The Philadelphia Church of God continues the work of Herbert W. Armstrong. We have a small group of people, a little flock, who are loyal to God and what God taught through Mr. Armstrong. And that will continue to be the case until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
We have a job to do. We have a message to broadcast and publicize to this world. We also have a message for the people of God who fell away after Mr. Armstrong died. We are in the Laodicean era of God’s Church (Revelation 3:14-22). In the early years of the pcg, we focused our attention exclusively on trying to reach out to God’s Laodicean saints. Then we used Mystery of the Ages and Mr. Armstrong’s other literature to direct our focus more at the world.
Now, however, in these final days before Christ’s return, God is directing us to have a renewed focus on reaching the Laodiceans once more.
This Work needs more helpers in this crucial time. It seems to be growing harder and harder to bring people into God’s Church from the world because they are addicted to all kinds of problems and difficulties. Yet God prophesies that His Church will reach 10,000 saints (the correct translation of Deuteronomy 33:2 and Jude 14). That is about double our current number. I believe those who join us will come mainly from among the Laodiceans. Those people know a lot, and it should be easier to get them to repent.
God has a lot to say to the Laodiceans today! He has put my focus on the early chapters of the book of Jeremiah. There you find a message to God’s lukewarm people that is as bold and direct as anything you will read in the Bible! God has harsh correction for the Laodiceans—but it is aimed at helping them see where they are off track and turning them back to God!
If any Laodicean who has any spiritual thinking left at all would sit down and study these chapters in Jeremiah, and honestly examine himself, I think he wouldn’t be able to control his emotions!
Jeremiah 1
Jeremiah 1 applies directly to God’s Church today. Verse 13 describes “a seething pot”—a prophetic image of the Holy Roman Empire, which is rising today. God then warns that this power will enter the gates of Jerusalem, a type of prophetic Israel, and the cities of Judah (verse 15).
Verse 16 reads, “And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.” These people have forsaken God. That must refer to God’s people—His own Church. Nobody else has known God.
There are people of God who should be passionately obeying God and supporting His Work—but who instead are worshiping the work of their own hands! That is a shameful sin!
In verses 17-18, God speaks directly to His prophet: “Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee … against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.” This is a real confrontation!
However, God promises to deliver His prophet (verse 19). God’s faithful Work today, which is supporting God’s end-time prophet, can claim this promise!
Following Jeremiah 1, God concentrates on the Laodiceans. He is going to have us deliver a strong warning to them like we have never done before!
God has given me a new and deeper revelation in Jeremiah chapters 2 through 7.
Christ Loves His Bride
Jeremiah 2 begins, “Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem …” (verses 1-2). Jerusalem here is a prophetic term that includes America and Britain, and Judah also comes into the picture. But the real focus is on spiritual Jerusalem: God’s own people. God has a message for them that He wants His faithful people to “cry in [their] ears.”
What does God command us to say? “Thus says the Lord, I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown” (verse 2; Revised Standard Version).
The first thing God talks about here is a bride. Wow! This is about family—the very Family of God, specifically about the Bride of Jesus Christ!
That is the most exalted calling God can give a human being. Yet sadly, these people have rejected their Husband and rebelled against Him!
God remembers “when thou wentest after me.” He really appreciates it when His people go after Him! He wants us to pursue Him like a physical bride should go after her husband-to-be. Christ wants passion in His Bride!
What a wonderful beginning to this message from God! These chapters give us profound insight into God’s beautiful thinking. But that makes them all the more painful to read because of the contrast with the faithlessness and rebellion of the people He is reaching out to!
How passionate are you for God? He has given you a lot, especially if you have received the Holy Spirit and are part of that Bride-level calling. Are you really going after God, fervently showing your love as a bride?
Tragically, the vast majority of God’s people are not! And most of them are blind to their own spiritual condition. God really wants to shake His people out of a deadly spiritual lethargy!
Don’t assume you are OK. We can all grow in the ardor described in this verse.
Set Apart
Here is another beautiful statement: “Israel was [that should read is] holiness unto the Lord, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 2:3). God is talking to His firstfruits. That is God’s first harvest—those He calls ahead of the rest of the world to share the throne of David with Jesus Christ Himself for all eternity! God says they are “holiness.” That means set apart! We have been set apart in a way that people who lack God’s Holy Spirit cannot really understand; they simply don’t get it. They will later on, when they repent.
God is devoted to and fiercely protective of those He sets apart in this special category! Think on what He is saying in that verse! It will help you recognize God’s abiding love for His people.
Now note this heart-wrenching question: “Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?” (verses 4-5). What a disturbing question! What fault did they find in me that they left me? God asks.
They should be ashamed of themselves. They have no excuse to treat God this way. God is the perfect Father; Christ is the perfect Husband! Yet people have gone far from God and “walked in vanity.” They have become vain—of no spiritual value, worthless to God.
His indictment continues: “Neither said they, Where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?” (verse 6). God brings His people out of spiritual Egypt—out of this world. Think of all the spectacular miracles God had to perform to draw you out of the world! Woe to any of God’s people who forget that!
The Laodiceans should be asking, Where is the Eternal who freed us from this world? Where is God? This is the top priority: We must know where God is! What is a saint or a church that doesn’t know the answer to that? Yet none of them do—except God’s faithful remnant.
Where is the Eternal? He is here in this Church, and you can prove that! The biggest proof is the flood of new revelation God has given us.
“Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit” (verse 11). These people had wonderful spiritual glory, but they don’t have it anymore, or very little to speak of. They have embraced vanity. After all that God gave them—including their wonderful calling as the Bride of Jesus Christ—they have gone back to the world like a dog returning to its vomit! (2 Peter 2:22).
The focus here is on the people’s horrifying wickedness. God has genuine wrath against the Laodiceans for what they have done. “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13). What a tragedy! The Laodiceans forsook the loving, generous God who gives abundant life—and created their own religious work and their own beggarly doctrines and ideas. They are blind!
Verse 15 speaks of cities becoming “burned without inhabitant.” This brings this passage right into the present day, over which the apocalyptic shadow of nuclear war looms.
“Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, when he led [past tense] thee by the way?” (verse 17). God used to lead these people—but no longer.
In this faithful remnant Work, however, God does lead us! We must be very thankful for that. Though we are a little flock, we have a mighty message going out to this world.
Government Problem
“Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts” (Jeremiah 2:19). These Laodiceans do not fear God! If you are a Christian, following Christ, you must fear God! What a disaster for God’s own people to lack that fear.
Do you fear God? Is it reflected in your daily life? If you do not, you will not improve and grow.
“Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed …” (verse 21). God’s people are a noble vine, planted by God! How precious! That truth should be real to you—and more and more real all the time. This is the most critical moment for the firstfruits in the history of the universe! We must not let this opportunity slip away from us.
God then asks, “… how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?” (verse 21). What an abysmal failure!
“For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God” (verse 22). No extreme of washing would clean them—unless God does it Himself. Yet God is not ruling them. They left Him, so He left them.
Verse 24 says that, spiritually, they are acting like a wild ass in heat! That is speaking of a government problem. How can God spiritually harness and direct anybody who is like a wild ass, going wherever they please? We should instead precisely follow God in every possible way. They have broken the yoke and wander freely. God is letting them know how wicked and evil they are.
“[W]herefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?” (verse 31). They are not babes, and humble people—they are “lords,” refusing to come to God. They will not heed God’s Word; they
want to rule themselves! That is the problem with this world—yet the Laodiceans have assumed the same attitude. They have rejected God’s government. They will not heed the Word of God! They are unbridled! God’s faithful people are bridled, and we are corrected by God.
Verse 32 returns to talking about the Bride: “Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.” The Bride’s attire is her righteousness (Revelation 19:8). Can a bride really forget that? Would any bride come to the marriage naked? Yet spiritually, that is what the Laodiceans are doing to God.
To become Christ’s Bride is the most awesome opportunity offered to any human being for all eternity! There is only one Bride of Christ forever!
Examine yourself! How much of these Laodicean tendencies have you picked up? This message from God should remind every one of us how we need to continually improve ourselves and repent.
One of a City
God tells the Laodiceans, “Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you …” (Jeremiah 3:14). He has not forgotten. This relationship is truly important to Him!
Verse 14 continues, “and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.” This is how the Philadelphia Church of God has been built: God has taken “one of a city, and two of a family.” This Church has members in this situation all over the world, including many cities with only one person. That is a tough challenge. But we must be strong enough to do whatever we can to help God’s Work even if we are alone—only one in a city! If God calls one person from a city, He knows that individual can stand alone. And in a family where He calls two, that can be an even bigger challenge because it can cause a family split.
When God calls you, He will give you power—real power!—and a certain authority to rule yourself and to help His Work. We need every member. Every member must realize: God has called you to contribute to the Work, to give and serve wherever you can.
“I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way” (Jeremiah 6:27). God has called us to be a tower so we can get an elevated view of all that is happening. We are a fortress among people. God gives us His truth and His Work to do, and He protects us; we can face any challenge or difficulty if we stay with God in that fortress. But we must obey Him.
God’s faithful saints are teachable, and we want to really see what God wants to give us. We can see what is truly happening in the world. And if we are doing our part, we are entering the holy of holies daily to get close to God and Jesus Christ. We are God’s people; we are a noble vine, and we must know who we are.
God gives us a message to proclaim: “The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord” (Jeremiah 7:1-2). There are two groups here: one, God’s prophet and those who support him; and two, God’s people who need to receive this correction.
“Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place” (verse 3). God is trying to get these people to see how to dwell with Him! If only they would heed this warning and amend their ways.
“Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these” (verse 4). People in the Worldwide Church of God said we had to stay in the wcg because it was God’s Church. Those were “lying words.” That stopped being God’s Church when Satan took over! If God’s people are going astray, then it is a sin to stay with them.
Instead of focusing on “God’s Church,” or “the temple,” we should be asking: Where is God? We must know the answer to that question!
“Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not” (verse 9). This is talking about God’s people because only His people could commit adultery. “And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?” (verse 10). God is truly giving them a harsh, corrective evaluation. But again—it is because He loves them and is trying to save them!
Lesson of Shiloh
“Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord. But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel” (Jeremiah 7:11-12). “My place” is the sanctuary of God—the holy of holies. What do the Laodiceans know about the holy of holies? What do they know about Shiloh?
God’s loyal remnant today needs to know about Shiloh. Its history is recorded in the former prophets, which means it is prophecy for today.
After Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land, Shiloh was established as Israel’s first capital. There the tabernacle was set up. While Joshua was on the scene, the people were righteous. Joshua knew how to lead people! And of course, Moses had a lot to do with that. Joshua is an incredible example of what one godly person can accomplish.
If we stay with God, we can be like Joshua and make a great contribution to God’s Work. And by following such examples, we can prepare ourselves for a much greater work.
Later, the Prophet Samuel grew up in Shiloh. At that time, the priesthood was plagued by the corruption of Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas. During the battle of Ebenezer, the Israelites took the ark of the covenant into the battle because they believed God would give them victory. They had the ark and the tabernacle—but they didn’t have God! The ark was only a symbol of God’s presence, and they had been sinning greatly. God was not with them.
They went into this battle laden with all their abominations. And what happened? “And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain” (1 Samuel 4:10-11).
Apply this to the Laodiceans. They too are beset by vanity and sin! Even if you have the “house of God,” it can easily fall into the hands of an Antiochus. That is what happened after Mr. Armstrong died.
Phinehas’s wife was near the end of her pregnancy. When she heard that her husband and father-in-law had been killed and the ark was taken, she went into labor. It was so difficult that she was on death’s doorstep. She delivered a son but died during the birth (verses 19-20).
The midwife “named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken …” (verse 21). Ichabod means “departing from the glory of God.” Israel had lost over 34,000 soldiers. All his life, Ichabod would be a memorial to this ignominious event and the dangerous direction Israel had taken!
This midwife uttered a remarkable prophecy. Shiloh had an illustrious history under Joshua, but it came to represent corruption and shame. Then this midwife came along and recognized what happened and pinpointed the problem: God had departed from them!
Ichabod is our greatest warning today. God’s own people lost the glory of God! This has happened to our Church in this Laodicean era.
We have such glory in God’s Church! This is real—you can’t even come close to describing it, it’s so wonderful! We must hold on to that glory and never depart from it!
This example is especially important because terrible events are prophesied. A faithful little flock is doing everything it can to publicize this warning to the Laodiceans and to the world. So many people will be killed if they do not heed God’s message!
This midwife is a great example of “one from a city.” Everybody else had turned from God and was going his or her own way. But God took one person in a city, and look what God led her to do! She named that baby Ichabod. Israel had departed from the glory of God, and now there would be a man walking around for life with that name, a powerful symbol of the abominable state to which they had descended.
This midwife is a magnificent example. Don’t you think God’s hand was in that? This midwife didn’t simply go along with the sins of the nation. She did something and took a stand, and God was right there with her. One of a city.
You may be “one person from a city,” but just know that God is behind you and you’re going to have an impact in this Work! Maybe it is just by your intense prayers and fasting for this Work. Whatever your contribution, you can be a precious member with all the power of God backing you.
You can also consider Samuel and his mother “two of a family.” Hannah beseeched God for a child and said, If you will give me a son, I will dedicate his life to you. God answered, and Samuel was born and became a great prophet! That too is an impressive example.
God is calling you and me to do great things. Let Him lead you wherever you need to go!
Shiloh Is Coming
After its destruction, Shiloh became a warning. As archaeologist Scott Stripling said, “Shiloh was destroyed because of their apostasy and wickedness. … The Shiloh connections always tie back to the presence of God and the tabernacle there” (Let the Stones Speak, May-June 2022).
Again, Jeremiah 7:12 says, “But go ye now unto my place [or my holy of holies] which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel” (American Standard Version). By mentioning Shiloh, Jeremiah was delivering a prophecy for Jerusalem just before its fall and a prophecy for us today. God wants us to know about Shiloh and Ichabod.
Shiloh is also mentioned in the prophecy of Genesis 49 (you can see that this is for the end time, or “the last days,” in verse 1). Verse 10 says, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come ….” This is a reference to Jesus Christ’s return. But why call the Messiah “Shiloh”? That is peculiar.
In the first book of the Bible, God says Shiloh is going to come! By using that expression, it almost seems like God puts the Laodiceans’ problem there right alongside the Second Coming of Christ! They had the opportunity to introduce Christ to the world! Yet instead, you could say they have marred that spectacular event!
It is similar to Malachi 4:5: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Here God connects Mr. Armstrong with the 3½-year Tribulation and Day of the Lord! These events are tied together.
Genesis 49:10 is packed with meaning. As I explain in The New Throne of David, it describes the combining of David’s throne with God’s law in this end time. God has given His end-time Church a throne and a king. This points to the future of God’s people as kings and priests of God (e.g. Revelation 1:6; 5:10). That is what lies ahead for every one of us. It all points directly to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. And here in this verse, God connects it all to the great Shiloh.
By using Shiloh, God is showing His disappointment in the Laodiceans. They can talk about God all they want, but they are into vanity of vanities! They are wasting their lives. Half of them are wasting their eternal lives! And the other half are going to suffer as no people have ever suffered. That is why God uses the term Shiloh in this context.
A Millennial Vision
In Jeremiah 3, God is strongly correcting spiritual Israel (e.g. verses 12-14). Then He makes this wonderful promise: “And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding” (verse 15). This is happening right now! This little remnant has godly pastors who supply the knowledge and understanding of God. Thank God for His faithful ministers! The Laodiceans could receive that care and that spiritual nourishment if they sought for it.
Then verses 16-18 give a beautiful millennial scenario. “At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart” (verse 17).
Think of the context! This vision is achingly poignant as a contrast with the condemnation of the faithlessness of God’s people today. God pauses from His correction and thinks longingly on this utopian vision. Again—this passage reveals so much about God and His deep emotions toward His Family!
The correction continues in Jeremiah 4—but note how earnest and hopeful God is that they will accept it and turn back to Him: “If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove. And thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory” (verses 1-2). Just put away your abominations and you will have a glorious future!
A Painful Message
“Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings” (Jeremiah 4:4). This really is a message we need to reach God’s unfaithful people with. This can save people from God’s fiery wrath!
“Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities” (verse 5). God commands His people to declare and publish. He calls us to do a specific work. We must help God’s Work get this message to the world. Declare it—publish it!
When Jeremiah saw what was going to happen, he was grievously troubled: “My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war” (verse 19). That is our message that moved him so! It was acutely painful to Jeremiah! He deeply understood the truth of what was happening spiritually to God’s people, and it made him sick.
The Revised Standard Version reads, “My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent; for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Disaster follows hard on disaster, the whole land is laid waste. … How long must I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?” (verses 19-21). The Moffatt says, “Oh, my heart, my heart writhes. Oh, how it throbs! My soul is moaning. I cannot hold my peace! And I hear the blare of trumpets and the battle cry crash upon crash. The whole country is down. How long must I see war signals and fear trumpet blasts?” Jeremiah put everything he had into this prophetic work. God wants us to do the same today.
The crises looming over our world are profoundly dark. Do you think men know how to solve them? They know nothing—and they ought to recognize that! It is staring them in their face!
I have really studied these words of Jeremiah, and while I didn’t have quite the reaction he did, it did make me sick to my stomach. If someone truly sees what is going on here, it ought to scare even some Laodiceans to—at least as a start—try to save their lives, even if in a selfish way!
‘Shall I Pardon You?’
Jeremiah 5:5 reads, “‘I will go to the great, and will speak to them; for they know the way of the Lord, the law of their God.’ But they all alike had broken the yoke, they had burst the bonds” (Revised Standard Version). This is talking about “the great,” or the leading ministers of God’s Laodicean Church. They just decided they were not going to accept God’s government; they would not allow Him to bridle them.
Being bridled and led by God is the only way we can avoid these catastrophic curses! Do you want to go your own way? Do you want to do things the way men think? That leads to disaster! We must let God be our physician. Only He can cure our sickness!
The Laodiceans who fail to repent before the Great Tribulation are going to be ripped in pieces (verse 6). This is coming! Revelation 12:12 shows that it is going to happen very shortly! This is such a stinging warning to those people—the harshest correction you will find anyplace.
“How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery …” (Jeremiah 5:7). This is talking spiritually, about God’s own Family. God is re-creating Himself in man. What a goal! Even God can’t achieve anything more magnificent. But how did they respond? In the most shameful way imaginable!
“But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone. Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former [revelation given to Herbert W. Armstrong] and the latter [revelation given during this Church era], in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest” (verses 23-24). Appointed weeks is referring to Pentecost. That holy day pictures God marrying us! It’s all about a marriage to Christ; it’s about the Family of God!
Only God the Father calls you; not even Jesus Christ can do that. Do you think God doesn’t know you? Oh, He knows you. You are His sons and daughters!
How can anybody forsake such a Father and such a Husband?
“The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” (verse 31). In the end, they will have no protection from God! That is the nightmare they are about to face!
God is reaching out to His lukewarm sons! He aches with longing for them and grieves at what they are doing. He wants so much to reach them and turn them around so they can enter His eternal Family.
God’s faithful people must do all we can to help our Father and our Husband reach these people. We must deliver this powerful warning He sent through the Prophet Jeremiah!