INTRODUCTION

To believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is the first step toward a personal relationship with God (Acts 8:26-38).  Many things are said about our redemption in the Holy Scriptures.  However, there is a far greater volume that is written about “the plan of God,” from the beginning to the end.

All of it is important, but it is the first six thousand years from the creation of Adam which should be our greatest concern at this time.  God created mankind, male and female, and they fell from His will and His favor.  The Son of God has come and died on the cross to provide for the redemption of mankind, and restore us to immortality.

In the creation of Eve, God revealed much of what mankind is really all about.  The narrative of her creation prophesies of the coming of the “Son of God,” and of His death, and the piercing of His side to “Purchase the Church of God [The Bride] with His own blood” (Gen. 2:18-24; Acts 20:28).

From about two thousand B.C., until Jesus died on the cross, God used the descendants of Abraham to prophesy of the coming events of the Grace Age.  He finished that era with a wonderful manifestation of His power.  He gave eternal life to the believers, and chose a special group of them to be His Church: the Bride, and blessed them with “Glory, Honor, and Peace” (Acts 4:33-Acts 5:14; Rom. 2:5-10).

The Bride of Christ is prophesied of many times in the Old Testament.  Those prophecies even tell us how many leaders would be anointed of God to lead the Jewish Church, in that first century, and the Gentile Church in this last century of the Grace Age.

Both the Old and New Testaments, point out the fact that the Bride will consists of two groups of 144,000; one Jewish group in the first century A.D., and a Gentile group in this early twenty first century.  Together they will make up the “Heavenly Jerusalem” (Rev. 7:1-9; Rev. 14:1-5 and Rev. 21:1-21).  The fulfillment of those many prophecies of the Jewish Church culminated in its perfection in about A. D. forty, under the leadership of the Apostle Peter.

In the beginning of the 20th century, God raised up the prophet A. J. Tomlinson, His fourth anointed in the Church Age, to begin the building of the Gentile Church.  He began the fulfillment of a series of prophecies which identify the work of that ministry all the way to the coming of the Bridegroom.

The time has come, and the building of the Gentile church is under way.  Even now, the cry is being made, “Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him” (Matt. 25:6).  Let us go, and “save” ourselves from this rebellious generation of Christians (Acts 2:40; Zeph. 2:1-3).

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

Many wonderful deeds were done by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We can read about some of those exploits in the four “Gospels,” and The Acts 0f The Apostles.”  They went about healing the sick and casting out devils.  Some even raised the dead. Their exploits were so great that, unto this day, people think of them as some kind of super-human creatures.  But they were just men of like passions as we are (James 5:17).

There was no aura around those men, or anything else to suggest that they were any different from anyone else.  The Apostle Paul stated plainly, “We also are men of like passions with you.”  They were simply men who God was using at the time (Acts 14:15).

Actually, there is very little said in the “Gospels,” or the “Acts,” about the majority of the Twelve Apostles of Christ.  The Gospels give us barely more than their names, and tell of their appointment to that venerable office.  The writer of the book of “The Acts of the Apostles” also mentions some of them by their names, and then proceeds to tell us about only three of them.

We are told of the wonders performed by the Apostle Peter, and how he and John laid hands on some, and they were baptized with the Holy Ghost.  We are also told of the martyrdom of James the brother of John.  As Luke continued, he told us of the apostles Paul, Apollos, Barnabas and of James, the brother of our Lord Jesus Christ.  A total of at least twenty men are called “Apostles” in the New Testament.

When most Christians hear the word apostle, they think “twelve,” only twelve.  Or we get the generic explanation that anyone who is “sent” is an apostle.  As a result, when at least eight other Apostles are named in the Bible, the truth of the words simply does not register.  The one exception to this is the Apostle Paul.  However, when Barnabas is called an apostle in the same sentence with Paul, it is usually not received in the conscious thought of the reader (Acts 14:14).

The apostleship of Paul is deftly explained by most Bible teachers by insulting The Twelve, whom they profess to esteem so highly.  They argue that the Apostles made a mistake when they ordained Matthias.  Supposedly they should have waited seven years or more for Paul to be converted.  But what are we to do with the apostleship of Barnabas and seven or so others, including James, the Lord’s brother (Gal. 1:19).

Apostleship is a gift.  It is not merely a number or an office.  The gifts of Apostle and Prophet are given to whomever God decides to give them (1 Cor. 12:11), and He gives them according to the person’s ability (Matt. 25:15).  That did not end when they finished writing the New Testament.  In fact, Paul told the Church at Ephesus that those gifts were given, “until we all come in the unity of the faith.”  Evidently, that has not happened yet.

Since the record tells about the exploits of only a few of the Apostles, we must conclude that God had something else in mind, other than the veneration of those great men.  Neither was the record given for purely historical purposes.  It was for the veneration of the true author of the Holy Scriptures: The creator Himself; showing that He, in His wisdom, had foretold of all those things from the beginning of the world.  The prayer of the saints in Acts 4:24-28, illustrates this point well.

“They lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said ‘Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:  who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?  The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.’  For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done” (Psalm 2).

Their persecution of Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, was a momentous historical event, but it was much more; both Jesus and His enemies were fulfilling prophecy.

Most Christians believe in salvation through the scriptures, but they so often miss the prophetic side of the Word of God.  They view the Old Testament much as the Jews did during the ministry of our Lord.  Paul, in describing those Jews, also described Gentile Christianity today, saying, “Even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart” (2 Corinthians 3:13-15).  We do not wish to miss anything God has given us, so let us begin to heed Jesus’ admonition, and “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify (prophesy) of [Him]” (John 5:39).

The Bible does much more than show us the way of eternal life.  In the Old Testament, God laid out for us the plan of God from the beginning to the end.  The Old Testament is a history of sorts, but, according to Jesus that is not its stated purpose.  It is an account of selected historical events involving the creation, and the first four thousand years of man’s time on earth.  Each of those events was selected, and written, because it could be used to reveal something about the plan of God.

The record of the creation prophesies of the work which God planned to do during man’s first six thousand years on the Earth.  For instance, on the third day, God caused life to spring forth upon the earth, and in the third millennium, God gave to Israel the living oracles.  He said to Moses, “I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil” Deut. 30:15).  Paul agreed, saying, “Death reigned from Adam to Moses” (Romans 5:14).

Notice, in Matthew 11:13, how the Son of God described the Old Testament, “All the prophets and the law prophesied until John.”  The Old Testament describes itself in the same manner.  Isaiah said, “Remember the former things of old: for I am God and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isaiah 46:9-10).

The main theme of the New Testament is to show us what Jesus and the Church did in fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies.  For instance, in Acts 12:23, we are told about the death of Herod, because his death fulfilled the prophecy in Isa. 51:7-8.  “Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings, for the worm shall eat them.”

The central theme of those prophecies was the coming, and the work of the Son of God.  He came in “the volume of the book which was written of Him” (Psalm 40:7; Hebrews 10:7). And He will come again, as it is written.

However, there is another, large volume of the book which is given to God’s Elect to fulfill, and, Peter said that Jesus will stay in heaven until we have fulfilled it (Acts 3:20-21). “The Scriptures cannot be broken” (John 10:35).  We believe in Jesus and His Apostles, Let us also believe what they said.

Peter wrote of witnessing the glory and majesty of Jesus at the transfiguration (2 Pet. 1:16-19).  Then he compared that testimony to Old Testament prophecy, saying, “We have a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts”   In effect he said, the reason that prophesy is more sure than their account of that marvelous experience was that the prophets did not write what they thought God meant (private interpretation), but rather, they wrote exactly what He said.

Who is that day star?  It can not possibly be Jesus, because Jesus had long since risen in their hearts at the time Peter wrote about it, and He has now risen in our hearts also.  Peter’s intent is clear in this passage.  He is telling us to watch prophecy so we will recognize “the man of God” when he comes on the scene to prepare for the arrival of our King.

It is understandable that many preachers today do not use 2 Peter 1:19 much.  The great “crusade” today is the advocacy of the doctrine of Korah, saying, “It is heresy to follow a man.”  They remind me of the religious leaders in the days of Jesus.  They knew that Messiah was coming, but they made a law that if anyone came professing to be the Messiah he must be killed (John 19:7).

Jesus said that the sign to their generation would be the sign of the prophet Jonas. Jesus became that sign, when He spent three days and three nights in hell, and “the earth with her bars” was around Him (Acts 2:27; Jonah 2:26).  The same Jesus said that Noah would be the sign for our generation.

Who is that man “Noah” who will fulfill the prophecy in Heb. 11:7, and save the House of God “when the enemy shall come in like a flood” (Isaiah 59:19)?  Paul said, “Noah, being warned of God, of things not seen as yet, prepared an ark to the saving of his house.”  And in Heb. 11:7, 39-40, Paul showed clearly that this is a prophecy which must be fulfilled in the grace age.

“The day,” which Peter mentioned, is beginning to dawn.  And “The Day Star,” will make the preparation for the arrival of our King.  God’s Elect must quickly “awake out of sleep” (Eph. 5:14-16), and become well advised of the prophecies concerning the Man of God and his work of preparation for that great event (Col. 1:25).

You can challenge this truth, but God did not idly give us the allegory of Korah, the son of Kohath, and his fellow insurgents.  They, and two hundred and fifty of the princes of the assembly, with their families, died because they challenged this truth (Numbers chapters 16 and 17).

Not only so, but the Apostle Jude told us that it also happened to some rebellious ministers in the Church in his day.  He said, “Likewise also these filthy dreamers – despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. – These speak evil of those things which they know not. – Woe unto them!  For they have perished in the gainsaying of Core [Korah].  These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear” (Jude 1:8-13).

Many of today’s ministers have fallen into the same trap, and cannot see what God is doing in the world today.  Can we reject the words of Jude?  If so, we also reject the Word of God.  God does not change.  He would never fail to keep His word.  Jesus told us, in Matthew 24:45-47, that He would find His faithful and wise servant ruling over His household and giving them “meat in due season,” upon His return.

We need to take a fresh look at every doctrine which is taught in our churches.  We must carefully analyze, and appropriately adjust our view of the Bible, so that we accurately reflect the truth of God in our teaching.  We must have some men like those early Apostles, who used their gift from God to guide the people in pure doctrine (Acts 2:41-43).  We need councils, such as they had in Acts 15, where “the Spirit of Counsel and Might” (Isa. 11:2) can work.  O how we need that Spirit operating among us today!

We cannot afford to assume that our views are correct, even though they were handed down to us by sincere, godly leaders (Jer. 16:19).  God may be ready to lead us into greater light than they had (Prov. 4:18).  So let us search the Scriptures, “rightly dividing the Word of Truth” (2 Tim. 2:15).

GOD’S CHURCH

And its Prophetic Role

The Church of God: God predestined it, and God defined it in the Holy Scriptures, wherein He typified it in various ways.  He referred to His Church as a tabernacle, a temple, a priesthood, a man, a woman. and so forth.

When Moses was about to make the Tabernacle, God told him to “Make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount” (Heb. 8:5).  And Jesus used that pattern when He laid the foundation of the Church, because it is the blueprint for the New Testament temple: “The Body of Christ.”

Paul wrote saying, “The whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” (Eph. 4:16).  The terms “pattern” and “fitly joined together” obviously cannot be applied to Christianity as a whole.

The early believers knew that God’s Church was a group set apart from the believers in general.  This fact is mentioned in Acts 5:1-14.  “Of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.”  After the death of Ananias and Sapphirah, many believed and accepted Jesus, but were afraid to join the Church that Peter built.

The Psalmist David mentioned this truth in Psa. 114:1-2.  “When Israel went out of Egypt, Judah was His sanctuary and Israel His dominion.”  Before Israel entered Caanan, God made choice among all the tribes of Israel that His temple would be built in Judah.  This prophetic allegory tells us that from the very beginning of the “Kingdom of God,” it was predestined that in the New Testament era, one group was to be chosen for “the work of the Sanctuary:” the Church.

That group is variously referred to, in the New Testament, as “Jerusalem, Zion, and Judah,” and so forth.  God has chosen one “city” out from among all of the cities: churches which make up the New Testament “Israel.”  Therefore the angel said to John, “Come hither, I will show thee the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife. – And showed me that great city, the Holy Jerusalem” (Rev. 21:9).

The book of Hebrews also shows plainly that God’s Church is the New Testament Jerusalem (Heb. 11:8-10,39-40; Heb. 12:22-23).  “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out, looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”  Abraham did not receive the promise, but the early Church did receive it.  Wherefore, Paul said, “But ye are come to the mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn, to the spirits of just men made perfect.” Abraham searched for that city by faith, and “the children of the promise” found it by faith.

Paul named several prophets and patriarchs, giving honor to their faith.  He concluded, saying, “These all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect” (Heb 11:39-40).

Hebrews 11 is about the faith of the prophets and patriarchs being fulfilled by the faith and works of God’s Church, through the working of the testimony of Jesus, which is “the Spirit of Prophecy” (Rev. 1:2; 19:10).

There are a few special tools which God has given us to expedite this work.  Jesus mentioned one of them at dinner in a Pharisee’s home, saying, “Woe unto you, lawyers! – For ye have taken away “the Key of Knowledge;” ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered (Luke 11:46-52).  That Key of Knowledge is under attack unto this day in our Christian Churches.

Unlike those “lawyers,” the Apostle Paul prayed earnestly for the Holy-Spirit-filled Saints at Ephesus, that God would also give them “the Spirit of Wisdom and of Revelation in the Knowledge of Him.” When that spirit is operating, together with the Spirit of the Lord, and with the Spirit of Prophecy, God’s people can begin to “come in the unity of the faith and of [the unity of] the knowledge of The Son of God, unto a perfect man.”

The Source of God’s Wisdom

Paul told us that from the beginning of the world, the fellowship of the mystery had been hid in God, and that His intention was “that now, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places (The Apostles and The Prophets)  might be known by The Church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph. 3:1-10).

In verse five, Paul explained that those “principalities and powers” are God’s holy Apostles and Prophets.  Apostles and Prophets are to the New Testament Church what the two divisions of the Sons of Aaron were to the Old Testament Sanctuary.  They offer the spiritual incense and light the spiritual lamps in God’s spiritual Temple (Acts 6:2-4; Rev. 1:20; Rev. 2:5; Rev. 4:5).

The Apostles and Prophets are the foundation of the Church.  Only by them can we know “the Revelation of Jesus Christ” (Matt. 16:13-18).  As the psalmist David said, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the people do” (Psalm 11:3)?

John wrote, in Revelation 21:9-14, that the Bride would have twelve gates of pearl: the twelve tribes (Rev. 7:1-10), and 12 Angels: 12 Apostles making up the Jewish Church.  He then showed that the Bride would also have a wall: the Gentile Church, with twelve foundations: stones: Gentile Apostles (Isaiah 60:10; Rev. 14:1-4).  In the first century A.D., the Jewish Church reached its glory, and in this last century A.D., the Gentile Church shall arise, and “The glory of this later house shall be greater than of the former” (Hab. 2:6-9).

The use of the allegories of pearls and stones was for the specific purpose of emphasizing to us that the Jewish Church was “created” in the fifth millennium day, and that the Gentile church would be “created” in the sixth millennium (Gen. 1:20-23; Gen. 24-31; Jeremiah 16:16-19).

The salvation part of God’s word is very easy to understand.  He told, us in Isa. 35:8, that the Way of Holiness is so easily understood that even “the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.”  But, “The work of God from the beginning to the end is not so easily understood.  In fact, it is written in such a way as to confuse those to whom He does not wish to reveal it (Isa. 28:9-13), but also in such a way that He can reveal it to whomsoever He will.

“Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.  For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.”

From this we can see why Paul said that men with the gift of Apostle were set in The Church first in importance, with Prophets secondary to them; after that Teachers, and so forth (1 Cor. 12:28).  We have a charge from the Lord, and we must have the ministry of these gifts, together with “the Key of Knowledge,” if the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife is to make herself ready for the marriage, (Luke 11:52; Rev. 19:7).

Boldly Fulfilling Prophecy

The ministers we read about in the Church of God of the New Testament had an attitude toward prophecy which we need to consider and emulate.  They viewed the Old Testament in the same way which Jesus did.  It was a book of instructions to them.  When the time came to fulfill some prophecy in particular, they fulfilled it as they were “commanded” (Acts 13:47).

Paul is very bold in the first chapter of his epistle to the saints at Colosse.  He said, “The dispensation of God is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God.”  Any minister who would be so bold today would immediately become an outcast.  And no wonder: that is what they did to Jesus the moment He claimed to be fulfilling prophecy (Luke 4:15-29).  Until then, He had been respected and esteemed in the synagogue.

In Acts 13:47, Paul and Barnabas boldly proclaimed that the prophecy in Isaiah 49:6 was a specific command to them, saying, “I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.”  They were declaring their intentions to fulfill that prophecy.

This concept was certainly not unique to the Apostle Paul.  Jesus showed us in Matthew 11:10-13 that it was John the Baptist who began the New Testament fulfillment of the prophecies in the Old Testament.  He declared that John the Baptist was “more than a prophet, for this is he, of whom it is written.” John himself boldly declared, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘make straight the way of the Lord,’ as said the prophet Esaias” (John 1:23).  He was fulfilling those prophecies, and he knew it.

In Acts 1:15-22, Peter asserted that he and the other apostles were obligated to fulfill prophecy by ordaining Matthias to replace Judas.  He said, “Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas.”  Then he quoted Psalm 69:25, and one line of Psalm 109:8.  He acted on the premise that those prophecies were their instructions to ordain a replacement into the office of The Twelve which Judas had vacated.  He said, “It is written in the book of Psalms, ‘Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein:  and his bishoprick let another take.’”  Wherefore of these men must one be ordained to be a witness with us.”

Peter was not merely “doing something.”  Jesus had made a special appearance to Peter, and later, in the presence of The Twelve, gave him the oversight of the Church (John 21:15-17; Matt. 24:45-47).  Furthermore, the prophecies about the twelve apostles show that Paul could never be one of The Twelve.  The Twelve were the New Testament “altar,” and could not be made up of men with “a higher education” such as the training which Paul received at the feet of Gamaliel (Deut. 27:5-6; 1 Kings 18:31-32; Heb. 13:10).

A PREDOMINANT THEME

There is a theme woven throughout the Old Testament of something existing or being built, then being removed or destroyed, and later restored.  The city of Jerusalem is a prime example of this.  It was built, and later was destroyed by the Babylonians.  Then, after the captivity, we hear the cry of triumphant, “So built we the wall!”

I have already shown that the New Testament Church was the fulfillment of that city.  What happened to it?  Where is it today?  The prophet Isaiah showed that it would become apostate.  He said, “How is the faithful city become an harlot! It was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.  Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water” (Isaiah 1:21-27).

After the glory of God was lavished upon God’s Church in the first century of the Grace Age, the Church forsook the way of God and went into the corruption of idolatrous worship.  However, Isaiah continued, “I will turn my hand upon them – and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counselors as at the beginning:  afterward thou shalt be called, The City of Righteousness, The Faithful City” (Isa. 1:21-26).  This shows that The Twelve will be restored and functioning in the Church when Jesus returns.

In Isa. 51:9 and 52:1-2, God used the precept of rising again, as from the dead, prophesying of the Church.  He said, “Awake, awake, put on strength, as in the ancient days. – O Jerusalem, the holy city: Shake thyself from the dust.”  Paul applied this prophecy to us, saying, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Eph. 5:14).

If every Christian is a part of God’s Church, these Scriptures would be meaningless, because The Church could not die without Christianity being completely eradicated.  There are various allegories which embody this theme.  I will list only three of them here:

1) Abraham dug some wells.  The Philistines stopped them.  Later, Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father (Gen. 26:18).  And he named them by the same names that his father had named them

2) Job had seven sons and three daughters together with great wealth.  Then he lost it all, but “the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.”  The Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.  God also gave him seven more sons and three more daughters (Job 1:19 and 42:10-13).

3) Solomon built the temple.  The Chaldeans destroyed the temple.  Later Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Joshua, the son of Josedech, rebuilt the temple (Ezra 5:11).

The allegory of the wells which Abraham and Isaac dug, shows us that there was to be three phases of God’s Church, in both the early and the latter days, besides the phase in which a covenant is given.  In the case of the early disciples, the three phases are not clear, just as they are not clear in the wells which Abraham dug.

Jesus fulfilled Abraham’s covenant at Beersheba when He sealed the New Covenant with his blood.  Afterward, there were three more phases of The Church: the building and perfecting of it by Peter, the preserving of it by James, the Lord’s brother, and the decline of it under the leadership of Jude.

In Isaiah 12:3 he said, “With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.”  Peter’s testimony surely confirms that the early disciples did just that.  He said their experience was “Joy unspeakable and full of glory.”  However, “the Scriptures cannot be broken.”  So, when the early disciples had fulfilled the prophecies concerning them, the wells were stopped.

The three wells which Isaac and his servants dug later are very distinct.  That is because the divisions of God’s Church among the Gentiles were to be more distinct than those in the early Church.  But we will consider Isaac’s wells later.

THE GLORIOUS TEMPLE

Most of us are familiar with the Church being called a temple, because that is what is emphasized in the New Testament.  And they were not idly using home spun metaphors.  They were speaking to us as the oracles of God.

Consider the reference to the Temple in Acts 7:47-48.  “Solomon built Him an house.  Howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” By contrast, the New Testament Church was “builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Eph. 1:22-23; 2:15-22).  God came and went from the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s temple, and when the Church was built, God began to come and go from the Church (Acts chapters. 4-6; Heb. 10:1).

The Shadow: In 1 Kings 6:37-38, we are told, “In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of the Lord laid, and in the eleventh year, was the house finished.  So was he seven years in building it.”

The Fulfillment: By the middle of the fourth year of Jesus’ ministry He had laid the foundation of the Church, ordaining twelve apostles and seventy prophets (Eph. 2:19-20).  In the next seven years Peter finished building it, and God filled it with His glory (Acts 4:23-5:17).

After His resurrection, Jesus made Peter “ruler over His Household, to give them meat in due season” (Matt. 24:45-47).  Jesus said to Peter, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?  Feed my lambs; Feed my sheep.”  Peter thought the office would have been given to John, “that disciple whom Jesus loved.”  That is why he responded to Jesus, saying, “What shall this man do?”  Apparently Jesus had other plans for John (John 21:15-21).

Peter obeyed the Lord, and by the end of seven years he had led the Church to perfection, fulfilling the “seventieth week” of Daniel 9. With the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, he had built the spiritual Temple upon the foundation which Jesus had laid. And soon after that, he opened the way of salvation to the Gentiles.

When Peter finished that job, God confirmed his work with mighty signs and wonders, and filled that house with His glory.  God’s glory was so great upon them that when Ananias and Sapphira defiled that holy sanctuary, they fell dead at the feet of Peter and The Twelve.  The Holy Scriptures show that The Twelve Apostles are the altar of the Spiritual Temple, and they defiled it, and died (Heb. 13:10; Num. 7:2-11; Exodus 20:24-25).

When Peter had fulfilled his commission, Jesus made another appearance to him in fulfillment of 1 Kings 9:1-3.  At that time, Jesus also appeared to James, and above 500 brethren at one time, then to Paul. ^[1]

Unsung Prophecies

The writers of the New Testament did not always tell us that the events they were writing about were the fulfillment of prophecy.  Acts 6:1-8 is a prominent example of this.  At a glance it may seem to be more an account of secular events than spiritual.  Actually it is an account of the fulfillment of the prophecy in Proverbs 9:1-2.  “Wisdom hath builded her house.  She hath hewn out her seven pillars.  She hath also furnished her table.” These “seven men, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom,” were a lot greater than what most of us think of “deacons” being.  They were the seven pillars in the House of God, hewn out after “wisdom (had) builded her house.” They were also the direct fulfillment of Job’s first seven sons.

The allegory of Job prophesies of the abundance of the good things of God in the early Church; the loss of it all in the “dark ages,” and the restoration of that abundance in these latter days.

The three phases of the Church under Peter, James and Jude, are typified by Job’s first three daughters.  Peter brought it to perfection.  Jesus then appeared unto James and gave him the job of preserving the Church until his death.  Then Jude was given the oversight of the Church, to sustain it in its final years.

The death of Job’s family prophesied of the demise of The Church. It foreshadowed the loss of the Seven Men of Wisdom in Acts 6; hence the loss of the function of the Seven Spirits of God (Rev. 2:5).  He said, “there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the (seven) young men and they are dead.”

Samson’s “seven locks” prophesied of the same thing in a different precept.  “Delilah called for a man to shave off the seven locks of his head; and his strength went from him” (Judges. 16:19).  Later, when his hair was grown again, Samson destroyed the temple of idolatrous worship.

Those “seven men, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom,” were the flames of fire on the spiritual candlestick, the Church (Rev. 1:20).   Those flames were snuffed out, but later, Job had seven more sons, and Samson’s seven locks grew again.  And these two events prophesied of the reviving of the Church in the last days of the Grace Age.  Therefore, we know that God will raise up another seven men shortly before the return of our Lord. Then shall the flames of the Seven Spirits of God burn brightly in God’s Elect once more.

CALLING THE GENERATIONS

God declared the end from the beginning so we could identify, and believe in His works when they are performed.  As Peter said, prophetic backing for any event is more sure than any personal experience or independent idea about God and His work (Isaiah 46:9-11; 2 Pet. 1:16-21).

In Isa. 41:4, the Lord asked a question, and then proceeded to answer it.  “Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning?  I the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am He.”  So Jesus has declared Himself to be the first in a lineage of leaders, the last of which shall be here finishing the work of the gospel when He returns.  And this passage shows that Jesus will be back early enough to be “with the last” one, for a while, during the final days preceding the marriage of the Lamb.

We are given various genealogies in the Holy Scriptures which are called “Generations.”  They include the Generations of the Heavens and the Earth (Gen. 2:4, the Generations of Adam (Gen. 5:1), the Generations of Noah (Gen. 6:9), the Generations of the Sons of Noah (Gen. 10:1), the Generations of Shem (Gen. 11:10), the Generations of Terah (Gen. 11:27), the Generations of Ishmael (Gen. 25:12), the Generations of Isaac (Gen. 25:19), the Generations of Esau, which is Edom (Gen. 36:1), the Generations of Jacob (Gen. 37:2), the Generations of Pharez (Ruth 4:18), and the Generation of Jesus Christ (Matt. 1:1).

Three of those lists have ten generations each, and each group of ten is a prophetic allegory of the ten men who were to rule God’s Church throughout its entire history. The first of those three is called “the Generations of Adam:” Adam to Noah.  The second is “the Generations of Shem:” Shem to Abram (Abraham).  The third is “the Generations of Pharez:” Pharez to David.

This analogy is most easily seen in the first set of ten, because Paul has already told us that Jesus is the second Adam (1 Cor. 15:45-49).  As such, He is the father of all the redeemed: the new creation.  He is represented by the first of the ten generations from Adam to Noah.  And Jesus Himself said that Noah is a prophetic allegory of the man who will be ruling His house when He returns (Matt. 24:37-47).

It is also revealed in these generations that seven of those ten have a special anointing which is different from the other three.  They are typified in the Generations of Adam by the list of Adam to Enoch (Jude 1:14), and in the Generations of Shem by the list of Eber (Heber) to Abraham.

Jude said that, “Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints’.”  It is the seventh from Jesus who will make the midnight cry, saying, ‘Behold the Bridegroom cometh’.”  Noah is the tenth from Adam in the same generations.  The precept (allegory) changes, but Noah is a prophecy of the same man that Enoch is a prophecy of, and shall deliver us, “When the enemy shall come in like a flood (Isa. 59:19).

The man who fulfills Abraham, the seventh from Heber, in the Generations of Shem, will be met and blessed by the Priest of the Most High God:  Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  In this allegory, the same man is both the seventh from Heber, and the tenth from Shem, in the same list of ten (Isaiah 28:9-12; Genesis 14:13-20).

In Malachi, the man who makes the final preparation for the coming of Jesus is called “The Messenger of The Covenant.”  He will “purify the [New Testament] Sons of Levi,” and present them as a chaste virgin to Christ, when he comes (Mal. 3:1-6).  Appropriately, it is in this passage that God said, “I am the Lord, I change not!”  God sent a messenger to prepare for Jesus to come the first time, and He will surely do so to prepare for Jesus to come the second time.

God has not changed, as some would have us to believe.  He has always called out particular men to accomplish the work which He has foreordained to be done.  He did it in the days of the early Apostles, and He will continue to do so, because that is His way.

Look again at Eccl.esiastes 3:15. “That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.”  All that was to transpire in God’s Church in the first century A.D., and in this last century, has “already been” in the prophecies: the types, shadows and allegories of the Old Testament.  It is all there, and God requires that all of those prophecies be fulfilled.

Consider the prophecy in Psa. 90:10.  He said, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off.”

Paul called the Church “a man” in his epistle to the Ephesians, and, as a man, the Church has fulfilled this prophecy.  Indeed it is shown in the New Testament, and in what little history there is outside of the Bible, that God’s Church flourished for almost seventy years. That is, from about the time Jesus ordained the Twelve Apostles, until about the time of the death of John.  Accordingly, the restored Church, in this century, is allotted about eighty years.

During those first seventy years, The Church had four rulers:  Jesus, Peter, James the Lord’s brother, and Jude, who was also the Lord’s brother.  Peter’s time of rulership was a little different from the other three, in that he ruled only for a while; just long enough to finish building the Church for which Jesus had laid the foundation, then he relinquished the Church to James.  The others ruled the Church until they died.

When God anoints a man to be the ruler over His household, it is an appointment for life.  Therefore, we know that Peter is one of the ten, but not one of the seven “anointed ones.”  All of those men in the Old Testament, who held that office, did so until his natural death.  In the New Testament, things are somewhat different.  Paul said, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.”  Again he said, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”

Therefore, we are not obligated, as David was to Saul, to follow a man until his natural death.  If he ceases to follow Christ, we are obligated, rather, to set him aside, and follow the man who God chooses to succeed him.

During the seven years, or so, in which Peter ruled the Church, he fulfilled the prophecy in Joshua 19:1-9, “The second lot came forth to Simeon. -- Out of the portion of the children of Judah was the inheritance of the children of Simeon.”  Jesus and Peter together fulfilled 1 Kings 6:37-38.  In that allegory, Solomon both laid the foundation and built the house.  But in the fulfillment, Jesus laid the foundation and Peter built the house.  Remember that Paul said the allegories are not the very image of the true (Heb. 10:1).

When Peter had finished building the Church, Jesus appeared to him the second time, as He had appeared unto him just after the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:3-9; 1 Kings 9:2).  Then, with great deference, Peter submitted The Church, and himself, to James (Acts 15:5-21; Deut. 17:8-13).

THE SIGNS OF THE END

Entering the Twentieth Century

In the time of Jesus Christ, there were many signs by which the believers could know that Jesus was the Christ of God.   Therefore, Jesus rebuked them because they could not discern the signs of the times.  Likewise, God has given us many signs so we can know when and where He is working in our generation.

The industrial revolution, and the rise of the United States of America, set the stage for the preparation for the second coming of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Nahum clearly showed that a man would make that preparation in the day of automobiles (Nahum 2:1-4; Rev. 2:26-27).  Solomon also prophesied of the time as when “a bird of the air shall carry The Voice” (Eccl. 10:20).

Daniel and Joel both prophesied of this period of time.  God said to Daniel, “Shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end:  many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” (Dan. 12:4).  God surely included scriptural knowledge of the plan of God for consecrated Christians, as well as secular knowledge for the natural man.

To Joel He said, “It shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit.”

Jules Verne’s writings, in the 19th century, about submarines and space travel are a good example of that new ability, among secular writers, to prophesy.  Then, as the century came to a close, God began to pour out of His Spirit “also upon the servants and upon the handmaids.”  It was 1896, when that outpouring came.

Peter rightly used this prophecy in the book of Joel, to speak of their experience on the day of Pentecost, but the full effect of Joel 2:28-29, was not seen until the time of the industrial revolution.

Within ten years after the constitutional convention of the United States of America, man began to use natural gas for lighting.  All manner of new inventions swiftly followed.  By the year 1807, the steamboat was invented.  By 1851, we had railroad cars, revolvers, the reaper and mower, electric telegraph, photography, the sewing machine, and submarine cable.

In the second half of the nineteenth century there were more than a dozen major inventions which would affect transportation, agriculture, communica-

tions, and other industries.  The telephone, the typewriter, X-rays, electric lights, and the gasoline engine, to name a few.

The century closed with great strides in the development of modern modes of transportation.  Automobiles, motorcycles and aircraft, which are now commonplace, began their development in the final years of the last century.  Providentially, several of them reached a special stage of development in the year 1903, and have since burgeoned into their full potential.

Several significant events transpired in 1903, including Albert Einstein’s thesis on the science of Astronautics.  That same year, the Pope of Rome died and was replaced, and the Communist Party was formed.  In 1903 the Ford Motor Company was formed and the Harley Davidson Co. began to manufacture motorcycles.  And on December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright made their first successful, heavier-than-air, flight.  All of these things happened in the year 1903, as a sign that God was beginning a special new series of prophetic events, to signal the soon coming of Jesus.

THE TOMLINSON PHENOMENON

Perhaps one of the most significant events of 1903 was the first successful heavier-than-air flight, on a sandy beach at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.  It is especially important, because flight, including space flight, was to repeatedly signal prophetic events as the work of God’s Elect progressed.

Isaiah prophesied of man’s mastery of aviation, saying, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. – Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?” These verses show us that God’s Church would rise up, this side of the dark ages, together with the development of airplanes (Isaiah 60:1, 8).

It came to pass, on June 13, 1903, in the mountains of North Carolina, that a great Apostle of God, Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson, rose up and declared a small group of believers to be the Church of God. That day, by the word of the Prophet, God’s Church arose to shine.  Then, on December the 17, 1903, man began to fly, although it would be some time before they would do so “as the doves to their windows.”  It is amazing that both of these prophecies are in the same passage of the Holy Scriptures, and the fulfillment of them occurred in the same State, in the same year.

Almost every student of modern religious development in America has heard of A. J. Tomlinson.  For some years, at the turn of the century, he did missionary work as a sales­man for the American Tract Society and the American Bible Society.  In his labors in that missionary effort, he went to western North Carolina, and there he ­became acquainted with the fledgling Pentecostal movement.

In 1903, he declared that, because the Holiness Church at Camp Creek confessed that they took “the whole Bible rightly divided, that makes it the Church of God,” and he took a covenant with them.  During the next forty years, he directed the establish­ment and growth of two prominent, international, Pentecostal organizations.

The Great Revival

In different places, and at various times over the centu­ries, some people have received the baptism with the Holy Spirit.  However, the true beginning of the modern Pente­costal movement in America occurred at the Shearer School House in Cherokee County, North Carolina in 1896.  From there, it quickly spread into eastern Tennessee, and northern Georgia.

A great Sanctification ^[2] revival had been burning in that region for several years.  Consequently, a wonderfully receptive spiritual atmosphere existed, into which God could, and did, send a great outpouring of His Spirit.

Three zealous evangelists: William Martin, Joe M. Tipton, and Milton McNabb, ^[3] (no relation that I know of) went from Monroe County, Tennessee to conduct that revival.  The Holy Spirit moved mightily through the surrounding communities, and many were born again and sanctified.

Though many were blessed, others saw it only as a threat to their religious world, and those enemies of Christ raised a great persecution against them.  Mainstream church leaders joined with civic offi­cials to stamp it out.  They forced the worshipers out the old school house, but they could not stop the revival.

As the meetings continued in an old log church nearby, the Spirit moved mightily, and several were baptized with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance.  It was not long until about one hundred and thirty people had been baptized with the Holy Spirit.

The phenomenon spread across the country, sometimes in remarkable fashion.  Yet, it was to be a full ten years before the notable revival would burst upon Brother Seymour and the other saints on Azusa St. in Los Angeles, California.  Thus, the fire was kindled that would transform the religious community worldwide.

It was this vibrant spiritual arena, into which Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson stepped, on July 14, 1899, to begin his missionary work among the poor mountain folk of western North Carolina.

The Star Is Born

As those revival fires blazed in the hills of North Carolina, A. J. Tomlinson was born again and sanctified by the Spirit of God, on his farm in Indiana.  In 1889, after an awesome and frightening experience, he decided it was time to begin to seek God.  That evening after supper he said to his wife, “It’s time for us to pray.”

As he went about his labors on the farm, he prayed and sought God until he pressed forth into the wonderful realm of spirituality.  His account of those days of prayer and perseverance, during which he killed “the old man,” is truly inspiring.  You will find it in his book, “Answering the Call of God.” ^[4]

Soon, like many of us who were not raised in a particular church, Brother Tomlinson began to wrestle with the problem of which church to join.  He described his struggle this way.

“Then came the real conflict: What church should I join?  If there had been but one, as was the case in the time of the Apostles, I would have been saved that trouble. I searched and prayed and sought for information from people, books and papers.  I was perplexed. I felt I was at a crisis.  I did not know what to do.  They were all different, and none of them really satisfied me, but I felt I must be a member of some church.  I finally decided to join the one nearest my home, merely for convenience, as I thought I could do more good in one near by, as I could attend more regularly.”

As he labored and sought God, in much prayer and supplication, Bro. Tomlinson’s desire to meet the spiritual needs of mankind grew, and opportunities to minister began to open to him.  Being stirred with a great mission­ary zeal, he volunteered his services to assist in the labors of a noted missionary named J. B. Mitchell.  It was Bro. Tomlinson’s association with Bro. Mitchell which ultimately brought him to North Carolina.

From time to time during those years, Bro. Tomlinson sought out religious groups that he had heard about, which sounded as if they might be worthy of his consideration.  No doubt he found good qualities in different groups that he encountered, and held each in due respect.  One brief record of such an excursion is found noted in his diary, September 22, 1901.

“After a few days of haste and special providences of God, my birthday finds me on the Atlantic Ocean aboard the ‘Howard’ speeding away toward Boston, bound for Shiloh, Maine.  God has heard my cry and given me the desire of my heart, and his providence is very favorable so far.  Praise Him forever.”

Bro. Sanford’s dynamic ministry, which was based in Shiloh, apparently provoked some particular interest in Bro. Tomlinson.  Several years later he made the statement that he felt Shiloh behind him, pushing him.  Perhaps it was Bro. Sanford’s doctrine, about God having an anointed prophet to lead his people, which caught his spiritual ear.  However, I have found nothing to indicate that Brother Tomlinson had any association with Bro. Sanford after that visit.

But God was working something, there in the hills of North Carolina, that was beyond the mere expression of reli­gious thought and theological opinions.  It could be compared to a big theatrical production.  The main players, at the moment, were the evangelists and others mentioned above, as well as men like T. N. Elrod and W. F. Bryant.  So far, A. J. Tomlinson had been more in the role of a spectator in that grand amphitheater, watching the grand play as he ardently pursued his own missionary work.

Revival flames burned, blessings flowed, and persecu­tions beset those zealous worshipers.  Of course, the enemy also tried to discredit the work from within, by expressions of fanaticism and religious excesses.  R. G. Spurling, Sr., who was a frequent attendant at those meetings, tried for some time to effect some organization among the various groups.  He believed the Bible taught that the Church of God must have government.  He also thought that such government would help curtail the excesses in which some were engaging.

On August 19, 1886, he called a special meeting at the Barney Creek Meeting House in Monroe County, Tennessee, and presented his proposition to those in attendance.  A few sincere saints united with him under the auspices of the Christian Union, but the effort never did attract much interest.  It was not long until the elder Spurling died and his son Richard, Jr. volunteered to undertake the responsibilities of the work.

By the spring of 1902, a small group, including W. F. Bryant and a few others, had also begun to feel the need for government.  So, on May 15, 1902, Bro. Bryant and those concerned saints gathered at Bro. Bryant’s home, near Murphy, N. C.  There, with the guidance of Bro. Spurling, they organized under the name “The Holiness Church at Camp Creek.”  Bro. Spurling became the pastor and W. F. Bryant was ordained a minister. ^[5]

THE WORD CREATES

On June 13, 1903, A. J. Tomlinson went up onto a mountain, near where the Holiness Church at Camp Creek had their meetings, to a place alone to pray.  He later testified to a small group, in the home of W. F. Bryant, that the Lord had inspired him, during his prayer, that they had espoused a faith and attitude toward the word of God that, if they would accept it, they were the Church of God. Of course, they did accept it.

Brother Spurling immediately submitted the leadership to A.J. Tomlinson, and the work began to grow.  In two and a half years, it had grown to such an extent, that they thought it was necessary to call a general conference.

They did not officially adopt the name “Church of God” until 1907, but their beginning can neither be dated from the time of organization in 1902, nor from the time of the official name change. They became the Church of God when the bold declaration was made by the man to whom God had given the revelation of it. The blessings given by patriarchs in the Old Testament are a good example of this phenomenon.

In the years which have passed, several groups, large and small, have developed from that small beginning.  In 1951, it was claimed that 44 different groups had grown out of that work. ^[6]

I will not attempt to address all of these groups, because, in the light of the prophetic advancement of God’s Church, they are of small significance.  I only hope to point out clearly, that the formation and development of the Church of God was the work of an Apostle of God, whom God has confirmed beyond doubt with many signs.

THE WELLS

God's Church went through four phases, under the leadership of four great men, during the first century A.D.   And, as Paul said, concerning the body of Christ, “There are differences of administration, but the same Lord” (1 Cor. 12:5). Jesus laid the foundation of the Church; Peter led the Church to perfection; James accomplished the task of preserving the Church; and Jude had the unhappy task of trying to hold The Church together while “certain men crept in unawares” and corrupted that spiritual “man,” God’s Church (Eph. 4:13).

The first phase, under Jesus, was the fulfillment of Abraham’s “Beersheba:” the well of the covenant, the well of seven.  In the prophetic allegory, in Gen. 26:18-25, “Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father.  For the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham.  And he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.”

With Isaac’s wells, God reveals the progressive development of His Church, in the twentieth century.  Therefore, in that century, we must look for a series of three organizations, followed by another group which comes out from them at some time before the Church expires.  That fourth group is the stone which was cut out of the mountain without hands and later smote the image in its feet, causing its destruction (Daniel 2:31-45).

That series of twentieth-century groups will have a succession of six leaders, completing the “ten generations.”  Five of those leaders will be identified in the three phases of the Church.  The seventh leader of God’s Elect will come forth from the third well: the “Mountain of the Lord’s House.”  And he will fulfill the allegory of Isaac at Beersheba: the Well of the Oath.  He will do so as “the Messenger of the Covenant,” in “the spirit and power of Elijah” (Mal. 3:1-4; Mal. 4:5; Matt. 17:10-13).  And, as the name “Enoch” (the seventh from Adam) signifies, he will initiate something different.  He will establish the nation of which Daniel spoke in Daniel 2:43-44, and which Jesus confirmed in Matthew 21:43.

The First Well

As the Church of God grew, A. J. Tomlinson was accepted as appointed by God to be their leader.  After seven years, in 1910, His title “General Moderator” was changed to General Overseer.  Then, in 1914, the group acknowledged that God’s appointment of Brother Tomlinson as General Overseer was for life.

However, by 1920, a strong sentiment had developed that the General Assembly should be the highest authority in the Church.  Therefore, a contention arose which ultimately forced Bishop Tomlinson out of office.  In the process he was falsely accused of appropriating a large sum of money to his own use.  By the time it was proven that the accusations were untrue, Brother Tomlinson’s enemies had successfully forced him out.

Thus was fulfilled the prophecy, “Isaac’s servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.  And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac’s herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him” (Gen. 26:19-20).

Although God had taken the candlestick out of their midst (Rev. 1:20; 2:1-5), and they had ceased to function in the capacity of God’s Elect, He did not cast them off altogether.  Rather the Church of God continued on and grew, and accomplished much good in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  As an instrument of God, they have reached many souls with the gospel of redemption, and have carried the blessings of salvation to hundreds of thousands who have believed because of their efforts.

The Second Well

A. J. Tomlinson did not accept those developments as a defeat.  He and a few men and women, who faithfully held to the earlier concepts of the church, stepped out and began another organization, which today is called the “Church of God of Prophecy.” They took the “Spirit of The Body of Christ” ^[7] with them, and the burden of the fulfillment of Bible prophecy rested upon them.  They walked away from the well “Esek”, and founded another instrument to use for their service to God.  God blessed the work, and it grew and prospered.

As the disruption unfolded, God justified and confirmed Bro. Tomlinson, as his twelve appointees fulfilled the allegory of the twelve which Moses sent to spy out the land.  George T. Broyer and S. O. Gillespie remained faithful to Brother Tomlinson, and the other ten went with the rebellion.

A. J. Tomlinson had put twenty years into the building of the Church of God.  Then it was necessary for him to launch a whole new effort, which would occupy the next twenty years of his life.  God honored him and blessed his ministry in many ways.  Then, in 1943, he died in fulfillment of the allegory of Moses leading God’s people for forty years.

A. J. Tomlinson led The Church of God for forty years!  His forty years as leader over God’s Church is perhaps the most significant sign which God has given to us Christians today. In the Old Testament, there were no less than seven leaders who ruled the people of God for forty years.  Their leadership cannot be a prophecy of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, because He ruled for only three and a half years, and died at about 33 years of age.  Nor has any other Christian leader ruled for forty years.  This fact cries out to us, “Look here! This is where God is fulfilling Bible prophecy!”

Every man who professes to be led of God should acknowledge this great sign and begin to consider what God has done here.  Every Christian should take notice.  Read the sign! By this sign, we know that God chose the Churches of God as His instruments of prophetic fulfillment in this century!  Each group, in their turn, were God’s Elect, chosen to labor together with the man to whom He had given “the testimony (2 Kings 11:12; Col. 1:25).”

Let us accept the truth of Colossians 1:25.  Paul said, “The dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God.”  God has not changed.  Jesus fulfilled “the volume of the book it is written of [Him],” and the Apostle Paul had the same testimony.  And so it has been with every man who occupied that kind of position in the last two Millennia.

From 1903 to 1943, God gave a special dispensation to A. J. Tomlinson, the fourth Anointed of God in the New Testament, for those faithful believers who were with him “to fulfill the word of God.”  When he died, the next volume of prophecy was given to another and so forth.  Knowing this, we can confidently follow the progression of Prophetic fulfillment as events unfold in the Churches of God, and be able to recognize “the Seventh Angel” when he is sounding his trumpet: preaching his message (Rev. 11:15; Exodus 19:16-20).

The Changing of the Guard

There was the usual power struggle at the time of A. J. Tomlinson’s death, which resulted in Milton A. Tomlinson emerging as the new General Overseer. However, the real struggle was a behind-the-scenes struggle to wrest the authority from the man in charge, whoever he might be, and transfer it to the General Assembly.

They accomplished that in the General Assembly of 1948 in fulfillment of 1 Kings 14: 25-27.  Just five years after the death of A. J. Tomlinson, the leaders of that attack against Moses’ Seat won a great victory.  The Assembly rejected divine leadership and declared “the General Assembly is the highest authority in the Church.”  Thus they declared that A. J. Tomlinson’s work had been in error from the beginning, and condemned their own work also.

If indeed the General Assembly was intended, by God, to be the highest authority in His Church, A. J. Tomlinson would indeed have been in error, as many thought.

But prophecy again justified the claims, and the labors, of A. J. Tomlinson by the advent of the fulfillment of Hosea 8:1.  God found fault with the Church of God of Prophecy, because they had “resisted His will” (Rom. 9:19). Therefore, He raised up a flying prophet against them.  As it is written, “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.”

In 1948, the year that the Church of God of Prophecy rejected divine leadership, Guy Klapp gave the Apostle Grady R. Kent a new Cessna 195 airplane.  By 1956, Brother Kent’s “White Angel Fleet” had grown to about one hundred aircraft, and a force of over two hundred pilots.  He preached at airports across America with great effect.  He even took a special squadron to the Caribbean Islands in fulfillment of Isa. 60:9.  He was indeed the “Voice of The Bird of The Air” (Eccl. 10:20; Ezek. 10:1-7).

During the General Assembly in 1956, as my wife Zena and I looked on, the General Overseer declared, “I am subject to the Assembly.”  Thereby, the princes of the Assembly were handed the control of “Moses’ Seat” (Num. 16:1-3; Jude 11), by the very man who should have been vehemently expressing his objections.

Within about six months, God raised up another prophet: Grady R. Kent, and anointed him “ruler over His household.”  Thus that prophecy was fulfilled, “They strove for that (well) also, and he called the name of it Sitna.  And he removed from thence, and digged another well.”

A close study of Jer. 3:1-11 will give you an idea of how God views the Church of God and Church of God of Prophecy.  The Church of God of Prophecy saw the example of the 1923 rebellion, yet did the same thing.

So God set that church aside, but did not reject them altogether.  From that time, until the present, He has used the efforts of the sincere workers among them to reach souls for His Kingdom.  It is only that they have lost the Spirit of The Body of Christ (Eph. 4:4).

The Third Well

On February 13, 1957, Brother Kent stepped out and began to dig the third well, which would indeed prove to be Rehoboth, which means “much room.”  Not many people were interested in The Church of God, and there was no striving for it.  Two of the six “generations” of the Gentile age had finished their work: one had died at his post, and the other had been defeated by the enemies of Christ.

The time had come for “The Voice of the Bird of the Air” to take the spirit of the Church, and begin to build a new organization.  That third group, named “The Church of God,” was destined to finish the life span of the “Man” of Ephesians 2:15.  It endured until December, 1980, just a little short of the prophetic allowance of “fourscore” (Psalm 90:10).

Brother Kent was born again in a meeting of the Church of God in 1931.  At about that time God gave him the spirit and power of John the Revelator.  About a year later, after inquiring of where the man was who had found the Church on a mountain, ^[8] he found A.J. Tomlinson, and began to work with him.  By 1934, he had begun to preach The Revelation of Jesus Christ.  You may think that assertion to be too bold, or perhaps worse, but consider the sign which God gave to us concerning those events.  In 1931, U.S. chemist, Harold Clayton Urey made an amazing discovery.  He found “heavy water.”  Then, in 1934, he was given the Nobel Prize for that discovery, coinciding exactly with Brother Kent’s first four years in Christ.  The water of The Revelation of Jesus Christ is about as heavy as the water of the Word of God gets to be.

In 1939, during a phenomenal revival in Egan, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, Brother Kent had a dreadful experience.  This is the way he described that revival in his book “Sixty Lashes at Midnight.” ^[9]

“God gave one of the greatest revivals ever known in that vicinity.  The Spirit of God had come down there in a greater way than the people had ever witnessed before.  There were hundreds of people converted, received the second definite work of grace:  sanctification, and at the time the great persecution broke out, to the best of my recollection, I had counted more than two hundred who had received the great experience of the Baptism with the Holy Ghost, with the evidence of speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gave the utterance.  People were healed by the mighty power of God, the blind received their sight.  Many who had been paralyzed for years came and were healed, throwing their hands in the air and praising God because they had been healed by His mighty power.”

The enemy became incensed, and raised up great persecution against Bro. Kent.  One night, after the meeting, he was kidnapped and taken to a secluded spot, where he was beaten with sixty cruel lashes, with heavy leather whips.

After they had vented their wrath upon him, one of the men demanded of him, “What do you now intend to do?”  Then they said, “Get your family and get out from down there, or else this will be only a sample of what you will get.”  Bro. Kent wrote, “That was what they were wanting me to do all the time, but I had not obeyed, because God had sent me there, and I was only to move at God’s notice.”

After they had gone, he managed to make his way to the Atlanta suburb of East Point, a little too late to catch the last scheduled street car.  But, for some reason, the last car for the night was running twenty minutes late.  When he arrived back where the other saints were praying and anxiously waiting, he was treated for his wounds and mighty prayers were sent up for his recovery.  The next night he was back in the pulpit for God.  However, he suffered from that beating for many years.

Brother Kent went forth from that revival to labor hard and faithfully in that church which later took the name Church of God of Prophecy.  Grady R. Kent: the kind of man to whom God could entrust with His prophetic work for that hour, and the understanding of The Revelation of Jesus Christ.

The Second Gentile Anointed

In the Gentile Church

Once, in 1939, while Bro. Kent was preaching in Cleveland, Tennessee, Bro. Tomlinson, moved by the Holy Spirit, approached Bro. Kent.  He put his hand to Bro. Kent’s mouth and said “Mouth, preach this word.  Mouth, preach this word.”  Again, just a short time before his death, Bro. Tomlinson boldly appointed Brother Kent over “Perfection” in the church, in addition to his work over the Church Markers Association.

From the death of A. J. Tomlinson, in 1943, until February 13, 1957, Bishop Kent labored in that work; all the while inspiring others around him in the word of the Lord.  He was also greatly effective in the development of the work of evangelism in the Church during that time.

The stage was being set.  Opposition was directed against the fundamental principals of God’s Church, and it had a devastating effect.  It was not merely the man which the enemy was after; it was the precept of prophetic fulfillment in general, and the office of the General Overseer in particular.  The rejection of that office was made at the General Assembly in 1948.  Then, at the General Assembly in 1956, their victory became complete when Milton Tomlinson openly declared his submission to the General Assembly.

So, for all intents and purposes, the office of General Overseer was vacant.  It was necessary only that Bishop Kent should step into that position and declare a reformation.  He did so, and a few faithful, zealous men and women followed him.

For seven years Brother Kent labored in that office, fulfilling prophecy, and glorifying God before the public with every means available to him.  Notably, in 1963, Bro Kent led the only protest which was raised against the atheistic attack against religious freedom in America. I had the pleasure of being a part of that noble group who marched in front of the White House to protest that infamous ruling against prayer and Bible reading in our schools.

During that time, Bishop Kent fulfilled several prophecies.  Particularly, in the Spirit and Power of John the Revelator, he “read” (explained) for us “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.”  The prophecy of the reading of that book is in Isaiah 29:11-12, 17-18.  God said, “The vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed.”  The educated man: A. J. Tomlinson could not “read” it, but the uneducated man: Grady R. Kent did read it.  An ignorant and unlearned man wrote the book (Acts 4:13), and an unlearned man was required by prophecy to “read” for us its meaning.  Bishop Kent, who had only a third grade education, was that man.

In Rev. 10:11, the angel told John, “Thou must prophesy again.”  Those words carried the same intent as when God said, “I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”  In the case of Elijah, the Angel told the priest Zechariah that his son, John the Baptist would “go forth in the spirit and power of Elias.”  Jesus testified that that was exactly what had happened (Matt. 11:14; Matt. 17:10-12).  In the same fashion, it was necessary that a man come in the spirit and power of John the Revelator, in order to connect the Church of God at this end of the Grace Age with the Church of God in the first century A.D.

Only in the spirit and power of John the Revelator could anyone be able to explain that book which The Lamb had opened after His ascension and revealed unto John (Rev. 5:1-10).

What about the fact that Brother Kent is dead now?  The allegory of Elijah and Elisha foreshadow the fact that when Brother Kent died, the spirit and power of John and Elisha would come upon the prophet who would finish the work and fulfill the words of Jesus in Matthew 24:45-47 and Matthew 17:10-12, and restore God’s Church to what it was in the middle of the first century.  Jesus is coming soon, and He will find that man feeding His household with meat in due season when He arrives.

The responsibility now rests upon us to recognize that man as he fulfillls his volume of the prophetic word.  It is written, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.”

One of the greatest errors promoted among Christians today is the denial of God choosing a man to lead His people.  Did not God say by Malachi, “I am the Lord, I change not.”  Whether we believe it or not, God will continue to do what He has always done, and raise up a man and anoint him to finish “all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.”  Then “He will send Jesus Christ” the King (Acts 3:19-21).

In Rev. 22:8-10, the angel told John the Revelator not to worship him, because he was “of [his] brethren the prophets,” and told him to “Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.”  Once the book of Revelation was opened and handed to the prophet, it was to stay open until it is all fulfilled.

A Prophet must come in the spirit and power of John, to reveal those things to us, and explain the dark sayings of the book.  It is in this manner that God will establish the necessary continuity between the early Jewish Church and this last-days Gentile Church.

From A. J. Tomlinson, until now, God has supplied us with a series of churches, and ministers as signs pointing us to the coming conclusion of the Grace Age, and the appearing of our Lord and King (Isaiah 8:18).  Without them, we would have no way to ascertain the time of our Lord’s appearing.  Some preachers, with much aplomb, declare that there are to be no signs of the coming of Jesus, but those signs are all around us.  One of the greatest of those signs has been the rise and the works of the Churches of God in the twentieth century.

Many who should be pointing those signs out to us are as blind leading the blind.  In a similar situation in Jesus’ day, He rebuked some, saying, “Woe unto you, lawyers! For ye have taken away the key of Knowledge; ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered” (Luke 11:52).

What our spiritual leaders need to be telling those who are trusting in them is to “Not forsake the assembling of [yourselves] together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching (Heb 10:25). If your minister cannot yet see the day approaching, you need to speak to him about it, and together begin to try to find someone who does.

Spiritually Called “the Son”

Another thing which it was necessary for someone in the spirit and power of John to do is to fulfill the law of raising up seed to the dead, by a near kinsman. ^[10] Proverbs 30:1-4, shows clearly that this law was to be fulfilled in relation to Jesus Christ.  Concerning the Son of God, He said, “What is His name, and what is His son’s name, if thou canst tell?”

Obviously Jesus will have no natural son, but He will have a son, a fact to which Isaiah testified, saying, “He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare His generation? for He was cut out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.  And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.  Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed” (Isaiah 53:8-10; John 19:25-30).

Only someone in the Spirit and Power of John the Revelator, the brother of Jesus (John 19:25-27), could open the Revelation of Jesus Christ, when “the time is at hand,” and bring forth the one of whom we could say is “spiritually called” that son of which Solomon prophesied.  The book is now open in fulfillment of Isaiah 29:11-12, and 18, and the Elect can know how and when it was fulfilled.    

In Jer. 31:19-20, God used Ephraim to prophecy of that “son,” saying, “Ephraim is my dear son.”  Again, in Hosea 7:8, “Ephraim hath mixed himself among the people.”  That is, it will be a Gentile who fulfills that prophecy, and be adopted unto that legacy.

For Jesus to have a particular person who is spiritually called His “son,” He must first have a person who is spiritually called His brother. That is why, when Jesus was on the cross, He made John His brother (John 19:25-27). He already had four brothers, and at least three of them believed on Him after the resurrection.  So, Mary did not need another son, nor did John need a mother.  He needed a different kind of brother; one that could raise up unto him a spiritual seed at the proper time.  So Jesus spoke it into existence by His words, and in due time, sent the Spirit and Power of John to rest upon Grady R. Kent.

Jesus allowed John to be exiled to the Isle of Patmos, where he gave him “The Revelation of Jesus Christ,” by the disposition of angels (Rev. 1:1).  He did not give it to him for the benefit of the Jewish Church, because they were gone.  He gave it to him for us, and it came to us “as the words of a book that is sealed.”  Therefore, it was necessary for someone to come to us in the spirit and power of its writer, to open it up for us.

The ministry of the spirit and power of John the Revelator was to span two millennia.  That is why we are told that the Angel (Messenger) in Rev. 10:1-2 had one foot on the sea and the other on the earth.  The Sea represents the fifth millennium, and the Earth represents the sixth, just as it does in chapter thirteen.  That is why we are told that, in the creation, on the fifth day the waters brought forth life, and on the sixth day, the earth brought forth life.

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ,” preached by Bishop Kent, was the seed which brought forth that “son.”  That son is the Prophet in Rev. 10:7, who takes the book out of the Angel’s hand, and eats it up.  He is the “one like the Son of Man,” in Dan. 7:13, who “came to the Ancient of Days (Jesus), and they brought him near before Him.”  To him was given the seventh, the last trumpet of Revelation 10:7 and 11:15.

Bishop Kent knew his own identity, and declared, “We are living in the days of the voice of the fifth angel;” thereby implying that he was the fifth Anointed of the prophetic “seven” who would be anointed of God over The Church, in the Grace Age.  In the course of that work, he fulfilled his part of the allegory of “the generations of Isaac” (Gen. 25:19-26).  He brought forth two men who were to be the sixth and the seventh of those who would be Anointed leaders of God’s Church during the Grace Age.  One of them would be blessed, and the other, because of his sins and iniquities, would be rejected.

THAT MAN OF SIN

When Bishop Kent died, he was succeeded by the sixth Anointed.  Bishop Marion W. Hall.  When Bishop Hall ascended to that office, he was a great preacher and mighty in the scriptures, but he did not heed the warning in Hebrews chapter twelve.  He fell into dishonor, and fulfilled Paul’s prophecy of “That man of sin: the son of perdition” in 2 Thess. 2:1-4, who has now been revealed.

Bishop Marion W. Hall sat in Moses’ seat, in the Temple of God, The Church of the living God, from the spring of 1964, until the spring of 1972.  He was the fulfillment of Jared, the sixth from Adam, whose name means “descending,” and he was rejected of God because of his iniquity.  Bro. Hall lived another 27 years, and we hope he found repentance.  Jesus said “The father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son” (John 5:22).  Therefore we are leaving that part up to Jesus.

Brother Hall was also prophesied of by Pharez, in the allegory of Pharez and Zerah.  The midwife said to him, this breach be upon thee, and she called his name Pharez (Gen. 38:27-30).  Marion W. Hall fulfilled that allegory, and caused the breach which finally destroyed God’s Church.   He was removed from office in the spring of 1972, in the fulfillment of Ezekiel 21:24-27.

The Other Three of the Ten Generations

Robert S. Somerville became the ninth man to lead God’s Church.  Six of those nine men had truly been God’s anointed, one of which had “failed of the grace of God.”

In the allegory of the ten generations, of the three who were not in the category of God’s Anointed, Peter faithfully did the work of perfecting the Church of God for Jesus.  Then, he turned the church over to James, the Lord’s brother.  Milton A. Tomlinson allowed a departure from God’s way, yet he fulfilled the prophecy of King Rehaboam (1 Kings 14:22-26), and others.  Likewise, Robert S. Somerville led God’s Church even further into error, and the Spirit of The Church finally departed from it altogether in December, 1980.  He fulfilled the allegory of Jehoram king of Judah (2 Kings 8:16-23).

Shortly after Brother Somerville took the office, he proclaimed himself to be the fulfillment of Benjamin.  However, what he actually did was to fulfill the other side of Benjamin: Benoni.  Jacob named him Benjamin, but Rachel knew she was dying, so she named the child Benoni, which means “Son of my sorrow.”  Brother Somerville had the ill fate of trying to lead the Church as the life of it drained away.

SEVENTY YEARS OF DESOLATIONS

The first seventy years of the operation of God’s Church in this century are prophesied of in Daniel chapter nine. He said, “I Daniel understood by books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem” (Dan. 9:2,24-27).  That is to say, hidden in the revelation of the “seventy weeks” is also a revelation of another work of “seventy years” one precept being upon another (Isaiah 28:9-10).

The mention of seventy years, in the beginning of this passage, is not merely to inform Daniel of when to anticipate the restoration of Jerusalem, nor is it only about the 70 years of their captivity.  It is also a prophecy of the first seventy years of the “Heavenly Jerusalem, the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn” among the Gentiles at the end of the Grace Age (Heb. 12:22-23).

Both the seventy weeks and the seventy years are broken into groupings of 7, 62, and 1.  That 24^th verse was written to accommodate both periods.  The first seven weeks of years was allotted to Israel for an opportunity for them to keep the 49 years of seventh-year Sabbaths. The next 62 weeks of years ended with the three and a have years of the ministry of John the Baptist and the three and a half years of Jesus ministry and His crucifixion.  The seventieth week was given to Peter to confirm the Covenant of the Church “with many.”

In the twentieth century, the first of the seventy years began with the establishment of the Holiness Church at Camp Creek, May 15^, 1902.  About a year later, the seven years began with Brother A. J. Tomlinson’s declaration of the Church.  Shortly thereafter the office of General Overseer was established. About 62 years later, on April 21, 1972, God led us out of The Church of God.  In January 1973, God sent me to Mexico City, elevation about 7,000 feet, and on Passover morning He gave me His covenant.

The 62 years were allotted for ministry of A. J. Tomlinson to produce the sign of the 40 years of leadership.  And for the ministry of M. A. Tomlinson to fulfill the loss of the shields of gold, in 1 Kings 14:25-27.  In the fifth year of Bishop Milton Tomlinson’s reign, 1948, he forfeited the authority of the office of General Overseer, and the glory of the Church was diminished.

It also supplied the time for Bishop Kent’s anointing to accomplish the fulfillment of many prophecies, including the restoration of the spiritual altar: the Twelve Apostles.  And Marion W. Hall used the final eight years of it to fulfill the volume of prophecy which was written of him, especially the prophecy of “That Man of Sin” (2 Thess. 2:1-4).  Bishop Hall was dethroned in March to May of 1972 (Ezekiel 21:24-27).

In the seventieth year, the covenant of the Lord was given to the “Messenger of the Covenant, the morning of the Feast of Passover, in 1973,.

Seventy weeks were determined upon Daniel’s people and upon his holy city, “to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to seal up the vision and prophecy.

The Churches of God have clearly fulfilled this.  From the rise of The Church in 1903, God’s elect people have been under siege.  In 1910, the office of General Overseer was established.  In 1914 the appointment of A. J. Tomlinson was accepted to be for life, and by June, 1923 the enemy had, once again usurped that seat.

By June, 1972, the office had been so defiled again by Marion W. Hall that the fall of the organization had begun.  In April, 1972, God called me out of The Church of God, and in a few days Bishop Hall was censured and cast away.  Then was fulfilled that prophecy, “For that (well) they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth.  And Isaac, “went up from thence to Beersheba,” and the stage was set for the eventual work of the messenger of the covenant.

Today, as far as I know, all three of those organizations have rejected there being an Anointed of God.  As it is written, “Offenses must come.”  Thus were the transgressions finished, and the desolations of the “seventy years,” accomplished.  Then, in the seventieth year, on Passover morning, 1973, God sealed up the prophet, by giving me His covenant.

Let us look at Daniel’s prophecy, together with the allegories mentioned previously.  There were some things to be accomplished during what He called “desolations,” which Ezekiel referred to as being overturned three times (Ezek. 21:24-27).  The Churches of God, of which I have spoken, broke their covenant with God’s anointed, in fulfillment of the three measures of meal in Jesus’ parable (Matt. 13:33).  All three became contaminated by that woman’s leaven.

The first three wells which Isaac dug, prophesy of those three organizations, as does also the allegory of Job’s three daughters in his latter end.  Those churches are now desolate, as pertains to “the Revelation of the Mystery,” and the close relationship which they had with God when His anointed was among them.

Isaac left Rehoboth and went to Beersheba, the Well of the Oath, and his servants eventually found water there.  The fulfillment of that prophecy was set in motion in 1973 when God gave me a covenant for His people.  Now the time is at hand, and a large number of the saints of God will soon enter into a covenant which God has given to His Messenger (Mal. 3:1).

Each of those three churches used a covenant for membership.  Those covenants were good, and were necessary, and were justified according to Galatians 3:15.  Paul said, “Though it be a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.”  However, those covenants have been broken, and God is beginning the fulfillment of Daniel 2:42-44. He has begun to raise up a holy Gentile nation which will fulfill the nation which Jesus mentioned in Matthew 21:43, and which has begun to rise under the guidance of the messenger of God’s covenant.  By the grace of God, when Jesus returns, His throne will be ready.

That messenger is the fulfillment of Noah, the tenth from Adam, to whom God gave His covenant.  For Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the son of man” (Luke 17:26).

That fourth well is a prophecy of an organization which is the beginning of something new.  It is a nation which is prophesied to come forth after the ten toes of the image are identified.  And they have been identified! They revealed themselves when the “Group of Ten” wealthiest non-Communist nations went to Rome, in November 1971, to revamp the “World Monetary Fund.”  The “woman” and the “scarlet coloured beast,” of Revelation 17, had already been identified in about 1966.  The Woman got on “the beast,” when the encyclical of the Pope of Rome was read before the United Nations that year.

That nation is a stone cut out of the mountain.  In Daniel chapter two, we are told that the “Stone” will emerge as a nation, “In the days of these kings (toes).” Therefore, sometime after November, 1971, a new organization must come forth to be the “kingdom” which “shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and shall stand forever” (Dan. 2:44).  Thus shall the Throne of David be “built again.”

In the spring of 1972, while the Mountain: the Church: still stood, God hewed the stone out of the mountain.  About the same time, God called me out as well, and gave that small group of faithful saints to me.  As we went, we took with us the Seven Spirits of God, which were revealed by Bishop Kent while he was the Chief Bishop.

Shortly thereafter, I began to sound the seventh trumpet in fulfillment of Rev. 10:7.  As it is written, “The mystery of God” was finished, the “great mystery, which is Christ and the Church,” and the seven anointed men of God have been revealed, and it is time to build again “the Tabernacle of David which is fallen down.”

That mystery was revealed to me, by the allegory of the generations of Adam to Enoch, on July 19, 1972.  Thereby, the prophecy of Rev. 1:16-17 was fulfilled in me.  Jesus, in a figure, laid his right hand upon me, and He gave me the revelation of those seven stars in his right hand, which “Are the angels (Messengers) of the seven churches.”

At Pentecost, 1973, I declared, among The Church of God, at Jerusalem Acres, the word which God had given me.  Also in attendance at that meeting was a group of about twenty three people from “The Church of God, New Testament Judaism,” with its founder, Earl S. Steward (in later years he called himself David), who we had turned out of The Church of God for adultery in 1966.  Mr. Steward and his people were honored, and He was given space to preach.  I, on the other hand, was reproached and vilified by both groups.  Thus was fulfilled Isa. 8:6-8, “This people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Resin (Earl Steward), and Remaliah’s son (Robert Somerville).”

Within the next two years, the influence of Earl Steward had defiled the whole church.  The Church of God adopted the name of Earl Steward’s church and his group’s use of wings on their motorcycles, as it is written, “He shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel” (Isaiah. 8:8).

From 1973, until now, the voice of an Anointed has not been prominent in the land, but that prophecy is being fulfilled: “The voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder” (Exodus 19:19).  It would behoove today’s Christians to begin to listen for the sound of that messenger.

We must begin to come in the unity of the faith, and build an organization which will save us when the enemy shall come in like a flood (Isaiah 59:19).

The time has come for the words of Jesus, in John 10:16, to begin to be fulfilled.  He said, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold:  them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.”  Jesus was, no doubt, referring to Ezek. 34:21-25.  “I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.” This “David” is not King Solomon’s father; he is sleeping.  Neither can it be Jesus, because He is already the shepherd of all Christianity.  And the term “one fold” certainly does not describe God’s people today.

God is using David, here, to prophesy of the man who “will build again the “Tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; will build again the ruins thereof, and set it up” (Acts 15:16,17 and Amos 9:11,12).  And God said, “In mercy shall the throne be established: and He shall sit upon it in truth in the Tabernacle of David” (Isaiah 16:1-5).  The “Tabernacle of David” has fallen down.  Therefore, it must be built again, because that is where the Throne of David must be established, whereon our Lord shall sit to rule (Isa. 9:7).

There has been no throne of King David for many centuries.  And the present day Government of Israel surely is not it.  It is not a kingdom of any kind.  King David prepared a throne for Solomon, and Solomon brought peace to the land.  Those things are written to prophesy of two other men.  Solomon is a shadow of Christ, and David fore-shadows the man who will make the final preparations for His return, including preparing Him a throne.  He is that David in Ruth 4:18-22, the tenth generation.

The preparation for the return or our Lord is our responsibility.  Let us put our shoulders to the work so that, when the moment comes, we will hear the words, “Well done.”  Let us diligently take heed to these prophecies, so we can recognize the prophet of God as he fulfills the volume of the book that is written of him. Not only so, but also fulfill it with him (Col. 1:25; 2 Peter 1:19).

I challenge you to look back on all of these things, and say with the Apostle Peter, and with me, “These things are the fulfillment of that which was spoken by the prophets.” It is high time for us to wake out of sleep and “come in the unity of the faith.”  Then shall we be able to say with the Psalmist,

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is

for brethren to dwell together in unity!

It is like the precious ointment upon the head,

that ran down upon the beard,

Even Aaron’s beard:

that went down to the skirts of his garments;

As the dew of Hermon,

and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion:

For there the Lord commanded the blessing,

even life for evermore.”   Psalm 133

“Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses (prophecies), let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb 11:1-12; 12:1-3).

AMEN