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The four Gospels, written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, tell of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. That of Matthew traces Him from His birth through the short sojourn in Egypt, then back to Nazareth, still as a baby; He next appears in this Gospel in Chapter 3, at the time of His baptism just before His 40 days of temptation at the beginning of His ministry. In Mark, the baptism, temptations and the beginning of His ministry are all in chapter 1. In John, as in Mark, His childhood is not covered, and chapter 1 covers His baptism and the beginning of His ministry.

In Luke, we have more details given; chapters 2 and 3 trace Him from the return to Nazareth through His baptism, temptations and the beginning of His ministry, which 3-23 tells us occurred at the age of 30 years. Luke 2:41-52 traces Him on one visit to Jerusalem when He was 12 years old; but all four Gospels are silent on the 18 years between His 12th and 30th years. Where was He, and what was He doing during those years? It can be well demonstrated that He was absent from Palestine for at least most of this period. Let us trace this absence.

Luke 1:36 tells us that Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist, was a cousin of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. There was a very close, friendly relation between the two families; for immediately after Mary was told by the angel that she was to bear Jesus, she went to the home of her cousin, Elizabeth, and stayed In Elizabeth’s home for about 3 months, see Luke 1:39-56. It is only natural that this close friendship would endure through the years thereafter.

One verse of the Bible was formerly quoted more often than it is today — although today we are arriving at the time of its fulfilment: that is I Peter 4:17, “For the time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?” But strangely enough, this verse is almost always used by the ministers to threaten their own congregations with judgement and condemnation, as though it was the Christians who should be in fear of this judgement. Perhaps that does get more money in the offering that Sunday: but is this a correct use of the word of God? Let’s examine this subject in detail.

This is a Christian nation: it was founded by Christians, who came to this continent when it was an untamed wilderness, peopled by fierce savages; but they came here, as their own records tell us, to establish Christian communities where they could worship God without interference. Even today, although we have allowed the entrance of millions of people who hate our God and everything we hold sacred, yet the great majority of our people are still Christian. They are not completely perfect, of course: people were never sinlessly perfect at any time — that is why there was need for Jesus Christ to come and save us by His sacrifice made for us on the cross. But His death and resurrection were not in vain: He has cleansed us of the guilt of our sins: if He had not, then He would have died in vain. But God’s purpose can never fail: He has saved us from the judgement for our sins, and redeemed us as His children, who had strayed like lost sheep. Therefore, it is not the Christians who need fear the judgement: indeed, I John 4:17 tells us, “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement: because as He Is, so are we in this world.”

It is impossible to truly understand the Bible, or any part of it, without understanding the Anglo-Saxon, Germanic and Scandinavian people of today are the Israel of the Bible. The Bible speaks always and only to Israel. To claim its benefits for yourself, you must start by putting yourself in the ranks of Israel. Even the major churches show some dim awareness of this fact although they won’t admit it.

For example, the Episcopal Church won’t admit that we are Israel but read their Book of Common Prayer. Throughout this book it always speaks from the standpoint of Israel. To get out of the embarrassment of this inconsistency, most churches teach substantially this: “Although God’s promises to Israel were absolute and unconditional, God welshed on those promises and has given them to the church instead.” However, they don’t express this quite so frankly, if their doctrine were true, they wouldn’t have much of a religion. If Israel couldn’t trust Yahweh’s word, who else could? But, it is not true; Yahweh never welshed on a promise. Every promise He ever made to Israel, He has fulfilled and is today fulfilling the promises to Israel and to no one else.

In some other lessons, I have traced for you some of the many references to Israel in the New Testament. This shows that the New Testament is as much an Israel book as the Old Testament is. The two books in the New
Testament we haven’t covered as yet, are Hebrews and Revelation. Today, in this lesson, I want to examine the book of Revelation, to show that this too is an Israel book.

No book in the whole Bible is so little understood as the book of Revelation. It is a prophetic book, history pre-written. It is much more difficult to understand than any other prophetic book, because it is written principally in symbols.

The period of time covered by this book is the entire Christian era and even beyond, into the beginnings of eternity. When the prophet Daniel wrote his prophecies, these were not for his own times, but for the remote future. In Daniel 12:4,9 the angel Gabriel told Daniel, “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal up the book, even to the time of the end: Go thy way Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end”. In contrast to this, the angel told John in Revelation 22:10, “Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.” So the book of Revelation prophetically covers all the time from Yahshua to our own day and onward.

Something new came to my attention, about a week ago, which surprised me considerably. It has to do with one of the ancient countries, yet it is startling modern. It shows one of the Bible’s prophecies working out now, which I believe none of us had expected until at least into the time of the final great war.

I want to tell you about Egypt and about something that is happening there now. It came about unexpectedly and it shows that Yahweh knows events that are to happen, well ahead of us. Perhaps at this point we should have a short review of ancient Egyptian history.

This history is quite difficult to pin down with exact dates. The Egyptian priest named Manetho, about 250 B. C., wrote the only authentic history of Egypt. The difficulty is that no copy of Manetho’s history exists; all we have of it are the fragmentary quotes, in the works of some Greek historians. These Greek historians didn’t all quote it alike, so we do have problems.

As those of you who listen to these lessons know, Yahweh’s people, the Israel of the Bible, survive today in the form of the nations we roughly classify as Anglo Saxon. From its first establishment as a nation, Yahweh has selected Israel, for a most unusual honour Israel was to work with Him in establishing His kingdom on this earth.

Such a partnership has not been offered to any other people. In Leviticus 20:24-26 Yahweh said, “I am Yahweh your God, which has separated you from other people. And ye shall be holy unto Me: for I Yahweh am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be Mine.” In Deuteronomy 7:6 Yahweh said, “For thou art a holy people unto Yahweh thy God: Yahweh hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.” Through another prophet, recorded in Amos 3:2 Yahweh said, “You only have I known, of all the families of the earth”.

Let us continue our discussion of God’s Laws. When I first spoke to you on this subject, we saw that God’s Laws are divided into four classes COMMANDMENTS, JUDGEMENTS, STATUTES and ORDINANCES; that the COMMANDMENTS are the major rules governing man’s duties to his God; that the JUDGEMENTS are the rules governing man’s
relation to other men; that the STATUTES are the general rules for the health prosperity and peace of the nation (including the DIETARY and AGRICULTURAL laws, the SOCIAL and ECONOMIC laws, and the POLITICAL laws); finally, the ORDINANCES are the religious regulations, for the various festivals and the sacrifices and offerings.

Of these, only the ORDINANCES have been set aside by the New Testament. The rituals and symbols embodied in them were the expression of the Israelite’s belief that his Redeemer would come, in the future; but when Jesus Christ had come and performed the reality which these rituals symbolized, their usefulness was ended. The believer could no longer say that he was waiting for the future coming of his Redeemer— they must be replaced by new rituals looking back to the fulfilled Redemption.

But the other Laws of God are still in force: THOU SHALT NOT STEAL and THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY are as important today as when Moses carried the stone tablets down Mount Sinai. We do not expect to gain our personal salvation by keeping the law; and indeed, this was never their true purpose. But we do expect to gain the peace, prosperity and good order of the community thereby, just as we have tried to do this by enforcing the laws of our City, our State, and our Nation.

Some people have expressed surprise at the rapid growth of the various Left-Wing organizations: they are not able to understand how, in a nation with our history of freedom, justice and opportunity so many could be attracted to organizations which want to set up a Left-Wing totalitarianism. But to those who are familiar with their Bibles, this should cause no surprise at all, for it is the fulfilment of Bible prophecy. There are in the world two basic types of people: first, those to whom religion and the things of the Spirit have a deep appeal, and who deeply love liberty, and second, those who are materialist and power-hungry. These latter are quickly and strongly attracted to Socialism by its materialism and its concentration of tyrannical power in the hands of a few Commissars. The division between the two was foretold by Jesus Christ, Himself in Matthew 13:24-30, 36:43. “Another parable put He forth unto them, saying “The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, there appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? From whence hath it tares? He said unto them, an enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said Nay: lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of the harvest I will say unto the reapers, Gather ye first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.,*** Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house: and His disciples came unto Him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said unto them, ‘He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the Children of the Kingdom; but the tares are the children of the Wicked One; the enemy that sowed them Is the Devil; the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this age. The Son of man shall send forth the angels, and- they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do Iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth in the Kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”‘

Among the forces which guide International policies and rule the nations of the world, significant changes have occurred within the lifetime of this generation — changes too vast and significance to escape the notice of God. Among the most evident of these is the strong movement to bind all the nations into one organization, the United Nations, so that
one group of men may be the undisputed masters of all the world, ruling it with irresistible force in their own interests and crushing any who would oppose them. The politicians give us good reason to fear their bad judgment, at least if not always their motives; but this is only the surface — and what would we find if we were able to uncover those who are the real masters over many politicians, and rule out of the shadows?

We have seen the United Nations in action; we have seen it utterly impotent for good, but powerful enough for evil. And we see the constant efforts —even on the part of some Americans — to extend this power over us, so that we may become a helpless pawn in the power of the nations which envy and hate us. God pity and save this nation, indeed, if the “one worlders” have their way!

For many years, Christianity has been under constant, bitter and treacherous attack– until the major churches are now in disorganized retreat. The attack by those who are openly atheists or Communists has done little damage, as it could not appeal to anyone but our enemies in any event. The most vicious attack, and the most successful—has come from men who have gained high positions of power in church hierarchies and have used this power to destroy everything the Christian churches have stood for over the centuries, everything that brought Christianity greatness and kept it great. It is the old Marxist strategy of “boring from within.”

The first step in this plot was to keep the church congregations ignorant of the real Biblical basis for Christian doctrine. The average man has no training in analysis of the Bible — and if he wished to, he could not spare the great amount of time necessary for the years of studies which are required; and — lets face it— the average man doesn’t have the capacity to undertake such a study independently. He must trust his minister to give him the results in pre-digested form. But his trust is far too often betrayed. How much of what is actually in the Bible were you ever taught in your church? Think back over your own church-going experience: on how many Sundays did your minister ever tell you what was in more than just one verse of the Bible? Remember, he took just one verse as his “text”— that is, the point of departure at which he left the Bible, never to return to it; and the rest of the sermon may have caused you to admire the cleverness of the man — but when did he give you, word-for-word, what the Bible itself says?