So goes the second lie which Satan, in the guise of a wily serpent, told mankind’s first mother (Eve) in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:5).
The first lie – directly opposite to what God had told Eve and her husband (and mankind’s first father) Adam (Genesis 2:16-17; 3:2-3) – was that they would surely not die even if they ate the fruit which God had forbidden them to eat, the fruit of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Sure enough, because they went ahead and ate the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:6) Adam did die (Genesis 5:5), and presumably Eve died as well (1 Corinthians 15:22), just as God had told them. [See: What Happens to Man After Death?]
Jesus was right on when He called Satan “a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44). So, what was this second lie of Satan all about?
Perhaps not many people realize what the serpent Satan was implying when he told Eve that, if she ate of the forbidden fruit, her eyes would be opened. What Satan was insinuating here was that, if Adam and Eve did not eat the forbidden fruit – in other words, if they obeyed God’s command not to eat the forbidden fruit – they would remain “blind,” ignorant. Satan was proposing to Eve: Your eyes are closed, and would remain so — unless you ate the forbidden fruit. They would remain naïve, not really knowing, not really “seeing,” a lot of things (as in understanding, like when we say “I see” when we “get” or understand something).
Hook, line, and sinker
Suddenly and thoroughly convinced of Satan the devil’s “sales pitch,” Mother Eve “saw” that the forbidden fruit would make her “wise” (and didn’t the fruit look pleasant and good to eat?). So she desired it, picked the fruit from off the tree and ate it. Not content with that, Eve then gave the fruit to Adam, and he, too, ate it (Genesis 3:6).
Result? “Then the eyes of both of them were opened…” (Genesis 3:7).
Was Satan right after all? He told Eve that if she ate the forbidden fruit, her eyes would be opened. And they were opened, as Adam’s eyes were opened!
The question is: to what were Eve’s eyes and Adam’s eyes opened? Genesis 3:7 goes on to explain what Adam and Eve “saw” – “…and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.”
For us now who very well know what “naked” means, we might ask, “What’s the big deal about Adam and Eve knowing they were naked?”
In God’s eyes, it was a big, big deal! It was the first thing in mankind’s store of the “knowledge of good and evil” – knowledge apart from and contrary to God’s knowledge of good and evil.
God created the first specimen of mankind, male and female, naked – and He pronounced them “very good” (Genesis 1:27, 31). God had provided such a perfect environment in the Garden of Eden that Adam and Eve would not have needed clothes, as yet, to cover themselves with. And, being the only human beings then, Adam and Eve had no reason to feel shame about being naked before each other as husband and wife.
Now, this is no reason for anyone to go and join the nearest nudist colony! God did not mean for Adam and Eve to go on “in the raw” when, eventually, they had a family – and a very large one as the years went by. God Himself clothed Adam and Eve later, with “genuine leather” and fur, instead of their flimsy fig-leaf clothes (Genesis 3:21). By doing so, God was not covering man’s body because it is evil and something to be ashamed of – as some religions and philosophies (following Adam’s and Eve’s Satan-led line of thinking) have since taught – but, rather, for the sake of modesty and propriety, so as not to provoke the next generations of human beings (following their first parents’ sinful path) into engaging in all sorts of harmful behavior.
Evil consequence
Since mankind’s first sin, men and women have fallen into all sorts of evil thoughts and evil conduct. For example, the first thing to be affected by Adam’s and Eve’s wrong decision to eat the forbidden fruit was their relationship with God their Creator. In their guilt they feared God’s presence and so they hid themselves “behind the bushes” [trees] (Genesis 3:10). Although men have purportedly “sought” God, men actually have since tried to hide themselves from God. God says of mankind as a whole: “There is none who seeks after God” (Romans 3:11).
Then, after they were confronted by God about what they had done, the marital relationship of Adam and Eve began to unravel, with their finger-pointing “blame game” (Genesis 3:12-13). Adam blamed God for giving him the woman, who coaxed him to eat the forbidden fruit. And if Eve had lived in our times, she would have said, “The devil made me do it!” Since then, there has been the proverbial “battle of the sexes” – taking such form as women blaming men for oppressing them, men blaming women for trying to challenge them. Women demand “Equal Rights Amendment” (ERA) to the American Constitution. Some men think ERA means “Eve Rules Adam.”
The “firstfruits” of Adam’s and Eve’s marred marriage resulted in bitter sibling rivalry, jealousy and, eventually, the first murder in human history – that of Abel by his elder brother Cain (Genesis 4:1-15).
As the “human species” proliferated upon the earth, men and women did things as they chose (Genesis 6:2), instead of obeying God. This was the fulfillment of Satan’s offer to Eve: that by eating the forbidden fruit, she would not only have her eyes opened, but she would thus “become like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). The descendants of Adam and Eve – even up to our times today – have chosen for themselves what standard of good and evil to devise and follow, apart from the perfect standard of good and evil which God has revealed to mankind.
Proverbs 14:12 (repeated in Proverbs 16:25, for emphasis) neatly sums up the human dilemma, and its dire consequence: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” It’s just like what God promised would happen to Adam and Eve if they ate the forbidden fruit! After they had eaten the fruit, they started on a path that seemed right to them but in reality was wrong in God’s sight. As a result they died, and they passed on the “poison fruit” to their descendants.
Because of our first parents’ bad decision, the history of mankind’s first millennia was written in blood! Things got so bad by the time of Noah that “…the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was so great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually….The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence….all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth” (Genesis 6:5, 11-12). The “wisdom” that Eve thought the forbidden fruit would bring her and her offspring only ended up in violence and death. And that “wisdom” has done the same harm to mankind, even up to this minute! In fact, the apostle Paul prophesied about our times (“the last days”): “…evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:1, 13).
God could no longer stand man’s wickedness back in Noah’s days, so much so that He destroyed the entirety of the human race – except for Noah and his immediate family – in a worldwide flood (Genesis 6:6-8:22). All of earth’s population since then can trace their roots to that family of eight survivors (Noah and his wife, Shem and his wife, Ham and his wife, Japheth and his wife).
With such a bent in man toward corruption, evil and violence, would it not have worsened things if men and women then went about naked? It should not be hard to imagine what chaos and violence – more likely than not — this would lead to!
The forbidden fruit resurfaces!
After the devastating worldwide flood, one would think that mankind had been given a new clean slate, would have learned some lessons and would have started over right this time. But no sooner had the earth’s human population begun to pick up after the flood than Satan stirred up the new race of mankind into disobedience to, and rebellion against, God. Yes, Satan was around then, as he has been, up to now! His time to be bound and grounded is yet to come (Revelation 20:1-4).
Genesis 10:8 describes a “mighty one on the earth” – Nimrod, son of Cush, who in turn was the firstborn son of one of Noah’s three sons, Ham (verse 6). Verse 10 talks about Nimrod beginning his kingdom with Babel [from where the name “Babylon” is taken] and other places “in the land of Shinar” – somewhere in the Middle East, in the region of what is now Iraq. [Daniel 1:1-2 says that “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon” besieged Jerusalem, took Judah’s king Jehoiakim and some articles of the house of God (or the temple in Jerusalem), and carried them “into the land of Shinar to the house of his god.”]
There is so much legend, myth and mystery about Nimrod. But the bottom line in the Scriptural story is that Nimrod was a “mighty one on earth,” this “mighty hunter before [or as some translate it, ‘in place of’] the LORD” (Genesis 10:9). As the “mighty one on earth” he, presumably, led the whole fledgling restored human race then into defying God’s command to Noah and his children: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth….Bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it” (Genesis 9:1, 7). They were to spread all over the earth and repopulate it.
In Genesis 11:4 we read of the earth’s population then banding together in defiance of God’s instruction and intent. They agreed to the call: “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heaven; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” Their reasoning seemed so right to them, but that was not what God wanted.
God saw what mischief this band of humans was up to. He confounded their language so that they could not complete the tower they were building. Thus failing to understand each other, they were forced to be scattered all over the face of the earth as God had intended (Genesis 11:5-9).
Babylon goes underground
Many decades ago, Bishop Alexander Hislop wrote the now much-maligned book titled The Two Babylons (first edition published in 1916). In 1966 Ralph Woodrow published the book titled Babylon: Mystery Religion, which made Mr. Hislop’s book more easily understood by laymen. [Mr. Woodrow, however, completely reversed his views when he later wrote another book, in 1997, titled The Babylon Connection?]
If you are interested in reading these first two books, you may access them through this link: http://www.herbert-armstrong.org, click ENTER HERE, choose “Reference Material” and scroll down to the books with those titles (on the right of the page, showing the front covers).
The first two of the above-mentioned books, and similar other writings, put forth one proposition: that since the tower of Babel incident, the movement that Nimrod as the mighty king of Babel (or Babylon) supposedly led had been judged as evil by God and was due for extermination. Thus the movement supposedly went underground as some “mystery religion,” cloaked in symbols that are really merely counterfeits of God’s ways and are in defiance of God’s will. Later this mystery religion is supposed to have found expression in the various established religions of the world.
One may question – as Mr. Woodrow does in his second book – the historical accuracy and authenticity of the details presented by Mr. Hislop in his book, where he draws a connection between the Babylon of Nimrod’s time and the religious system of a later time. But, undeniably, that religious system flourished during the heyday of the Babylonian Empire under King Nebuchadnezzar. Archeologists have found religious artifacts there showing evidence of widespread worship of Ishtar and other “gods.” Nebuchadnezzar himself set up, for idolatrous worship, a huge golden image (Daniel 3). Jeremiah prophesied about the fall of Babylon, and one of the reasons for this was Babylon’s idols and religious images (Jeremiah 50:1-2, 38; 51:17, 47, 52). The Babylonian Empire eventually fell during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar’s son Belshazzar when Darius the Mede conquered the kingdom (Daniel 5).
Zechariah 5:5-11 describes three women who appear to be symbolic of Babylon – which has built a house for herself “in the land of Shinar.” The first woman sits in a basket, which the angel covers with a lead cover – picturing the original “Babylon” with her “covert” activity that is descriptive of “Mystery, Babylon the Great” (Revelation 17:5). The two other women, who had “wings like the wings of a stork,” would seem to symbolize the two overt or manifest stages of “Babylon” that has swiftly encompassed the earth: the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar’s time, and the Babylon that has continued since then up to our times today.
Regardless of whatever the truth of the matter is, the fact remains that the Bible clearly declares a “Babylon” that has survived from ancient times until now and will be confronted by Jesus Christ when He returns soon in awesome power and glory. [Who knows whether Christ will return in our generation?]
Revelation 17:1-6 describes a “great harlot” – symbolic of a religious system that has exercised great influence on this world’s political, military, and economic affairs. In a similar manner, the “Jerusalem above” that nourishes true Christians is compared to a “mother of us all” (Galatians 4:26; compare with Hebrews 12:22, which calls it “the heavenly Jerusalem”). Revelation 17:5 emblazons the name of his “great harlot”: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS, AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH [capitals supplied, NKJV].
Soon to be exposed!
Like the forbidden fruit that, to Mother Eve, looked pleasant and good to eat and something to make one “wise,” this religious system called “Babylon the Great” has much of the people of the world swayed by the allure of her “prostitute beauty”: loud, colorful, glitter-full and promises lots of fun – even lots of “love” and “loving”! As a “mother,” this Babylon has many “harlot daughters” who are also spreading her “abominations” in all of the earth.
Before Christ returns, this “Mother of Harlots” will be exposed! In the end, those who have trusted in her and consorted with her will “make her desolate and naked” (Revelation 17:16). She will be exposed for who or what she really is! Her religious system is called “another beast” or “the image of the beast” (Revelation 13:11-17). The spiritual leader of this “woman” is called the “false prophet” (Revelation 19:20), who is described by the apostle Paul, in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10, as “the man of sin” and “the lawless one” whose coming “is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth…”
Revelation 13:11 describes this leader as looking like a “lamb” – pure and harmless – but speaking like a “dragon,” which is symbolic of no one else but the devourer Satan! Revelation 12:9 identifies “the great dragon” as “that serpent of old [older, in fact, than the Garden of Eden!], called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world…” Yes — the “father of all lies!”
The “beast,” of which the “great harlot” is an image (or copy) and who rides (or controls) the beast, is symbolic of the military/political power that will do the bidding of this “great harlot”! Through this military power, which – like the great harlot – is also under the sway of Satan the devil, this harlot (through its miracle-working leader, the “false prophet”) “deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he [the false prophet] was granted in the sight of the beast…” (Revelation 13:11-14).
Fatal attraction
This “great Babylon,” this “Mother of Harlots” has “bewitched” most of mankind through her mystique, pomp and ceremony, and seeming “wisdom,” “enlightenment,” and “correctness.” There’s even a lot of “love and affection” going around. But note what Jesus says about this, in John 15:19 – “…the world would love its own.” As Satan’s instrument of deception, this Babylon has instead – through counterfeit doctrines and practices — blinded mankind from seeing the true light of God’s plan and purpose for mankind.
The apostle Paul tells us, in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing [on the pathway to death], whose minds the god of this age [Satan the devil] has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
Satan has his “agents” to deceive mankind, as he deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden, into thinking that disobeying God’s Word makes man “enlightened,” wise – his eyes opened! Paul exposes them: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan … transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
Satan has been doing his utmost to reverse almost everything that God has said.
To start with, God told our first parents not to eat the fruit He had forbidden them, or else they would die. Satan says: go ahead and eat it; you won’t die. They believed and followed Satan instead of God, and they died! Mankind has since followed that same path our first parents pioneered. God tells us not to eat this or that meat; Satan says, it’s OK – you can eat anything you want; you will not get hurt — and man believes Satan rather than God. God says: you worship on this day and other holy days I’ve set apart; Satan says: any day will do – and man has followed Satan’s way instead of God’s way. On and on it goes! [See: Did Christ Cleanse All Meats? What If the Sabbath Is Still Holy? and God’s Feasts in the Book of Acts: Mere Time Markers — or to Be Observed?]
Such a great liar Satan is! Satan promised Eve that her eyes would be opened if she disobeyed God’s Word. Eve disobeyed God, and thus she had her eyes opened, not to God’s truth but to Satan’s lies! Eve, with Adam, instead became blinded from really understanding the good plan and purpose of God – His truth. Thus all of mankind has also followed the way of disobedience to God, has become blinded to God’s truth, and has earned the penalty of death.
Satan has done such a thorough job of deceiving mankind that God could tell us: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight” (Isaiah 5:20-21)! [See: Switching Positive and Negative.]
God’s servants infiltrated
Satan has infiltrated even the very servants of God (as the priests of Israel were) and caused some of them to reverse God’s teachings and commandments: “Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them” (Ezekiel 22:26). [See: Drunk with Strange Wine.]
In fact, this was the spiritual state in which Jesus Christ found the religious leaders of the Jews! Confronted by the numerous prevailing traditions of the Pharisees, Sadducees, the scribes and the teachers of the Law, Jesus told them: “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me, and in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men … All too well you reject the commandment of God, [so] that you may keep your tradition…making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do” (Mark 7:6-9, 13). [See: True Worship.]
Jesus told the Jews: “Did not Moses give you the law, yet not one of you keeps the law” (John 7:19)? Because the religious leaders then did not really keep the Law of Moses – and not because they kept that Law – Jesus called them “blind guides” who fell into a ditch and led other blind people into the same ditch (Matthew 23:3, 16-19, 24, 26; 15:14).
As the saying goes, “None is as blind as one who will not see.” Those who are really spiritually blind and claim to be able to “see” have a harder time admitting their blindness! [See: John 9:39-41, and Barking up the Wrong Tree.]
New Testament church not spared
Satan has not spared the New Testament church either! He has had his “agents” worm their way into the Church of God all through these centuries of church history! Someone said of Satan: “Destruction is his name and deception is his game.” The early apostles had to fight the inroads of heresy and false doctrines into the church through false teachers who had sneaked in. In fact, the problem has gone worse in our time, as Jesus foretold (Matthew 24:24). [See: Beware of False Prophets!]
The apostle Peter wrote: “But there were also false prophets among the people [Israel], even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies [departure from Biblical truth], even denying the Lord who bought them, and bringing on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber” (2 Peter 2:1-3).
Out of the seven churches described in Revelation 2 and 3, five churches had somehow fallen for Satan’s deception through false teachings. In fact, one of the churches – the Laodicean church – was called to task by Jesus for claiming to have a 20/20 vision of God’s truth when in fact, as Jesus saw it, that church was “blind.” Those five churches were commanded to repent, or else they would, as symbolic lamp stands, be removed – destroyed (Revelation 2:5, which is also a message to all the churches, verse 7)!
And so also it has been with the Church of God down through the centuries up to this very day! It is time that those who are truly the people of God woke up from their Satan-caused spiritual blindness and “sleep” — or even some “spiritual coma” – that has come upon them! [See: Laodicean Christians.]
Darkness masquerades as light
As many Bible students understand, Satan was formerly the archangel (or cherub) named Lucifer [which means “Light-bringer”] (Isaiah 14:12-15). Lucifer, with angels under his command, mounted a “coup” to try to unseat the very supreme God from His throne. But Lucifer did not prevail over God’s infinitely superior power. Lucifer and his angels were cast back down to earth. Lucifer has since become God’s enemy and has had his name changed to “Satan” — which means “adversary.” Lucifer’s angels (a third of all the angels) are now called demons. Revelation 12:7-9 reveals what the battle scenario in Isaiah 14:12-15 could have been like.
Lucifer, now Satan, chose the way of rebellion against God’s government or rule, against God’s ways. Ezekiel 28:11-17 is another Bible passage which many Bible students understand to be referring also to Lucifer as the “anointed cherub” who formerly covered God on His heavenly throne. Lucifer chose the way of “iniquity” – the way of sin, or the transgression of God’s law or rule, or God’s ways (1 John 3:4). Thus Lucifer was removed from his former exalted position in God’s heavenly court.
As a result, Lucifer lost his “light” – his respect for and obedience to God’s way, which the Bible in many places compares to the way of “light” (for example, Proverbs 6:23 – “For the commandment [of God] is a lamp, and the law [of God] a light.”). Lucifer, now Satan, has become “prince” among the “rulers of the darkness of this age…spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12; 2:2).
Cast back to earth, Satan now goes “to and fro” on the earth, like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and destroy (1 Peter 5:8). Being the arch-deceiver that he is (Revelation 12:9), Satan “transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14), while in reality being an angel of darkness! In his subtle ways, Satan masquerades darkness as light! [See: Where Did the Devil Come From?]
Exactly as he did with Mother Eve in the Garden of Eden!
Satan promises that our “eyes will be opened” when we disobey the law and way of God! Yes, Satan has opened the eyes of mankind to thinking that the way of disobedience to God’s Word is the way to become “wise” and become “like God.” But, just as his lie to Mother Eve blinded her from realizing the seriousness of God’s instruction not to eat the forbidden fruit or else suffer death, so Satan has blinded mankind from realizing that sin – disobedience to God’s law – earns mankind the penalty of death (Romans 6:23).
In the dark depths of the ocean, a monstrous-looking creature called the “angler fish” has a tiny light, extending like a street lamp, over its head, just inches away from its wide mouth which is ringed with fang-like teeth. The angler fish dangles this light as a bait to lure unsuspecting marine creatures, which then become its easy prey.
In a similar manner, in this darkened world the monster (“dragon” or “serpent”) Satan dangles before unsuspecting mankind his bright-looking, colorful and gaudy “bait” – “Babylon the Great” – to lure men to follow the way that seems “right” and supposedly makes one “enlightened” but is, when examined in the light of the Scriptures (Isaiah 8:20), really the way of sin and darkness, the way of death!
It is the deadly forbidden fruit once again – “prettified” by Satan to cloak its toxic sting! But Satan’s deceiving days are numbered (Revelation 12:12)! His day of reckoning is coming soon! So also, the days of Babylon are numbered. Its day of reckoning is coming soon – and it will be quick! [See: The Deceitfulness of Sin.]
Come out of it all!
God bids those who will be His people, instead of Satan’s people: “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen [two falls – showing Babylon had fallen before and will soon fall again!], and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury…Come out of her, My people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues, [for] her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities” (Revelation 18:2-5).
Revelation 18:8, 19 declares: “Therefore her [Babylon’s] plagues will come in one day – death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her … For in one hour she is made desolate.”
Jesus is coming – and soon — to “destroy those who destroy the earth” (Revelation 11:18), chief of whom is Satan, who is also called “Abaddon” or “Apollyon” (Revelation 9:11), meaning “Destroyer.” Jesus will have an angel bind Satan in a “bottomless pit” where he will be shut up and imprisoned “so that he should deceive the nations no more” (Revelation 20:1-3).
On whose side will you be?
I hope that you, dear reader, are choosing to be on God’s side. In order to be — and remain — on God’s side, here’s a piece of advice: Never again let Satan and his agents tell you that you are blind and ignorant because you are keeping the laws of God. Never again be duped into thinking that to turn your back on God’s law is the way to freedom and enlightenment. That’s a big lie that Satan has foisted on mankind through his agents of deception. [See: Spiritual Dyslexia.]
Speaking about false teachers, the apostle Peter warns: “For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness [or licentiousness], the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage” (2 Peter 2:18-19).
Those who believe in Satan’s lies have become Satan’s “children,” for Satan is the “father of lies” (John 8:44; 1 John 3:10). You who have “eyes to see and ears to hear” the truth of God, and will accept it and live by it, can become the children of God, instead of children of the devil. [See: Freed from Bondage and Are We All God’s Children?]
The broad majority of mankind has come under the sway of “Babylon the Great.” But there is no guarantee of “safety in numbers.” Jesus says, to us in this present world: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).
Isaiah 66:15-16 tells us that the LORD (Jesus the Messiah) will come “with fire” to “judge all flesh; and the slain of the LORD shall be many.” In fact, Isaiah 6:11-13 indicates, as sad and tragic as it looks, that about 90% of earth’s population will likely be destroyed at Christ’s return, and only 10% (“a tenth”) will likely remain alive as mortals. Those remaining mortals will then come under the rule of Christ and His glorified saints on this earth for an initial 1000 years. Like a living “stump,” earth’s population will grow again, and many, many more people will come to know God’s way to everlasting life, believe it, live it, and enjoy life forevermore in God’s kingdom. (For more about this wonderful “World [of] Tomorrow,” click on this link: http://www.herbert-armstrong.org, click ENTER HERE, choose “Books & Booklets” and scroll down to the booklet titled “The Wonderful World Tomorrow — What It Will Be Like” or the book Tomorrow’s World — What It Will Be Like. Also see: “The Next Chapter of History.”)
Keep reading the articles on this website. I believe they will help you understand more of God’s perfect way! And as you wash your spiritual “eyes” in the “water” of God’s Word, may God heal the spiritual blindness that Satan has caused in you. May you see clearly the light of God’s truth — and receive the promise of everlasting life in Christ! [See: About Pool of Siloam.]
May you choose life, not death (Deuteronomy 30:15-20)!
Pedro R. Meléndez, Jr.
121113