Lamentations, Mourning and Woe

The flagship of the Philadelphia Church of God’s original literature is Malachi’s Message to God’s Church Today. Written in 1989 just a few years after Herbert W. Armstrong died, Malachi’s Message was God’s revelation concerning His Church entering its final era, the Laodicean era, before Jesus Christ’s Second Coming.

It was clear from the beginning that God wanted that book distributed to the Worldwide Church of God. The Old Testament book of Malachi, on which Malachi’s Message is based, is a message directed specifically to the rebellious ministry in God’s Church. We sent Malachi’s Message to everyone in the wcg we could, because it is also a strong warning to the members who followed the rebellious ministry.

God has now given the pcg a message directed to all of the members of the Laodicean churches of God—probably the last major and direct warning God intends to give before the events of the biblically prophesied Great Tribulation begin. That Tribulation is going to be the most horrifying experience ever inflicted on God’s people and the world. Never has anybody experienced such massive horror. If we love God’s people and the world, we must warn them.

This warning is contained within the book of Lamentations.

Spiritual Captives

Let’s look at some background from the book of Ezekiel. There we will see how Malachi’s Message connects directly to the book of Lamentations.

In Ezekiel 2, the prophet discusses a scroll and a book. “And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll [or scroll] of a book was therein; And he spread it before me; and it was written within and without: and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe” (verses 9-10).

This book about “lamentations, and mourning, and woe” is the same book as the “little book” of Revelation 10. It has a direct tie to the book of Lamentations. In a November 1976 co-worker letter, Herbert W. Armstrong noted the similarity between Ezekiel 2 and Revelation 10. He didn’t realize it, but the reason for the similarity is that both passages are talking about the little book, Malachi’s Message. You can read my booklet Ezekiel: The End-Time Prophet for a thorough explanation of that truth. (Proof that Malachi’s Message is the little book of Revelation 10 can be found in our booklet The Little Book.)

In Ezekiel 2:9, the little book is called a “roll [or scroll] of a book.” The word translated roll means scroll. Zechariah 5 also refers to the little book as a roll, or a scroll. But Ezekiel also uses the term book. Perhaps God did that to help us identify it in this end time, since we talk so much about the little book of Revelation.

In Revelation 10:9-10, when John ate the little book, it was sweet in his mouth but bitter in his belly. The emphasis in Ezekiel is on the bitterness. It is a message of lamentations, mourning and woe. That is what those who fail to heed this message are going to suffer.

God revealed Malachi’s Message to strongly rebuke God’s own ministers for what they were doing to the Church. But the members are also going to suffer as never before for following them. That is made painfully clear in the book of Lamentations. So God’s strongest warning and even condemnation of the ministers and then members is spelled out in these two books. Ezekiel helps to tie these two books together. The bigger picture emerges when the two are linked.

This prophecy causes our belly to be bitter. It’s a bitter message about lamentations, mourning and woe striking God’s own people! The most bitter part of that disaster is that 50 percent of God’s own Family is going to die forever! It is bitter to know about that, and it is a difficult message to deliver. But it’s better to speak about lamentations, mourning and woe than to experience them!

God’s Church is dying! (2 Thessalonians 2:10). We must lament and mourn that woeful event. No book describes it as the book of Lamentations does. “Lamentations, mourning and woe” could be the title of that book. No book in the Bible explains what is going to happen to God’s Laodicean people like the book of Lamentations! All three of those words in Ezekiel—lamentations, mourning and woe—appear in the book of Lamentations. Ezekiel helps to tie Malachi’s Message to this new booklet on Lamentations.

The book of Malachi is focused on the sinning Laodicean ministers. The Laodicean members who follow those rebellious ministers are obviously being cursed. Those curses are not explicitly stated in the book of Malachi, but they are in the book of Lamentations. That is especially true of the 50 percent of the Laodiceans who repent during the Great Tribulation.

Ezekiel 2:10 says that the scroll of the little book was written “within and without”; the Revised Standard Version says “on the front and on the back.” Normally you would only write on one side of a scroll, but there’s so much detail here, so much God has to say about the problems among His people, that it’s written on the front and the back! These are problems worse, perhaps, than any God has ever faced with His Church.

A Message for the Captives

There should be no chapter break going into Ezekiel 3, which immediately talks about eating the scroll and preaching a message. “Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this [scroll], and go speak unto the house of Israel” (verse 1). What God reveals, He commands us to speak! Ezekiel said we must take this message to spiritual Israel first. But before we speak, we must eat and digest God’s spiritual food. Then we will have the faith to deliver the message. It is not an easy job.

“So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that [scroll]. And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness” (verses 2-3). Though it is a message of lamentations, it is sweet in the mouth to God’s faithful people. God has revealed to His very elect what is happening to the Church of God and how the problem will be solved.

The fact that this message is sweet in the mouth shows that there is an awesome hope here. Still, it is a message of lamentations, mourning and woe! The way John expresses it in Revelation 10 is that it is bitter in the belly. Here it says the victims will have lamentations, mourning and woe. The emphasis is on the victims, not the very elect, who find it bitter in the belly.

God instructed Ezekiel to speak to the Jewish captives who were right there with him (Ezekiel 3:11). He was personally able to go only to the people in captivity—the Jews. He had to speak to all of those Jews who were in captivity—not just the ministers. He had a message for the ministers and a message for all of the captives.

Ezekiel never delivered his message to the nations of Israel.

In Ezekiel 33, God sets a watchman who is to warn the people of Israel before they go into captivity. But in Ezekiel 3, he is to speak to some who are already in captivity. This is not a watchman message; it is something altogether different.

This is about spiritual Israel in a spiritual captivity—people who were spiritual Jews in this end time. They are people today who say they are spiritual Jews and are not (Revelation 3:9). They were at one time, but aren’t anymore. However, they have the potential to become spiritual Jews again.

In verse 11 of Ezekiel 3, God calls these captives “the children of thy people.” The Companion Bible says it should read sons. This is God’s Family! These spiritual captives are sons of God! They are people who have been taken captive by Satan the devil: the Laodiceans. Spiritual Israel has gone into captivity. And a message of lamentation, mourning and woe needs to be delivered to them. Why? Now they are Satan’s captives. and soon they are going to experience his worst wrath ever! (Revelation 12:12). It will be the worst lamentations, mourning and woe ever on planet Earth! The outer edges of this perfect storm are already pounding us!

This is not talking about the world—it’s talking about God’s sons! And they’re in captivity to the devil, of all things! How ugly can it get? This is one of the most shameful and pathetic pictures in the Bible. God’s own Family, which has been called out of this world, is in bondage to the devil! Could there be any greater bitterness for the very elect than to watch this happen? This is our own God Family! Those Laodiceans ought to be delivering God’s message to all the world, giving it hope and showing the solution to its problems—and 95 percent of them are in captivity to the devil—the greatest evil you can imagine! Jesus Christ said in Revelation 3:21 that we must overcome as He overcame, and He overcame the devil. But most of God’s people didn’t—instead they’re in captivity to the being they should be overcoming! This is probably the worst crisis ever in God’s Church!

And it’s about to get a lot worse!

A Book of Woe

The little book is discussed in Revelation chapters 10 and 11. You could say it’s broken into three parts: lamentations, mourning and woe.

First, the Laodicean Church stopped prophesying—and the piercing pain of lamentations resulted. The very elect had to prophesy again (Revelation 10:11). Second, 95 percent of God’s people were cast into the outer court—outside the inner court where God dwells—causing heavy mourning (Revelation 11:1-2). Third, they were all plunged into the greatest time of suffering and woe ever: the Great Tribulation followed by the Day of the Lord.

We might get a better picture of the woe if we examine the context of the little book. Its message is located in the midst of the three woes. Revelation 10 and the first part of chapter 11 discuss the little book. Revelation chapters 8 and 9 discuss the first two woes. Germany attacking the Russian-Chinese alliance is the first woe. The latter counterattacking is the second woe.

Chapter 10, talking about the little book, is an inset chapter, showing us what happens inside God’s Church, leading up to the third woe. Satan is cast down at about the same time Herbert W. Armstrong dies. He is full of wrath because he knows his time is short. The little book explains that Satan attacks the Church of God first. It is the beginning of his “woe to the inhabiters of the earth” (Revelation 12:12). This all leads to the third woe, or the seventh trumpet, which consists of the seven last plagues. All of this woe is concluded by the return of Jesus Christ (Revelation 11:15).

God’s Church has never experienced more woe than what those chapters describe. Much of it is explicitly described in the book of Lamentations.

On his last Pentecost before he died, Mr. Armstrong warned God’s people, “Most of you don’t get it.” Events after his death proved him right. They didn’t get it, so God had to begin trying to reach them in more intense ways, like the Great Tribulation and events leading up to that worst punishment ever! The book of Lamentations is undoubtedly the strongest message they will ever receive.

A New Commission

For the first seven years of our work, we went to the Laodiceans with God’s message to them. That was our primary message during that period. Ezekiel fulfilled a type of that commission by preaching to all of the captives. “Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel-abib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days” (Ezekiel 3:15). Exiled among these captives, Ezekiel was astonished—by their rebellion and punishment. These “seven days” mean seven years in fulfilled prophecy. (That is fully explained in our Ezekiel booklet. All of our literature is free.)

Today, 95 percent of God’s people are dying spiritually in the wilderness. That is a message of lamentations, mourning and woe! That is bitter! It is a message of seven thunders and a lion’s roar (Revelation 10:3). We have to deliver that message to our Laodicean family. It is a message that is going to cause them a lot of lamentations, and they’re going to mourn—and it’s going to be woe, woe, woe for them!

Lamentations and woe are coming upon all of God’s Laodicean people. They are going to be punished mightily by God as a last resort. God in His love is trying to reach them and save them from eternal death.

God is saying there are lamentations for the Laodiceans, they’re going to mourn and mourn—and then there’s going to be oh, so much woe! That’s the way it will be for the Laodiceans or anybody who rebels against God.

Verses 16-17 of Ezekiel 3 show what happened at the end of those seven days—or, in type, the first seven years of the pcg’s work. The primary warning shifted from those spiritual captives to “the house of Israel.” At that point, we stepped out and printed Mystery of the Ages in an effort to reach out to this world. We didn’t understand this prophecy at that time, but we knew our commission had changed after seven years. We simply stepped out in faith, and later God revealed to us where it was all prophesied.

It was then that the watchman work began. “… I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel,” verse 17 says. The work that happened before that time wouldn’t qualify as a watchman work, because it was directed to people already in captivity. The watchman’s warning is an attempt to keep people out of captivity. The book of Lamentations also explains in detail the unparalleled terror about to afflict the nations of Israel.

At the seven-year mark of the pcg, this is what I wrote in the Trumpet: “The first seven years of our work were concentrated primarily on warning God’s own Laodicean churches. There was a massive falling away, and Christ directed us to knock on their door with a strong warning message (2 Thessalonians 2:1-11; Revelation 3:20). Malachi’s Message was the centerpiece of our work. That meant the emphasis was on reaching God’s own people.

“Now that emphasis has shifted to the whole world, and only secondarily to God’s Laodiceans. We have entered a new phase in God’s Work. We are now printing, and giving away free, Herbert W. Armstrong’s book Mystery of the Ages. It is difficult for any new convert to come out of the world and be led by God through Malachi’s Message only” (February 1997).

Now—did that new commission mean God had stopped reaching out to the Laodiceans? Not at all. He continues to warn them—including through the bitter message of Lamentations. At the same time, even this book shows the Laodiceans and the nations of Israel an inspiring hope.

Now we are entering into a new phase of this Work. We are no longer warning the Laodiceans and nations of Israel that God will not inflict them with the Great Tribulation if they repent. Now we warn them that they have reached the point of no return.

The Point of No Return

God is giving me more depth in understanding Lamentations. No book in the Bible has stronger correction for God’s Church in such detail. The consequences of the Laodiceans’ rebellion are going to be horrendous because they knew so much. This book shows what is going to be inflicted upon God’s people, and it is as bad as anything I’ve ever read in the Bible. Still, there is good news in the midst of all that.

Lamentations is specifically for the Laodicean members. It describes a coming massive funeral dirge, spelling it out in such detail that it’s shocking if you really understand it. Lamentations is about the 95 percent who heard what Mr. Armstrong taught but wouldn’t do it! God’s end-time Elijah tried so hard to make the truth plain to them, yet they were too hardheaded to be corrected by it! Even to this day, when you tell them what the problem is, they refuse to get it! That is a terrible hardness. The little book was a strong warning from God, but it was rejected by all but a few people.

So now God is giving this warning from the book of Lamentations, which is tied directly to the little book in Ezekiel. God is saying that the Laodiceans will have to face lamentations, mourning and woe.

They have reached the point of no return. As a collective body, the Laodiceans are destined to experience the Great Tribulation. The nations of Israel have reached that point of no return also.

The problems are intensifying for the Laodiceans because of their sins. God is telling them what’s coming. This is an ominous message for them. They are in captivity to the devil, and the only way God can reach most of them is through what they’re going to experience in the Tribulation. Revelation 11:2 says those in the outer court will be trodden underfoot by the Gentiles right along with Jerusalem, which is a symbol of all Israel. The horror of that future time is spelled out very poetically in Lamentations.

The combination of the Lamentations warning and being subjected to that Great Tribulation will finally lead 50 percent of the Laodiceans to repent. The Lamentations warning will make it clear to the Laodiceans that they brought all this suffering upon themselves. They will then see their only hope is in bitter repentance.

The other 50 percent will lose their eternal lives. As Mr. Armstrong said, this is dangerous knowledge!

If you remember, in May 2001, I talked about how God had revealed to me that we were in the last hour. Just a few months after that came September 11—the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history! God is fulfilling these prophecies. This isn’t a fantasy—it is real.

The Final Warning

“And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter” (Revelation 10:10). This message came right out of the angel’s hand! John digested it, and then what did he do? He delivered it!

“And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings” (verse 11). This is how we qualify and make it into the Family of God: by doing God’s Work. After God gives us new revelation, He says, I want you to go and deliver this message! That’s how you build my character; that’s how you become like I am: You learn to think as I do about the messages I give to my people, the Laodicean Church, and the world.

Then notice the next verse: “And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God …” (Revelation 11:1). The “temple of God” is the people of God (e.g. Ephesians 2:21-22). This is specifically talking about the 5 percent of God’s people who remained faithful and allowed themselves to be measured.

Then God says to measure “the altar.“ This refers to the ministry. Malachi’s Message is directed to that group.

Finally, God instructs to measure “them that worship therein.” This is what the book of Lamentations is all about. All sons who enter God’s Family must be measured. If we won’t be measured now, then our last chance is in a nuclear tribulation. The 50 percent of the Laodiceans who repent then will do so in the worst holocaust of suffering ever known to mankind.

The book of Lamentations is about those members “that worship therein” who refused to be measured before the Great Tribulation. They rejected Malachi’s Message, or the little book.

God is going to measure all of us one way or the other. He measures us with His warning message, and those who don’t hear it will move to the next stage. “But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months” (verse 2). There is an inner court and an outer court, and that outer court is going to have to suffer in the Great Tribulation.

Now we see that the Laodiceans and the nations of Israel have reached the point of no return with the new revelation about Lamentations. Only a comparatively few individuals will repent before the Tribulation.

God measures—but once He puts His people in the outer court, is He finished with them? No—He hasn’t even really measured them yet! Those who refused to be measured by Malachi’s Message are going to have to suffer—as it is painfully detailed in the book of Lamentations like no other book in the Bible. It contains lamentations, and mourning and woe like you’ve never even heard about before! It’s coming, and it’s coming fast.

That suffering will bring half of God’s rebellious people to the point of repentance. If there is any hope, God wants them in His Family. That is the love of God!

I believe the message in Lamentations will be the final blast we have to give to the Laodiceans. God’s very elect must thunder God’s message to them if we are going to work with Christ at headquarters for all eternity. We must warn them of the coming horror, which they are now destined to experience. They’re not going to like the message, but they must face the bad news as well as the good news.

When we do this job, then in the end, Jesus Christ will be waiting there, and that fabulous, wonderful, inspiring marriage ceremony is going to take place!