How Important Is Prophecy to You?
How Important Is Prophecy to You?
A transformative experience in my life came in 1989. I was only 11 years old, but I remember it like it was yesterday—the excitement, mixed with some anxiety. And I recall being in awe of God’s plan and of the Bible! It was a lightbulb moment for me in my relationship with God and the Bible.
The date was Nov. 9, 1989. It was around 6:30 p.m. on a Thursday evening. This was the usual time for my parents to watch the evening news, but this night was different. When I walked into the living room, the atmosphere was electric. The television volume was turned up, and Dad and Mum weren’t watching quietly. They were talking excitedly with each other, occasionally pacing between the living room and the kitchen, where the phone was, and calling family and friends. This went on virtually all night, right up until we went to bed.
The Berlin Wall had fallen.
That wall, with its heavy fortifications and shoot-to-kill Communist guards, had divided the capital of Germany for 28 years. It symbolized the Cold War between the Soviets, who built it and controlled East Germany, and the United States and Britain, who supported West Germany. It exemplified post-World War ii Germany: conquered, divided, weakened and endangered.
The Berlin Wall’s collapse in November 1989 was a major world news event, a seismic geopolitical shift. It struck a fatal blow at the Soviet Union and would rapidly reshape Europe. It gripped the attention of people around the world—but for my parents and other members of the Worldwide Church of God, the fall of the Berlin Wall was even more spectacular.
Why? Based on the prophecies of the Bible, Herbert W. Armstrong had forecast for decades that Germany would reunite and that a unified Germany would come to dominate a European alliance.
A Consistent Forecast
In the October 1985 Plain Truth, the newsmagazine Mr. Armstrong founded in 1934, he wrote: “Do not discount the possibility that this resurrection of the medieval Holy Roman Empire may start by some arrangement to reunite East and West Germany first.”
That biblical prophecy of the rise in our day of a multistate European empire, spearheaded by Germany and dominated by Roman Catholicism, was a keynote of Herbert Armstrong’s ministry for decades.
In a letter to supporters on June 10, 1980, he wrote: “It now looks entirely feasible that Yugoslavia may be included in this revived Roman Empire. Also the pope’s native Poland and Romania, and possibly Hungary. Add Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and France. There will be a union of 10 nations in the general area of the medieval Roman Empire in the new united Europe. Probably Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden will not be included [in the final 10]. But Ireland may. Britain will not! … I have been forecasting this revived Roman Empire publicly since February 1934! Now it may go together suddenly, rapidly!” Note the detail in this forecast—made possible by details in biblical prophecy.
In a World Tomorrow transcript printed in the November-December 1954 Plain Truth, Mr. Armstrong said: “Other prophecies in the Bible—too numerous to explain or expound in detail in this broadcast—warn us that the power which will invade us, and conquer us, unless we repent and return to God, is not the power we seem to fear most, but the one we least suspect: a United Europe, which our own leaders are struggling desperately to bring about—yes, a United European empire which automatically must eventually be headed by a revived Germany!”
“Maybe the unification of Eastern and Western Germany into a great German nation in the near future seems hopeless today,” Mr. Armstrong’s son Richard said after a visit to Germany. “But how hopeless will it look tomorrow? The politics of this world have a strange way of turning tail overnight. Often the world is suddenly confronted with what it thought to be the impossible” (Plain Truth, July 1953).
“To fulfill prophecy, it is probable that all Germany must reunite,” wrote Herbert Armstrong in the Plain Truth of August 1952. “This world may be on the very threshold of its most startling news event in 2,000 years!” He wrote that 37 years before the Berlin Wall fell.
Now let’s read what was written roughly 2,700 years before 1989: “O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few” (Isaiah 10:5-7).
Mr. Armstrong identified Assyria in this prophecy and many others as the ancestor to modern Germany. And he identified the “hypocritical nation” against whom Germany would be the rod of God’s anger as the modern descendants of ancient Israel, namely the United States and Britain. (These truths are proved in Mr. Armstrong’s book The United States and Britain in Prophecy—free upon request.)
Mr. Armstrong understood the writings of Isaiah and other prophets to apply to Germany—and that, whether or not the news of the day indicated it, Germany would reunite.
When Germany reunited in 1989, my parents were exhilarated because they were seeing the dramatic fulfillment of Bible prophecy. An event God prophesied through Isaiah and other prophets—and through a man who served as His end-time Elijah (Matthew 17:10-11)—was being fulfilled in real time on their television screen!
What did this mean? It meant that God was revealing Himself in world events! He was revealing that the Bible is filled with divine revelation and is the only completely trustworthy source of knowledge. He was underscoring the truth that Herbert W. Armstrong was His servant.
That fulfilled prophecy built confidence, faith and urgency in my parents. Understanding and believing Bible prophecy helped them spiritually, along with many other people.
And yet—shockingly—the very church that had taught those prophecies had abandoned them by that point! Mr. Armstrong had died nearly four years previously—in January 1986. The new leaders repudiated his teachings, which came directly from the Bible, and followed along with all the other churches that ignore this vital one third of the Bible.
God recorded those prophecies to be understood and heeded! God’s true Church keeps the commandments of God and has the testimony of Jesus Christ, which is the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 12:17; 19:10).
The Trumpet magazine has picked up that dropped baton and continues to preach the prophecies and doctrines of the Bible as Mr. Armstrong did. That is why, in the pages of this publication, you can learn the true significance of world events and where they are leading. You can read tomorrow’s news today.
In today’s news, Berlin Wall-scale events are happening regularly! The pace of fulfilled prophecy is rapidly accelerating. You need to stay abreast of these developments and know what this means.
Prophecy Proves God
What impact is fulfilled Bible prophecy having on your life right now?
Bible prophecy can be one of the greatest blessings in your life. It is not a mere side benefit. Learning about world events and studying Bible prophecy is part of being a true Christian and necessary to become truly converted and enter the Kingdom of God.
Becoming a true Christian is founded on a few basic questions. First: Does God exist? Then: Can we trust the Bible as the inspired Word of God?
You can answer these two questions by studying Bible prophecy and watching world events. Have you used Bible prophecy to prove God’s existence? Have you used it to prove the Holy Bible is God’s Word?
Mr. Armstrong wrote in his booklet The Proof of the Bible: “If one, in the Bible, speaking and claiming to be God, can make prophecies and tell what is going to happen in the future to nations, to cities, to empires, then if it actually happens in every case, and without a miss, you’ll know that was a real God speaking. … Yes, prophecy is a proof of God, a proof of the divine revelation of the Bible. Prophecy is a taunting challenge that the skeptic dares not accept!”
The Trumpet’s publisher and editor in chief, Gerald Flurry, wrote: “Prophecy is a major proof that God lives and works out His plan! Through the spirit of prophecy, we can prove where Christ is.” Then he made this electrifying statement: “The number one reason for prophecy is to show that God rules!” (Unveiled at Last: The Royal Book of Revelation; free upon request).
Here is another inspired statement through the Prophet Isaiah—a challenge God utters to anyone who would deign to utter prophecies that do not come from Him: “Let us hear what has happened in the past that we may ponder it, or show me what is yet to be, that we may watch how it turns out. Yes, let us hear what is coming, that we may be sure that you are Gods. Come, do something or other that we may marvel at the sight. Why, you are things of naught. You can do nothing at all!” (Isaiah 41:21-24; Moffatt translation).
Consider how astonishing it is that God actually foretells the future—and then brings it to pass as He has said! When you see prophecy of Scripture fulfilled—not once but over and again, time after time—that is proof of the omnipotent God!
One psalmist wrote, “The Eternal wrecks the purposes of pagans, he brings to nothing what the nations plan; but the Eternal’s purpose stands for ever, and what he plans will last from age to age” (Psalm 33:10-11; Moffatt).
However, this idea that God sees everything, that He is guiding world events, that world events are unfolding according to Bible prophecy, that a plan is being orchestrated from heaven—to most people, this is a joke.
What about you? Have you really studied the subject?
‘Prophesy Deceits’
Nearly 3,000 years ago, God prophesied, multiple times, that an anti-prophecy attitude would prevail in the “latter days.” That is the time we live in now.
God commanded Isaiah to record His prophecies: “Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever” (Isaiah 30:8). Then what did He say? “That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord. Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us” (verses 9-11).
God foretold that people would hate Bible prophecy. They do not want to hear truth—certainly not hard truth. Prophesy deceits, they say! This is one of the great sins of the people of modern-day Israel. And if you understand The United States and Britain in Prophecy, you know that the United States and Britain are the modern Israelites. They flatly reject the Bible—certainly its prophecies.
Soon after the Berlin Wall fell, a Seattle radio station called the Worldwide Church of God (wcg), the church Mr. Armstrong had led. Here is what the church’s new leaders wrote about the exchange in a letter to ministers on Nov. 21, 1989: “The news director was well aware of the World Tomorrow program [which Mr. Armstrong started] and the fact that for more than 40 years the Church had been predicting the reunification of Europe in some form. He asked for on-air comments about whether the Church believed the opening of the Wall was the commencement of end-time prophetic events.”
What an opportunity to sound the prophetic trumpet! What an opportunity to put the spotlight on the Bible as the Word of God, on God the Father as the Revealer of prophecy, on Mr. Armstrong as God’s prophet and end-time Elijah! Yet what was the wcg leaders’ response? “We responded that it was premature to make statements like that, but that the Bible was very clear about a 10-nation consortium in Europe. We also pointed out that history shows that past episodes of European unification have not proven positive for the rest of the world and that the Church would continue to watch events very closely.” What a bland, weak statement!
How upsetting and disappointing that was to the God of prophecy! The Soviet Union was collapsing, Germany was uniting, the map of Europe was being redrawn—the world was entering a new era. And the best that wcg officials could muster was to say it was “premature” to comment on the prophetic implications of these events!
The “prophesy not” spirit had taken hold of God’s own Church! You can read a prophecy of this very tragedy in Amos 2:11-12. God knew in advance that this lukewarm, lackadaisical mindset would infect His own people!
The “prophesy not” spirit was something Mr. Armstrong had recognized as a problem before he died. In 1984 he told members, I wish I could get our ministers to talk about these prophecies! These prophecies need to be explained and proclaimed to our people!
In his 2005 booklet Prophesy Again, Mr. Flurry commented on this statement: “His words disturbed me. I became more determined to prophesy as God commanded.”
After Mr. Armstrong died, church leaders moved away from a prophetic message, but Gerald Flurry held fast and continued to prophesy as Mr. Armstrong had done—and as God expects and commands!
‘Who Can But Prophesy?’
Here are some more questions a true Christian needs to answer.
The Bible says Christ is the Head of His Church (Ephesians 1:22; Colossians 1:18). “… I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” Christ said (Matthew 16:18). So that Church is still on Earth today. Christ is not the Head of several different, competing churches that have different doctrinal beliefs and different ideas about prophecy. “Is Christ divided?” (1 Corinthians 1:13). No, He is not!
So which church is Christ leading? Believe it or not, Bible prophecy can also help you answer that crucial question.
Consider these profound words from the Prophet Amos: “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:7-8).
The world you live in has a “prophesy not” attitude; and that includes most churches. Even God’s own Church, when it began to turn away from Him, took on the same spirit. But God’s faithful people have a “who can but prophesy” attitude!
That was Mr. Flurry’s attitude toward Bible prophecy, and God has continued to “reveal his secret” to this man, the understanding of Bible prophecy that we need to comprehend the meaning of today’s events.
It is significant that Mr. Flurry’s first book, Malachi’s Message (1989), addresses this subject directly, and that his second booklet was on Amos, The Lion Has Roared (1991). Here we are, 35 years later, and God is still revealing prophecies from the book of Amos.
The book of Amos is filled with end-time prophecy. God has revealed a great deal from this book since Mr. Armstrong died in 1986, as we have approached the fulfillment of these passages.
Identify God’s Church
Here is a prophecy from Amos that Mr. Flurry has drawn a great deal of attention to in recent years especially. It describes a confrontation between a high-ranking spiritual adviser to the national leader and God’s prophet: “Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court. Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit: And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel. Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord: Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac” (Amos 7:12-16).
Notice how this entire exchange revolves around prophesying. The conflict is over the prophetic work being done by Mr. Flurry and the Philadelphia Church of God. It’s a battle between “prophesy not” and “who can but prophesy”! God’s true Church will be known for its work of warning based on Bible prophecy!
Bible prophecy is crucial to the identity of God’s true Church.
All Christians claim to follow Jesus Christ. And remember, in Revelation 19:10 the angel delivering a message from God says that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
Mr. Flurry has pointed out that the commission to this present era of God’s Church is Revelation 10:11: “And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” If God’s Church today does not prophesy again, then we fail God and will suffer the consequences. Does your church have “the spirit of prophecy”?
The Most Momentous Time
“The spirit of prophecy reveals the course of future world history!” Mr. Flurry wrote in The Royal Book of Revelation. “That means you understand world news in advance! You grasp exactly what is happening on the world scene. You can fit it all into a time frame with the book of Revelation. … It is through the spirit of prophecy that we see into the future—see God’s plan—where we and this world are going.”
Those who ignore prophecy are deceiving themselves.
We must not be ignorant of the times we are living in! This is the most dangerous, most transformative, most important time in history. It is more significant than the Greek-Persian wars of the fourth century—more important than the rise and fall of the Roman Empire—more important than anything that occurred during the Protestant Reformation, the Renaissance, the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Discovery—more significant than the Revolutionary War or the Civil War—more significant than the Second World War and the Holocaust. And it is much more significant than the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989.
It may not feel that way right now—but it will soon enough.
Do you know, really, what is coming over the next few months and years? Are you ready for it? Do you know, really know, that God exists, that He is real and present? Do you know that the Bible is God’s inspired Word—and trust it enough to build your life around it? Do you know where to find God’s one true Church? Do you believe and support God’s warning message, even when it gets uncomfortable? Do you know that Gerald Flurry is the man God is using today and to whom He is revealing His secrets?
God gives you Bible prophecy to answer all these questions.
God is revealing Himself to you through all these prophecies in the same way He revealed Himself to me through the fall of the Berlin Wall. God is revealing His prophecies to you right now, when the world is about to enter immeasurable suffering. He is doing this to encourage people to repent so that they won’t suffer. He is offering you the chance to seek Him while there is time.
Revealing these prophecies is one of the greatest acts of love God could possibly show you! He means for it to provoke action on your part.
Will you use Bible prophecy the way He wants you to? To prove His existence, to prove His Bible, to prove His Church, to prove His government, to build urgency, to build faith—to do God’s work?
