Basic HTML Version
were two choices--the symbolic tree of LIFE by which God would have given him
knowledge through the Holy Spirit for a happy relationship with his Maker and
fellow humans--spiritual knowledge and the spiritual attitude of LOVE toward
others--along with immortal LIFE. The other symbolic tree was the taking to
himself, in his carnal mind, the knowledge of what is right and what is wrong--
all
in the carnal self-centered attitude.
Adam allowed Eve to persuade him to take the latter--even as Satan had
tempted her. Thus Satan got to Adam through his wife, and the whole world,
founded with Adam and Eve, has been deceived by Satan (Rev. 12:9) into the
self-centered way of life.
That way of life has brought on absence of a right relationship with God,
and attitudes toward fellow humans of selfishness, greed, competition and
strife,
warfare--attitudes of envy, jealousy, hostility. It has led to immorality,
crime,
discontent, unhappiness, suffering and death!
This is Satan's world, started with Adam. Jesus came to start GOD's world
of
tomorrow, started by Jesus Christ, and the Church which he called to come out
from this world's ways, and live as Adam would have, had he taken of the tree of
LIFE. That is to live God's way of life, as God reveals through his Holy Spirit.
The
one true Church of God, now worldwide, is the embryo of the coming KINGDOM
OF GOD--a new world of PEACE, happiness, joyous accomplishment.
But meanwhile, in this world, God called his nation Israel. He gave them
his Law--or his WAY OF LIFE. They utterly disobeyed. God allowed them to
divide into two nations, Israel and Judah. The nation of Assyria conquered
Israel,
the northern nation, removing them from the Holy Land around 721 to 718 B.C.
Then about 604-585 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the first world
empire, conquered Judah. Through the prophet Daniel, God gave Babylon an
opportunity to become God's nation, but Nebuchadnezzar rejected being ruled by
God. Thereupon came the times of Gentile domination. Babylon (the Chaldean
Empire) was succeeded by the Persian Empire. It in turn by the
Greco-Macedonian Empire, and finally the Roman Empire, of 31 B.C. to A.D. 476.
At the behest of the Pope at Rome, Justinian, emperor of the east at
Constantinople, formally reestablished in A.D. 554 the Roman Empire in the West.
It became known later as the Holy Roman Empire, since the popes at Rome ruled
over the civil or political rulers.
It is that "Holy Roman Empire" now being resurrected in Europe. Prophecy
says it will last but a short time, ended by the second coming of Jesus Christ
as
WORLD RULER! So, since this European unification will, in fact, lead in slightly
over 3 l/2 years from then to Christ's coming, to bring world peace, perhaps the
official at Athens was right after all.
But, brethren and co-workers, the prophesied Great Tribulation (nuclear
World War III) will start soon after the European unification. That means OUR
WORK OF SPREADING THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD WILL BE
FINISHED! We have not now much more time. Soon shall come a FAMINE of