The New Digital Age

Elders' Conference—2013

Fred R. Coulter—May 11, 2013

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Thank you for the music. Jesus said, 'Don't use vain repetitions when you pray.' Necessary repetitions—you need lots of them. Compare it to eating. Paul said that he prayed 'continuously for the brethren.' Think about what you need to pray about every day, though it is repetitive, it is not vain; it's necessary.

• Do you need God's blessing every day? Amen!
• Do you need God's protection? Yes, indeed!
• Do the brethren need you to pray for them? Yes!
• Do you need them to pray for you? Yes!

When she was singing that over and over, it reminded me that there are a lot of things that are very repetitious, but are necessary. One of them is the heart; it beats 70 times a minute. Is that necessary? Yes, it is! Is it repetitious? Yes, it is! Is it vain? No! When you are praying, your prayers—because there is still a need—you repeat them.

Remember when Jesus came the last time, He brought the disciples and went out near the Garden of Gethsemane—He had a place there where He prayed all the time—it said that He prayed three times and He prayed the same thing three times. So, no telling what a song will remind you of.

*****

• Where are we going?
• What is the world going to be like?

Everyone wants to know:

• How much time is left?

I can tell you precisely how much time is left: exactly what God has determined!

I'm going to talk about The New Digital Age. Come to Matt. 24 for just a minute. We're not going to go through the whole chapter—you've gone through it many, many times. I just want to focus on a few things:

Everyone gets excited when there is trouble. Look at what's happening over in Syria and Israel surrounded as they are; look what has happened in Egypt and you think it's just around the corner. But it's not! We may have much more time than we have supposed.

The time to start getting really anxious is when they start building the temple. Someone sent me a video that the Jews are beginning…

Here's what happens, Dr. Ernest Martin—and several others—on their archeological things when they were in WCG, and being an historian he read carefully all of Josephus—studied!

• How many have the book of Josephus?
• How many have read parts of it?
• How many have studied the whole thing?

Dr. Martin did! By studying Josephus and studying the Scriptures… and the reason you study Josephus is that here is Ft. Antonia and on a corner is the Wailing Wall. That's where the Jews go to pray. That is their idol!

Come over 600-yds. and there's the temple court. Come over another 600 yds. and there was the Hill of David until the time of Hyrcanus the high priest; he tore it down. Along where Ft. Antonia is—as you're looking on the Mt. of Olives toward the Temple Mount and Ft. Antonia—there is the Kidron Valley. Coming on the west side of Jerusalem is the Tyropean Valley. During the days of John Hyrcanus they changed the geography, because the Mound of David was like another mountain. It really should have look like this:

Ft. Antonia, the temple area and the Mound of David. John Hyrcanus took it down and filled in the valley. The Jews coming back today did not read Josephus, so they think that Ft. Antonia is where the temple ought to be. But it's not. They look at the geography and there is no Hill of David. They've overlooked the fact that it was filled in by John Hyrcanus. I think that was about 180-160sB.C.

There is a DVD—Jerusalem and the Lost Temple of the Jews by Ken Klein {kenkleinproductions.net}—based upon some of the research of Dr. Ernest Martin, and I just received it and watched it. The Jews are now beginning to re-examine their thoughts of where the temple should be. Even though a Gentile would discover it, they could not ever accept it, because it was not known first by a Jew.

Now they've got some Jews interested. I think we're going to see a study made by the Jews and they will announce that 'the Jews have discovered where to put the temple.' When they build the temple, that's when you can say 'the end is near.'

The main key as to where the temple should be is the Spring of Gihon. The Spring of Gihon is necessary because the water has to come up. When you're slaughtering a lot of animals, do you need water? Yes, lots of water! The Spring of Gihon furnished it.
In this video it shows how the explanation of how the water gets there. Somewhere back up where the mountains are, there is an aquifer storage of water. The water flows in there and when it gets full it overflows. It's like a siphon. Once a siphon is going, it keeps pulling the water just like there's a pump there. God works everything out—doesn't He? Isn't that great?

So, the water comes down the Gihon Spring and Hezekiah made a trench so that it would even have more. But right above where the temple is, there is a hole that goes straight up, because that's where the water went. The Spring of Gihon, shortly after the last destruction—135A.D. when Hadrian came in and plowed Jerusalem and made it a garden spot and rejected all the Jews after the Bar Kokhba Revolution—the Spring of Gihon dried up. So, God took everything out of there.

When you hear that they have discovered where to build the temple know that time is short. Also know that they're going to build it quickly, very quickly!

*****

Now we have a digital spy in the back, Albert Jones. He has his iPad, and yesterday when I was quoting from this book—The New Digital Age—he went on amzon.com and pulled it up and followed along to check me out.

The thing to remember is that when the time is right it's going to happen. It also pays to read some more of history. This is also found in Josephus, that when Titus finally conquered Jerusalem in 70A.D.; I mean, the Jews put up a real battle. It was a terrible thing that happened. Finally they capitulated and he got up on the colonnades of Ft. Antonia and looked down into the temple area. Here is a pagan general commissioned by a pagan emperor—who is supposed to be God—and he got up there and he looked down at that temple area and said, 'This could not have been done without God's help!'

The key thing that is important is this: During the final Jerusalem battle before the temple was destroyed. He gave the orders to not burn the temple, but when the soldiers saw all the gold, they burned it. All the gold melted down in the cracks of the rocks to facilitate Jesus' prophecy that 'not one stone would be left upon another.'

The Word of God is always true. There was not one that did not happen. But when you read that 'this generation shall not pass until all these things take place' don't focus on the word generation. Focus on the word all these things. 'There was no abomination of desolation standing in the Holy place.' So, that is all these things minus the most important one. That generation in Jesus' time—in 70A.D.—was not the generation referred to in Matt. 24.
Matthew 24:15: "Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the Holy place…" That is in the temple. Remember where it started out, they saw all the buildings of the temple. Then Jesus said, 'Not one stone is going to be left upon another stone,' and everything there in Matt. 24.

The next sentence was added by John the apostle when he canonized the New Testament. Why? "…(the one who reads, let him understand)." Jesus did not say those words, because Jesus was speaking, not writing. He was not reading. John was finalizing the New Testament he knew that this was a difficulty for people to understand the Word of God; even John himself.

When Paul wrote 2-Thess. 2 about the 'man of sin standing in the Holy place it was in 52A.D. Come along 70A.D. the temple is destroyed! Come along 65A.D. and God is giving the vision of the book of Revelation to the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos and He says, 'Arise and measure the temple.'

The only thing John could figure out was that there would have to be another temple yet to come. But he did not understand the problems involved. This is why he wrote and put in parenthetical statements "…the one who reads, let him understand." The temple was destroyed when he was writing the book of Revelation and canonizing the New Testament.

• This is for the end-time!
• This is for us to understand!

Go online and look up Temple Institute.

Verse 16: "Then let those who are in Judea flee into the mountains." I'm not going to get into the 'place of safety' and: Are you going there?

• Was that an idol for us?
• Was that an idol for the Church of God?
• Yes, it was!

The answer to the question is very simple: God will choose who goes; he will send the angels to take you!

Verse 14: "And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be proclaimed in all the world for a witness… [How long and thorough is a witness? It doesn't tell us!] …to all nations; and then shall the end come." Where was the prophecy in Acts 1 that the apostles would have to preach 'to the ends of the earth, the uttermost parts of the earth'? They didn't get there. So, these are prophecies for us today.

We tie that together with what Jesus said: 'I say to you, and to all, watch!' So, we watch!

A couple of weeks ago I woke up about one o'clock, and that's when they had the 'naked short' on gold and silver. Do you know what a 'naked short' is? A 'short' in the stock market is that you're betting that something is going to go down in price, but you have to put up collateral to guarantee your bet!

A 'naked short' on gold or silver would require a certain percentage of gold and silver to be immediately available. A 'naked short' was taken on 500-tons of gold. You can be sure that 'Uncle Ben Bernanke' knew of it before it happened. They had to do that to keep the run on the dollar from developing too badly. Is it not time to collapse the dollar?

I woke up thinking about what's the price of gold, silver? What's happening? I turned on Bloomberg West. Here are two men—Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen being interviewed by Charley Rose. They were talking about all the digital developments that are coming, all the fantastic things that they're working on. I missed part of it, and I didn't get the name of the book. It was so interesting I sat there until five minutes to two waiting for the name of the book. It finally came up, The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business.

Let me tell you who these two men were, and how significant this is, and why it's important that we watch, that we read, and that we understand the Word of God. Even though we know the times and the seasons—because of the Holy Days and the framework of that—we don't know when these things are going to be.

I've heard many times in sermons, 'Brethren, we're going to see the return of Christ and we're all going to go to the place of safety.' Let me tell you, it isn't going to happen that way. God is truly going to reach all nations; He is going to truly warn all nations! That means every single one! The most remote part of the world will not escape the warning!

How are you going to do that? Go online! If you think about publishing the Bible, they have these downloadable Bibles with audio reading of the entire Bible—70 pages of websites.

Jesus said, "This Gospel… [the whole Bible] …will be published in all the world." We have books, computers, iPads, and now they're developing SmartPhones that you can download a whole Bible on it. You can be anywhere in the world and you can punch up any program you want and watch it. All of that technology has been given so that there will be a warning to all nations by God Almighty! It doesn't need very many people.

Let's me tell you who these two men were—(see review of book on amazon.com):

In an unparalleled collaboration, two leading global thinkers in technology and foreign affairs give us their widely anticipated, transformational vision of the future: a world where everyone is connected—a world full of challenges and benefits that are ours to meet and to harness.

People have asked me: How are we going to witness to Africa and South America? Cell phone; digital! Right now in East Africa, in Kenya, do you know how they trade? Swipe the card right on the cell phone! Don't need a telephone; don't need a bank; don't need to write a check. They're beginning to turn around their economy because of it.

The women in the Congo who fish for fish out of the Congo River have a little website setup and they sell their fish by order. So, instead of now going out and fishing and putting them up on the stand to sit there in the tropical heat and be swarmed with flies and stink, now they sell to the other women who have cell phones, because they can get them for virtually nothing. The women keep them in cages in the river hooked with a line. You talk about fresh fish. You walk over to get your fish. That's in the Congo!

Now let me tell you who these two guys are. History repeats itself—a German and a Jew!

Eric Schmidt is one of Silicon Valley's great leaders, having taken Google from a small startup to one of the world's most influential companies.

They have Google search everywhere! When I came out of my room and walked down where the elders and their wives were. Chris was online and wanted to check out his e-mail, so he goes to his New Zealand e-mail and he turned on his cell phone and he asked Google to find out where he was. BOOP! An overhead of this hotel complex! Just like that. So, nobody is going to runaway and hide.

My son-in-law did this to me and he showed me our house, and he said, 'Do you want to see your frontal shot of it?' He dropped it down and it showed a frontal shot of the house, going right by it. Google has trucks everywhere, going down every street, every path, every village, every city in the world taking pictures. Some people also think they had sensitive information to pick up all of your digital stuff in your house and how much money you have it your house. But they deny that.

I asked my son-in-law to take me down to the office, because it's only a couple of blocks away. We went to the stop sign, took a left turn and went down, went past the Jaba Hut and took a right turn and there's the building and went over and here's the building we have the office in. Google is one of the most powerful companies in the world.

Jared Cohen is the director of Google Ideas and a former adviser to secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton. With their combined knowledge and experiences, the authors are uniquely positioned to take on some of the toughest questions about our future.

The future: Brethren, that's where we need to focus! I admonish all of you: do not live in the past! That's why there's repentance. With your church experience, do not live in the past church battles or emotional twits. That's baggage that you need to eject! Especially when new people will be coming.

Let me read this quote [by Charles F. Kettering, American inventor and businessman]: "We should all be concerned about the future because we have to spend the rest of our lives there"—that's eternity for us. How did Jesus put it? He said to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things—physical and spiritual—will be added to you!

What is it going to look like? Remember, involved in this digital revolution that we have now—it involves approximately some 2-billion people—they no longer need to lay cable for telephones. That reduces the end-time considerably. They now have machines that can build roads and railroads—wait until you get the reports on what China is going to do going through Afghanistan and Kazakhstan.

Sidebar: In my opinion, what's going to happen in Afghanistan: The Chinese have been buying up all the mineral rights to mine: steel, coal, gold, silver, rare earth metals. That means they're going to bring in Chinese workers. They are going to build railroads going into Afghanistan, into Kazakhstan and on into Europe.

• Why do the big highways need to be built through there?
• Ever thought about that?
• Does the Bible say anything about it?
• How is the assemblage of the armies of 200-million going to get from the Far East to the Middle East?

They need roads and railroads! Those will have to be built. They can build them fast now.

I think this, concerning Afghanistan and China, the first time that the Taliban kills some Chinese, you're going to see Chinese troops in there and they're not going to be tenderhearted like Americans and they're just going to shoot them dead. They'll control it. (That's my opinion)

The Internet is where it's all going to be. There are about 2-billion people today who are involved in it in various ways. There are 5-billion more people in the world who are going to get it very soon. They're going to have SmartPhones available for less than $20. Everyone is going to be connected. You see how all of that works into the coming mark of the beast? So, there are a lot of things are happening.

Let me read you the first couple of pages in this book, The New Digital Age:

Introduction: The Internet is among the few things humans have built that they don't truly understand.

You can make it work, but do you understand how it works? No!

What began as a means of electronic information transmission—room-sized computer to room-sized computer—

Stacked upon stack, building upon building. When I mentioned about this new digital center in Utah, Chris brought it up online and I was astonished. Of those buildings that are there, it doesn't tell us how high they are, but there is 1.5-million square feet devoted to digital censorship. They have the ability—yodabyte… What letter of the Hebrew is that? What does God's name begin with? Y-YHVH! Hello! Do they know what they're doing? Yes, indeed!

…has transformed into an omnipresent… [everywhere] …and endlessly multifaceted outlet for human energy and expression. It is at once intangible and in a constant state of mutation, growing larger and more complex with each passing second….

What does it say in Dan. 4? At the time of the end, many shall go to and fro and knowledge shall be increased! It doesn't tell us how many are going to and fro. It doesn't tell us how much the knowledge is going to be increased. Look at it now! We thought ten years ago, 'WOW! we're really getting a lot of knowledge!' Well now, that knowledge is like a drop in the face of the tsunami wave. It's coming!

…It is a source for tremendous good and potentially dreadful evil…

The Beast! and Mark of the Beast!

…and we're only just beginning to witness its impact on the world stage.

The Internet is the largest experiment involving anarchy in history.

It's not governed! But, I think the government center of it is going to setup first of all in Utah.

Hundreds of millions of people are, each minute, creating and consuming an untold amount of digital content in an online world that is not truly bound by terrestrial [earthly] laws. This new capacity for free expression and free movement of information has generated the rich virtual landscape we know today. Think of all the websites you've ever visited, all the e-mails you've sent and stories you've read online, all the facts you've learned and fictions you've encountered and debunked. Think of every relationship forged, every journey planned, every job found and every dream born, nurtured and implemented through this platform. Consider, too, what the lack of top-down control allows: the online scams, the bullying campaigns, the hate-group websites and the terrorist chat rooms. This is the Internet, the world's largest ungoverned space.

And it gives us an opportunity to preach the Gospel!

As this space grows larger, our understanding of nearly every aspect of life will change…

Have you seen the ad from Lexus? You wake up in your luxury house, your luxury bed and you go in your luxury shower and you get a luxury shower and shave and you put on your luxury shirt and your coat and your luxury shoes and you go out into your luxury Lexus and everything seems ordinary compared to the Lexus.

…from the minutiae of our daily lives to more fundamental questions about identity, relationships and even our own security. Through the power of technology, age-old obstacles to human interaction, like geography, language and limited information, are falling and a new wave of human creativity and potential is rising. Mass adoption of the Internet is driving one of the most exciting social, cultural and political transformations in history, and unlike earlier periods of change, this time the effects are fully global. Never before in history have so many people, from so many place, had so much power t their fingertips. And while this is hardly the first technology revolution in our history, it is the first that will make it possible for almost everybody to own, develop and disseminate real-time content without having to rely on intermediaries.

That's just the first three paragraphs. The next sentence reads:

And we've barely left the starting blocks.

They have plans for nations. It think we will see this thing in Syria, they're going to kill and destroy themselves. What kind of power can they be after that? Nothing! We're going to see things change very dynamically! I think we will come through the financial things that will result in the collapse of currencies, because after they let everybody suffer for a while, they'll bring in the global currency. And the global currency will usher in an era of prosperity unheard of.

Couple that with all of the digital things that we have here. Put that together with the prophecies. What is coming with the return of Christ is the greatest and most powerful thing to happen in the history of the world! God does not want one person to not know it. There will not be anyone who can say to God, 'Well, God, I live way over here and I never knew.' Even Eskimos have cell phones.

I haven't heard from anybody from the South Pole, and I still can't understand how they stand upright! {joking} I can understand those of you down there in Australia and New Zealand, because you walk around at 45 degrees. How can they be on the bottom of the earth and be right side up while they're hanging down!

Revelation 1:7: "Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen?"

Isn't going to be an out! After two years and maybe a few weeks of the Great Tribulation, God lifts it against Israel. Then the sign of the Son of man appears in heaven—BOOM!All of sudden a brand new 'sun' out there that nobody has ever seen before. Is every eye going to see that? Yes! Then it will remain out there for a period of time. "…every eye shall see Him and those who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen!" That's a worldwide event!

The satellites that work all of the things concerning the Internet are in a space between the magnetic fields of the earth. I think God will preserve those.

Let's see what going to happen with the opening of the sixth seal. This is why I say it's going to be a worldwide thing. Everybody is going to know. After the shaking of the heavens and earth, that's when the sign of the Son of man appears in heaven.

Revelation 6:12: "And when He opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as the hair of sackcloth, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its untimely figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the heaven departed like a scroll…" (vs 12-14). Never happened before.

It's going to make the chem-trails look like tinker-toys; little stupid kids stirring a stick in the sandbox and say, 'Look, Mommy, what I did.' Here's what's going to happen:

"…that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place" (v 14). You go back and you read that God is going to shake the heavens, shake the earth, shake the sea.

Verse 15: "And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the powerful men, and every bondman, and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, 'Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him Who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of His wrath has come, and who has the power to stand?'" (vs 15-17).

From that point on nearly everything you read has to do with some great event that covers great parts of the earth. Then the sealing of the 144,000 and the great innumerable multitude.

Revelation 11:1: "Then the angel gave me a measuring rod like a staff, saying, 'Arise and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and those who worship in it.'" This was in vision, showing that at the end-time there will be a temple. That's why John put in the one who reads, let him understand!

Verse 2: "But leave out the court that is within the temple area, and do not measure it because it has been given up to the Gentiles; and they shall trample upon the Holy City for forty-two months. And I will give power to My two witnesses…" (vs 2-3). They would have martyred all the saints who are out there preaching. Let me tell you something, you don't get martyred by sitting in a corner with a zipper on your mouth, hiding back in a closet in your house. You get persecuted because you're out there saying 'Christ is coming and you're living in sin, and unless you repent you're going to be destroyed.

That's why the saints are martyred. That's why there have to be those who go to a place of safety; God's going to take them there. God is going to have two witnesses right in Jerusalem, right there in the center of where the beast and the false prophet are. Just like Moses and Aaron, using the same weapons.

Sidebar: I got an e-mail that in Kosovo they had a plague of flies—billions and billions of flies! They had to turn out all the streetlights at night because it attracted them. They had to tell everyone to stay in their houses. My thought was, God just revealed one of His little secret weapons! Is anyone taking notice?

Here's a real secret weapon here, "…and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth" (v 3). No great uniforms; no phylacteries, no badges—none of that!

Verse 4: "These are the two olive trees, and the two lampstands that stand before the God of the earth." In the sermon on Who are the Two Witnesses? it identifies them as the high priest at the temple in Jerusalem and the governor of Judea.

Verse 5: "And if anyone attempts to harm them, fire will go out of their mouths and devour their enemies…." That's going to make headlines. They're going to think, we killed all these Christians, they're gone! Yeah but, somebody went over somehow, somewhere—we don't know where they are—here are the two witnesses. Instant conversion!

"…For if anyone attempts to harm them, he must be killed in this manner" (v 5). That's going to make headlines—isn't it?

• What's the beast doing about it?
• What's the world leader doing about it?
• What's the pope doing about it?
• Where's the army?
• We don't dare go near them!

Verse 6: "These have authority to shut heaven so that no rain may fall in the days of their prophecy; and they have authority over the waters, to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they will." You talk about making life really complicated! They're going to have great power! They're going to want to be killing them! Get rid of them! I wonder what the reward will be?

Verse 7: "And when they have completed their testimony, the beast who ascends out of the abyss will make war against them, and will overcome them, and will kill them. And their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. Then those of the peoples and tribes and languages and nations shall see their bodies three and a half days, for they will not allow their bodies to be put into tombs" (vs 7-9). How are they going to see it? On their hand-held media device!

Remember how they cheered when they got the final terrorist in Boston? That reminded me of how the world is going to react when the two witnesses are dead.

Verse 10: "And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, and will make merry, and will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets had tormented those who dwell on the earth."

Always remember that with God it's not over, yet!

Verse 11: "Then after the three and a half days…" They wake up and say, 'Where are we? We're still in Jerusalem. What happened?' Everybody is going to be terrified.

Verse 12: "And they heard a great voice from heaven, say, 'Come up here!'" The two last martyred will be the first raised from the dead.

"…And they ascended into heaven in a cloud; and their enemies saw them rise. And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; and seven thousand men…" (vs 12-13). The last trumpet sounds and the resurrection begins—in power!

I think every eye is going to see them. Every eye is going to see God resurrecting the people. They're going to be astonished! They won't know what to do, because that sign of the Son of man out there in the heavens, just before the resurrection, will zoom down toward the earth and all of a sudden unfold into a great sea of glass, and the world is going to be astonished!

'The aliens are supposed to save us! They're fighting us! They're body-snatching!' That's why they're going to fight Christ.

The new digital age is beginning to be launched, and it's going to shape the future of people, nations, and business. You can see that God is greater than all the technology of this world, powers of men, powers of Satan. He's going to prove it in such a dynamic and powerful way.

Brethren, we are going to have a part in that!

Scriptural References:

• Matthew 24:15-16, 14
• Revelation 1:7
• Revelation 6:12-17
• Revelation 11:1-13

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• 2 Thessalonians 2
• Acts 1
• Daniel 4

Also referenced:

Books:

• Josephus
• The New Digital Age by Schmidt and Cohen (amazon.com)

DVD: Jerusalem and the Lost Temple of the Jews by
Ken Klein {kenkleinproductions.net}

Sermon: Who are the Two Witnesses?

FRC:bo
Transcribed: 6-10-13

Copyright 2013—All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes, no part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner. This includes electronic and mechanical photocopying or recording, as well as the use of information storage and retrieval systems.