Recently, we received the following message from a recipient of our weekly Updates, saying: “Please unsubscribe. I do not have time to read all that. It clogs up my computer.”
When I see something like that, I feel sad for the person and his or her attitude. And I ask myself, how is the person wasting his or her time, so that he or she does not have time for the essential things in life? After all, our weekly Updates present unique Editorials, Bible studies and a summary of world news in the light of biblical prophecy which just cannot be found, in that concise manner, anywhere else. Hours upon hours go into the preparation of these weekly presentations, but some people don’t seem to recognize the importance and relevance for their own lives. They are rather willing to waste their time with unimportant, futile and perhaps even dangerous and ungodly pursuits.
This world is coming to an end, and it is moving towards an unparalleled crescendo of religious deception, global terror and war, famine and disease epidemics, culminating in the Great Tribulation. Our booklet, “Hidden Secrets in the Bible,” discusses in Part 2 the “Significance of Certain Numbers in the Bible.” We translated this part into German and posted it on our German website (in addition to Part 1 of the booklet on “Hebrew Poetry in the Bible.”) In a recent German member letter, I referred to the article on biblical numbers and pointed out some interesting numbers in regard to the Church of the Eternal God: In July 2001, it was registered in the USA, which means that by July 2015, it will have been in operation for 14 years. We have by now published 40 booklets in the English language, and this year we will publish our 700th weekly Update. In Germany, we began to broadcast AufPostenStehen Video programs in August of 2008, which means that by August 2015, we will have been publishing our video presentations for 7 years.
I also spoke a little bit about my own personal life. I was baptized in December of 1974, which means that 40 years had passed by December of 2014. I was ordained as an Elder in July of 1998; so that by July 2015, I have been an ordained minister for 17 years. In addition, I was ordained as an Evangelist in February of 2005, which means that when you read this Editorial, I have been serving in this office for almost 10 years.
As our afore-mentioned booklet explains, the numbers 40, 10 and 14 (as well as combinations of numbers 7 and 10) have interesting biblical meaning. Personally, I need to ask myself: How much did I overcome since my baptism? How did I carry out so far my responsibilities as Elder, Pastor and Evangelist? Even though I am not interested that much in the judgment of man, I hope that God will judge me mercifully, since I know how much I still have to learn and to overcome. Collectively, we need to ask ourselves these questions: With what kind of judgment will God (not necessarily man) evaluate the Church of the Eternal God and its affiliates in Canada, the UK, Germany and other places? Again, we hope that God will judge us with great mercy, and we know that our two-fold mission of preaching the gospel in all the world as a witness and of feeding the flock is far from over.
All of these numbers show us how quickly time goes by. We grow old and feeble, before we know it. Much is still to do, before Christ returns. The signs of the times indicate strongly that it won’t be that long now (compare Matthew 16:1-3; 24:32-35). The world is moving speedily towards its utter destruction and annihilation of all human and animal life. God will not allow this to happen, and some will survive–but not too many will (Matthew 24:21-22). How foolish to think we do not need to watch world events and our own personal and collective situation, while instead concentrating on unimportant time-consuming activities. Time IS short, and the future will bring a rude awakening for those who are asleep (1 Thessalonians 5:1-7).
