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April 18, 1995 - Bill Cooper
58:48
Who Lied[Q] Christ or Your Church
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The End
The End I'm William Cooper.
You're listening to the Hour of the Time.
I'm William Cooper.
Ladies and gentlemen, today, April the 18th, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a great crowd turned out.
it It was magnificent.
The sunshine began to fade behind a cloud cover.
As hundreds of patriotic Americans converged on the state capitol, In rotunda, as the noon hour approached, they came from all over this country.
From Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, West Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, from the city and from the rural areas.
From the farm, from plush office buildings, from mills, from garages, from gas stations, from granaries, department store clerks, lawyers.
They came from colleges and universities.
Some were laborers, some were retired.
Blue collar, white collar.
Even someone in a wheelchair.
They were Americans.
They came from America.
they all left their daily pursuits to support their common uniting bond the Constitution untampered Unchanged.
It was a broad spectrum.
A coalition, if you will, of grassroots America, coordinated by the Constitution Party, awakened and alerted by the hour of the time
The Intelligence Service, the Citizens Agency for Joint Intelligence, and many other organizations, which I will name, even though this event was coordinated and led by the Constitution Party, was made up of representatives of many, many groups and, of course, many individuals who belong to no group at all.
Those on record as voicing opposition to the Conference of States and supporting the Constitution were the Council on Domestic Relations, the Taxpayers' Alliance Party, the National State Sovereignty Coalition, which is aligned with the Constitution Party, the National Constitution Center, the National Rifle Association, the Pennsylvania Gun Owners Association, who finally realized the mistake on their
Boycotting the first meeting and jumped on board.
The John Birch Society, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Constitutional Government Council, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms, the Black Legislative Caucus, the Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition, The AFL-CIO.
The Better Government Bureau.
The Delaware County Libertarian Party.
Americans for America.
Individuals, Democrats, Republicans.
Area Southeast Regional.
Taxpayers of Pennsylvania.
Why anybody would want to call themselves taxpayers, I have no idea.
And many others.
This, dear listeners, is not the far right-wing extremist that Governor Levitt says is behind this effort to block the Conference of States, nor is it the right-wing terrorist, gun-toting, radical, mindless robots of gun-toting, radical, mindless robots of the hour of the time that the Patriot newspaper touted.
It is a group of strange bedfellows indeed, but a mixture that is surely grassroots America. - Sure.
The Left, the Right, the Middle, Black, White, Oriental, Jew, Protestants, Atheists, Catholics, all understanding the common bond that unites us all is liberty Preserved and guaranteed by the Constitution for the United States of America.
No, no, no, Governors Leavitt, Nelson, and Ridge.
No, Pennsylvania Representatives Fischer, Flick, and Ryan.
You had better wake up.
For this is the voice of America and the voice of Americans.
united in their understanding that no matter what their differences are, or what their beliefs are, or how different from each other they are in their cultural history, in their churches, in their racial makeup,
That there is one bond that unites us all, and without that bond, none of us could be what we are, believe what we believe, or practice what we practice, live where we live, travel to protest events such as this.
That common bond is liberty.
Most Americans have forgotten that.
Mike Interarity of the Constitution Party coordinated the event and was the host speaker.
Representative Teresa Brown of Pennsylvania's 6th Legislative District spoke out against her fellow legislators who would tear at the very fabric of our nation.
Radio talk show host Gary Hayen of Talk America Radio Today spoke of how this once was a nation of God And because we turned our back on God, we must face the consequences thereof.
Mr. Dick Crazy of the Taxpayer Alliance Party showed the dangers of the new regionalism that is being openly asserted in select areas of the country.
This falls directly in line with the proponents of a global-minded elite who would have us become a vassal state under the United Nations.
Representative Tom Armstrong A friend of patriots in Pennsylvania spoke of the necessity of keeping the Constitution intact and the dangers that a conference of states could pose, mainly being turned into a constitutional convention.
Housewife Jackie Hrubochek spoke as an ordinary American who wants the form of government that the Founding Fathers left for all of our posterity.
A Republican form of government guaranteed to us by our Constitution.
Joyce Rosenwald, housewife and mother, spoke of her concerns in the Pennsylvania state legislature turning to this regionalism as being one of the many steps into a one-world government.
Yes, those of you To have your utopian world totalitarian socialist dream had better listen.
This is America speaking.
Those were Americans who congregated in Harrisburg today.
As Dick Crazy asked, how many of your constituents called you up and asked for a conference of states?
Not one, I bet.
Where is the input of the people in this matter?
Ask another rally attendee.
Mike Interarity reminded the legislators that they were elected to serve, not to rule, and that the answer to the power, the ultimate power, is in the hands of the people.
Legislators from the 50 states, you had better listen.
You had better hear the cry of Americans across this country, the cry throughout the land will be exceedingly great as the time draws near.
So please reconsider your vote if you were already one of those who may have unknowingly supported the Conference of States, believing that it was as represented.
Many of you are beginning to see the light, so to speak.
A rescission call has begun in several states, and we shall begin a demand for the rescission call in Pennsylvania as soon as it becomes necessary.
The Senate shall not escape the wrath of the people of Pennsylvania, and indeed the wrath of this nation.
If this Philadelphia II Constitutional Convention under the veil of the Conference of States is carried out.
The Senate shall not be able to take any of the people of the country.
Jefferson once said that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
Each of us must take up the lamp of liberty and keep watch.
We must walk the walls.
We must peer down the alleys.
We must set our patrols upon the road.
Liberty.
We must not let the usurpers of our sovereignty and freedom continue with their plan.
We must stop this, ladies and gentlemen.
I want to thank all of you who attended in the rotunda of the Capitol Building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania today.
And I must tell you The Chaggian Intelligence Service was well represented.
Well represented.
Don't go away.
I'll be right back.
I'll be right back.
I'll be right Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Well, as I did Friday night and last night, ladies and gentlemen, I must let you know where we're going with this so that you'll understand.
I'm not preaching to you.
I'm not trying to tell you what to believe or that your religion is wrong or that you even have to believe anything at all.
I'm trying to arrive at some truth about how far this deception extends.
You see, it makes sense that if those who want world government could neutralize their greatest opposition and make them believe that they must not oppose world government because it is being brought about by the hand of God, then indeed, they will have made a tactical victory of the most sublime and of the greatest kind.
If they can convince the population of the world that believe in the Bible, and that population is great, if they can neutralize that population so that they will not oppose what is sure to come, based upon all the research that we've done, then they will have their world governed because their major enemy will not oppose them.
And you hear this every Sunday and every night on every radio station and on satellite and on television.
You hear all these preachers and all these organizations and all these Pat Robertsons and everyone else saying, oh, isn't it marvelous the world government is coming?
It's the fulfillment of prophecy.
It's the Word of God being brought into being before our very eyes.
Isn't it marvelous that, oh yes, We Christians, we know that we will have to suffer for a while, but then we will be with Jesus, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and Jesus will rule the whole world!
In one government!
How convenient!
But you see, what you're being told in church, and what you're being told by Pat Robertson, and what you're being told by Reverend Shuler in his crystal cathedral filled with the light, And what you're being told by Brother Starr and what you're being told by all these other people, in my research, does not stand up to what the Bible itself says.
And if that is true, and I've already proven that it is true, Friday night and Monday night, and I'm going to continue tonight and tomorrow night and Thursday night and possibly Friday night until I've I've completely covered this, and there is no doubt in my mind.
And I want you to listen and think about this.
Because if I am right, then we're faced with a terrible dilemma.
You see, if I am right, so far, I know that I am, because I have quoted directly from the Bible, and it is clear that this is correct.
But it doesn't mean that you have to believe it.
It doesn't mean that you have to believe the Bible.
And what we know of the Bible's origin, I would advise caution in doing that anyway.
But if, if you are a Christian, or if you are a Jew, or any of the other religious organizations, or churches, or groups, or congregations, or whatever you want to call yourself, that believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, then you must believe that the Bible does not lie.
And if you are a Christian and you believe that Jesus Christ was God made flesh, who was delivering a message to the world, who was, in fact, the promised Messiah of all the ages, if you believe this, and if you believe that He was crucified, died, sealed in the tomb, and rose three days later,
and returned and spoke to his disciples who doubted and then believed, and then ascended into heaven to sit upon the right hand of God in His kingdom, then you must believe that Jesus Christ could not and did not lie.
And if that is so, then you must believe that your churches and your preachers and your theologians and your evangelists are lying to you. then you must believe that your churches and your preachers Amen.
Amen.
And if you don't want to believe that, then how are you going to split yourself down the middle?
Because one or the other are clearly not telling the truth.
If you believe that your church, and your minister, and your preacher, and your Pat Robertsons, and your Jerry Falwells, and all of these people are telling you the truth, Then Jesus had to have lied.
And Paul lied.
And many others just flat lied.
Deceived the people that they were talking to and did not intend the promises that they made to be true.
Now, with that in mind, and understanding that we're looking for the truth here, no matter what you believe. and understanding that we're looking for the truth here, no
And this series of broadcasts should help everyone to understand a little bit better what the Bible is trying to tell us, and what Jesus Christ was all about, and what the true Christian religion should be, bearing in mind that you are not required to believe any of this, or even listen to it, and that I certainly will not condemn you no matter what your decision is, because
I'm one who believes fully in the Constitution, in free will, in the fact that the choice you make is yours for eternity, and the only one you have to answer to in that choice is God, not me.
And that under the Constitution, we are all free to worship at the altar of our choice and believe whatever it is that we will believe.
And we all will believe something regardless of what anyone else teaches or preaches or tries to say, because that is the nature of humanity.
So with that in mind, let us continue with our revelations.
You see, if Christ was telling His disciples what He told them, and if He was telling them the truth, then this new heaven and new earth and this world government that you're expecting to be led by Christ is a deception.
And if it is a deception, I think we had better know about it.
Now, we did a simple study of several root words from the original translations on Friday night.
I ask you all to do a simple study of the word generation as it is used in the four Gospels of the New Testament.
And I know that some of you did because I received some calls about it.
It is extremely interesting to see how it is used and to who the word is spoken to.
You see, this is all about who is speaking and who is being spoken to and what promises are being made to be carried out when.
Since almost all of the teachings of the Bible, ladies and gentlemen, can be found within each other, let's look at the word generation from the book of Matthew.
I can only hope that you would Take this serious enough to do your own study throughout the entire New Testament.
Probably the most interesting usages of the word generation or generations is found in chapter 1.
But we're going to skip chapter 1 and go to chapter 3 for the time being.
It is a mirror of what we have already seen from Luke chapter 3.
Matthew 11 verse 16, but whereunto shall I liken this generation?
It is like unto children sitting in the markets and calling unto their fellows.
17 And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced.
We have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil.
The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, A man gluttonous.
And a winebiber, a friend of publicans and sinners, but wisdom is justified of her children.
Folks, have you ever heard the praise, you just can't win for losing?
Doesn't matter how, they come.
Christ said of the generation that he lived in, that even though John the Baptist and Christ himself did opposite things, the Jews were equally critical of each.
You see, they found fault with both of these men.
It's also interesting to note the next few verses concerning the generation that Christ was living in.
In verse twenty, the Bible says that He began to upbraid the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done, because they repented not.
And in verse twenty-one, Woe unto thee, Chorazin!
Woe unto thee, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, They would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
22 But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you.
23 And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted into heaven, shalt be brought down to hell.
For if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee." Now, I used to hear preachers make comments concerning America that would go something like this.
If God doesn't destroy America because of all its wickedness, then He'll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.
Have you ever heard them say these things?
But Christ told the generation of Israelites that were alive during His day that they were exceedingly worse than Sodom and Gomorrah.
Sodom and Gomorrah had the wretched lot as their only hope.
The Israelites of Christ's day had God Himself.
So you see, they didn't come near to repentance.
They rejected everything that was good.
They rejected the final call from God the Father when they rejected Jesus Christ.
You see, Christ was sent to that generation.
To that generation!
He's not walking around today.
He was sent then and there to that people.
And He fulfilled His Messiahship and His work as Messiah is over.
You see, it should be blasphemy to say that Christ will return to this earth as Messiah.
The redemptive work of Christ the Messiah is over.
He died on the cross for the remission of sin of all who believeth in Him.
If you believe in Him, you are saved, and that is what a Messiah does.
He doesn't have to come again to do it.
He is sitting in His kingdom today.
It reminds me of a Baptist anthem that was pounded into my head from my youth.
You see, I was baptized in the Southern Baptist Church in Midwest City, Oklahoma, at the age of, I believe it was 12 or 13.
But I remember this anthem from my youth until I finally studied the Bible for myself and saw the glaring error that this song so thoroughly brainwashed me with.
It was called, Lift Up Your Head, Redemption, draweth nigh.
And that's a lot.
Redemption does not draweth nigh.
If I believe in Jesus Christ today, and I have repented of all my wrongs, then my redemption has already occurred.
And so has yours.
If you believe in this theology.
And you don't have to.
You see, I believe that God gave us all a free will choice.
And that's what this is all about.
We all must make a free will choice.
And everything is based upon that choice.
We make choices every day.
We are required to make the right choice every day.
We are required to always feel bad about the wrongs that we have done, to repent of those wrongs and to try to make ourselves better, make our lives better, and thus make the lives of all around us better.
And thus, that results in a better world.
Why would you care?
You see, because if that is true, then you can't change anything.
It's all been decided from the beginning.
If God decided in the beginning that you're going to be a bad sinner, evil, terrible person, then that's what you're going to be and there's nothing you can do about it.
If He decided you're going to be a good person, or a saint, or a pope, or a policeman, or that you're going to die in a war, then that's what's going to happen to you if you believe that.
And that would make everything nothing but a joke.
Nothing but a big, giant joke.
Because it wouldn't matter what you thought, or what you did, or how much you repented, or how good you were, or how bad you were.
It was decided from the beginning.
It's not your choice.
It's a joke!
And you are the butt of the joke!
That's why free will must be the truth.
Because if all of this is a joke, I don't want any part of it.
Do you?
If it's all been decided from the beginning, why am I at this broadcasting panel doing what I'm doing?
And if I am doing it, it's no reflection on me.
It doesn't make me a good, bad, or indifferent person.
It was all decided by God in the beginning.
Does that make sense to you?
It makes perfect sense to me, folks.
I'll be right back after this short pause.
I don't think so.
Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and unto God what is God's.
That's what Jesus said to the priest when they tried to trap him into saying something that would have destroyed him.
Thank you.
He answered it very well, and it's absolutely the truth.
If you live in this world, you must deal with the reality of the world, and at the same time, if you are of God, you must deal with the spiritual realm also.
Which means, if you're going to live in this world, you have to Take care of business here as well as prepare yourself for the next spiritually.
If you understand your Bible, you'll see that biblical money is gold and silver coin.
If you study the laws of the United States of America, you'll see that legal and lawful money is gold and silver coin.
If you understand the Constitution, you'll see that constitutional money is gold and silver coin.
You'll find out that it is expressed in the law as a specific weight of gold and silver coin called a dollar.
The dollar is the unit of measurement.
You're calling pieces of paper dollars that are not dollars, for they do not measure gold and silver coin.
And you also must know that if the law has not been changed, and the law specifies that the money of the United States of America is gold and silver coin, then what you're dealing with is counterfeit.
Thank you.
Where did the gold go?
What happened to the gold?
What happened to the silver?
Why has our coinage been debased?
Why are you dealing in paper?
If biblical money is gold and silver coin, and you are a Christian or a Jew, then you must deal in biblical money.
Why aren't you doing that?
Well, if you'd like to rectify the situation and find out more about this, call our sponsor of Swiss America Trading at 1-800-289-2646.
That's 1-800-289-2646.
And remember, this broadcast has never urged you to buy gold and silver coin for the purpose of investment and making a profit.
And I've said that over and over and over again.
It is so that you will have real money to protect your assets when the dollar is constantly declining in value according to the machinations of the puppet masters of the economy by their feats of magic, because that's what it is.
A dollar can no more decline in value than a yard can decline by four inches or a quart by six ounces.
And I certainly would want to get some kind of a medical opinion.
Somebody that I knew to be six feet tall walked in the next day and they were only four feet tall, perfectly healthy, walking around.
Do you understand what I'm talking about?
So call 1-800-289-2646, folks.
Do it now.
Get wise.
All debts will come due.
and you cannot pay a debt with an instrument of debt.
The End
The words of that end Anthems from my youth go like this.
Wars and strifes are on every hand, and violence fills the land.
Yet some people doubt he'll ever come again, but the word of God is true.
He'll redeem his chosen few.
Don't lose hope, for Christ's coming draweth nigh.
Signs of the times are everywhere.
There's a brand new feeling in the air.
Keep your eyes upon the eastern sky.
Lift up your heads.
Redemption draweth nigh.
Well, if you understand the gospel of Jesus Christ, then you understand that this is Bologna.
And why keep your eyes upon the eastern sky?
That's where the sun rises, spelled S-U-N, not S-O-N.
And that will give you some idea upon the incorporation of the pagan religions into Christianity by Constantine and the Catholic Church ever since.
The reason I cite the Catholic Church is that at one time it was The only church.
Period.
The pantheon of gods became the pantheon of saints.
There used to be a god for travelers, a god for sickness, a god for shoemakers, and now they're all saints.
But they're the same thing.
And I'm not trying to insult you if you're a Catholic.
You choose to believe these things, that's fine with me.
But you have to understand where they came from.
This sounds more to me like the ancient messianic religion of the nomadic tribes.
They believe that their messiah has never come, and that when he does, then they will be redeemed, and they're going to be scammed like everybody else.
There will be a Messiah, but it won't be Jesus, and it won't be their promised Messiah either.
And it won't be Shirley MacLaine who says that she is God.
No, it'll be a human being just like all the rest of us who will live, who will grow old, who will be wrinkled, and who will eventually die.
But they'll work their scam as long as they can.
Now, the Baptists that I grew up with are saying that the Messiahship of Jesus Christ will take place at this supposed rapture.
This is a word that doesn't even appear in the Bible, not once!
Where did it come from?
People are always calling and telling me, why do you exert so much energy into this if you're really one of Christ's church?
You're going to be raptured.
You don't have to worry about this.
Well, I do have to worry about it because it's not even in the Bible.
Not even once.
Can it be found anywhere?
They've denied the work of Jesus Christ while He was here.
And they have adopted the Jewish belief that the Messiah is yet to come.
And the organized religious church is powerless because they have never met the One who gives the power.
They're lining up With this New Age religion waiting on their promised Messiah.
In the New Age, he's called Maitreya.
If all of what we have read in the Bible, the real words, not what some person behind a podium is telling you, if all of what we have read were somehow Bible prophecy, the generation of religious teachers could easily be compared with those of Matthew 11 and 23.
Matthew chapter 12 is the next place that we find generation.
Christ had been arguing with the Pharisees concerning the lawfulness of the Sabbath.
I know I wanted to talk about that tonight.
You see, all of you know, if you read the Bible, that Christ was crucified, died, was sealed in the tomb for three days.
Because Christ says before he is crucified, that just as Jonah was three days in the belly of the whale, so will he be three days in the earth.
Three days, folks.
So if he was crucified on a Friday, he could not have risen from the grave on a Sunday, as you have all been told.
That's not three days.
Not only that, but the Bible is clear that he rose on the Sabbath.
The Sabbath.
The Sabbath is Saturday.
Saturday, folks.
So what's going on here?
Thank you.
So he could not have risen on Sunday, and it wasn't Easter, anyway.
Easter is the old pagan religious holiday of the vernal equinox.
The spring rites of fertility of the goddess Ishtar has nothing to do with Christ or Christianity.
If you study the Bible, Christ was not crucified on Easter, even near.
Neither was He born on Christmas Day, which is the winter solstice.
You see, these are all pagan celebrations of the religion of the Sun God.
The Christmas tree comes from the pagan religions of Northern Europe.
And I could go on and on and on.
Christianity has been so intertwined with the old pagan religions in order that it not fail, and it was done intentionally.
By the church.
To bring in those who would not come in unless they could bring the important parts of their pagan religions.
And it's okay with me if you believe that.
I think, though, that if we're looking for the truth, we should understand why we believe it and where it came from.
You see, back in those days, the ordinary Jewish people were beginning to believe Christ's words.
And that's another thing.
You see this word, Jew and Jewish, in the Bible.
It was never there.
Up until late.
They were the Israelites.
They were the Hebrew people.
All of a sudden, In a period in European history, the Bible began to be translated, and this word, Jew and Jewish, began to show up.
Where did it come from, and why?
This is something that most of you don't know.
It was not there before.
In fact, that word does not even exist in the original writings of the Hebrews and the Greeks, wherein we get the original translations of the Bible.
So the ordinary Israelites were beginning to believe Christ's words until the religious leaders told them what was really the truth.
In verse 23, the people ask, Is not this the Son of David?
The Pharisees were quick to respond that Christ did what He did through Satan instead of God.
Christ then begins to tell them that attributing the work of God to Satan is an incredible affront to God.
In verse thirty, Christ says, He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
In verse thirty-one, Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
In verse 32, And whosoever speaketh the word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him.
But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven of him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
And note, folks, the word world here is the same word used in Matthew 24, verse 3, which means aeon or age.
In verse 33, Either make the tree good, or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by his fruit.
34.
O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things?
For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
36 But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
Were not these the same Israelites that said, quote, His blood be upon us and on our children's blood, end quote?
And you've got all these guys running around trying to say that you're the chosen people of God and that you are the true Israelites and the ones who really speak Hebrew and the ones who worshipped in the ancient method of the Israelites, or not?
I want to caution you.
His blood be upon us and on our children's blood.
Verse thirty-eight, Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.
And in verse thirty-nine, But he answered and said unto them, And evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall be no sign given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas.
And in verse 40, For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
He doesn't equivocate.
He says three days and three nights.
And in verse forty-one, the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonas.
And behold, a greater than Jonas is here, is here, not coming!
In verse forty-two, the queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it.
For she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
And, behold, a greater than Solomon is here, is here, not coming at some distant future date.
34.
When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out, and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there.
And the last state of that man is worse than the first.
Even so shall it be unto this wicked generation." He doesn't say some future generation.
He says this wicked generation, speaking to those people then about that time and that generation existing 2,000 years ago.
So Christ has essentially said that the generation of Israelites that He came to was worse than all of the other generations of Israelites from the past.
And after reading all of those, "...and Jesus said unto them..." Now, how can we not believe, most simply, that He was talking to and meant every word to those Israelites that He was sent to?
"...and Jesus said unto them..." Not unto you.
He didn't say, and Jesus said unto those living two thousand years in the future.
In Matthew, chapter sixteen, verse four, he again tells them that wicked and adulterous generations seek after signs, but the sign of Jonas, or Jonah, was going to be the only one given.
And that, of course, was the sign that was given when Christ died, was buried, stayed dead for three days and three nights, and then rose again.
In Matthew 17, verse 17, he calls them a faithless and perverse generation.
He asks them how long he should be with them and how long would he put up with them.
Now, we're still talking, folks, about what we started out talking about, the word generation.
And the next time we find it is in Matthew 23.
But Matthew 23 is such a key chapter, we need to go through it from the beginning.
And then work toward verse 36, where we find the word generation.
Verse 1 tells us again, very plainly, that Jesus was talking to the multitude and to His disciples, not to you, not to me.
If you'll take the time to read it for yourself, you'll see that Christ is absolutely blasting the religious leaders of the Israelites.
Up one side and down the other, He is angry with them.
He talks of how they love to be seen of men.
He talks about how they try to carry on as Moses did.
But the truth is that they didn't have a clue concerning the life that Moses spoke of.
In verse 13, he goes on an all-out lambasting of the scribes and Pharisees.
He says that they shut up the kingdom of God against men.
They devour widows' houses, and they pray long prayers for an outward showing.
They cross the seas to make a proselyte of someone, and when they succeed, they end up making the proselyte twofold more the child of hell than themselves.
He calls them fools and blind.
He calls them blind guides that strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.
He says that they try to clean up their outward appearances, but inside they are full of extortion and excess.
He says that they are whited sepulchers which appear beautiful on the outside, but on the inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanliness.
So, I guess you could say that he was pretty pissed off at those dudes, to put it in a language that I know every one of you out there will understand.
He was not happy!
With the religious leaders of HIS day!
And quite frankly, I think he would be even less happy with the religious leaders of THIS day, because they're all lying if Jesus is not.
Now, we've almost arrived at the point in which we set out for at the beginning.
He tells them in verse thirty, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
31 Wherefore, ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
32 Fill ye up, then, the measure of your fathers.
33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes, and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city.
Now, watch this, folks, and listen very carefully.
Verse thirty-five, That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barakias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
And in verse thirty-six, Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
And in verse thirty-seven, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.
And in verse thirty-eight, Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
Folks, I don't see any possible way that the words of Jesus Christ in this chapter can be attributed to any generation except for the generation in which He was speaking to.
Of course, the religious leaders of Christ's day did not believe that His words were meant for them.
Therefore, it only makes sense that the religious leaders of our day would have us to believe that these words were spoken for some of their future generations.
They'd love you to believe that, because as Scofield says, we know that the word generation here could not possibly refer to the generation of Christ's day, because the promise of the gospel being preached to all nations has never occurred.
The ugly, awful truth, folks, is the religious leaders of Christ's day that shut up the kingdom of heaven against man are still doing it today.
It's not the exact same group of men, because they died 2,000 years ago and they wore robes.
Today they wear suits and ties.
They're still the cleanest and sharpest looking on the outside, but their inwardness is still the same.
They have denied the Christ of the New Testament in favor of the coming Christ, the Messiah of the Israelites.
And as long as I've been alive, I've heard one preacher after another say that he wasn't setting dates.
But then proceed to tell us when the second coming of Christ was to occur.
One of the main dates that I remember was 1981.
Then it was 84.
Then it was 88.
Now I guess I hear sometime by the year 2000.
And it's being preached on all your TV sets and all your churches all over the world.
What a joke.
They base all of their ideologies on different passages of Scriptures, Old and New Testament, and the truth is, they don't have a clue.
Yet they continue on, and all of the little church sheeple follow along.
It makes sense to me, though, folks, that if the event already took place, then we could look at certain Scriptures in order to make guesses about the Second Coming.
Funny thing, the greatest evidence of Scripture causes us to end up at Guess what time?
Would you believe around the time of the generation that Christ said would see His coming?
Amazing, isn't it?
Tomorrow night, we'll look at it, and we'll deal with the importance of Matthew, chapter 1.
So don't miss it, folks.
And I'll see you here tomorrow night.
Good night, and God bless you all.
Good night, and God bless and God bless you all.
Thank you.
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