will rule “not by his own power”—but by Satan’s power. He will Economic Community, Mr. Armstrong continued to prophesy have a mind change because the devil will get to him (Habakkuk of a “soon-coming resurrected ‘Holy Roman Empire’—a sort of 1:11) and use him as a tool to wreak tremendous destruction! soon-coming ‘United States of Europe’—a union of 10 nations Daniel wrote that this man will “destroy the mighty and the to rise up out of or following the Common Market of today.” In holy people.” That is referring to the 95 percent of God’s own conclusion of the article he wrote: “Britain will not be in that people who turned away from God in the end time. God will empire soon to come.” plunge His rebellious people into the Great Tribulation if they How accurate this forecast was! don’t repent before that time. Of all people, they should know In 1945, when Germany was still smoldering in ruins after what is happening and obey God, but they are not. World War ii, he said, “Europe, or Germany, is going to rise again, We all need to understand better why this is happening! Rev- and so is the Holy Roman Empire.” The sixth resurrection of elation 17:17 says that “God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his the Holy Roman Empire, led by Hitler, had just been defeated.

Can COVID end to the uprising, but the reformers Cure Germany’s formed their own military alliances. In the 17th century, the conflict culminated Religious Divide? in the Thirty Years’ War. The church’s efforts to reclaim its Protestant “daughters” never ceased. But as its alliance with German leaders broke, so too did the hope for a unified Christian body. Around half of Germany’s population BY JOSUÉ MICHELS today still call themselves Christians, of whom the Roman Catholic Church can claim slightly more than a quarter. The rest adhere to Lutheran-Protestantism or Calvinism, united in the Evangelical fter Charlemagne “Christian- But Germany is also where Protestant- Church in Germany. ized” Europe in the eighth and ism started. Its alliance with the Catholic The coronavirus has given the Cath- ninth centuries, Germany was Church suffered a blow in the 16th cen- olic Church a rare opportunity. In this

A REESE ZOELLNER/TRUMPET predominantly Catholic. It took the helm tury, when Martin Luther launched the increasingly secular country, where of the Holy Roman Empire and ruled it Reformation and transformed Germany’s the influence of its major churches has off and on for almost a thousand years. religious landscape for centuries to come. waned and denominational divisions German kings were crowned emperors The Catholic Church and the seemed insurmountable, this virus has by the Roman Catholic Church. Habsburg Empire tried to put a bloody caused many to lay aside differences. 4 THE PHILADELPHIA TRUMPET But when all the world said Germany would never rise again, of the Holy Roman Empire, just as previous strongmen have Mr. Armstrong prophesied it would—and would lead the most done including Charlemagne, Otto the Great and Adolf Hitler. tyrannical and destructive resurrection by far! The details of these prophecies we have been proclaiming In 1967, Mr. Armstrong said that once the population of for over 75 years are now coming to pass. You can see even the Europe came together, you would see a superpower that would twigs on the tree beginning to sprout. probably grow to become the greatest power on Earth. That I hope you will repent and heed God’s message, so God can help power is forming now. Germany is the third-leading exporting you and protect you through the terrible times that are coming. nation in the world. It is an economic and political powerhouse. But even in all of this terrible news, there is good news. Dan- It has grown to a prominence that the Allies in World War ii iel 8:25 reads, “And through his policy also he shall cause craft pledged it would never have again. Even militarily, it has to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, become extraordinarily powerful. and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against During the Cold War, the leading generals in Europe ada- the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.” mantly warned that rearming Germany to help fight off the This powerful strongman will act like he wants peace when he Soviet Union was a calculated risk. But we decided to take that really wants war. But he will make the terrible mistake of fight- risk. The world is about to experience the terrifying results of ing against Jesus Christ Himself! Is that logical? This illustrates rearming the German war machine. how evil that empire is! But at His return, Jesus Christ will When the Prophet Daniel saw visions of what this empire destroy this man and the armies of the Holy Roman Empire. would do in the end time, he was so astonished that he fainted! This world knows so little about God and His prophecies. (Daniel 8:27). Now, unless this world repents and heeds God’s They simply don’t understand what is written in the Bible. But warning, we are going to literally experience those events Dan- you can. This is all explained in our booklets Daniel—Unsealed iel saw only in vision! We need to do some deep repenting, and at Last! and He Was Right (all our literature is free). quickly, because time is running out. People must start looking to God and His Word. That is the only way we can have peace in this world. Prince of Peace True peace is coming shortly—in just a very The coronavirus has created problems for Europe that have few years! We can thank God for that! n increased the pressure for unity. Right now, Europe is weak and divided—a condition that the German people, most of all, cannot live with. They are going to respond, you can be sure. Put the Trumpet to the test. People’s yearning for a “strongman, who finally takes action, Over 75 years of evidence proves biblical will grow stronger.” And they will get their strongman. That prophecies true. Compare recent events beside man will hijack Europe and transform it into another iteration Bible prophecy. Request He Was Right.

Bible prophecy says German religion translation throughout). Various Chris- In 2017, Söder called himself a “fan will revive and reunite. Coronavirus is tian representatives responded by form- of ecumenism.” He believes the various propelling the nation in that direction. ing an ecumenical event on April 8 called Christian denominations should work For example, on April 12, the chairman “Germany Unites in Prayer.” Uniting closer together. “Jesus Christ is the stan- of the Catholic German Bishops’ Confer- Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and Free dard for me,” Söder told Münchner Kirch- ence and the chairman of the Council Church Christians, the event was adver- enzeitung. “He knew no denomination. I of the Protestant Church in Germany tised as “the largest prayer campaign am always fascinated by Jesus Christ.” appeared together on the The Word that Germany has ever seen.” In a video Though Protestant, Söder maintains for Sunday—a first in the tv program’s message at the event, Söder said commu- close ties with the Catholic Church. “I 65-year history. German news broad- nity prayer connects denominations and am a Lutheran,” he said, “and we are caster ard said this unprecedented religions. “Linking arms in faith, and the regarded as ‘half Catholics’ in the “ecumenical cooperation” happened commitment to the values of the faith, is German Evangelical Church anyway.” “due to the special situation caused by what connects us all,” he said. This event When asked what he envies Catholics the coronavirus pandemic.” highlights that in crisis, people turn to for, Söder said: “I like to be Protestant, religion and faith, and even put aside and I appreciate my regional bishop, but ‘Germany United in Prayer’ denominational differences and unite. we don’t have a holy father. This center One prominent politician who is rising Germany’s basic law calls on German of Christianity in Rome and the world in popularity is helping drive the politicians to abide by the principle of church are particularly beautiful.” denominations back together: Bavarian state neutrality. It’s rare for a German Such comments from a rising political State Premier Markus Söder. politician to talk about his personal reli- star are notable given the Bible’s proph- On March 22 Söder encouraged gion, even rarer to call on people to pray. ecies of religious unification within believers to “pray that Germany will not Söder has done both, and his example is Germany. Protestant and Free churches be hit too hard” by the virus (Trumpet inspiring religious unity in Germany. could follow Söder’s lead in submitting JULY 2020 5 to Catholic rule. Whatever role Söder how the Bible depicts the Holy Roman Mr. Flurry wrote. “At a certain point, the and other European leaders play, it is Empire. This church-state union has mother church will abandon its efforts certain that Europe’s religious roots repeatedly risen throughout history, and to woo her daughters back by flatteries are about to give new life to an empire its final resurrection is prophesied to and instead revert to the age-old method that was thought dead. And while these rise in our time. As Mr. Flurry explains of preserving ‘Christian’ unity by exert- efforts appear to be about unity and in his article in this issue (page 1), this ing physical force” (Trumpet, May 2007). goodwill, history and prophecy make church-state axis is now reemerging. For five centuries, the Catholic Church clear that such developments are lead- For this reason we have expected a has dreamed of reuniting with its daugh- ing to a frightening end. religious revival in Germany. Mr. Flurry ter churches and regaining its former explained in 2011: “God does allow this power. During the Dark Ages the church The Churches Will Unite church to gain control of this German-led controlled Europe’s scientific research The late Herbert W. Armstrong pro- European beast power. Expect the Catho- and educational system, and it led the claimed as far back as the 1930s that lic Church to become more vocal and for empire into various crusades. But reli- the Catholic Church would unite with this church-state axis to become more gious disunity has broken the church’s its Protestant and Orthodox daughters. evident” (Trumpet, February 2011). power over Europe. What will happen In October 1961, for example, his Plain The Bible also forecasts that Europe’s when the church regains that power? Truth newsmagazine proclaimed: Christian churches are about to reunite. The answer to that question can be sur- “Protestantism will be absorbed into the Isaiah 47 continues, “And thou saidst, mised in part by the history of the Holy ‘mother church’—and totally abolished.” I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou Roman Empire. Charlemagne was able to He based this forecast on various Bible didst not lay these things to thy heart, unite Europe not only under one govern- prophecies such as those in Revelation neither didst remember the latter end of ment but also under one religion—the 13 and 17, and, in particular, Isaiah 47. religion of the Roman Catholic Church. That chapter reads, “Come down, Efforts toward He promoted the Roman Catholic Church, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of converted “heretics” by the sword, and Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no ecumenism have made conquered Europe. That is how every res- throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: great strides in recent urrection of the Holy Roman Empire has for thou shalt no more be called tender decades, and now the operated. Unity in Europe comes with a and delicate” (verse 1). God is addressing price, and this price is blood. not ancient Babylon, but the “daughter coronavirus crisis looks The Catholic Church and Europe’s of Babylon.” A church in Bible prophecy to be further healing leaders well understand the history of is often depicted as a woman. For exam- the wound left by the the Holy Roman Empire. This empire has ple, Ephesians 5:23-33 and Revelation endeavored in the past to rule not only 19:7 describe God’s true Church as the Protestant Reformation. Europe but the whole world. In the last woman, or bride, who will marry Christ few centuries, Europe has been occupied at His return. But Isaiah 47 is obviously it. Therefore hear now this, thou that art largely by attempts to unite its continent. not referring to God’s true Church. So given to pleasures, that dwellest care- Once that unity is achieved, the Bible who is the “daughter of Babylon”? lessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, clearly says that the Holy Roman Empire Daniel 2 prophesies of four world-rul- and none else beside me; I shall not sit will again seek world dominion. ing empires, starting with Babylon, as a widow, neither shall I know the loss To learn more about these proph- —then followed by the Persian, Greek of children” (verses 7-8). This refers to a ecies, request a free copy of The Holy and Roman empires. Rome entered a time when the Catholic Church reunites Roman Empire in Prophecy. It will help church-state union with the Roman with its Protestant daughters. The you understand the history of this Catholic Church, which adopted the church will boast about overcoming “the bloody empire and reveal the Bible’s Babylonian mystery religion and cloaked loss of children,” or daughter churches. perspective on the evil it has caused. It it with Christianity (explained in detail Many have dismissed these prophecies, will also show how Christ Himself will in Mr. Armstrong’s book Mystery of the pointing to Europe’s drift toward secu- end it forever. At that point, the world Ages; request a free copy). larism and the seemingly irreconcilable will experience unity like nothing it has Isaiah 47:1 shows that this church differences between Catholic and Prot- ever imagined. n claims “a throne” but that God will strip estant churches. But efforts toward ecu- it of that authority. The Catholic Church menism have made great strides in recent When Europe combines is the only church that claims a throne, decades, and now the coronavirus crisis church and state, there will and it even receives ambassadors from looks to be further healing the wound left be blood in the streets. It has countries around the world. by the Protestant Reformation. happened before, and biblical The “daughter of Babylon” refers to Yet ultimately, ecumenical prayers prophecies warn that it is the Roman Catholic Church. and joint tv appearances will not be about to happen again. This same church is depicted in enough to bridge that gulf. “Indeed, bib- Study these prophecies in Revelation 17 as a whore riding a beast, lical prophecy indicates that full unity your free copy of The Holy symbolizing the Roman Empire. This is will not be achieved purely voluntarily,” Roman Empire in Prophecy. 6 THE PHILADELPHIA TRUMPET The Global Ambition to Destroy America and Its President

A look at the supreme goal that excites America’s enemies BY BRAD MACDONALD

emember the great face Chancellor Angela Merkel tacitly But it’s not just Germany. Anti-Amer- mask scandal? It occurred endorsed the remarks, stating that it ican sentiment is increasing all over in April, at the height of was “important that we get to the bot- Europe. It is rife in Europe’s media, where the coronavirus crisis. It tom of it.” Donald Trump is routinely portrayed as started in Bangkok, Thai- As it turned out, there was no sinister a colossal doofus and the root of world land, where a shipping con- plot to steal Germany’s masks. The Ger- problems. Meanwhile, Europe’s leaders Rtainer filled with face masks destined for mans perceived a conspiracy that did not and officials outdo themselves trying to Germany was at the last minute inexpli- exist and massively overreacted. To their land digs at America and its president. cably rerouted to the United States. credit, the interior minister and mayor And it’s not just Europe. Today many The Germans were furious. Andreas admitted their mistake and apologized. of the world’s most influential coun- Geisel, Berlin’s interior minister, called Among geopolitical events, it was a tries, institutions and organizations America’s behavior an “act of mod- minor scandal. But it is revealing. That are brazenly anti-American. Everyone ern piracy.” Berlin’s mayor, Michael such high-level German leaders would knows Russia and China consider the Müller, pegged the blame squarely on spontaneously combust over such an U.S. an adversary, and that Germany Donald Trump. “The actions of the incident reveals an extreme sensitivity. and France are taking on the same view; U.S. president do not just betray a lack Combined with other evidence, it shows a but even America’s relations with tra- of solidarity, they are inhumane and distinct and intensifying hostility toward ditional allies such as South Korea, the

GARY DORNING, REESE ZOELLNER/TRUMPET REESE DORNING, GARY irresponsible,” he tweeted. German America, especially President Trump. Philippines and Japan are deteriorating. JULY 2020 7 This same trend is happening with and mismanaged the crisis. to raise questions about its relations the North Atlantic Treaty Organization The reason had nothing to do with with other key international organi- (nato), the International Monetary Fund, bureaucracy or resources. “The who has zations and institutions. Is it turning the World Health Organization (who), failed for a very simple reason: Both it others against America as well? and the United Nations. Pope Francis, and its director general are far too close Kristine Lee, an associate fellow in the another influential voice in global affairs, to China (which is, by the way, a large Asia-Pacific Program at the Center for a also loathes Donald Trump and America. investor in Dr. Tedros’s native Ethiopia)” New American Security, wrote about Why is the world turning on the U.S. (Spectator, April 18). From the outset, this for Politico: “For people who’ve and its president? Dr. Tedros and the who were working to been watching China’s growing activism Most people blame Mr. Trump. Many defend Beijing and further its interests. in the United Nations closely, the who’s consider America’s president ignorant Though it had some understanding deference to China is no surprise. In and offensive, the antithesis of a about the trouble in Wuhan, China, as fact, it’s just the exposed tip of a statesman. Critics despise his “America early as November, the who was slow dangerous iceberg” (April 15; emphasis added throughout). Lee explained how Beijing in recent years has “systemati- cally positioned Chinese nationals at the This Sino-WHO axis is part head of a wide range of UN agencies.” of a larger global crusade to Just this year, China was appointed one of five seats on the Consultative weaken America’s leadership. Group that heads the United Nations Human Rights Council. It holds similar positions of influence in the United first” worldview. They hate the fact that to reveal the facts, especially how con- Nations Educational, Scientific and Cul- he’s prepared to hold other nations to tagious the virus was. Throughout Jan- tural Organization (unesco). Meanwhile, account, and that he wants America uary it warned against imposing travel America left both agencies in 2018. to pull back as the world’s preeminent restrictions on China, even as hundreds Lee wrote, “Beijing’s leverage over financier, policeman and all-round of thousands of people poured in and the who cannot be understood inde- troubleshooter. These are the reasons, out of Wuhan. Instead of asking China pendently of a much longer and broader we are told, that nations are distancing some hard questions, it praised Beijing campaign, one that aims to bend the themselves from Washington. for the way it handled the crisis. arc of global governance toward a more Of course, the leaders of every nation At a January 28 press conference, illiberal orientation that privileges the put the interests of their country first, Dr. Tedros said, “We appreciate the seri- interests of authoritarian actors.” even when it hurts others. That alone ousness with which China is taking this That is a powerful statement: This does not explain the antagonism toward outbreak, especially the commitment Sino-who axis is part of a larger global America. The contempt for President from top leadership, and the trans- crusade to weaken America’s leadership Trump is consistent even when his parency they have demonstrated ….” and orient the international community decisions are provably correct. Pinning There is strong evidence that this virus around authoritarian governments. all the blame on this man is simplistic originated in a Chinese laboratory, but and superficial. And it obscures the the who remains silent on this! Further Evidence larger, more sinister reason for this Meanwhile as the crisis progressed, Perhaps such subversion should be trend. Dr. Tedros and the who grew more expected from the likes of China, Russia, The truth is, a higher and much more critical of America’s president. On April 9, the who and the UN. But we are also see- evil and dangerous power is behind this with Mr. Trump talking about investigat- ing America’s longtime friends and allies welling hatred for America. ing the who, Dr. Tedros reprimanded him growing apathetic and even hostile. for “politicizing” the crisis, a course that A January Pew research poll revealed GARY DORNING,REESE ZOELLNER/TRUMPET, ERIN SCHAFF-POOL/GETTY IMAGES Hating On America would result in “many more body bags.” that Germans’ trust in America’s China’s disdain for America and its “You have many other ways to prove your- president has declined from 51 percent ongoing effort to challenge America’s selves,” he chided. “This is not the one to in 2001 to just 13 percent. In Spain, it power are obvious. Few, however, recog- use for politics; it’s like playing with fire.” dropped from 26 percent to 21 percent. nize the extent to which Beijing works to Talk about politicizing the crisis: “Most Europeans and Latin Ameri- poison others against the U.S. Dr. Tedros and the who were in China’s cans have little confidence in the U.S. Consider Beijing’s association with the pocket. Yet America is by far the largest president to do the right thing regarding who, which was exposed by the covid-19 donor to the who, supplying nearly world affairs,” the Pew Research Center crisis. The who and its director general, 15 percent of its total funding. Why reported. The share of Europeans who Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu, shouldn’t its president investigate the expressed “no confidence” in Mr. Trump received a lot of criticism for their daw- conduct of an organization that receives (64 percent) is higher than any other dling, inept response to the virus. From hundreds of millions of American dollars? world leader mentioned in the poll. The the start, the who manipulated facts Beijing’s infiltration of the who ought study revealed that Europeans have 8 THE PHILADELPHIA TRUMPET more confidence in Russian President Today it is routine to see disrespect future and destiny.” A recent poll commis- Vladimir Putin than in Donald Trump. and hostility toward America in the sioned by the Körber Foundation found Another poll showed that the majority decisions, speeches and policies of that 47 percent of Germans believe Ber- of Germans consider Mr. Trump more Europe’s leaders. French President lin should cooperate less with America. dangerous than Putin, China’s President Emmanuel Macron says nato is under- In February, the theme of this year’s Xi Jinping, Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, going “brain death” and blames Donald Munich Security Conference—the and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. Trump. Mr. Macron became an interna- world’s most important meeting of Germany’s feelings about America tional hero at the nato conference last world leaders on security issues—was in general are changing too. In 2000, December when he publicly corrected “Westlessness” and the fragmentation of 80 percent of Germans favored Amer- America’s president, telling him to “be the West. With leaders from the U.S. and ica. By 2015, the number had fallen to serious” after remarks Mr. Trump made Europe speaking on the big issues of the 50 percent. By spring 2019, it was only about the Islamic State. day, the conference exposed the massive 39 percent. This trend has played out less Many of Europe’s leaders now agree divide between the two. America and dramatically in other European nations: with Chancellor Merkel’s assessment Europe “aren’t just far apart on the big In Italy in 2000 the favorable view after returning from the G-7 summit in questions facing the West (threats from toward America was 76 percent; today it’s 2017: “The era in which we could fully Russia, Iran, China),” wrote Politico, 62 percent. In France it was 62 percent rely on others is over to some extent. … “they’re in parallel universes.” (the lowest in Europe in 2000); today it’s We Europeans truly have to take our fate President Macron was especially 48 percent. Only 52 percent of the Span- into our own hands …. We have to know forceful in his views at the conference. ish have a favorable view of the U.S. that we Europeans must fight for our own He spoke about the need for Europe to become more militarily independent, to break away from being America’s junior partner, and to draw closer to Russia. Another strong critic is Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Germany’s former defense minister. Some speculate that Guttenberg, widely considered an expert on U.S.-German relations, Guttenberg refers to President will soon make a political comeback. Trump as the “clown in the White Though he supports warm U.S.–German relations, he has ferociously denigrated House” and a “jack in the box.” America under Donald Trump, whom he has referred to as the “clown in the White House” and a “jack in the box.” Guttenberg’s view of Mr. Trump resonates throughout Europe, where top newspapers and television stations routinely portray him as an ignorant buffoon. In recent years, the covers of Der Spiegel, Europe’s largest newsmaga- zine, have depicted America’s president as a middle finger to Europe, a terrorist beheading Lady Liberty, a subhuman ape, a baby riding a nuclear bomb, a meteor poised to destroy the planet, and a tsunami destroying Washington, D.C. Another key figure with notable animus toward America is Pope Francis. Francis has called U.S.-style capitalism “a new tyranny” and the “dung of the devil.” In 2016, during a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, the pope said any man who builds a wall couldn’t call himself a Chris- tian; an obvious swipe at Mr. Trump. “If Pope Francis is to be taken at his word, he could not possibly wish for the leader of the capitalist system to thrive and prosper, continuing to inflict its JULY 2020 9 ‘tyranny’ on the world,” wrote Trumpet are international organizations trying to confined to this Earth. They can no editor in chief Gerald Flurry in his 2016 please China and undermine America? longer go out into the universe.” article “Why Is the Pope Meddling in Now Satan again seeks to “blot out American Politics?” “If he believes the The Ultimate Cause the name of Israel,” both spiritual and free market is a force of destruction, For nearly 10 years now, the Trumpet has physical. “Satan hates everything God then he would feel not only justified, but reported on the rise of the radical left and is about,” wrote Mr. Flurry. “He harbors obligated to use his power to weaken it” its sustained attack on America’s Consti- terrible hatred for Israel—spiritual (theTrumpet.com/13725). tution, the rule of law and the nation’s Israel (God’s Church) and physical Israel Beyond Europe, America’s relations Judeo-Christian heritage. In America (modern-day nations descended from with Japan, South Korea and the Philip- Under Attack, first published in 2013, ancient Israel, particularly America, pines, all longtime solid allies, are also Mr. Flurry identifies the ultimate source Britain and the Jewish state in the Mid- coming under tremendous strain. of this campaign to destroy America. dle East)” (Trumpet, March 2020). It is easy to blame all this on Donald This enlightening booklet focuses on Today this campaign, which has been Trump. As president, he has withdrawn biblical passages that reveal the exis- at work for decades, is in its final stages. America from the Paris climate agree- tence of a devil, an inherently wicked Over the years, we have exposed ment and the Iran nuclear deal, which spirit being who is “the god of this world” how Satan has deployed the radical left the Europeans favored; he has criticized and “the prince of the power of the air” inside America. But when you consider Europe’s meager contributions to nato (2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2). the actions of Russia, China, Germany, and demanded that it pay more; he has As we will see, the devil has extraor- France and a host of other countries, supported Brexit, withdrawn America’s dinary hatred for the United States. organizations and institutions, it raises troops from Syria without consulting Regarding the growing problems under- the question: Is the devil orchestrating European allies, and called on friends mining America today, Mr. Flurry writes a global campaign to destroy America? like Japan, South Korea and the Phil- in that booklet, “We are seeing the The radical left in America is in close ippines to provide compensation for aftereffects of a calculated, aggressive, contact with America’s enemies. During U.S. support. In March, when Europe satanic attack aimed at weakening February’s Munich Security Conference, became a hot spot for covid-19, the pres- and ultimately destroying the nations a delegation of Democrats met with ident quickly locked America’s borders of Israel, starting with the world’s most Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, to Europeans. powerful nation!” When he refers without the approval or knowledge of These measures are dramatic. And to “the nations of Israel,” Mr. Flurry the U.S. State Department. John Kerry, there is no doubt that President Trump is talking about America and Britain Barack Obama’s secretary of state, has engages with the international com- (and its Commonwealth), the end-time also met with Zarif several times. munity very differently than any of his descendants of ancient Israel. (Prove Hillary Clinton, another secretary of predecessors. But while these decisions this by studying The United States and state under Obama, also appears to be might upset world leaders, they were Britain in Prophecy, free upon request.) working behind the scenes against the not unreasonable. There is nearly Bible history shows that the devil has White House. Last autumn, with Brexit always merit to Mr. Trump’s actions always sought the destruction of the hanging in the balance, Clinton visited the UK and encouraged the nation to stop Brexit and remain with the EU. In 2017, America’s relations with Japan, South Obama visited Germany at the same time as President Trump and met with Angela Korea and the Philippines, all longtime Merkel just before Mr. Trump did. “We solid allies, are also coming under strain. can’t isolate ourselves,” he told her. “We can’t hide behind a wall.” By arguing against Mr. Trump’s signature project, and decisions, even if the execution people of Israel and Judah. 2 Kings 14, he was showing Germany there are can be undiplomatic or unconventional. for example, reveals the devil’s ancient alternatives to Mr. Trump. More recently, The Paris climate deal hurt America’s campaign to “blot out the name of Israel the presumptive Democratic presidential economy more than anyone else’s by far; from under heaven.” candidate, Joe Biden, has tried to protect the U.S. has spent billions on nato for Revelation 12:9, a prophecy for the end and encourage China even as the presi- decades; the Iran deal was a known trav- time, says, “And the great dragon was cast dent seeks to pressure China.

esty from the beginning. In each case, out, that old serpent, called the Devil, These top American politicians are GARYDORNING,REESE ZOELLNER/TRUMPET the president was sincerely acting in and Satan, which deceiveth the whole more loyal to the leaders of Ger- America’s best interest—as a president world: he was cast out into the earth, and many and China than to their own should, and as all world leaders do. his angels were cast out with him.” This president and their own nation! So why does the world go ballistic milestone event has happened. Satan has “[T]he devil is attacking the nations almost anytime Donald Trump speaks? been cast down to Earth. As Mr. Flurry of Israel,” Mr. Flurry writes in America Why are Europe’s leading media outlets explains in America Under Attack, “The Under Attack. This is the context in and politicians so disrespectful? Why devil and millions of demons are now which we should evaluate the actions of 10 THE PHILADELPHIA TRUMPET China, the UN and the who, Germany, who rules in the same spirit of Jeroboam called the “latter days,” the time just France, the remarks of Guttenberg and and has overseen a remarkable resur- before Jesus Christ’s return. Daniel 8 Macron, and even the polls and surveys gence? Although it was written thousands is mainly a prophecy about Antiochus showing hostility building in Europe of years ago, 2 Kings 14:25-28 perfectly Epiphanes, the third-century b.c. Greek toward the U.S. Remember, Satan is “the describe Donald Trump’s presidency! tyrant who destroyed the Jews and the god of this world”—and he is turning it 2 Kings 14 records that Jeroboam ii Jewish temple. Antiochus was used by against America! became king during a time of extreme the devil to try to “blot out the name of When you understand the devil’s national upheaval. Verses 25-26 Israel.” (The Jews are part of Israel.) deep hatred for “Israel” and all that this record that Jeroboam “restored the Both Daniel 8 and 10 prophesy the term encompasses, the world suddenly coast of Israel …. For the Lord saw the emergence of end-time Antiochus makes a lot of sense! affliction of Israel, that it was very figures—tyrannical men who will seek Let’s look at these prophecies even bitter: for there was not any shut up, to destroy Israel. Daniel 8:12-13 record more deeply. nor any left, nor any helper for Israel.” that the original Antiochus “cast down the truth to the ground” and saw the people of God (the Jews) “trodden under foot.” Verse 23 records that he “under- These top American politicians are stand[s] dark sentences,” which implies more loyal to Germany and China than he is directly influenced by Satan and demons. Verse 25 says he will “destroy to their own president and nation. many” and fight directly against the “Prince of princes”—Jesus Christ! Mr. Flurry has explained that we can What Prophecy Says The Hebrew word for affliction means expect Satan to work through three To understand the Bible, we must grasp depression or misery. Albert Barnes’s Antiochus-type men in the end time. the principle noted in Isaiah 28:10: “For commentary says Jeroboam became One of these men operates within God’s precept must be upon precept, precept king when Israel was in “extreme depres- Church, spiritual Israel (this man is the upon precept; line upon line, line upon sion and weakness.” You could use the “Amaziah” mentioned in Amos 7). Another line; here a little, and there a little.” Bible same language to describe America in Antiochus will emerge in Europe—he prophecies and doctrines are understood 2016, when the nation was suffering the is the mighty political strongman men- by considering multiple books and chap- devastating effects of a president who tioned in passages like Habakkuk 1:11. ters. End-time prophecies about America hated the Constitution and rule of law. Finally, there is a political Antiochus and its relations with the rest of the world Verse 27 reveals the severity of Israel’s operating within America, casting truth involve multiple passages, but there are condition: “And the Lord said not that to the ground and behaving lawlessly. perhaps four key ones: 2 Kings 14:23-29; he would blot out the name of Israel This man leads the radical left. Amos 7; Daniel 8 and Revelation 12. from under heaven: but he saved them Can we recognize what the devil is The passage in 2 Kings describes the by the hand of Jeroboam the son of doing? He has three Antiochuses in this history of King Jeroboam ii, who ruled Joash.” The kingdom was in an existential end time, and all three have the same the kingdom of Israel in the eighth crisis. There was a massive conspiracy supreme objective—to destroy Israel! century b.c. Over his 41-year reign, the afoot to “blot out the name of Israel.” In America Under Attack, Mr. Flurry kingdom experienced an impressive This is why God backed Jeroboam ii exposes the behavior of Barack Obama resurgence, enlarging its territory, and created a resurgence. He didn’t and explains how the former president increasing its military strength, enhanc- want this colossal surge of hatred to presided over a new age of lawlessness ing its political power, and expanding its destroy the kingdom, so, God “saved in America. Mr. Obama dramatically material prosperity. them by the hand of Jeroboam ….” He empowered the radical left movement, The Prophet Amos lived in the eighth used this man to prevent Israel from a movement that seeks to destroy tradi- century b.c. and delivered a warning being blotted out. tional America. from God to King Jeroboam ii. Part of this Today there is again a major conspiracy But as we are now seeing, the Antio- message is recorded in Amos 7. However, to “blot out the name of Israel”—and God chus spirit—and the campaign to “blot the message of Amos is dual; this book has raised up another Jeroboam! This is out the name of Israel”—isn’t merely carries a warning for Israel in the “latter ultimately why the radical left hates Don- a domestic problem. The same spirit days,” or the end time. (All of what we call ald Trump’s vision of America: because that motivated Antiochus is animating “the minor prophets” contain end-time he is, at least for now, defending Israel! nations, organizations and media outlets prophecy.) Amos 7 is both history and all over the Earth, and it is taking over the prophecy. It records God’s message to the Antiochus minds of some of the world’s top leaders! ancient Jeroboam, but it is also a proph- Now consider another important These stunning prophecies explain ecy about God’s message to an end-time dimension of this prophecy. The proph- the reality at the heart of virtually all type of King Jeroboam in Israel. ecy in Daniel 8 is also dual, meaning this the major trends in America, Britain Does America have a king, someone history would repeat in what Daniel and the Jewish state. Just as there was JULY 2020 11 anciently, there is today a diabolical blessings to Israel was to spread them to conspiracy to “blot out the name of humanity. This isn’t just about a family Israel from under heaven”! or a race or nations. This is about God working with humanity. Why Destroy Israel? When you truly understand the “mys- The Divorce of 2 Kings 14:27 says the devil wants to tery of Israel,” you understand the truth “blot out the name of Israel from under about human nature, the need for God’s heaven ….” He wants the truth about Holy Spirit, the path to salvation, how Israel not just removed from Earth, but to have a relationship with God, and eradicated from the universe. The world the gospel of the coming government of CHIMERICA has never seen hatred this deep. God. You also understand the incredible Why does the devil hate the nations of human potential: to be born into the Israel (America, Britain and the Jewish Family of God. state) so passionately? The “mystery of Israel,” explained In Mystery of the Ages, the late Herbert Mr. Armstrong, “has great signif- W. Armstrong wrote: “The truly amazing icance in God’s purpose for all truth about Israel is a mystery totally peoples! One cannot understand the unknown by any religion—by Christian- real purpose and incredible potential of ity—by even Judaism!” To understand man without this vital knowledge.” God why God raised up the people of Israel, reveals His spectacular plan for man and why the Bible talks so much about through Israel. Israel, read Mystery of the Ages. Satan doesn’t just hate the people of The truth about Israel revolves around Israel, the nations which through no God’s towering twofold promise to Abra- individual merit have been the blessed ham found in Genesis 12 and 17. This inheritors of God’s promises to Abraham. promise explains human civilization The devil hates the “name,” the truth and since Abraham and gives context and knowledge—the divinely revealed under- meaning to world history. It explains standing—embodied in Israel’s history. Britain’s empire and colonial past, its He hates Israel because America and monarchy and its many wonderful tra- Britain’s existence proves God’s existence ditions and institutions. This prophecy and proves that the Bible is God’s Word! explains why America is exceptional, He hates Israel because its presence the reason for the success of the Consti- and history reveals the Gospel of the tution, and how this nation became the Kingdom of God! single greatest nation on Earth. He hates Israel because Israel has the But there is more to the Abrahamic throne of David from which Jesus Christ promise and the “mystery of Israel” Himself will rule when He returns! than just this physical dimension. “It is Satan the devil hates Israel because as indeed true that the nation Israel was long as this name exists, men will have God’s chosen people. But understand: the opportunity to consider and study They were not chosen as ‘teacher’s pet’ God’s purpose for Israel. And this study nor for special favors. They were chosen will lead a person into the greatest, most for a special purpose preparatory to the fascinating, most inspiring knowledge ultimate establishment of the Kingdom he could ever learn. The breakup between the world’s of God!” Mr. Armstrong wrote. Ultimately, this is why the devil seeks two largest economies will shake The undeniable virtues preserved and to “blot out the name of Israel”—it’s the world. BY JEREMIAH JACQUES shared with the world by the descen- because the name “Israel” dants of Abraham did not originate in introduces us to t is utterly unrealistic to Abraham. They came from God! The the mind and uncouple China and the United entire purpose of God granting these plan of God! n “I States economically.” “I don’t see the two giants, the world’s two biggest economies decoupling. I don’t think it’s feasible.” “It’s too late to decouple.” The The key that unlocks Bible prophecy United States and China “are too deeply Understanding the Bible and your world today requires knowing entwined to be separated.” the identity of modern nations in prophecy. Unlock the Bible and These were the words of China experts current events with this key. Request The United States and in the latter half of last year. They Britain in Prophecy. matched the view of most analysts over 12 THE PHILADELPHIA TRUMPET by the American Chambers of Com- merce in Beijing and Shanghai surveyed 25 of the largest U.S. companies with The Divorce of operations in China, asking if they could pull out of the country. Two thirds said it would be “impossible.” This was two years into the trade war, and even business stakeholders with CHIMERICA plenty to lose still felt that, despite ten- sions, the clock couldn’t be turned back on globalization. Like most geopolitical analysts, these company representatives felt America’s economy was irrevocably dependent on cheap Chinese labor, and that the U.S. and China were simply too interlocked to come undone. Then came 2020.

A Pathogen Unleashed In January, when reports first started reaching the West about a new pneu- monia-like illness emerging in Wuhan, China, few would have guessed how fundamentally it would alter the world economy. But the sars-CoV-2 virus quickly spilled over China’s borders and began infecting nations around the globe with both the illness and some- thing even more virulent: fear. Governments worldwide enforced unprecedented directives to keep peo- ple apart, restricting or banning some or all activity at conferences, festivals, rallies, meetings, concerts, hotels, the- aters, libraries, parks, sporting events, beaches, weddings, funerals, religious services, gyms, community centers, restaurants, schools, businesses, fac- tories, distribution centers and shops. Economic activity slowed or stopped, production plummeted, imports and exports fell, and debts of all kinds soared. the past 40 years or so, since shortly because they were outweighed by the More Americans have lost jobs than after U.S. President Richard Nixon hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of at any time since the Great Depression changed policy from countering the annual trade between them. of the 1930s. The federal government massive Communist nation to partner- After Donald Trump was elected spent enormous amounts of money in ing with it. Within a few years of Nixon’s president in 2016, frictions intensified handouts to businesses and individ- landmark outreach, the economies of the regarding trade, Chinese militarization uals, adding trillions to the national U.S. and China grew so interconnected of the South China Sea, the indepen- debt. “The economy went into an ice that the pairing seemed irreversible. dence of Taiwan and Hong Kong, and age overnight,” Diane Swonk, chief Some discussed the future in terms of the ccp’s human rights violations economist at Grant Thornton, told “Chimerica” and the “Group of Two.” against China’s Uyghur population. Yet the Washington Post. “We’re in a deep It is true that the two clashed over even then, the belief that the Eagle and freeze” (April 22). the Chinese Communist Party’s (ccp) Dragon were too entwined to decouple As the freeze deepened, American authoritarianism, human rights abuses, remained prevalent not just among policymakers came together in rare illegal trade practices and more. But geopolitical experts, but also among U.S. agreement to lay the blame at the feet of

GARY DORNING/TRUMPET GARY they always managed these tensions multinationals. A poll in October 2019 the regime to which it belongs. JULY 2020 13 ‘It Could Have Been Stopped in China’ Emergency at Wuhan Central Hospital— with a statement confirming what most Rep. Seth Moulton, a Democrat from were simply disappeared by the regime. Americans already understood: “It could Massachusetts, joined a resolution at As the outbreak spread around the have been stopped in China before it the end of March saying China made globe, the ccp behaved perhaps even started, and it wasn’t,” he said, “and the “multiple, serious mistakes” in the early more viciously. It is trying to blame the whole world is suffering because of it.” days of the outbreak, including the U.S. military for planting the pathogen. It The U.S. sees that the ccp’s corruption “intentional spread of misinformation refused to send medical equipment man- and negligence unleashed covid-19 to downplay the risks,” which increased ufactured in China but owned by Amer- on the world. Now many American “the severity and spread of the ongoing icans to the U.S. It tried to portray its policymakers, business moguls and covid–19 pandemic.” sales of (often faulty) medical equipment individuals are undertaking some long Indiana Republican Rep. Trey to other nations as donations. It waged overdue soul-searching about the true Hollingsworth­ expressed similar online disinformation campaigns to stoke price of hitching the U.S.’s economic sentiments in an April 14 interview fear and panic among Americans. It used wagon to China. with wibc radio: “We have seen them the global turmoil as cover to advance ... hide the coronavirus, not tell us the China’s aggressive geopolitical agenda in Readying for the ‘Impossible’ full story, not give us the full scope of the South China Sea and beyond. McLaughlin & Associates published the problem in China,” another finding even more significant he said. “[T]hat has led than the number of Americans who cor- to a hugely deleterious rectly blame China for covid-19’s spread. outcome.” Among the 2,075 American adults they The perception is surveyed, 72 percent seek to stop send- similar among average ing key manufacturing to China and to Americans. In April, a end American dependence on Chinese Harris Poll survey of technology and medical equipment. 1,993 American adults This is huge because of something found that nearly that’s usually quite small: the price tag. 80 percent believe China A “Made in China” label typically lied about covid–19 and means a product is considerably less WHO Director General Tedros neglected to share vital visits Chinese President Xi in expensive than an equivalent labeled data with the world that Beijing on January 28. “Made in the U.S.A.” This is partly could have been used because the ccp manipulates the to slow its spread. An “It’s as much of a consensus issue nation’s currency to keep Chinese goods April 21 Pew poll and an cheap. It is also because the line between April 22 McLaughlin & as you can get in today’s divided Chinese government and Chinese busi- Associates survey found world. Overall, there’s very ness is blurry or nonexistent. In 2011, for similar sentiments. little trust for anything that the example, 43 percent of all profits gener- We now know that at Chinese government says or does, ated by China came from firms that the early as November, Chi- government had a controlling interest na’s ruling Communist especially its premier.” in. In most other cases, business owners Party (ccp) received mark penn chairman of the harris poll still do the ccp’s bidding for fear losing warnings from medical favor with the tyrannical regime. authorities about this new pathogen that In all this, the ccp showed that it has The ccp often uses its control over the was resistant to common flu medications. no moral limits and is concerned only country’s businesses and 1.4 billion cit- Instead of taking measures to contain with weakening its rivals and preserving izens to force people into slave labor or the virus in those early days, ccp officials and enriching itself. arrangements close to it. Chinese firms ignored it and covered it up. Govern- So the mask was off. And Americans, aiming to impress the ccp with strong ment agents detained journalists who regardless of political affiliation, began balance sheets often do the same. In reported the story, arrested citizens who increasingly to blame China. “It’s as The Dark Side of Labor in China, Karine posted about it online, and incarcerated much of a consensus issue as you can get Lepillez writes: “The country’s unique doctors, forcing them to retract the in today’s divided world,” said Mark Penn, combination of Communist ideology and warnings they had issued. The party chairman of the Harris Poll. “Overall,” he decentralized economic power has con- destroyed lab samples, refused to admit said, there is suddenly “very little trust” tributed to the use of both state-sanc-

medical experts from other nations, among Americans “for anything that the tioned and unsanctioned forced labor.” NAOHIKO HATTA/GETTY IMAGES and lied to other governments and the Chinese government says or does.” Lepillez discusses China’s use of child media, repeatedly and boldly. And some For months, President Donald Trump labor, dissident exploitation, forced Chinese critics of their handling of the refrained from pointing the finger too domestic work, withheld wages, coer- outbreak—including a property tycoon, rigidly at Beijing. But at a White House cions of internal migrants and ubiqui- a prominent blogger and the head of briefing on April 18, he changed course, tous corruption. She writes: “Systematic 14 THE PHILADELPHIA TRUMPET statistics on the extent of forced labor interview with Steve Hilton that due to significantly benefit America. This could are not available due to China’s repres- covid-19, the U.S. is already “working to extend the temporary resurgence now sive political system. However, news make sure we’re never reliant on foreign underway in the articles, reports, research, and the testi- supplies again.” United States. Read about this monies of past forced laborers attest to Businesses, too, are now contem- But decoupling prophesied resurgence the severity of the situation.” plating what just months ago looked from China also in “Saving America From the Radical The ccp also uses its control over “impossible.” In March, the American sets the stage for Left—Temporarily,” China’s economy and all the money chambers of commerce in Beijing and America to suffer by Gerald Flurry: that would otherwise go to its people to Shanghai repeated the survey they had a catastrophic theTrumpet.com/17092. instead subsidize entire industries, arti- conducted in October. The change was economic, polit- ficially lowering prices and bankrupting stark: Most of the American entrepre- ical and military defeat. That defeat is competition in other nations. neurs surveyed said this time around forecast in your Bible. When perusing Walmart’s array of that decoupling from China appears Some 2,700 years ago, God inspired the wares, American shoppers have not gen- necessary. More than a quarter were Prophet Isaiah to write about a globe-gir- erally been preoccupied with thoughts already taking steps to source materials dling, anti-American trade bloc that of the tiny fingers in hazardous factories from new locations after the coronavirus would arise in our lifetime. Isaiah 23:3 that made some of them, or about the outbreak, and many expressed inten- describes it as a “mart of nations.” ccp’s illegal subsidies that dried up Amer- tions to pull all production out of China. Verse 1 names “Chittim” as one of the ican businesses large and small. Instead, As much as U.S. firms and consumers head countries in this conglomerate. they have thought mainly about the price profited from “Chimerica,” it was even In his booklet Isaiah’s End-Time Vision, tag. And since American factories pay more beneficial to the ccp, which used Mr. Flurry writes: “Kittim is synonymous their workers a fairer wage, which results it to transform a fragile economy into a with the Chittim of Isaiah’s prophecy. … in a more expensive product, many shop- global powerhouse. But the Chinese, too, After their migration through Central pers in America and around the world are now readying to decouple. They know Asia, the Kittim made their appearance have chosen to buy Chinese. that the days of exchanging slave labor in modern-day northeastern China and But now it appears Americans are for cash, investing in American assets, Mongolia under the name of Khitan in becoming so disillusioned with China getting a free pass on stealing U.S. tech- the fourth century a.d. ….” over covid-19 that they may be willing to nology, and flouting World Trade Orga- Isaiah goes on to say that “Tyre” will pay more to end this “deal with the devil.” nization rules are ending. They see that also be a lead power in this mart of The McLaughlin survey analysis said: the Trump administration is now serious nations. Mr. Flurry explains that this “The pandemic has forged a historic con- about constraining the export of any city represents modern Europe’s “com- sensus that crosses party lines on the American goods to China need for unity, an embrace of American that could have a military China is preparing to reroute its domestic manufacturing capability to application—including the supply lines. This seemingly distant restore our economy, and the need to semiconductors that the shift will ultimately shake all of us. recognize that China seeks to leverage Chinese desperately need. the aftershocks of covid-19 to advance China is preparing to reroute its mercial center.” He writes: “The spiritual their own geopolitical agenda.” supply lines. And this seemingly distant, center of the [modern European] Holy American policymakers presented macroeconomic shift will ultimately Roman Empire is called Babylon in your a slew of bills in Congress in April, shake all of us. Bible (Revelation 17:5; 18:1-3). But here including one with bipartisan support Alex Capri of the National University of in Isaiah, the Bible refers to Tyre (and that calls for America to greatly reduce Singapore explained in an interview with its allies Zidon, etc) as the commercial supply chain dependence on China. the South China Morning Post: “As the U.S. center of this European power. By Sen. Marco Rubio, who introduced the tightens the chokehold, tech companies understanding the spiritual and the bill, said, “It is unfortunate that it took a in China … will double-down on efforts to commercial powers, you can understand global pandemic to make clear the ram- de-Americanize their supply chains.” what a colossus is rising in Europe.” ifications of offshoring our industrial The unthinkable is suddenly not A related passage in Ezekiel 27 also base to countries like China.” just thinkable. It is already in the early lists “Meshech” and “Tarshish,” ancient A U.S. congressional report made pub- phases. The two largest economies in names indicating modern Russia and lic on April 21 stated: “Because China is a world history are beginning to tear away Japan, showing that they too will be part global manufacturing hub, domestic sup- from each other. of this enormous trade bloc. ply chain disruptions sparked by covid-19 The Scriptures show that connections have triggered shocks across the global U.S. Resurgence Vs. ‘Mart of Nations’ between these Asian and European economy and brought into sharp relief In the short term, reducing supply chain nations will continue to develop in the the risk of reliance on China as a source dependence on a duplicitous and vicious years ahead, and that these nations will of intermediate and finished goods.” nation, and bringing manufacturing all turn more radically against the U.S. White House Senior Adviser Jared back home, particularly at a time when and some of its allies. Kushner said during an April 26 unemployment rates are soaring, could CHIMERICA PAGE 36 u JULY 2020 15 and your family? How much have you thought about it? Medicinal and therapeutic innovation expands the decision-making capacity and responsibility for people How Do You facing death. The individual with a bad heart can receive Deal With a heart transplant. Lungs, intestines, bone marrow, livers, kidneys—all can be replaced through surgery. DEATH? Someone with terminal cancer is offered surgery, chemotherapy, radiation COVID-19 has the world hiding from therapy, immunotherapy, it and hyperventilating over it. hormone therapy, cryoabla- You need to look squarely at it. tion and still more options. BY JOEL HILLIKER And machinery makes it possible to keep a body’s vital functions operating—heart ear of death is a powerful moti- that fails, expecting to be rescued by beating, blood flowing, lungs pumping— vator. Right now, this fear is advanced medicine. And when serious almost indefinitely. F imprisoning masses of people in disease or injury intrudes, it means The drive to use any means necessary their homes. It is inducing people to fighting their mortality using any tool to preserve life is understandable— strap on awkward, ugly masks anytime science can supply. some would even say heroic. But these proximity to other humans is inescap- This tendency was vividly illustrated advancements also have a downside. able. For fear of death, passersby in gro- in the covid-19 scramble to mass-man- While offering promise to sick patients, ceries are eyeballing each other warily; ufacture ventilators. People spoke as the range of possible treatments also cre- neighbors are spying and reporting each if these machines are a failsafe cure for ates a formidable set of expectations for other for infractions. Politicians are respiratory distress in covid patients. modern medicine to live up to. In most enacting policies that doom millions to Not so. The aggressiveness of the pro- cases, the disease itself has an inevitabil- hibernation, inactivity, solitude, jobless- cedure often permanently damages the ity to it—yet somehow people think not ness and deprivation; rules that wreck lungs, and can introduce pneumonia. using a particular technology or applying businesses, ruin industries and ground You’d never know it from the media a certain treatment means deciding to die. national economies; decrees that oblit- coverage, but the overwhelming majority Nobody wants to die. But accepting the erate hard-won, long-cherished civil of ventilator users with coronavirus— reality of a body succumbing to a fatal liberties—and justifying them with the indications are in the 80 to 90 percent disease becomes more difficult when need to save “just one life.” range—die before leaving the hospital. accompanied by the notion—however The world’s response to covid-19 But the medical profession is the false—that it was a choice. I choose death. is the most sweeping example of the only hope most people have. And that Given that choice, fewer and fewer extremes to which people will go to profession is very willing to peddle hope. take it. So health-care costs keep escalat- repel death. And most people apparently To patients stricken with fatal condi- ing. Each of those transplant procedures deem the economic, financial, mental tions, it offers an ever growing menu of cost somewhere between half a million and emotional costs acceptable if they treatments—a chance of escaping the and 2 million dollars. Cancer treatments reduce the death rate. Many speak as inescapable. But it also creates some easily exceed $10,000 per month and though it is immoral to consider any gut-wrenching conundrums. can be 10 times that amount. And the factors besides the sanctity of life itself. Besides that, it raises important success rate—depending on how you Without doubt, the questions and questions: At what cost to others should define it in terms of length and quality trials surrounding dying and death a physical human life be preserved? of life—varies wildly. In the end, most are among the most excruciating that What is its value? What is the meaning people end up dying in hospitals, often human beings face. We don’t want to die, of a human life? And what happens after significant medical intervention. and don’t want to think about dying. after death? Doctors are pursuing the fundamen- For far too many people, this doesn’t tally benevolent goal of giving individuals ISTOCK.COM/LUBO IVANKO mean making sensible choices that opti- Extending a Life a valuable, albeit fleeting gift: more years mize health and increase longevity. It How much medical intervention would of precious life. Yet they recognize that it means pretending they can abuse their you accept to extend your life? At what is impossible to indefinitely defy human body without consequences, then, when financial and emotional cost to yourself mortality. They have no power to heal. 16 THE PHILADELPHIA TRUMPET And in many cases, their treatments recognizing and understanding the about the “miracles” of medical interces- actually harm patients, diminishing qual- value of the spiritual over and above sion. It is the promise of resurrection. ity of life and hastening death. Besides the physical. What, after all, is the real It is the promise that, “as in Adam all that, medical mistakes and malpractice purpose for life? And what happens after die, even so in Christ shall all be made in hospitals and health-care facilities are it ends? Using every possible means to alive”—and that ultimately, “The last startlingly common. In America, they are stretch it for a few more years effectively enemy that shall be destroyed is death” the third leading cause of death. distracts people from facing these fun- (1 Corinthians 15:22, 26). To God, human Facing these realities, doctors, damental questions. death is just temporary sleep, because He along with patients and their families, can resurrect humans from the grave! confront agonizing choices about how Life After Death? This understanding supplies a dimen- much therapy to administer, treading Three in four Americans say they believe sion to questions of life and death that uncertain ground, guided by probabili- in life after death. But just what that science cannot address. Paul said for ties and feelings. might be remains cloaked in mystery those staring at death—either their own for most people. They simply have never or that of a loved one—this truth enables Facing the Big Questions closely examined the subject. Maybe you to “sorrow not, even as others Modern medical advances have clearly they are afraid to. which have no hope.” After explaining given years—of varying quality—to many The Apostle Paul wrote, “If in this life about the resurrection to come, he said, people. At the same time, these advances only we have hope in Christ, we are of all “Wherefore comfort one another with have enabled us to put off the fundamen- men most miserable” (1 Corinthians 15:19). these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). tal questions that our mortality raises. This was a man who faced death with Scripture shows that a great many will With death looming, we become preoccu- confidence. “For I am now ready to be be resurrected to a second physical life pied with essentially material concerns— offered, and the time of my departure in a future world governed by the King options, treatments, schedules, odds. For is at hand,” he wrote. “I have fought a of kings rather than by the evil “prince so many, the last days of life are spent not good fight, I have finished my course, I of this world” (John 14:30), as it is now. in peace, but in warfare, armed only with have kept the faith: Henceforth there is However, physical life is only a proving faith in the frail weapons of science. We laid up for me a crown of righteousness, ground, preparatory to resurrection into pour what little life we have into fighting which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall spirit life. “For this corruptible must put the enemy that will end it. And ultimately, give me at that day …” (2 Timothy 4:6-8). on incorruption, and this mortal must that fight always ends in defeat. Paul longed to live, as we all do. But put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53). Modern medicine promises a kind of what he alluded to was not an empty There is a wonderful, inspiring rea- immortality. It suggests that our energies hope of extending his physical life—but son—that something within us clings to are best put toward employing every the true hope expounded in Scripture. life. There is a reason we crave perma- means to extend physical existence as It is a hope founded in understanding nence, even as our physical existence God’s wonderful purpose in creating passes like a shadow. The Creator has At what cost to others man mortal, subjecting us to the trials revealed His purpose for creating human of the flesh—an experience that, to beings and imbuing us with thought, should a physical human fulfill that purpose, He even put His only intellect, creativity, self-awareness and life be preserved? What begotten Son through. spiritual yearnings. You have a purpose Many people believe that human beings and a potential that transcends anything is its value? What is the possess immortal souls, and that when this material world can offer. You were, meaning of a human life? they die, they go to either heaven or hell. in fact, created to inherit eternity. The Bible is clear, however, that souls are Learn about that purpose, and build long as possible. If we are not careful, this not immortal—they can die (Ezekiel 18:4, your life around it. Then you, like Paul, fiction can preempt the important spiri- 20). Scripture says that when we die, our can look unblinkingly at death. Not tual concerns that should dominate our “thoughts perish” and that “the dead know with fear, but with sober confidence, thinking, even our decision-making, as not anything” (Psalm 146:4; Ecclesiastes saying, “Henceforth there is laid up for we consider the inescapability of death. 9:5). Christ Himself said that “no man me a crown of righteousness, which Even with faith in God, facing death hath ascended up to heaven, but he that the Lord, the righteous judge, shall can be exceedingly difficult, particularly came down from heaven, even the Son of give me at that day: and not to when ongoing pain is involved. Even man which is in heaven” (John 3:13). me only, but unto all Jesus Christ, who was perfect in faith, The true hope of Scripture is not about them also that love struggled mightily as He faced His own our possessing an “immortal soul,” or his appearing.” n death, praying with penetrating emotion that He could avoid that suffering (Luke 22:41-44). Still, there is a serenity that Is this the only life you get? comes from saying, as Jesus did, “Never- Study what the Bible says. Request your free copies of the reprint theless not my will, but thine, be done.” article “Is There Life After Death?” and Herbert W. Armstrong’s And there is tremendous peace in inspiring book The Incredible Human Potential. JULY 2020 17 2,357 Estimating the death rate for covid-19 is nearly impossible. In March the director general of the World Health Organization said that “about 3.4 percent of reported covid-19 cases have died.” But subsequent studies have found that up CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES CARDIOVASCULAR to 80 percent of those infected with covid-19 show no symptoms. This means the real covid-19 death rate is lower than reported. You cannot calculate an accurate death rate for a virus without knowing how many people are infected. Without this information, the most accurate way to think about coronavirus deaths is to compare that number against the entire human population.

Consider these two pages

CANCERS In 2017, out of the Earth’s 7.55 billion inhabitants, 56 million people 1,266 died. This entire two-page spread represents 1 million people, of which 992,581 survived in 2017. The bars below show the leading causes of death that year, and the area of each bar represents the death rate per million for the entire globe.

RESPIRATORY DISEASES RESPIRATORY Respiratory disease is a leading cause of death even in normal times. 1,014 COVID-19 is a lung disease caused by a novel coronavirus first detected in late 2019. Respiratory diseases such as influenza, the common cold, sinus infections, tonsillitis, laryngitis, bronchitis, pneumonia and tuberculosis are the third-leading cause of death even in normal times. The normal influenza death rate is roughly 84 per million, which is in the range of the potential COVID-19 death rate.

What is other? This category includes all COVID-19 deaths are likely overestimates. deaths from unknown circumstances, as well Since many hospitals with COVID-19 patients as deaths caused by factors that kill less than receive special government funding, some one person per million each year (e.g. shark doctors are filling out death certificates with a attacks, workplace accidents, etc.). “COVID-19 diagnosis” even when there is not a lab test confirming the actual cause of death. Sen. Scott Jensen, who is also a medical doctor, received a seven-page document explaining how to fill out a death certificate as a “COVID-19 diagnosis” without a lab test. DEMENTIA DIGESTIVE DISEASES DIGESTIVE

333 OTHER 315 295 NEONATAL DISORDERS NEONATAL

236 DIARRHEA DIABETES LIVER DISEASES LIVER ROAD INJURIES ROAD 208 DISEASE KIDNEY 181 175 165 163 HIV/AIDS SUICIDE 1 9

126 MALARIA 105 MALNUTRITION HOMICIDE PARKINSON’S DISEASE PARKINSON’S DROWNING MENINGITIS

82 COVID- PREGNANCY COMPLICATIONS PREGNANCY ALCOHOL ABUSE ALCOHOL DRUG OVERDOSE DRUG WAR AND OTHER CONFLICTS OTHER AND WAR HEPATITIS

66 FIRE SNAKE BITE SNAKE POISONINGS EXPOSURE TO HEAT OR COLD OR HEAT TO EXPOSURE

54 TERRORISM 45 39 38 DISASTERS NATURAL 35 26 25 22 17 17 16 10 10 7 4 1 COVID-19 67 104 While there is still a lot that the world does not know 135 about COVID-19, the data that is available shows that the AIDS/HIV vast majority of those who catch the novel coronavirus will only get mild symptoms and then recover. Those 376 YUHANN PLAGUE YUHANN who die from the disease are mostly elderly people with FLU KONG HONG serious preexisting health conditions. ASIAN FLU ASIAN 645

5%

Severity FLU RUSSIAN Data published by the Chinese 15% Center for Disease Control indicates that 80 percent of COVID-19 patients only develop 80% mild symptoms like cough, fever and aches. ■ MILD ■ SEVERE ■ CRITICAL

Conditional Data from New York City Health 1,852 shows that 75 percent of those 25% who die from COVID-19 had preexisting conditions. 75%

■ YES ■ NO PLAGUE ANTONINE

2,336

4.5% Risk factor Data from New York City Health shows that almost half of those 23.1% who die from COVID-19 are age 47.7% JAPANESE SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC SMALLPOX JAPANESE 75 or older. 24.6% ■ 18-44 ■ 45-64 ■ 65-74 ■ 75+ 25,000 142,857 SPANISH FLU BUBONIC PLAGUE

Best guess? 205,128 Imperial College of London originally PLAGUE OF JUSTINIAN estimated that 2.2 million people in the United States and 510,000 people in the United Kingdom would die from COVID-19 without government lockdowns. While it is now impossible to know what the death rate Past Pandemics would have been without the lockdowns, Compared to past disease pandemics, COVID-19 is updated information about the number of mild STATES UNITED UNITED KINGDOM UNITED relatively mild. The bars in this section represent the COVID-19 cases shows that these initial death 150 130 death rate per 1 million per year based on the average toll estimates were gross exaggerations. global population during each pandemic. The entire COVID-19 death Projected national death two-page spread represents 1 million people. rate for the first rate per million (area of these third of 2020 2 pages = 1 million people) The Beautiful Effects of ‘Great Tribulation’

Jesus prophesied a time of unequaled suffering—and a cause for immense hope. BY JOEL HILLIKER

esus Christ said something and fear caused by pandemic and panic believe these are signs we are in the “last shocking—and it should have among peoples and their governments. days.” Pew Research found 55 percent of far greater force in our modern Overnight, we have seen food supply dis- Americans say they are praying for the minds than for His disciples. ruptions, record unemployment, masses pandemic to end. There has reportedly After all, we know about Hitler of people lining up for food handouts. We been a 40 percent spike worldwide in Jand Stalin, death camps and gulags, have seen rule of law destroyed, oppres- Google searches for the term “prayer.” atomic bombs and nuclear warfare. sion enacted, freedoms revoked. God does intend this adversity to When asked about conditions at the It is startling. But compared to the suf- provoke such thinking. Sadly, a great end of the world, Jesus prophesied that fering prophesied by Jesus Christ and many people are responding in rather the nations would experience “great forecast throughout the Old Testament the opposite way. Rather than using tribulation, such as was not since the and New Testament, it is mild. According confinement for reflection, religious beginning of the world to this time, no, to prophecy, looming ahead are race war, devotion or family bonding, they are nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21). economic besiegement, financial col- bingeing on television, movies, video We want to believe that history’s worst lapse, starvation, far deadlier pandemics, games, pornography or marijuana use. is behind us. And truly, humanity’s past nuclear war, foreign invasion, national Thus, if God is using this crisis as a is painfully rife with poverty, disease, captivity and literally billions dying. “wake-up call,” clearly the calamities will starvation, torment, oppression, massa- Yet in the current crisis, a striking have to intensify before they truly jolt a cre, genocide and war. But Christ’s words trend: Many people are thinking about great many people. signal that we are yet to experience God. A March survey of 1,000 likely This points to the reason for Christ’s worse tribulation than any ever suffered! American voters found 22 percent prophetic warning. And it illuminates

He said further (in verse 22) that believe coronavirus and economic melt- the way to avoid the suffering to come. JULIA GODDARD/TRUMPET “except those days should be shortened,” down are signs of God’s “coming judg- every human being would die. ment” and a “wake-up call for us to turn The Gulag These words have particular poignancy back to faith in God”; 22 percent more That the Great Tribulation will be harsher right now, in a world gripped by despair believe one of those things. Nearly 3 in 10 than anything in history is stunning 20 THE PHILADELPHIA TRUMPET when you consider the Camps were devastatingly filthy and dis- system’s “principle form of waste,” Solz- industrial scale of suffer- eased. Captives were starved or literally henitsyn writes, was “the last-leggers.” ing in the 20th century. worked to death. “[E]verything built by the Archipelago World War i w a s “[T]he life of the natives consists of had been squeezed out of the muscles called “the war to end work, work, work; of starvation, cold of the last-leggers (before they became war” because it was so and cunning,” Solzhenitsyn wrote. last-leggers). And those who survived … massive, so murderous Prisoners were barefoot and nearly must take upon themselves the disgrace and so horrific that naked—and this in a wasteland tundra of their own preserved lives.” people couldn’t fathom that “was eternally covered with snow “Philosophers, psychologists, medical going to war again. But and the blizzards eternally raged over it.” men, and writers could have observed before it was even over, At times on a given work site, hundreds in our camps, as nowhere else, in detail something happened of laborers froze to death. and on a large scale,” he wrote, “the spe- that would perpetuate The utter disregard for human life cial process of the narrowing of the intel- the nightmares of the led to unthinkable atrocities. Despite lectual and spiritual horizons of a human 20th century: the Rus- requiring prisoners to labor in the being, the reduction of the human being sian Revolution. Once cold for 10 to 12 hours a day or more, to an animal and the process of dying in power, the Bolsheviks officials fed them next to nothing: “They alive” (emphasis added throughout). began mass arrests and poured water into a pot, and the best Jesus Christ says the Tribulation to imprisonment. Captives one might expect was that they would come will be worse. included millions of drop unscrubbed small potatoes into God doesn’t want to put anyone peaceful, innocent citi- it …. And wherever there was a water through that if He doesn’t have to. zens perversely deemed shortage … only one bowl of gruel was enemies of the cause. cooked a day, and they also gave out a God’s Hammers Then World War ii ration of two cups of turbid salty water. The Great Tribulation that Christ proph- came, and it eclipsed the Everything any good was always and esied will not arrive without warning. horrors of World War i without fail stolen for the chiefs, for the He personally warned of it 2,000 years tenfold. It was terrible trusties, and for the thieves ….” ago. Centuries before that, God warned tribulation, such as the In such conditions, only one thing through Moses, Hosea, Amos and other world had never seen: dominates the mind: “Hunger, which prophets. He warned through Ezekiel, submarine warfare, V-2 forces an honest person to reach out after he and his people had suffered rockets, aircraft carriers, and steal (‘When the belly rumbles, con- nation-destroying tribulation, conquest concentration camps, science flees’). Hunger, which compels and enslavement. atomic bombs. And the most unselfish person to look with Ezekiel, a captive himself, prophesied conditions in Russia had deteriorated envy into someone else’s bowl, and to that in the future, Israel’s descendants dramatically under Joseph Stalin, one of try painfully to estimate what weight of would again suffer tribulation on an history’s greatest mass murderers. Even ration his neighbor is receiving. Hunger, epic scale. These descendants make up while hurling men by the millions into which darkens the brain and refuses to modern nations that include, most prom- fighting the Germans, he continued the allow it to be distracted by anything else inently, America and Britain (for proof, imprisonments and purges of millions at all, or to think about anything else at request The United States and Britain in more of his own people—tribulation that all, or to speak about anything else at Prophecy). Ezekiel 5 prophesies that a ground on long after the war ended. all except food, food and food. Hunger, third of these nations’ populations will Alexander Solzhenitsyn was one of from which it is impossible to escape die in violence within cities, and another those prisoners. He would later write a even in dreams—dreams are about food, third in nuclear attacks. The surviving series of books describing life in captiv- and insomnia is over food. And soon— third will be enslaved, just as Ezekiel was. ity: The Gulag Archipelago. This metic- just insomnia.” The numbers—more than 100 million in ulous account powerfully describes Sickness and disease were rampant, each of these waves—defy imagination. tribulation and captivity. It portrays yet, Solzhenitsyn writes acerbically, Why would God allow and, yes, cause shattered freedoms, rampant injustices, “there was no doctor’s aide, not even an such suffering? Not simply to punish, brutal arrests, torturous interrogations, orderly, and as a result there were no but, in fact, to correct. horrifying camp conditions, and count- sick, and anyone who pretended to be God is trying to reach people, to help less grotesque manifestations of human sick was taken out to the wood in his them repent. He is a Father, trying to nature among both officers and prison- comrades’ arms, and they also took a reach His sons. “For whom the Lord ers. It makes the reality of the coming board and rope along so they could drag loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth Tribulation achingly real. the corpse back the more easily.” every son whom he receiveth” (Hebrews Captives of the gulag numbered in The work projects—clearing forests, 12:6). Though God’s correction is griev- the millions. Soviet officials extracted breaking rocks, mining ore, building ous in the moment, when someone as much work from them as possible railroads and canals—staggered for- responds positively it brings beautiful while providing as little care as possible. ward at incalculable human cost. The results (verse 11). JULY 2020 21 God has a set of hammers. If we fail does life’s tumult muddy the waters of wisely, I am going to live. The day of our to heed the gentler correction, we force your mind and inhibit contemplation? future release? It shines like a rising sun.” Him to use bigger hammers and harder In captivity, there is so much time, blows to dissuade us from living the way and so much motive, to think deeply Refining that leads to death. and examine yourself differently. “Here Zechariah 13:8 describes the same Trib- The Great Tribulation is the biggest is a rewarding and inexhaustible direc- ulation that Ezekiel 5 prophesies: Only hammer of all—but even it is a corrective tion for your thoughts,” Solzhenitsyn one third will yet live. What will God do tool. It will succeed in driving thousands wrote: “Reconsider all your previous with these survivors? “And I will bring of His own wayward Spirit-begotten life. Remember everything you did the third part through the fire, and will saints back to Him. It will bring “a that was bad and shameful and take refine them as silver is refined, and will great multitude, which no man could thought—can’t you possibly correct it try them as gold is tried: they shall call on number” into His Family (Revelation 7:9). now? Yes, you have been imprisoned for my name, and I will hear them: I will say, Ultimately it will do much to prepare the nothing. You have nothing to repent of It is my people: and they shall say, The whole world to come to know Him! before the state and its The Gulag Archipelago illustrates how laws. But … before your the Tribulation will actually succeed as own conscience? But a tool of correction. Horrible as it is to … in relation to other contemplate, the Tribulation is actually individuals?” an expression of God’s love. If you were to be enslaved this way, would Convicted by Conscience you look back with The great majority who entered the regret at how you lived Soviet gulags were broken by them. Yet and the choices you Solzhenitsyn documented how some made? few, though crushed in body, actually “I have become con- grew stronger in mind and spirit. vinced that there is no When someone is forcibly plucked punishment that comes from his life and thrust into a world to us in this life on Earth where survival is the lone goal, in a which is undeserved,” sense life becomes exceedingly simple. said another captive, One prisoner described the slow hours Boris Kornfeld. “Superfi- ENSLAVED Gulag captives work on of internment, the quiet, the time to cially it can have nothing the massive Belomor Canal with think: “Here all the trivia and fuss to do with what we are primitive tools; by some estimates the project killed over 200,000 laborers. have decreased. … I have experienced guilty of in actual fact, a turning point. … Here you harken to but if you go over your that voice deep inside you, which amid life with a fine-tooth comb and ponder Lord is my God” (Zechariah 13:9). Yes, the surfeit and vanity used to be stifled it deeply, you will always be able to hunt this cruel captivity will accomplish God’s by the roar from outside.” down that transgression of yours for purpose by refining these victims. God Consider it: Right now, even amid which you have now received this blow.” will work with them to help them ascend global crisis, people remain distracted Solzhenitsyn recognized that you may in character. “Behold, I have refined and self-absorbed. Thus God, rather argue this point when you see children you, but not like silver,” He says; “I have than give us up to sinful self-destruction, and other innocents brutally punished— tried you in the furnace of affliction” must find a way to cut through the noise yet, he wrote, “there was something in (Isaiah 48:10; Revised Standard Version). if He is to reach people and teach people. Kornfeld’s last words that touched a Solzhenitsyn movingly described the Solzhenitsyn quoted a proverb: sensitive chord, and that I accept quite refining that captivity can effect: “Your “Poverty and prison give wisdom.” And completely for myself. And many will soul, which formerly was dry, now ripens another: “Freedom spoils, and lack of accept the same for themselves.” from suffering. And even if you haven’t freedom teaches.” This man had been a hardened Rus- come to love your neighbors in the Chris- “Torn from the hustle-bustle of every- sian officer. Yet there in the gulag, as he tian sense, you are at least learning to day life in so absolute a degree that even contemplated life, he thought, “There love those close to you. … It is particularly counting the passing minutes puts him is nothing that so aids and assists the in slavery that for the first time we have intimately in touch with the universe,” awakening of omniscience within us learned to recognize genuine friendship.”

he wrote, “the lonely prisoner has to as insistent thoughts about one’s own Immersed in an environment of LASKI DIFFUSION/GETTY IMAGES have been purged of every imperfec- transgressions, errors, mistakes.” Recall- unspeakable barbarity, some rare indi- tion, of everything that has stirred and ing his past, he thought, “How many viduals gain moral clarity. “Once upon troubled him in his former life, that has unused opportunities there were. When a time you were sharply intolerant,” he prevented his muddied waters from will we now make up for it? If I only man- continued. “You were constantly in a settling into transparency.” How much age to survive—oh, how differently, how rush. And you were constantly short 22 THE PHILADELPHIA TRUMPET of time. And now you have time with abundant. People can readily access it endlessly rehearsing and refining them, interest. You are surfeited with it, with through the Trumpet magazine, the Key without committing them to paper. “This its months and its years, behind you and of David television program, radio pro- was very rewarding, in that it helped ahead of you—and a beneficial calming grams, podcasts and many publications. me not to notice what was being done fluid pours through your blood vessels— But soon it will be gone. with my body,” he wrote. “Memory was patience. You are ascending …. Formerly This is why we are urgent to publicize the only hidey-hole in which you could you never forgave anyone. You judged God’s warning message while we can. keep what you had written and carry it people without mercy. And you praised Those future captives need this message. through all the searches and journeys people with equal lack of moderation. They need He Was Right. They need under escort. … No longer burdened with And now an understanding mildness Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s frivolous and superfluous knowledge, has become the basis of your uncategor- booklets on Lamentations and The Song a prisoner’s memory is astonishingly ical judgments. You have come to realize of Songs—special messages from God to capacious, and can expand indefinitely. your own weakness—and you can there- His recalcitrant spiritual sons. We have too little faith in memory.” We say, like Christ, “I Amid the Tribulation, God’s people in “[I]f you go over your life with a fine- must work the works captivity will search their memories, and of him that sent me, God will help them remember. They will tooth comb and ponder it deeply, you while it is day: the night recall remnants of God’s truth. They will will always be able to hunt down that cometh, when no man recollect their time in God’s Church. They transgression of yours for which you can work” (John 9:4). will think on Psalm 137 and the hymns The founding book they sang. Like those who composed have now received this blow.” of the Trumpet’s pub- that psalm, they will be exiles in captivity, BORIS KORNFELD lisher, the Philadelphia mourning. They will actually remember Church of God, is Mal- that psalm by remembering that hymn fore understand the weakness of others. achi’s Message. In that book, Mr. Flurry from The Bible Hymnal. And be astonished at another’s strength.” shows that the last era of God’s Church And verses 8-9 show that they will The humiliation of captivity can lead before Christ’s return—called the testify to their captors. They will deliver to a humility of spirit. When pomp and Laodicean era—began after the leader God’s warning to their guards and offi- vanity are exposed as false and worth- of God’s Church, Herbert W. Armstrong, cers of the fate that awaits them! less, space can be created for something died in 1986. (Read Christ’s message The Bible says that God’s people, who more pure. The mind can awaken to all of correction to this rebellious era in have finally repented and are doing it once took for granted. The captive Revelation 3:14-22.) Since that time, the His warning work, will be martyred for clutches for meaning, for hope and true Church of God has splintered and it. Yet because they repented, they will humanity, for God. “How gratefully his resplintered. Yet God has been knocking have qualified to receive eternal life. fingers reach out to feel and crumble the on the Laodiceans’ door for 30 years Solzhenitsyn described astronomer lumps of earth in the vegetable garden through the pcg. He is still knocking, Nikolai Kozyrev, a fellow prisoner (but, alas, it is all asphalt). How his head beseeching them to open the door to Him. who “saved himself by thinking of the rises of itself toward the eternal heavens Those who fail to heed will be thrust eternal and infinite: of the order of the (but, alas, this is forbidden). And how into the Great Tribulation. Scripture universe—and of its Supreme Spirit; much touching attention the little bird prophesies that in this holocaust, they of the stars; of their internal state; and on the window still arouses in him (but, will have to repent or lose their eternal what time and the passing of time really alas, there is that ‘muzzle’ there … and lives. And to prove their hearts, God will are.” Contemplating God enabled him to the hinged ventilation pane is locked).” actually give them an important work to survive despite being confined for a year How achingly easy it is to neglect do in their captivity—testifying to their with a man who had literally gone insane. what is truly important. Soon, though, captors about the truth of God. Nikolai thought and thought, until many millions will have their illusions he reached the limits of his own knowl- exposed and everything they cherish The Value of Memory edge. He cried out: “Please, God! I have stripped. Untold millions will become Solzhenitsyn wrote a lot on the impor- done everything I could. Please help even more depraved and animalistic. tance of memory in captivity. “Own noth- me! Please help me continue!” But in that darkness, something truly ing! Possess nothing!” he wrote. “Own Just half an hour later, the guards beautiful will occur: An innumerable only what you can always carry with came and gave him a book: A Course in host will accept the chastening and you: know languages, know countries, Astrophysics. scourging, they will take hold of humil- know people. Let your memory be your “Where had it come from?” Solzhenit- ity, they will embrace the correction, travel bag. Use your memory! Use your syn wrote. The prison library generally and they will be refined like molten gold. memory! It is those bitter seeds alone held only Communist propaganda. Among the things people will be which might sprout and grow someday.” “Aware of the brief duration of the deprived of in the Tribulation is God’s This prisoner used his memory to coincidence, Kozyrev threw himself on truth. God prophesies of a famine of the extraordinary effect. He composed it and began to memorize everything word (Amos 8:11). Today, that truth is hundreds of lines of poetry in his mind, he needed immediately, and everything JULY 2020 23 he might need later on.” Imagine the correct them and save them from spir- house for love, it would utterly be con- hunger for true knowledge people will itual death—and far beyond that! He is temned” (verse 7). “What a breathtaking possess during the famine of the word. preparing to use them to save still more scripture,” Mr. Flurry writes. “If we are They will hunger for meaning and for people, even their own captors! loyal to God, nothing can destroy true hope! If only we could appreciate these love—nothing! Not even death.” things now, while they are abundant. Love Is Strong as Death Amid so much tragedy in the Church The book exchange at this prison Solzhenitsyn described an array of tools today, God is full of hope that His pre- would swap out the books every 10 days. and tortures Soviet interrogators used cious Spirit-begotten sons will make it. But just two days after Nikolai received to break captives and extract confes- It will take extraordinary moral and this book, the prison chief made an sions. They interrogated one old woman spiritual courage to do what these saints unscheduled inspection. “His eagle eye repeatedly, but she refused to tell them do. Yet at the same time, God will have noticed immediately. ‘But you are an anything. “At first the interrogators took to carefully calibrate their experience to astronomer?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Take this book away turns, and then they went after her in give them the opportunity. Solzhenitsyn from him!’ But its mystical arrival had groups. They shook their fists in the made a crucial point. He said every per- opened the way for further work, which son has a breaking point. When a prisoner he then continued in the camp in Norilsk.” didn’t comply, it was really a sign that his Can such an event be explained any Given harsh enough captors hadn’t successfully pushed him way other than that the omnipotent, conditions, everyone can to that point. Regarding the defiant cap- omniscient God was watching and be broken. That means tive, he wrote, “For a reader who is not in listening and working in the life of an the know this is a model of heroism. For unconverted prisoner in a Soviet gulag? God must protect us and a reader with a bitter Gulag past, it’s a How closely attentive will God be in those in the Tribulation model of inefficient interrogation.” the lives of the captives and exiles of the from those conditions Given harsh enough conditions, Great Tribulation? He will be meticu- everyone can be broken. That means lously orchestrating circumstances for that would break us. God must protect us and those in the the Laodiceans, for the innumerable Tribulation from those conditions that multitude that never knew God until little old woman’s face, and she replied, would break us. “God is faithful, who will the Tribulation struck, for the nations ‘There is nothing you can do with me, not suffer you to be tempted above that of Israel, and in fact for all humanity. even if you cut me into pieces. After all, ye are able; but will with the temptation you are afraid of your bosses, and you also make a way to escape, that ye may ‘I Will Sow Them’ are afraid of each other, and you are be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). Of those experiencing this severest of even afraid of killing me. But I am not punishments, God says in Zechariah afraid of anything. I would be glad to be ‘Our Last Prison Sky’ 10:9, “And I will sow them among the judged by God right this minute.’” The Laodiceans will die in that captivity. people: and they shall remember me in Solzhenitsyn knew of several people Sadly, far too many will die not for God, far countries; and they shall live with like her, who would choose death but trying to save their lives by submit- their children, and turn again.” As their rather than cooperate or sign anything ting to their captors and other criminal ordeal leads them to repent, God will denouncing anyone. activity in captivity. actually use them to reach still others. Song of Songs 8:6 describes the But a great many will repent and be “God will sow the Laodiceans in far Laodicean woman, suffering in the martyred for God, proving themselves countries during the Tribulation. Half of Tribulation, and turning to God. “Set me worthy of becoming the Bride of the them will ‘turn again’ to God—realizing as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon Lamb who was slain. what they almost lost,” Mr. Flurry writes thine arm,” she says, “for love is strong Isaiah 54:4-5 have a thrilling message in his booklet on Zechariah. “But what as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: to the Laodiceans who will repent: By makes this verse so inspiring is the fact the coals thereof are coals of fire, which turning to God and giving up their physi- that God is in control of the situation. hath a most vehement flame.” cal lives, they will be resurrected not only He says, ‘I will sow them.’ Why does “There is coming a time when this into His Family but as part of the Bride a farmer sow seed? So he can have a repentant Bride of Christ will become a of Christ. “Fear not; for thou shalt not be harvest! … God will actually sow them in courageous witness for her Husband in ashamed: neither be thou confounded; foreign countries so they can teach the the face of death, amid the nightmares of for thou shalt not be put to shame …. For Gentiles. Even as the Gentiles threaten the Tribulation,” Mr. Flurry writes in The thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord to kill them, they will say, Go ahead—but Song of Songs. “She will look her persecu- of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer I’m telling you what’s coming. God’s mes- tors squarely in the face, and say, Love is the Holy One of Israel; The God of the sage will be taught all over the world by strong as death! I can love God and I can whole earth shall he be called.” Yes, God the Laodiceans! Isn’t that amazing? God die for Him because I love Him so much!” hid His face, but only for a moment. And sows them so He can reap a harvest.” “Many waters cannot quench love, for a magnificent purpose. Think of all Today, these people are rebelling neither can the floods drown it: if a that God will accomplish through the against God—yet He is preparing to man would give all the substance of his GREAT TRIBULATION PAGE 32 u 24 THE PHILADELPHIA TRUMPET Is God’s Church Divided? Many people believe there are true Christians scattered in various churches. What does the Bible say? BY STEPHEN FLURRY

ollowing the death of Herbert speaking different things. God’s Church into His Family? Not through separate W. Armstrong in the 1980s, the is not divided! and opposing governments, but one F new leadership of the Worldwide government (Ephesians 4:11-13). Not Church of God (wcg) fired my father for Why Division through separate and opposing bodies of faithfully following in Mr. Armstrong’s Many people who were part of God’s doctrine but pure, true doctrine. steps. After God established the one true Church and are now in various Those true Christians who were Philadelphia Church of God through groups take comfort in the idea that taught the truth in the wcg splintered my father in 1989, a number of other God’s Church is divided into “branches”: into dozens of different groups after churches broke away from the wcg in different organizations, different Mr. Armstrong died. The reason differ- the early to mid-1990s. leaders and yes, different doctrines. ent groups exist is that they have differ- Since that time, many of God’s people They believe that all the Catholic and ent beliefs—disagreements, divisions! have come to believe that there are true Protestant Christians are divided and Where is Jesus Christ in this? He Christians in many different “branches” wrong, but the divided churches that commanded that His people be the of God’s Church. We’re all God’s Church, still hold most or some or a few of the opposite, unified in the faith. The night they reason. But that is not what they biblical doctrines Mr. Armstrong taught before He was crucified, His thoughts believed when they were in the wcg are right; they are divided yet united. were on His people, His Church, “[t]hat before Mr. Armstrong’s death. As Mr. Armstrong wrote in Chapter 6 they all may be one; as thou, Father, art What does your Bible teach? of Mystery of the Ages, the Church of in me, and I in thee, that they also may Does it say there are many different God is a spiritual organism. It is the body be one in us: that the world may believe religious organizations with different through which Jesus Christ is doing His that thou hast sent me” (John 17:21). leaders and different beliefs, yet all of work. He is its spiritual Head, and He Did Christ become more like worldly them are right with God? actively leads it! Those who have the Christianity, or did worldly Christianity The Apostle Paul wrote, “Now I Holy Spirit are His people. That is what seep into His Church? beseech you, brethren, by the name of constitutes His Church; that is what our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak constitutes true Christians. Through the same thing, and that there be no divi- His Church, Christ feeds, guides and sions among you; but that ye be perfectly governs God’s begotten children. joined together in the same mind and in But by neglect or by choice, people can the same judgment” (1 Corinthians 1:10). stop believing and obeying. They com- About this passage, Mr. Armstrong promise; they think and act contrary wrote, “Some of them wanted to follow to the Holy Spirit. They leave the Peter, some wanted to follow Apollos, spiritual body that is being actively some Paul. But Paul was their apostle, led by Christ. They can and do and Christ taught them by Paul. The ultimately lose the Holy Spirit separated individual believer will follow and eternal life! his own idea of God’s truth. That is not How does God nurture His God’s way. God in His almighty wisdom begotten people so they grow has raised up the Church as His means enough spiritually to be born of teaching all the same truth—all speaking the same thing! Not each indi- vidual his own thing!” (The Incredible Does your Bible say there are many Human Potential). There is one Church. That Church different religious organizations with must speak that same thing or it will different leaders and different beliefs become divided. That’s what happened after Mr. Armstrong’s death: The YET ALL OF THEM ARE Church split apart and everyone started RIGHT WITH GOD? EMMA MOORE/TRUMPET EMMA

JULY 2020 25 Is Jesus Christ the reason for the divi- church in 1992, he wrote a booklet called minister Herman Hoeh were largely sion among these churches, or it is us? Church Government and Church Unity. responsible for the top-down govern- Is the existence of divergent “branches” In it he rejected the way Mr. Armstrong ment Mr. Armstrong adopted. “Even because of righteousness or because of had governed the wcg; he said the after several years of guiding the college sin? Is Christ the cause for difference, Church had seriously misunderstood [which began in 1947], Mr. Armstrong disagreement and division—or are we? church government. He wrote that God’s still did not understand much about Jesus Christ is not distant. Nor is He Church had rarely ever been governed Church government,” Meredith wrote. actively working through hundreds of by one administration, with one man in “Consequently, in the early to mid-1950s, different presidents, boards, ministries charge—and Mr. Armstrong knew it. Herman Hoeh and I each were inspired and voters to do His work. to write articles along this line.” Christ still leads His Church! Christ Christ still leads According to this story, Mr. Meredith still feeds His Church! Christ still and Mr. Hoeh were the ones responsible governs His Church! Your duty and only His Church. Christ for helping Mr. Armstrong set up the gov- hope is to find Him! You must grow more still feeds His Church. ernment structure. Mr. Meredith noted believing, more obedient, more close, Christ still governs that “all of us leading ministers” under- more at one with Him. stood that for the wcg to do God’s work, Many in the scattered Church of God His Church. it needed to be unified. He wrote that as groups do still have God’s Holy Spirit. YOUR DUTY AND long as there was a dedicated man like But unless they are part of the body Mr. Armstrong at the top, a hierarchical where He is, they are growing increas- ONLY HOPE IS TO government would best preserve unity. ingly separated and divided from Christ! FIND HIM. Meredith’s description was that the The books of Malachi, Hosea, James leading ministers devised this pyramid and Revelation prophesy that many in The fruits show this is totally false. structure and wrote about it in articles; God’s Church would turn away from God Especially in the later years of his minis- then, “Mr. Armstrong accepted these and Jesus Christ. try, Mr. Armstrong understood and wrote articles and immediately published The thousands who truly did receive clearly about this subject and its crucial them in the Good News.” God’s Holy Spirit as a result of Mr. Arm- importance. He wrote in April 1981 that Meredith said that, over time, this strong’s teaching were indeed begotten God always works through one man at form of government led to all sorts of by the Father into His Family. But if they a time, under Jesus Christ: “He worked hardships and abuses. According to are no longer in the Church He is lead- through Abraham. He worked through his booklet, everything started going ing, then they are losing what truth and Moses, through Joshua, through one haywire when wcg ministers began to what Holy Spirit they have! But they still ‘judge’ at a time, through Samuel, through compare Mr. Armstrong to Moses. have a chance to repent and turn to Him. David, through Solomon. He worked “Frankly there was never—in the New Read Chapter 6 of Mystery of the Ages. through Peter and when Peter had left Testament Church—any example of Read these scriptures: John 6:44; Hosea the Middle East, through Paul. These a Moses figure,” Meredith wrote. “God 4:6; 6:1; Revelation 3:14-22; Ephesians men had, in greater or lesser number, guided many apostles and elders to work 4:11-16; 1 Corinthians 1:10; 12:18. staff assistants under them, but God’s in a brotherly, nonthreatening, collegial Is the current state of the scattered work was through the one man at a time!” atmosphere, and no single one of the Church of God groups what Jesus (Good News; emphasis added throughout). apostles towered over the others.” described, saying those the Father In his Dec. 17, 1983, sermon, According to Meredith, this collegial draws through apostles and prophets Mr. Armstrong listed the government “New Testament” approach is what the become a “body fitly joined,” “all of God as one of the major restored doc- Church failed to grasp during the days speak[ing] the same thing”? trines of the Church. In a subsequent of Mr. Armstrong. “I’ve learned the right Perhaps many think that the days of a list of these truths that was published, approach in servant leadership,” Mere- Church of God like that ended with Mr. “the government of God” was number dith said at a ministerial conference in Armstrong’s death. Not true! The one true one! Everyone in the wcg at the time July 1993. Later he added, “Let’s try to Church of God that Jesus Christ directly knew Mr. Armstrong taught clearly and do it right this time, as shepherds with a leads is alive. The Church described in emphatically about the biblical doctrine loving approach.” those scriptures is here today! of God’s government. But after Mr. Armstrong was The ‘Loving Approach’ A Tragic Example gone, Mr. Meredith tried to spin a The inescapable implication is One prominent leader to break away confusing and deceitful web. He said that Church government under from the Worldwide Church of God in Mr. Armstrong supposedly knew God Mr. Armstrong was not loving, not shep- the early 1990s was the late Rod Mere- did not work through one man. In his herding, not servant leadership, not dith. When he left the wcg to start a new booklet, Mr. Meredith said he and fellow brotherly, but dominated by one man

How26 THE PHILADELPHIAdo you TRUMPETknow a church is led by God? God’s Church is led by Him. That means it has His form of government. towering over the others in a threaten- rebellion in the Church. He wrote: liberal rebellion against God’s govern- ing atmosphere. “Little groups, splintering off, centered ment in the 1970s. And six months It is well worth noting that this is the in Washington, d.c.; Eugene, Oregon; before he died, he felt compelled to same deplorable tactic Mr. Armstrong’s Tyler, Texas; Monterey, California; and remind the brethren about this history. immediate successor, Joseph Tkach, other places with groups too small to “I want you, brethren, to think about and especially his son, Joe Jr., used to mention. They are not bearing fruit for and understand what happened to God’s destroy Mr. Armstrong’s legacy. We’ve the Kingdom. They are not pleasing God Church in the 1970s ‘lest history repeat made so many mistakes in our past, or being blessed by Him. Jesus said, ‘By itself!’ I want you to see the ‘fruits’ of they repeatedly said. And unfortunately, their fruits you shall know them.’ They rebelling against God’s way and God’s Mr. Armstrong didn’t live long enough to usually claim to be ‘branches’ of the government,” Mr. Armstrong wrote. correct these many errors. But now, God Church of God. But Jesus said, ‘I will Seven years after Mr. Armstrong deliv- has led us to make the necessary changes! build my church’ (Matthew 16:18). He ered that sobering warning, Rod Mere- Mr. Meredith implied, If only Mr. did not say denominations, sects, cults, dith left the Worldwide Church of God Armstrong would have lived long enough branches or a church divided against to, as he claimed, faithfully preach “the to learn the right approach to servant itself. Rather He said a house divided truths proclaimed by Herbert W. Arm- leadership. If only he would have been against itself cannot stand. There is one strong.” And yet, in his very first book- able to administer government the right true Church and one only. The Apostle let—the battle cry for his church and the way, with a loving approach. That mes- Paul pictured humanly self-appointed establishment of its government—Mr. sage was clear in Mr. Meredith’s Church ‘branches’ when he said to the elders of Meredith said Jesus Christ almost always Government and Church Unity booklet. the local church at Ephesus that some of uses many different coexisting branches From beginning to end, that booklet bla- their own selves would depart to draw a to do His work. And Mr. Armstrong, he tantly attacked the form of government following after themselves.” added, believed this too! Mr. Armstrong administered—which None of it was true. But many people was God’s government! It revealed so When you are trying to believed it. And today, many still do. much about the problem Mr. Meredith Mr. Meredith’s collegial government had with that government. find God’s true Church, kicked him out of his own church in Men like Mr. Meredith had been the question isn’t just 1998. He then established a new church, called into God’s Church decades after this time resorting to a form of govern- God had used Mr. Armstrong to build it. whether one man is ment in which he retained more power, They had been taught, trained, baptized leading it, but prior to his death in 2017. It was a more and ordained by Herbert W. Armstrong. IS JESUS CHRIST hierarchical style, yes, with one man But then they thought they knew more holding more power at the top. But when than he did—and on the subject of LEADING THAT MAN? you are trying to find God’s true Church, Church government, of all things! the question isn’t just whether one man The notion that the New Testament Mr. Armstrong then referred to 1 Cor- is leading it, but—far more importantly: had no Moses-like figure in the Church inthians 12:25, saying there should be Is Jesus Christ leading that man? is provably wrong. “Peter was the first no divisions in the body—“no branches It falls to you to prove for yourself and chief apostle,” Mr. Armstrong wrote or branch organizations.” Paraphrasing the one true Church (not branch) that in Mystery of the Ages. The surname that Ephesians 4, he added, “[T]he Church Jesus Christ is directly leading. That Jesus Christ Himself gave him was a title is organized and fitly framed together, means Jesus Christ is directly govern- designating a religious leader! not organized with competing and ing it. The fruits of Mr. Armstrong’s Mr. Meredith rejected this truth, then differing branches.” ministry and the biblical doctrines God added that it was incorrect to even think used him to restore prove that it was that Jesus Christ directly guides His History Repeating Itself not just the work of a man. Today, many Church! Instead, Meredith wrote, Christ Now, please consider this carefully. The churches that splintered from the uses many “different branches”—all reason this history is so important is Worldwide Church of God—or splin- coexisting—to do His work. that there are many thousands of people tered from those splinters—claim to That might sound reasonable. But is it who once devoted their lives to uphold- continue parts of that legacy. But there biblical? ing the teachings of Herbert Armstrong is only one that has the doctrines of In his landmark June 24, 1985, World- who now are laboring under the notion the Bible, the government of the wide News article, “Recent History of that there are many different branches of Bible and the leader- the Philadelphia Era of the Worldwide God’s Church doing God’s work today. ship of the Bible—not Church of God,” Mr. Armstrong actually That thinking is a deadly delusion. just the leadership wrote that the “different branches” idea As Mr. Armstrong wrote in the article of one man, but of was one of the “fruits” of a 1970s-era quoted above, it started during the Jesus Christ. n

How do you know a church is led by God? God’s Church is led by Him. That means it has His form of government. To get the biblical explanation of how God rules His Church, request Gerald Flurry’s free booklet God’s Family Government. JULY 2020 27 A B-61-12 undergoes be armed only if the U.S. provides Pope Francis calls for acoustic testing. the correct security code, then universal basic income mounted on European fighter jets in the event of war with Russia. ope Francis wrote a letter However, it is possible that to social activists on host countries like Germany P Easter Sunday, April 12, in could obtain the code, enabling which he called for a universal them to use the bombs for basic income. Amid a global their own strategy. No safety economic and health crisis, the mechanism is foolproof. There Catholic Church has blamed is also a risk that the uranium in the suffering of impoverished the warhead could be removed workers on the free market and, and transferred to another by extension, the United States. weapon. Germany manufactures The pope promoted “struc- nuclear missiles for France tural changes” and criticized and could conceivably use this the “economy of exclusion and technology and key parts of the inequality.” He wrote, “This B-61-12 to arm the Luftwaffe with may be the time to consider a nuclear-strike capability. universal basic wage ….” Bible prophecy identifies The pope has made similar modern Germany by the name criticisms before, including a of its ancient ancestors, the 2013 letter that called capitalist United Assyrians. It identifies the U.S. free-market economies “naive” and Britain as descendants of the because they “trust in the good- States to ancient Israelites. As Herbert W. ness of those wielding economic Armstrong proved in The United power”; the free market is “a new upgrade States and Britain in Prophecy, tyranny” and “a financial system Bible prophecies about the which rules rather than serves.” nukes in Assyrians attacking Israel are “If Pope Francis is to be actually warning about Germany taken at his word, he could not Germany attacking the U.S. and Britain. possibly wish for the leader of In the April 1980 Plain the capitalist system to thrive Truth, Mr. Armstrong wrote and prosper, continuing to inflict he United States is adds self-guidance capability to that Germany “will first attack its ‘tyranny’ on the world,” wrote beginning to send these aircraft-dropped weapons, Britain for standing firm with Gerald Flurry in his 2016 Trumpet T upgraded B-61 nuclear making them accurate within the United States, and then they article “Why Is the Pope Meddling gravity bombs to Germany. The about 30 yards. This type of will return a lot of hydrogen in American Politics?” “If he modernization project, which bomb has an adjustable yield and bombs the U.S. has stored now believes the free market is a force began nearly a decade ago, puts is designed for precise tactical in Europe!” The bombs America of destruction, then he would feel one of the world’s deadliest strikes on military bases, bunkers has deployed to Germany will not only justified, but obligated nuclear weapons partially under and other hardened targets. be detonated in American cities to use his power to weaken it” German control. The U.S. currently stores 150 and military installations. For (theTrumpet.com/13725). The upgrades are costly: These B-61 bombs at bases in Belgium, more information on this subject, Now the pope is aligning bombs would be cheaper if they Germany, Italy, the Netherlands read “Europe’s Nuclear Secret” with left-wing social causes and were solid gold. The new B-61-12 and Turkey. They are designed to (theTrumpet.com/11136). n implying that the free market has caused needless suffering during the COVID-19 crisis. European funding, the Libyan Coast Guard as part plague the Sahel region, despite Unlike socialists, though, his troops enter Libya of Operation Irini. European efforts to train local solution is religious. Many find The operation’s stated goal is troops to defend against them. it hard to imagine the Catholic n April 22, Germany to enforce the United Nations Libya has descended into a proxy Church guiding economic, committed 300 soldiers embargo on Libya, and it war among outside nations. political and even military policy, to Operation Irini currently employs surveillance Somalia and other nations in but the Bible prophesies that the

O RANDY MONTOYA/FLICKR in Libya. They will enforce a aircraft and spy satellites. Naval the Horn of Africa are unstable. Catholic Church will soon guide weapons-trafficking embargo ships will soon be involved too. Watch for Europe, especially Europe directly and aggressively. on the war-torn country. At the Terrorist violence in North Germany, to increase its The pope’s actions already reveal same time, the European Union Africa and Europe has increased. involvement in this region with what the targets of that coming agreed to increase funding to Frequent and deadly attacks more money and more force. n superpower will be. n 28 THE PHILADELPHIA TRUMPET Netanyahu Iranians harass U.S. warships in Persian Gulf secures sovereignty in leven Iranian Navy speed- of worldwide maritime oil ship- unity deal boats surrounded and ments. Closing this shipping lane, E harassed a fleet of United even if only for a few days, would fter an unprec- States Navy warships traversing disrupt national economies that edented the northern Persian Gulf on April are already fragile. three general 15. The U.S. Navy released a state- The Bible prophesies that a A Netanyahu elections in Israel outlines his plan ment saying that the Iranians group of radical Islamic nations, over the past year to annex Israeli “repeatedly crossed the bows and led by Iran, will gain control of settlements and a half, Prime in the Jordan sterns … at extremely close range territories along the Persian Minister Benjamin Valley. and high speeds” coming within Gulf and Red Sea waterways Netanyahu signed a 50 yards of an expeditionary and “push” at Europe, which coalition agreement with rival the appointment of new judges sea-base vessel and within 10 relies heavily on oil imports. It Benny Gantz on April 20. The to Israel’s Supreme Court. This yards of a patrol boat. is easy to foresee how, if this pact stipulates that Netanyahu effectively curtails the court’s The Iranians initially ignored waterway were attacked and continue as prime minister for ability to easily remove him from several warnings 18 months, then relinquish the office and may make it less activist. by the U.S. Navy and role to Gantz and become deputy This means the stage is Coast Guard. A video prime minister. being set for unprecedented showed the Iranians Netanyahu’s negotiations cooperation between the U.S. manning mounted secured the ability to advance and Israel. Between now and machine guns. Only Israeli sovereignty over parts the U.S. presidential election after an hour of of the West Bank as part of in November, President Trump harassment did they United States President Donald and Prime Minister Netanyahu respond and keep Trump’s peace deal. Netanyahu will work to enact the first part their distance. will be able to bring to vote a of the peace plan. But watch for Iran’s goal in the bill on July 1 to extend Israeli this effort to put Israel in an even Persian Gulf and other IRGC members on sovereignty over 30 percent of worse strategic situation. Hosea vital waterways is to speedboats have been harassing the the West Bank, including much 5:13 characterizes the peace threaten or control oil U.S. Navy. of East Jerusalem, all the settle- process as a “wound.” The more shipping. The Persian ments and the Jordan Valley. the peace process is revived, Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, passage barred, Europe would Netanyahu also secured a the closer this prophecy is to which Iranian Navy Gen. Alireza forcibly “come against” Iran compromise in which his and being fulfilled. Read Jerusalem in Tangsiri threatened to close in “with many ships,” as prophesied Gantz’s blocs will each select Prophecy to learn more. n 2019, facilitate roughly a third in Daniel 11:40. n

was killed by missiles have been targeted by rocket fire Many Iraqis have lost faith in An Iraqi soldier stands guard at from Iranian proxy and will stay in fewer locations.” the U.S. and are turning to Iran. Qayyarah airbase. Kataib Hezbollah in While the U.S. is consolidating Throughout the war against the December. The U.S. its troops, it has also deployed Islamic State, Iran-backed Shiite handed the base and two of its Patriot air defense militias proved to be strong its approximately systems. One battery was sent to allies. Now, militia members $1.1 million of equip- the Harir Air Base near Erbil, the are in Iraq’s security forces ment over to the Iraqi other to the Ain al-Asad Air Base and parliament, working to Security Forces, which, in Iraq’s western desert. oust the U.S. from Iraq. Now, by ironically, are partially America’s military involvement withdrawing from several bases controlled by Iran. in Iraq began in 2003, but the and consolidating troops, the The U.S. and Obama administration initiated U.S. has signaled retreat. coalition forces a rapid troop withdrawal in Every important end-time withdrew from six 2011. This power vacuum led to Bible prophecy that takes America signals retreat in Iraq bases and posts in the rise of the Islamic State. At place in the Middle East clearly Iraq in a three-week the invitation of the Iraqi prime occurs in a void left by the n March 27, United period in March. The Jerusalem minister, on June 15, 2014, the withdrawal of the United States-led coalition Post’s Seth Frantzman wrote: “It U.S. returned to Iraq to help fight States. As the U.S. retreats O forces withdrew from the appears the U.S. is now consol- the Islamic State. Since then, U.S. even further from Iraq and the K-1 military base in northern Iraq, idating bases, leaving smaller forces have remained at the invi- Middle East, watch for Iran to

MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES, ATTA KENARE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES, AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES AL-RUBAYE/AFP/GETTY AHMAD IMAGES, KENARE/AFP/GETTY ATTA IMAGES, KAHANA/AFP/GETTY MENAHEM where an American contractor posts … leaving many places that tation of the Iraqi government. gain more control. n JULY 2020 29 island is prepared for an attack. China’s aircraft China spread coronavirus carrier, the Liaoning China has also been panic among Americans modernizing its military and enhancing its capabilities. On nited States intelligence March 10, its army, navy and air agents have concluded force performed a joint exercise Uthat an onslaught of that “simulated face-to-face false and alarming messages encounters with invading foreign about COVID-19 were spread by aircraft and warships in the Chinese agents, the New York South China Sea.” The exercise Times reported April 22. rehearsed searching uniden- One message, purportedly tified foreign aircraft, “driving written by a commander in the enemy planes out of China’s Chicago Police Department, airspace,” and even “shooting stated: “Homeland security them down with missiles to stop is preparing to mobilize the Chinese military advances under cover of coronavirus them from attacking Chinese national guard. Preparing to warships.” The military also dispatch them across the U.S. hile national islands in the South China Sea in announced on March 20 that along with military. … They are governments have areas that international law says its aircraft had performed an preparing to announce a nation- W been preoccupied belong to the Philippines. anti-submarine drill over the wide two-week quarantine with coronavirus, China is quietly In March, China invaded South China Sea. for all citizens; all businesses asserting its military power Taiwanese airspace, ran Even as the rest of the closed. Everyone at home. They around the world. military exercises across the world panics over coronavirus, will announce this as soon as In the South China Sea, China Taiwan Strait, and harassed a don’t forget to watch Chinese they have troops in place to help has confronted Malaysian and Taiwanese Coast Guard vessel territorial aggression. You can prevent looters and rioters ….” Vietnamese vessels in their with a speedboat, damaging understand China’s alarming The Times said this alarming own waters, and even sank a it. The aggression prompted actions today by reading our message and hundreds like Vietnamese boat. China also a Taiwanese defense official free booklet Russia and China in it were posted to the feeds of built new facilities on its artificial to reassure the public that the Prophecy. n millions of Americans. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that “Chinese China conducts illegal operatives” were behind these nuclear weapons tests messages’ broad dissemination. China used its armies of trolls hina appears to be and bots to “amplify” existing setting off “zero yield” messages, putting them in C nuclear tests despite its front of the eyes of as many claims of adhering to an inter- Americans as possible. national agreement forbidding Adversaries like China seek to such explosions, United States weaken the U.S. by exacerbating officials wrote in an April 15 its divisions. In this case, alleged China displays its nukes State Department report. in a military parade. Chinese agents sought to make Zero yield nuclear tests do Americans fear a military take-

not ignite an explosive chain Nur nuclear test site. arms are strictly for defensive over from their own government ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES, LIU BIN/XINHUA NEWS AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES reaction of the kind caused A senior U.S. official told purposes and pose no threat to and perhaps resort to looting, by detonating most nuclear Reuters on condition of global peace. Whether or not hoarding and otherwise turning warheads. This indicates that anonymity, “The pace and China joins an arms control pact on each other. the weapons being tested are manner by which the Chinese with the U.S. and other nations, In Ezekiel—The End-Time either tactical nuclear weapons government is modernizing its Bible prophecy makes clear Prophet, Gerald Flurry shows or triggers for larger bombs. In stockpile is worrying, destabi- that its nuclear stockpiles will that, with or without disinforma- either case, such explosions are lizing, and illustrates why China soon be used in a global conflict tion campaigns from Russia and easier for a nation to conceal should be brought into the global far more violent than any in China, the division and fears we from monitoring agencies, arms control framework.” mankind’s strife-ridden history. see darkening America today will particularly when conducted But China, with its arsenal To understand these prophecies, continue to get worse. They will deep underground. The Chinese of an estimated 290 nuclear request a free copy of Trumpet culminate in a time of nationwide tests are believed to have weapons, has repeatedly editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s rioting and violence and civil occurred throughout last year at rejected proposals to join such booklet Nuclear Armageddon Is war that will end up bringing the underground locations at its Lop an agreement, insisting that its ‘At the Door.’ n nation to its knees. n 30 THE PHILADELPHIA TRUMPET SOCIETY And this figure may be an every year since. The average WATCH underestimate. The report, American household is more which was published on May than $119,000 in debt. Assets like 5, noted, “The data do not fully houses and cars secure much of reflect the potential effects of this debt, but almost 20 percent COVID-19 that materialized in the of it is unsecured. second half of March 2020.” And over 32 percent of Consumer About $890 billion of this Americans have no savings to consumer debt is credit use when their income drops. Debt Now card debt—over $7,500 per The Bible says a wise person household. And credit card debt saves during times of plenty Higher Than is likely to rise further due to so he has an emergency fund layoffs resulting from COVID-19 when he needs it. “Go to the 2008 Crisis quarantine measures. ant, thou sluggard; consider The main debt-based economic her ways, and be wise: Which theory teaches that people should having no guide, overseer, or otal household debt Bank of New York. That means borrow when times are bad and ruler, Provideth her meat in the in the United States U.S. consumer debt stands at save when times are good. But summer, and gathereth her food T increased by $155 billion $14.3 trillion, $1.6 trillion higher this is not what Americans have in the harvest” (Proverbs 6:6-8). in the first quarter of 2020, than the pre-recession peak done. They borrowed their way Summer is ending for America, according to a new report of $12.68 trillion in the third out of the 2008 financial crisis, and the nation has not saved for from the Federal Reserve quarter of 2008. and they have kept borrowing the hard times. n

Collateral damage from war on COVID-19 our moral decline. This decline was prophesied in the Bible he lockdown intended The poll found that the thousands of years ago. to reduce exposure to average American 2 Timothy 3:1 warns of T coronavirus increased tele- subscribes to four “perilous times” in the “last days.” vision and movie binge-watching, streaming services, These days we are now living pornography, domestic violence, and 38 percent are in. “For men shall be lovers and drug and alcohol abuse. “usually logged into of their own selves, covetous, A OnePoll survey published five or more at any boasters, proud, blasphemers, on April 14 interviewed 2,000 given time.” disobedient to parents, American residents in lockdown Pornography viewing is also stocked up in panic before the unthankful, unholy, Without and estimated that the average increasing. The biggest seller lockdown closures. Some areas natural affection, trucebreakers, person streams eight hours of of Internet pornography has deemed liquor stores “essential false accusers, incontinent, movies per day. Fifty percent offered more free access during businesses” and allowed them fierce, despisers of those of those surveyed admitted to the lockdown, and its web traffic to remain open. Places where that are good, Traitors, heady, watching a complete television has increased significantly. liquor stores were closed highminded, lovers of pleasures series in 48 hours or less. Drug and alcohol consump- reported an increase in alcohol more than lovers of God; Having Children are also watching tion also rose. Marijuana purchases from supermarkets. a form of godliness, but denying more television and movies, said purchases reached an estimated The COVID-19 scare is the power thereof: from such 65 percent of parents surveyed. all-time high in March as people quantifying some aspects of turn away” (verses 2-5). n

UK Marriages at new low Compared to 1972, the number are simply living together Number of british Marriages (Thousands) of marriages has fallen by without getting married. In 2017, 500 n 2017, traditional marriages 45 percent. This continues a trend 88 percent of couples cohabited in Britain hit an all-time that began in the 1960s and ’70s. before marrying. 400 low. This was revealed by On average, marriage rates Marriage is not just a tradition. I 300 an April 14, 2020, report from for younger people are falling. It was established by God, and the Office of National Statistics, Those married before age 30 it prepares human beings for and it highlights a trend that has are now in the minority. The their incredible potential, in this 200 radically changed British society. average age of marriage has life and beyond. To learn more, 100 In total, 235,910 heterosexual gone up by 11 years since 1970. request your free copy of Why marriages were registered in More people are waiting to Marriage—Soon Obsolete? by

ISTOCK.COM/JORGE VILLALBA, ISTOCK.COM/ONFOKUS VILLALBA, ISTOCK.COM/JORGE England and Wales during 2017. marry, and many more people Herbert W. Armstrong. n 1937 1957 1977 1997 2017 JULY 2020 31 u GREAT TRIBULATION FROM PAGE 24 He ever wanted: for their hearts to be the Lord, that I will make a new covenant correction of captivity. turned to Him so He can save them from with the house of Israel, and with the Solzhenitsyn called his time in the sin and death, and lead them in the way house of Judah: Not according to the gulags “the most important years in my that produces eternal life! covenant that I made with their fathers life, the years which put the finishing “Therefore they shall come and sing in the day that I took them by the hand touches on my character.” He wrote, in the height of Zion, and shall flow to bring them out of the land of Egypt; “Our initial, first prison sky consisted of together to the goodness of the Lord, for which my covenant they brake, although black swirling storm clouds and black wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for I was an husband unto them, saith the pillars of volcanic eruptions—this was the young of the flock and of the herd: Lord: But this shall be the covenant that the heaven of Pompeii, the heaven of and their soul shall be as a watered gar- I will make with the house of Israel; After the Day of Judgment, because it was den; and they shall not sorrow any more those days, saith the Lord, I will put my not just anyone who had been arrested, at all. … Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy law in their inward parts, and write it in but I—the center of this world. Our last voice from weeping, and thine eyes from their hearts; and will be their God, and prison sky was infinitely high, infinitely tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, they shall be my people. … I will forgive clear, even paler than sky-blue.” saith the Lord; and they shall come again their iniquity, and I will remember their Revelation 7 describes two groups of from the land of the enemy. And there is sin no more” (verses 20, 31-34). people who will be protected from the hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that What a wonderful picture. This is horrors that immediately fol- what God is preparing for even today. low the 2½-year Tribulation The coronavirus chaos is merciful in the terrible, yearlong Day The horrors of captivity will tribulation, aimed at bringing people of the Lord. The first group have softened their hearts so to repentance. And if they don’t repent is the Laodiceans (verse 4), now, God will increase the intensity of who die and are sealed: Their they will listen to God. That the tribulation—and even increase the resurrection at Jesus Christ’s is all He ever wanted. intensity of His mercy. return is certain. How merciful is God, always seeking The second group is “a to turn hearts of the children to their great multitude, which no Father. This is all the love of a Father, man could number, of all trying to reach His sons. nations, and kindreds, and Reflecting on his captivity, Solzhenit- people, and tongues” (verse syn came to have this astounding atti- 9)—including Israelites (peo- tude: “Bless you, prison.” Then he added, ple from the English-speak- bitingly, “(And from beyond the grave ing nations) and Gentiles who come replies: It is very well for you to listened to those Laodiceans. say that—when you came out of it alive.)” Verse 14 shows that these are Thankfully, Scripture reveals that the people who repented in that billions who never knew God and will merciful Tribulation. not escape that merciful Tribulation alive will be resurrected and given A Second Exodus another opportunity to repent. Isaiah 11:11 shows that God will protect thy children shall come again to their We have a sliver of time left before individuals in that great multitude own border” (Jeremiah 31:12, 16-17). the Tribulation Jesus Christ prophesied during the Day of the Lord, which is Imagine people you know—friends, breaks out upon the world. Repent when He will pour out His fury upon neighbors, co-workers, family—having now, while truth is abundantly available their captor nations. Then, just as He did been taken captive. Imagine seeing them to you! Repent now and claim God’s with the Israelites enslaved in Egypt, God broken and emaciated, yet with softened promise to protect His faithful from the will deliver these modern slaves with a hearts willing to submit to their great suffering to come. If you have turned mighty hand (Isaiah 27:12-13). Creator. Imagine God’s emotion! away from God, turn back! If you have God will clear a path for this massive “Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleas- never committed to God, commit! multitude by pushing mountains of ant child? for since I spake against him, I Join the work of God that is laboring water out of their way and shepherding do earnestly remember him still: there- urgently to use the few remaining them to their Promised Land. This mod- fore my bowels are troubled for him; I moments we have to blast God’s mes- ern exodus will be so vast that people will surely have mercy upon him, saith sage as loudly as possible to the largest won’t even remember the ancient Exo- the Lord. … Behold, the days come, saith audience possible! n dus through the Red Sea (Isaiah 11:15-16; Jeremiah 16:14-15). The horrors of captivity will have Get connected to the work of God. finally softened these people’s hearts Start by subscribing to the Trumpet’s daily e-mail newsletter, so they will to listen to God. That is all the Trumpet Brief. Subscribe now at theTrumpet.com. 32 THE PHILADELPHIA TRUMPET PRINCIPLES OF LIVING STEPHEN “By defining precisely when we’re going to undertake a FLURRY behavior, we reduce the amount of energy we have to expend to get it done,” Schwartz wrote. “Often, when we make a commit- ment to a new behavior such as exercising, we fail to recognize that unless we set aside a specific time to do it, it’s unlikely we Spend Your will. In part, that’s because there is another behavior we’re more accustomed to doing, out of habit, or because there is Time Wisely something easier and more pleasurable we could do. Each time we have to think about whether or not to do an activity—in the face of other temptations and potential distractions—we deplete our limited reservoir of will and discipline. If you have to consciously think for very long about doing something, it’s unlikely you’ll end up doing it for very long. … How to coax a much higher yield “The more challenging the ritual—physically, mentally or emo- from your most precious commodity tionally—the greater the need to be precise in implementing it.” This same principle holds true for our spiritual rituals. ach day, you start with a full bank account—an The more challenging it is to carve out time for our daily account filled with time. And each day, you spend all 24 spiritual needs, the more precise we must be in locking it E hours of it. One of the smartest investments you can into our schedules. make is to stop and take stock: You’re paying out a lot of hours. The Apostle Paul charged us to use this life to “present [our] What are you gaining in exchange? bodies a living sacrifice” unto God (Romans 12:1). In the Old Paul understood the value of time—and how to spend it. Testament, there were no living sacrifices. They were all In Romans 13, he admonishes us to awake out of sleep— dead. To be a living sacrifice, we must first put to death because we know the time! (verse 11). As urgently as the lusts of the flesh and, by sacrificing the self, keep he lived his life, Paul’s words are even more poignant today, when time is so short before the return of Jesus Christ! The key to redeeming our time for something of real value is to live as Christ lived in these urgent days (verses 12-14). “The more challenging Yet there is a reason why that simple the ritual—physically, principle is so hard to live by. Satan is doing all he can to tempt you to nickel- mentally or emotionally— and-dime your life away—or worse. He knows that you cannot serve both God the greater the need to be and mammon (Matthew 6:24), and that a friend of the world cannot be a friend of God precise in implementing it.” (James 4:4). So he wants to make you spend your time on anything but God. So how should we spend our precious time? On the one thing them dead (Romans 6). Secondly, we must lay down our lives— that lasts: God’s character! our energy, our effort, our time—to support God’s purpose. Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and Just like us, Jesus had only 24 hours to work with every day. his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” It was His practice to rise up a “great while before day” to allow To spend your time wisely, God must come first in your life! plenty of time for His prayer (Mark 1:35). He studied God’s You must give God your very best time! Then He will be involved Word; He trained His disciples; He fulfilled God’s will. He spent in how the rest of your time is spent. all His time doing those things that pleased the Father. To keep this law, you must organize your time investment Now God says to us, You follow those steps—you organize strategy around God. Every day, carefully budget how much of your life the way Jesus Christ did (1 Peter 2:21). And if you your valuable time you spend on various activities. An hour is a overcome like He did, you will rule with Him on His throne precious thing. Don’t fritter it away! (Revelation 2:26). In a 1999 study, a group of participants was asked to When Christ returns to restore His government on Earth, He complete just 20 minutes of exercise at any time within the will need qualified leaders to assist Him in ruling the nations following week. Only 29 percent of the people took the time (see Daniel 7:27 and Luke 19:12-19). How we use—or misuse— to do so. A second group was told how exercise reduces the our time will determine how God can use us in His Kingdom risk of heart disease. In that group, 39 percent found the time (Luke 16:10-11). to exercise. A third group was asked to exercise on a specific Christ is about to return. God is about to give human beings day, at a specific time and at a specific location. In that group, power and authority and eternity—an unlimited amount of 91 percent completed the assignment (Tony Schwartz, The Way time. That is a yield that is well worth learning to discipline

ISTOCK.COM/JOJJE9999 We’re Working Isn’t Working). ourselves and budget our time around Him today! n JULY 2020 33 DISCUSSION BOARD

Thank you for the prophetic perspective of world events ("You Can Survive the Coronapocalypse," May-June, theTrumpet.com/22175). The panic people are displaying with so little provocation is something to behold. I don’t recall ever seeing anything as drastic as this in my 72 years on this Earth. The panic buying of toilet paper of all things; they must be expecting a lot of diarrhea.

Jason DeLuca texas

Your article is very informative God, as I know He is blessing you seventh-day Sabbath is His sign things I had read in the past. It’s and full of truth, especially for such a great work. forever. really nice to know that there regarding debts and money Lewis W. Seay georgia Davina are dedicated Christians putting printed to bail out central banks out those books for free. This and people ("Will Coronavirus Kill Thank you all for the hard work I know your magazine is ministry is an open door to the the Global Economy," May-June, done at the end of this age. I am free because it is paid for by truth for people to know. You theTrumpet.com/22174). Printing rereading The Incredible Human members and co-workers of don’t charge anyone anything, money is serious and dangerous Potential that I was sent along the Philadelphia Church of God. and that’s amazing! as if we are playing with fire that with Mr. Flurry’s Zephaniah Well, for what it’s worth, your F. R. massachusetts will burn our fingers in the long booklet. It’s like finding an old services are greatly appreciated, run and bankrupt the country! If friend, and the words flowed and I would like to say thank you I truly enjoy reading your coronavirus cannot be eliminated from memory after almost 40 to each and every member and magazine each time I receive by a drug or vaccine quickly, and years of first enjoying the words. co-worker. it. I share it with my friends if countries will go into long-term Your e-mails are like fresh air Anthony Napoles california and tell them that the Trumpet debt and cheat by printing the in a world filled with the smog magazine is the real truth. money to bail out, it will actually of confusion from this satanic Mr. Flurry writes very good books. Please send my sincere thanks destroy the global economy! swamp we live in. He is aware of what is happening to all the individuals who are Elma Jerry now in this day and age and the part of making the Philadelphia Bible. I appreciate him for that. Trumpet a worthwhile I have been reading the Trumpet I believe the mark of the beast Thank you so much and God bless publication to read.

magazine 18 years now and is whether we worship on God’s you. Keep doing this. Sammy Barbagallo pennsylvania LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES/JULIA GODDARD/TRUMPET, GETTY IMAGES (2), ISTOCK.COM/ D-KEINE, JIM WATSON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES never in my 68 years have I Sabbath, the seventh day now M. M. michigan ever read a more informative named Saturday, or whether we Thanks for everything, Trumpet magazine. I hope to one day soon will be ordered to all worship I want to thank your ministry staff, and best wishes for the be a part of setting this magazine on Sunday, which is the first day very much because everything future. It feels like it’s going bad into the hands of more people by ("Coronavirus and the Mark of the your ministry is teaching is real soon, so I just wanted to say sending a donation. But for now, Beast," theTrumpet.com/22230). true. I thank you very much! thank you. I’ll keep praying and thanking Read God’s Word. He says the It’s amazing because of all the Glen Folkard

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34 THE PHILADELPHIA TRUMPET COMMENTARY ANDREW MIILLER

Environmentalism Is the New Paganism

Environmental activists protest in It is easier to confess to a houseplant the Netherlands. than to ask God for forgiveness.

n April 22, people around the world celebrated Who now speaks of the fires in Australia, or remembers that Earth Day—or, as the United Nations rebranded it, “Inter- 18 months ago a boat could cross the North Pole because the O national Mother Earth Day.” Yet rather than focus on real glaciers had all melted? Who speaks now of the floods? I don’t solutions to real environmental problems like acid rain, soil deg- know if these are the revenge of nature, but they are certainly radation, urban sprawl and ozone layer depletion, UN officials nature’s responses.” Is the pope really suggesting that if people sought to tie the covid-19 pandemic to man-made climate change emitted less carbon dioxide, then bushfires would stop, glaciers by taking a page from the playbook of ancient Greek pagans. would spread, and coronavirus would go away? “Mother Earth is clearly urging a call to action,” said UN Secre- British journalist Melanie Phillips wrote an April 10 edito- tary General António Guterres. “Nature is suffering. Australian rial titled “Is the Pope a Pagan?” She noted, “In the Bible, the fires, heat records and the worst locust invasion in Kenya. Now ultimate moral authority is God who dispenses justice, both we face covid-19, a worldwide health pandemic linked to the forgiveness and punishment. The pope absolves Him of the health of our ecosystem.” This is a strange statement. One the- punishment element, which he ascribes instead to the Earth, ory of the outbreak’s origin in Wuhan, China, is that a corona- depicted as a female victim taking her revenge upon humanity virus passed from bats to humans. But the Chinese have eaten for the harm it has done her. Thus the pope selectively edits bats since ancient times. Habitat degradation has nothing to the Bible’s moral teachings, strips justice itself of meaning, and do with this practice. Yet a number of environmentalists have invests the Earth with both human and divine qualities.” embraced the notion that covid-19 is “Mother Nature’s” revenge. Many people are coming to view natural disasters as punish- On March 18, climatologist Michael Mann asked whether ment for sin, but they mock the notion that this punishment pandemics were Gaia’s immune system fighting back, and is coming from the God of the Bible. Hurricanes, earthquakes, shared a link to a Guardian article on Twitter attempting to floods, droughts, wildfires and disease pandemics are not part connect coronavirus to habitat loss. of Gaia’s immune system. They are punishments sent by the Yes, a so-called scientist is linking a pandemic to the immune God of the Bible to wake people up to the fact that they have system of the pagan Greek earth goddess Gaia, and people are turned away from Him and His laws, which reveal the right way taking it seriously. There is a growing trend among radical to live, interact, care for the environment, and succeed in every environmentalists to describe Earth as a sentient being. They aspect of human existence. link every natural disaster (whether there is a scientific link or Several chapters in the book of Job cover God’s explana- not) to this being’s immune system. Now they link covid-19 to tions of how He controls the Earth’s climate. The systems He urbanization and overpopulation. created and uses are beyond human comprehension. “God Last year, the Federalist published an editorial titled “Cli- thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that mate Worship Is Nothing More Than Rebranded Paganism.” It we cannot comprehend. For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the reported that students at Union Theological Seminary in New earth,’ likewise to the downpour …. By the breath of God ice is York were instructed to confess their sins to potted plants as given, and the broad waters are frozen fast. He loads the thick an “expression of worship.” It also reported that 250 people in cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning. They turn funeral garb mourned the melting of a glacier in Switzerland. around and around by his guidance, to accomplish all that he The notion that Gaia is punishing humanity is gaining ground. commands them on the face of the habitable world. Whether nbc News even has a website where people can confess eco- for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen” logical sins like blasting the air conditioning, throwing away (Job 37:5-6, 10-13; English Standard Version). half their lunch, and grilling a steak every weekend. This passage explicitly states that God commands the You might think that religious leaders like Pope Francis would weather to work His purposes, whether to correct human take offense at this budding Gaia worship. Yet even the pope is beings or to show mercy to them. Rather than confessing to talking about “Mother Nature’s” revenge. “There is an expres- nbc News for eating steak, people should pray to the actual sion in Spanish: ‘God always forgives, we forgive sometimes, one, true Creator God to forgive them for attitudes of greed and but nature never forgives,’” he said in an interview published selfishness and help them turn to a way of life that produces

OSCAR BRAK/NUR PHOTO/GETTY IMAGES PHOTO/GETTY BRAK/NUR OSCAR in the Tablet. “We did not respond to the partial catastrophes. actual respect for God’s law and God’s creation! n JULY 2020 35 u CHIMERICA FROM PAGE 15 Mr. Flurry examines these passages alongside Deu- teronomy 28:52 and shows how this mart will wield its power. “The Bible contains many prophecies of that European power attacking America—and many other prophecies of America being besieged,” Mr. Flurry writes. “China and the giants of Asia” will form a “brief alliance” with the German-led European bloc, and they are all “going to besiege America, Britain and the Jewish nation.” With “Chimerica” intact, it would be terribly costly and painful for China to target the U.S. in such a way. Suddenly shutting out its largest trade partner would Philadelphia Trumpet editor pulverize its own economy. That’s not to say that the in chief Gerald Flurry attack cannot happen if China and America remain appears each week on The linked; aggressors often wage acts of aggression despite Key of David explaining the short-term cost and pain—in pursuit of long-term gain. meaning behind world events But if China and the U.S. continue the decoupling that and teaching the inspiring covid-19 has catalyzed, the costs for China to carry out truths of the Bible. The this besiegement would be far lower. program is also available at These Bible passages are painful to read. The “mart of keyofdavid.com. nations” prophecy means America, Britain and Israel are headed toward a time of horrifying hardship and suffer- ing. It means that in a short time, children across these ALL TIMES ARE A.M. LOCAL TIME UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED countries will be asking their parents why the family UNITED STATES Nationwide Satellite Grand Junction KJCT-DT 8:30, Sun hasn’t had a proper meal in days, why their neighbor- Galaxy 3 Trans. 17 11:30 ET, Tue/Thu Montrose KJCT-DT 8:30, Sun hood has erupted into violence, and when it will all end. Direct TV Connecticut, Hartford WHPX 6:00, Fri ION, Chan. 305, 6:00 ET/PT, Fri; Chan. 306, Florida, Gainesville WCJB-DT 9:30, Sun If those parents would study their Bibles, they would 9:00 ET, 6:00 PT Jacksonville WPXC/WPXJ-LP 6:00, Fri be able to give their children answers—and hope. Dish Network Miami WPXM 6:00, Fri ION, Chan. 250, 6:00 ET, Fri Orlando WOPX 6:00, Fri They would be able to explain that the Creator God Nationwide Cable Panama City WJHG-DT 8:30, Sun takes no pleasure in seeing these nations suffer so horren- CW Plus, 5:30, 9:30 ET/PT, 4:30, 8:30 CT/ Tallahassee WTXL 7:30, Sun; WTLF/ MT, Sun WTLH-DT 9:30, Sun dously, but that He is trying to reach them (Ezekiel 33:11). ION, 6:00 ET/PT, Fri Tampa WXPX 6:00, Fri He wants the U.S., UK and Israel—and all the world—to Alabama, Birmingham WPXH 5:00, Fri; West Palm Beach WPXP 6:00, Fri WVUA 8:30, Sun Georgia, Albany WSWG-DT 9:30, Sun “have life” and “have it more abundantly,” but as long as Dothan WTVY-DT 8:30, Sun Atlanta WPXA 6:00, Fri they are in rank rebellion against Him and His law, this Montgomery-Salem WBMM-DT/WNCF-DT Augusta-Aiken WAGT-DT 9:30, Sun 8:30, Sun Brunswick WPXC 6:00, Fri is impossible (John 10:10; Matthew 5:17). But by sending Opelika WLTZ-DT 9:30, Sun Columbus WLTZ-DT 9:30, Sun punishment onto the nations, He can lead them to repent, Alaska, Anchorage KYUR-DT 8:30, Sun Macon WMAZ-DT 9:30, Sun Fairbanks KATN-DT 8:30, Sun Savannah WSAV-DT 9:30, Sun and then turn the peoples’ hearts of stone into hearts of Juneau KJUD-DT 8:30, Sun Thomasville WTLF/WTLH-DT 9:30, Sun flesh (Hebrews 12:6-11; Ezekiel 11:19; Jeremiah 31:33). Arizona, Phoenix KPPX 5:00, Fri; KASW Hawaii, Hawaii Na Leo Chan. 54 6:30, Sun; 8:00, Sun 8:30, Wed The parents could teach their children that the calam- Yuma KECY-DT 8:30, Sun Honolulu KPXO 5:00, Fri ity is loving correction from our Creator, and that just Arkansas, El Dorado KNOE-DT 8:30, Sun Kaui Ho’ Ike Chan. 52 9:30, Tue Fayetteville KFTA 9:30, Sun; KHBS-DT/ Maui/Lanaii/Molokai/Niihau/Akaku beyond the siege and fall of these nations He will bring KHOG-DT 8:30, Sun Chan. 52 6:30 pm, Sun; 3:30, Mon in the most abundant era in human history. Fort Smith KFTA 9:30, Sun; KHBS-DT/ Oahu Focus Chan. 49 7:00, Sat KHOG-DT 8:30, Sun Idaho, Boise KYUU-LP/KBOI-DT 8:30, Sun “[T]hat trading partnership won’t last long,” Mr. Flurry Jonesboro KAIT3-HD 9:30, Sun; KJOS/ Idaho Falls KIFI-DT 8:30, Sun writes. “Soon they will clash, just before Jesus Christ WLMT 8:30, Sun Pocatello KIFI-DT 8:30, Sun Rogers KFTA 9:30, Sun; KHBS-DT/KHOG- Twin Falls KMVT-DT 8:30, Sun returns and destroys both of them” (ibid). Christ will DT 8:30, Sun Illinois, Bloomington WEEK-DT 8:30, Sun return to Earth, bring a swift end to mankind’s self-de- Springdale KFTA 9:30, Sun; KHBS-DT/ Chicago WCIU 9:30, Sun; WCPX 5:00, Fri KHOG-DT 8:30, Sun Peoria WEEK-DT 8:30, Sun struction, and usher in an epoch of peace and prosperity California, Bakersfield KGET-DT 9:30, Sun Rockford WREX 10:00, Sun; WREX-DT for the peoples of China, America and all the world. Chico KHSL-DT 9:30, Sun; KRCR 9:00, Sun 8:30, Sun El Centro KECY-DT 8:30, Sun Quincy WGEM-DT 8:30, Sun “Thank God,” Mr. Flurry writes, “there is great news Eureka KECA-LD/KVIQ-DT 9:30, Sun Indiana, Fort Wayne WISE-DT 9:30, Sun beyond the bad news.” n Fresno-Visalia KFRE Channel 59 7:30, Sun Indianapolis WIPX 6:00, Fri Los Angeles KPXN 6:00, Fri; KTTV 6:00, Sun Lafayette WLFI-DT 9:30, Sun Monterey KION 9:30, Sun South Bend ESBT/WSBT 7:30, Sun Palm Springs KCWQ/KESQ-DT 9:30, Sun Terre Haute WTHI-DT 9:30, Sun Redding KHSL-DT 9:30, Sun; Iowa, Cedar Rapids KPXR 5:00, Fri Trade war! KRCR 9:00, Sun Des Moines KFPX 5:00, Fri The Bible prophesies the United States, China and other nations Sacramento KSPX 6:00, Fri; Keokuk WGEM-DT 8:30, Sun Salinas KION 9:30, Sun Mason City KTTC-DT 8:30, Sun will become embroiled in economic war. 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