God’s Secret About Hosea’s Children

We have shown in the past that the book of Hosea is specifically addressed to the British peoples of the nations of Israel. Now, God has revealed to me a great deal more about Hosea.

Notice how Hosea’s prophecy begins. “The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord” (Hosea 1:1-2).

The first part of the message is about God correcting His adulterous wife. God commands Hosea to take an adulterous whore as his wife. The main purpose for Hosea marrying this woman is to illustrate the behavior of God’s wife in “the latter days” (Hosea 3:5). Hosea, like all of the minor and major prophets, primarily focuses on the end time. Many verses in Hosea prove this view. That proof will be clearly shown in this booklet. The message delivered anciently was only a type.

God was married to the nation of Israel, but divorced her. This truth is taught throughout the Old Testament. God is not married to the nations that comprise Israel today. He is married only to His Church.

God’s Church has “committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord.” You can’t depart from God if you never knew Him! The nations of Israel have never known God since He divorced them.

But the whole subject of the first chapter of Hosea is that these people have known God extremely well. They were married to Him and then turned to whoredom! Here is what the Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon says about the word “whoredom”: “attributed properly and chiefly to a woman; whether married (when it may be rendered to commit adultery) or unmarried …. It is very often used figuratively—of idolatry, (to go whoring after strange gods) … the people worshiping strange gods is compared to an adulterous woman.”

The word woman is used as a symbol of a church in the Bible. This woman in Hosea is even called an adulteress (Hosea 3:1).

Hosea is discussing God’s own Church, which was married to the omnipotent God in this end time! So when God’s people turn away from Him, it is no small sin—it is a great whoredom!

The Laodicean Era

We have proven in much of our literature that God’s Church entered the Laodicean era when Herbert W. Armstrong died. God heaps much praise on the Philadelphia era, over which Mr. Armstrong presided (Matthew 17:10-11; 24:14; Revelation 3:7-8; etc.). But when the Philadelphia era ended, the Church became Laodicean (Revelation 3:7-19).

Hosea was commanded to marry a “wife of whoredoms.” God wanted Israel to see clearly how the nation turned away from Him. But the primary meaning is for spiritual Israel, or His Church, in these latter days. Only the Church is Christ’s wife today (Revelation 19:7).

So Hosea’s wife of whoredoms is a picture of God’s Laodicean Church turning away from Him—after having a wonderful marriage during the Philadelphia era under Herbert Armstrong.

This great whoredom is the same as the great falling away in 2 Thessalonians 2, written about extensively in our book Malachi’s Message (request your free copy). There is simply no other logical explanation of the first chapter in Hosea.

The subject gets much more fascinating as we get further into the book of Hosea.

The Three Children

“So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son” (Hosea 1:3). The first child, a son, was named Jezreel. It says Gomer “bare him [Hosea] a son.” That expression is not used when referring to the other two children. In verse 6, it says she “bare a daughter.” In verse 8, it says she “bare a son.” The Soncino Commentary speculates that this indicates the last two children were not begotten by Hosea—they had other biological fathers. That is exactly right! Here is why. God is telling us precisely what is occurring in His end-time Church. The first Church to be “cast out” or leave the Worldwide Church of God (wcg), was the Philadelphia Church of God (pcg). No other church of any significance came out before we did.

Hosea is a type of Jesus Christ and Gomer a type of God’s Church. The first child in Hosea’s marriage was the only one begotten by him. The first child that came out of the Laodicean wife in the latter days was the pcg. And the pcg is the only one of these three children that was begotten by Christ!

The Hebrew definition for “Jezreel” means God sows, God has sown, or God is sowing (see the Soncino Commentary, the Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, or Smith’s Dictionary). It is another way of saying that God gave birth to the pcg!

What wonderful revelation this is from God!

The only other two significant groups to leave the wcg during the Laodicean era are the United Church and the Living Church. We have proven clearly how they have rejected God’s government and their Head—Jesus Christ. (For more information, request our free booklets Colossians and God’s Family Government.) Spiritually, these two churches are illegitimate!

Both of these groups have rejected the government God taught through Mr. Armstrong. That is how they turned to the whoredoms of the mother church. “And the Lord said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel” (verse 4). In a little while, the nations of Israel are going to fall—and God’s Laodicean churches will fall with them. That means the pcg only has a very short time to warn the nations of Israel and God’s rebellious churches! That is why the emphasis of our message is a warning! The Great Tribulation is coming fast and soon.

“And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel” (verse 5). God is going to break the bow, or military might, of the nations of Israel. The pcg is warning the Laodiceans and Israel today.

“And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away” (verse 6). Gomer had a daughter by an adulterous union. They are all “children of whoredoms” because they came from a Laodicean mother. But the latter two children were illegitimate. Their biological father was not Hosea. And God is not the spiritual Father of the last two major churches to leave the wcg! That means God is not leading them. Christ is not doing His Work through them.

Loruhamah means God will “no more have mercy.” Please notice carefully. God once had mercy on them—but no more! That is because they have rejected their Husband! As a penalty, God is going to “utterly take them away”—into the Great Tribulation.

“Now when she had weaned Loruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son. Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God” (verses 8-9). Loammi means “you are not MY people.” They were God’s people in the Philadelphia era. But that is now history. Gomer “bare a son”—Hosea was not his father.

These are very ugly statements about God’s own Church. God help the people who take these terror-striking prophecies lightly! These prophecies are unfolding before our eyes. God’s own Church must heed or pay horrendous penalties!

The mother and her two rebellious children (representing all the dissenters) reject the government taught by God through Mr. Armstrong! That means they are rejecting Jesus Christ as their Head—their Husband!

Hosea married this evil lady to illustrate that point. Hosea’s wife scorned his authority. So did the latter two children, who followed their mom’s example. The whole subject is about a governing office being rejected by God’s own Church.

The bloodcurdling tragedy is that these people today had Christ as their New Covenant Husband and rebelled against Him! There is no greater disaster!

People could ask, “Why would God be so concerned about the end-time Laodicean Church?” Because this is Christ’s own wife! He has no higher priority! He is even concerned about the smallest details. That is why she is God’s major concern in prophecy today.

‘They Shall Hear Jezreel’

There is good news. Many of God’s people are going to repent. “Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God” (Hosea 1:10). Jesus Christ is going to rule the nations of Israel. “Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel” (verse 11).

The work of the pcg was begun and is sustained by Jesus Christ. All we have to do is hold fast. We are typed by Jezreel. The same message taught in the pcg, or Jezreel, today is going to fill this Earth! It is going to bring the ultimate joy to this world—because it is God’s message. Then all people will have “one Head”—Jesus Christ. They will have learned to submit to God’s government. Then they will be thankful to have Christ rule them!

“And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely” (Hosea 2:18). In that day always refers to this end time. Hosea is clearly an end-time message. God is about to give this whole world peace and safety.

“And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies” (verse 19). Christ is going to “betroth thee unto me for ever.” The firstfruits are going to marry the Son of God—forever!

That is the most exalted reward ever given to mankind. And it is only offered to those who qualify to marry Christ before He returns.

“I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord. And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel” (verses 20-22). At that time, the physical and spiritual laws will be working in harmony. The whole Earth will be filled with God’s love and physical abundance.

How will this happen? Why this magnificent change? Then the whole Earth “shall hear Jezreel”! Remember, Jezreel was the first son of Hosea. His wife Gomer “bare him a son.” The very message that is being taught today by the pcg, or Jezreel, is going to be the same message heard in the beautiful World Tomorrow! That is because the pcg is the only Church that is letting Christ direct us to do His Work in this end time!

Why must the Laodiceans and the world suffer so horribly before they will heed God’s wonderful message?

They Forgot the Law

“Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine” (Hosea 3:1). Here this church is called an adulteress. At the same time, God says the real problem is those in this church “look to other gods.” The Gesenius’ Lexicon defines “look” this way: “to turn oneself; to turn the back, to flee.” They have turned their back on God. They have turned to other gods and broken the First Commandment. They have other gods before the true God and their Husband, Jesus Christ. Spiritual adultery breaks the first and most important commandment. (Physical adultery breaks the Seventh Commandment.)

Think how intimate a husband and wife are, or should be. It is the closest kind of relationship. That is the kind of spiritual relationship God’s true Church has with her Husband, Jesus Christ. God’s end-time Church committed adultery and whoredoms, shattering that wonderful marriage!

This is the worst pain God’s Church can cause her Husband, Jesus Christ! We can see this if our view is through the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5). But we cannot think like a spiritual slut and expect to understand the pain that spiritual adultery causes our Husband.

It all happens in the latter days—the time we are living in now. “Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days” (Hosea 3:5). After the Great Tribulation, many will repent and turn to God.

Why was God’s Church punished? “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou has rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children” (Hosea 4:6). The people forgot God’s law. If there is a law, there must be somebody to administer it, like a referee administers the rules, or law, of a basketball game. Without a leader to enforce the rules, you have confusion and chaos. So it is with God’s law and people.

Notice: They had the knowledge, or truth, of God revealed to them. Then they rejected it. They had God’s law, kept it, and then forgot it. This could only refer to God’s Church today. Only God’s Church understands His revealed truth in these latter days. Only God’s Church has been given and has kept His law. But now it has “forgotten the law.”

You cannot reject God’s truth if you never had it. And you cannot forget God’s law if you never kept it. Clearly, God is addressing His own Church. Only it has ever truly kept God’s spiritual law.

Jesus Christ is discussing His wife of whoredoms. Surely God’s people must see the terrible seriousness of these verses.

Hosea was there to administer God’s law, but his wife and children rejected his and God’s government. And God has a work today delivering Hosea’s message and administering God’s government. But God’s wife—except for a small remnant—rejects that government—the same government Christ taught His wife through Mr. Armstrong. All of God’s Laodiceans have rejected God’s government and broken His law the same way Hosea’s wife and last two children did!

Now God is rejecting His people. You “shalt be no priest to me,” says God. They were God’s priests (Revelation 1:6). They had the most exalted offices on planet Earth! They had the very law and government of God. They were the only true spiritual leaders in this world! Christ has only one wife! (Revelation 19:7).

Why does God reject these people from being His priests, or ministry? Because they have forgotten the law of God! They are supposed to be the kind of priests, or government, who administer God’s law. The law of God demands that there be a government to implement that law! These ministers have abdicated their primary responsibility. They could never reject the government taught by Mr. Armstrong unless they had forgotten God’s law! This is their great whoredom!

Consider this important point. If God’s people were in a church where the leaders administered God’s law, how could they forget it? They could not! They might rebel against it, but they could not forget it. So the leaders must be failing to administer the law!

Now most of them, like Lucifer, have rebelled against God’s law and government. And they are losing their crown as Lucifer did. They have been called to rule this Earth, but are showing themselves to be unqualified unless they repent!

We cannot rule with God forever if we cannot be ruled in this life for a few years while we learn how to administer that rule in God’s Church today.

Now, because the Laodiceans forgot God’s law, He is going to forget their children—which means they will receive no protection now or in the Tribulation. What a curse for their children!

The most amazing part of this story is God’s love. He is pleading with His wife to repent now. He will continue to plead with her in the Tribulation. We see how God demonstrates His indescribable love. He never stops loving His adulterous wife, until He knows she won’t repent. That is the same love Christ is building in His wife, the true Church!

You and I must rise above our human weaknesses and build this new and wonderful love for our physical and spiritual families! God has no thought of divorce as long as there is a glimmer of hope. This love is not natural. It is a gift from God! And we all need to pray daily for more of that gift.

People can give profusely to earthquake and hurricane victims, but that is not solving our foundational problems. People are being destroyed for lack of knowledge—spiritual knowledge from God! That is the raging, super-desperate need of this world!

God’s Church was given this knowledge and became His priests—His only true Church! His only Work! Now they scorn that knowledge—the very solution to all of this world’s problems!

“As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame” (Hosea 4:7). They once had unparalleled glory—now they are in a quagmire of shame! They have rebelled against the most royal, majestic calling God has to give—an opportunity to be Christ’s Bride!

Spiritual knowledge saves nations. A lack of knowledge destroys nations! Once we have been given this precious knowledge, our greatest challenge is to hold on to it. That is our glory. To lose this knowledge is the worst imaginable shame.

This glorious knowledge we have saves nations. It’s going to save the world—THE UNIVERSE! This knowledge is the world’s fabulous hope—and ONLY hope. This is the greatest possible gift we can give the world. Failing to do so is the blackest possible shame!

Royal Family Chastened

“Hear ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ye ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you, because ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor” (Hosea 5:1). Judgment here is not the act of judging, but the sentence of the judge. So this is a serious warning that needs to be heard.

Smith’s Dictionary states that Mizpah was “the great sanctuary” of God (see Genesis 31:45-54 and Judges 10:15-18). Mizpah means “pillar.” The root word signifies a watchtower. God commands, “Hear ye this, O priests.” God is telling His own priests, or ministers today, that they are a snare—a deadly eternal trap—for God’s people and Israel! They should be God’s sanctuary, pillar or spiritual watchtower! Instead, they deceive and lead the people away from God and His government.

The word Tabor refers to a mountain that is 1,350 feet above the plain (called Jebel et-Tur today). The word mountain is a biblical symbol for government. God is here addressing the national leaders of Israel. They spread a net that entraps their own people in many sins.

Notice: God also gives a specific command to the “house of the king”—the royal family of Britain. They sit on David’s throne, discussed in Hosea 3:5. It is the very throne on which Christ will sit to rule this Earth. No throne on Earth has a past and a future even remotely like David’s throne! (Request our free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy.)

God is deeply concerned. He is going to sentence the royal family and all Israel to the greatest time of suffering ever!

God commands these leaders to hear, give ear and listen! That means God’s loyal remnant is warning them all very directly about the coming Tribulation!

We are sent by God to warn the nations of Israel. We have a specific commission to warn God’s own Laodicean Church. This is what Malachi’s Message is all about. We also have a specific commission to warn the royal family of Britain—“give ye ear, O house of the king”! They sit on the most important throne that has ever been on this Earth!

God revealed the truth about that throne to Herbert W. Armstrong in this end time. Now the church God founded through him has rejected or watered down that precious truth. This is the key that unlocks all Bible prophecy—about one third of your Bible. Instead of proclaiming that powerful message to the world, the Laodiceans discredit the man God used to reveal it! Christ’s wife is indeed into vile whoredoms.

God has already sentenced the nations of Israel to die. What could be more serious? This is a message from the omnipotent God. That is a major reason why our message is one of great hope. People must have a chance to hear, hearken and give ear. That is our heavy responsibility. We must not fail God!

The Philadelphia Church of God has a powerful commission to warn God’s Church and Israel. It is why we exist today. God keeps pouring out more and more revelation for a great purpose. We must deliver that revelation! Nothing is more important.

Trumpet-Blowing Work

“Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at Bethaven, after thee, O Benjamin. Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be” (Hosea 5:8-9). We are delivering a trumpet-blowing message. It is alarming and terror-striking! God promised that the tribes, or nations, of Israel would know about this message! It was thundered by Mr. Armstrong and now by the pcg. But in many ways it applies more to the pcg in this end time.

Hosea’s adulterous wife pictures God’s Church after Mr. Armstrong died. We have a heavy responsibility to deliver this message now!

We are literally fulfilling God’s promise to Israel! We are evidence that God’s prophecies are always fulfilled. This is not the work of men. Our message comes from God! The punishment will continue until they repent (verse 15).

“Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law” (Hosea 8:1). God is against His own house, or Church. A military attack is going to be made on God’s own people! They have broken God’s covenant. Only God’s Church has made a New Covenant with God today. Only God’s Church had God’s spiritual law and then trespassed against it. God is getting very specific with His own people.

There is a remnant that does obey God. It’s as if they have a trumpet always fixed to their collective mouth—like a permanent fixture! They know what their commission is. They never stop warning. They love the Laodiceans and hope they can help save them—physically and spiritually. That is our true motive, in spite of what critics may say. God knows the truth and so do we.

God’s own sinning people must receive the strongest warning. God says they have “transgressed MY covenant.” And God is full of wrath! “Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee. Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him” (verses 2-3). God’s Church has “cast off the thing that is good.” It has rejected God’s truth. That could happen only if it received God’s truth in the first place!

“Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor” (Hosea 9:1). God’s Church has “gone whoring from God.” It knew God and turned away. “They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria” (verse 3). Generally, only God’s people really understand the Bible’s commands about clean and unclean food. But all American and British peoples are going to eat unclean food in Assyria, or Germany. And that is going to happen very soon!

Their sacrifices are unclean to God (verse 4). “What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the Lord?” (verse 5). They can no longer keep the Sabbath and holy days! These are specifically God’s holy days to which this refers. Who keeps these days today? Only God’s people. Some have gotten so far from God, they have already stopped keeping them. Perhaps they have already lost their salvation!

This is a frightening message. It must be heeded or an unparalleled penalty paid. Those who heed this message will receive marvelous rewards.

This world is about to explode in our faces. Jesus Christ will soon return and save man from himself. God’s very elect must intensify the sound of the trumpet until it reaches ear-splitting volume!

Continue Reading: Chapter 2: Britain in Prophecy