America in Bible prophecy

Proof that Americans are descendants of Israel's 'Lost' Tribes

 A summary of why only
Herbert W Armstrong
can be The Endtime Elijah
 
by Geoffrey R. Neilson
(Bricket Wood alumnus 1964-7)
 
Herbert W Armstrong often quoted the Bible's absolute statements that rule out all but one conclusion regarding specific truths.  For example: the only name in the Universe by which anyone can be saved, is that of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,  (See Acts 4:10-12).  There are no exceptions.  This same biblical principle of excluding everything that cannot be the truth, demonstrates why only Mr Armstrong can be the endtime Elijah.
  • Scripture shows it is impossible for John the Baptist to be the final Elijah:
  • Jesus prophesied Elijah would come first--that is, before Jesus comes to establish God's Kingdom.  (See Matthew 17).
  • In this context, Jesus predicted Elijah was to come in the then future to "restore all things". 
  • Jesus prophesied this after John the Baptist was dead.
  • Therefore, Jesus could not have meant the already dead John the Baptist was the then still-to-come Elijah. 
  • John the Baptist came about 2000 years before the endtime Day of the LORD, when Malachi prophesied this Elijah would come (Malachi 4:4-6). 
  • If the Baptist had "restored all things" before Jesus did, Jesus teachings could only have echoed John's teachings.
  • On the contrary, John recognized that Jesus was vastly superior to him in everyway (John 1:26-27). 
  • In addition, there couldn't be a restoration of all things until after the first general falling away from what Jesus and his 12 Apostles taught. 
  • That only took place after John the Baptist was dead, making it impossible for John to restore all things before he died. 
  • The final Elijah was prophesied to come before the Day of the LORD--which is in the endtime--and thus sometime in the endtime and sometime before the second coming of Christ (Malachi 4:4-6).
  • Therefore, Scripture also shows the endtime Elijah cannot be Christ--since this Elijah's arrival precedes Christ's endtime arrival. 
  • The endtime referred to by Daniel could only happen at one time in history--and that can only be the 20th Century:
  • The endtime was prophesied to be characterized by three things, the prophet Daniel was informed in Daniel 12:
    --an unprecedented increase in knowledge.
    --an unprecedented increase in travel back and forth.
    --many being purified spiritually.
     
  • The 20th Century saw the invention and development of aircraft, and the huge increase of air, road, rail, sea, and even space transport—plus the unprecedented escalation of local and global travel. Nothing like it ever happened in any previous century.
  • The 20th Century also saw the first widespread use of motion pictures, radio, television, computers, the mass production of printed matter of every kind, and voice and data recording machines—which spread knowledge around the world as never before.
  • "The Times [of London] ATLAS OF THE 20th CENTURY--The Definitive Account of Our Century" published in 1996 calls the 20th Century, "The Revolutionary Century", because is introduced so many changes never before experienced in previous centuries.
  • Therefore, the 20th Century is the only one in which one has to look for Elijah's Restoration—and for Elijah. Elijah's arrival also signals the start of the endtime. 
  • The first two entime characteristics were not possible before the unprecedented 20th Century. Therefore, the endtime Elijah could not restore all things until the 20th Century endtime of hugely increased knowledge and travel had begun. 
  • And since he restores all things, only the final Elijah could be the cause of the huge increase in spiritual knowledge necessary for spiritual purification, which therefore, could only have started when the endtime began in the 20th Century.
  • The third fulfillment began precisely during this period, when the greatest known number of genuine members--other than in the Bible--were purified spiritually and inducted into the true Church.  This happened under the leadership of Herbert W Armstrong, who restored all the doctrines in the Worldwide Church of God.
  • For decades Herbert W Armstrong proclaimed that he was the first person in 18-and-a-half centuries to comprehensively restore all the doctrines of the true Church of God.  That was a discreet way of claiming to be the endtime Elijah.
  • The final Elijah is specifically called a prophet in Scripture (Malachi 4:4-6).  Mr Armstrong repeated his claim to be Elijah in his final and most important book, Mystery of the Ages.  Either that claim was correct, or Mr Armstrong was a false prophet.  And if so, then so were and are the ministers who walk in his footsteps. That proposition is ludicrous.  Mr Armstrong prophesied of the coming Kingdom of God to a wider audience than all the Bible prophets combined.  And proclaimed the very same message all of the other prophets did, as Acts 3:19-21 shows.
  • The only Church era Elijah's restoration of all things could have occurred in, was the best endtime one, the Philadelphian Era, which would have the greatest amount of God's truth.  It is the precise Era Mr Armstrong claimed to introduce and supervise.
  • Since God reveals nothing before first showing it to his servants the prophets (Amos 3:7), the first person to understand the sealed prophecies of Daniel in the endtime (Daniel 12:), would have to be a prophet.
  • The only major prophet prophesied to come in the endtime and restore all things is Elijah the prophet.
  • Since the endtime Elijah would restore all things, as Christ prophesied (Matthew 17), he would have to restore the first thing, the last thing, and everything inbetween.  This means no-one but the final Elijah could restore anything in the sense Christ meant.
  • --HWA restored the observance of all the annual Holydays in the Church of God, before anyone else.
    --HWA restored the understanding of the spirit in man, which hardly anyone in all history has understood.
    --HWA can be shown to have restored at least 22 things in the true Church of God.
    --HWA's The Plain Truth magazine (of eventually 8,500,000 circulation) remains the largest ever true Church of God publication promoting the true Gospel, in all history.
    --The World Tomorrow radio and TV broadcasts by HWA and by his son Garner Ted Armstrong on his behalf, reached more people with the true Gospel than any other genuine Church of God broadcasts in all history.
    --HWA's co-ordination of the keeping of the Feast of Tabernacles, was the greatest ever worldwide in the true Church. 
  • Thus Herbert W Armstrong has been responsible for spreading the true Gospel--with understanding--to a greater extent than all the Bible prophets put together.  And still his disciples haven't stopped.
  • No-one else in the 20th Century (which alone can be regarded as the start of the endtime as prophesied in Daniel), can legitimately claim to have preceded Herbert W Armstrong in restoring as many truths in the Church.
  • Therefore no-one else can legitimately claim to be Elijah. 
  • Daniel the prophet was told that no one would understand endtime prophecies given to him, until the endtime. Herbert W Armstrong uniquely saw--in the present tense (as the prophecy was written)--when the 6th king of Revelation 17:10 arose. This king is described as "one is". Because Mr Armstrong saw this event unfold in the light of Bible prophecy--at the time it was fulfilled--he came to understand its prophetic significance.
  • This was only possible to do during the exactly 444-week-long duration of the Rome-Berlin Axis (led by Mussolini and Hitler) from 25 October 1936 to 28 April 1945, when Mussolini died. That period ended over seven years before the first five Evangelists were ordained in the era of the true Church of God that Mr. Armstrong raised.
  • Therefore, none of them--or any later minister--can claim to be the first person to understand endtime Bible prophecy, or to have started Elijah's Restoration of ALL things.
  • Mr Armstrong started Ambassador College in 1947 to train a ministry.  The first five Evangelists in the Radio (later renamed Worldwide) Church of God, were ordained in 1952, some 21 years after Mr Armstrong's ordination--and 26 years after he first began to understand God's truth in 1926.  Therefore, all of them--and everyone else--is too late to be the final Elijah.
  • The great endtime Falling Away from God's truth cannot occur, until after Elijah's greater Restoration of All Things, from which so much truth can fall. 
  • To claim Herbert W Armstrong wasn't the final Elijah, is to claim that someone else is yet to restore ALL things.
  • That scenario would mean NOTHING restored or taught by Herbert W Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God ministry in his day was of lasting value, because before Elijah's restoration everything must be in a comparative state of disrepair, until Elijah comes.
  • What else could any supposed still-to-come Elijah restore, that would give anyone a better salvation than the one Herbert W Armstrong (under Christ's direction) already led the Church to?  
  • The greatest Great Falling Away from God's truth ever, started after Herbert W Armstrong died.
  • According to Protestant historian Dr Ruth Tucker (who was engaged by the apostate ministry that succeeded Herbert W Armstrong--the greatest departure in all Christianity of a group from its founding principles occurred after HWA's death, in the Worldwide Church of God.  This could only be the endtime great Falling Away from God's Truth prophesied in 2 Thessalonians 2. 
  • Ironically, Dr Tucker's statement which was intended to discredit Mr Armstrong, instead shows that only he could have been the prophet Elijah--since the greatest Falling Away has to be preceded by an even greater Restoration (or Revival, if you want to call it that)--from which there can be so mammoth a Falling Away.
  • Otherwise, a greater restoration of ALL things still has to occur--(which the above information shows it is too late for)--from which there would have to be an even bigger Falling Away. 
  • 20 years after his death, the combined efforts of all the splinters of the Worldwide Church of God have so far managed to recruit a fraction of new members compared to HWA's efforts. 
  • Mr Armstrong held that the greatest fruits of his labors would be when the Great Tribulation makes people realize that he was a messenger sent from God.  Doubtless that is part of what the Two Witnesses testify to.  For if Israel was not warned by a prophet of God, how can Israel be guilty of disobedience?
  • It doesn't make biblical sense that God would have Elijah restore all things, followed by the great final Falling Away--and then have someone else come and eclipse his work by doing a greater work of restoration than Elijah during the most hazardous time in history: the relatively brief time of Israel's captivity in the Tribulation--which immediately precedes the Day of the LORD. 
  • How could Israel in captivity keep the Sabbath, Holydays, Feast of Tabernacles, dietary laws, tithe or have happy marriages and family life then?
  • A man of sin did sit in the endtime spiritual Temple of God showing himself (not the whole world, as the later world figure will), that he is 'god' and/or 'God', in the sense that he presumed the prerogative of the One Lawgiver to alter God's Law, and proclaim a New Covenant.  (In his latter days Mr Armstrong told a Ministerial Conference that the Temple in 2 Thessalonians 2 referred to the spiritual Temple, or true Church--and had long said prophecy was dual--so he did, in principle, predict the catalyst that caused the Falling Away). 
  • This apostasy precipitated by his successor further confirms that the great endtime Falling Away commenced after Mr Armstrong's death in the Church he established, which is the logical order of Bible prophecy regarding these matters.
  • Being the logical Being he is, God has ensured that the evidence that he sent Elijah is consistent with Scripture.
  • The Plain Truth is, no-one else but Herbert W Armstrong is, was, or can be, the endtime Elijah.
  • Can Elijah be one of the Two Winesses?
    Since they come on the scene too late to be the first to restore all things in the endtime, the only way that Elijah can be one of them is if God brings him back. 
With God all things are possible. 
 
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Article completed on the 80th Anniversary of HWA's idealized date of being activated, in the Hebrew Calendar: Trumpets 9 Sep 1926 - Trumpets 23 Sep 2006