Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and
the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). When we know
the truth concerning the things that are coming on
the earth, and see how ail that God has purposed fits
together in a synchronized pattern, it sets us free from
many of the anxieties and uncertainties which otherwise
would almost certainly plague us. When we see these
things coming to pass we can heed Jesus' admonition to
"look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption
draws near" (Lk. 21:28). In this booklet
we will show God's purpose and process of "shaking" ALL
things that can be shaken, in preparation for the
full inauguration of that Kingdom which cannot be shaken
(Heb. 12:27-38). This shaking will be both literal and
symbolic. It will involve the shaking of this planet and
its atmosphere by seismic disturbances and nuclear
explosions. But it will also involve the shaking of all
of the social, political, religious and economic systems
of man. Last, but not least, it involves God's dealings
in our individual lives, homes, and churches, as God
puts everything to the test, in order that everything
that is not of Him will be "shaken loose" from us, that
we might cleave to only what is going to carry us
through into the new age coming.
May the Lord quicken these truths to your heart.
THE
SHAKING OF ALL THINGS
All things new. "And he that sat on
the throne said. Behold, I make all things new. And he
said to me. Write: for these words are true and
faithful" (Rev. 21:5). In majestic sweep of absolute and
ultimate triumph; in complete defiance of every contrary
factor or force; the Divine fiat goes forth from the
throne of the Most High, "Behold, I make all
things NEW," To make it more emphatic to those
who shall receive this God given message, John is told
to write that these words are "true and faithful.” We
read in Rev. 21:1 that included in the "all things" to
be made new are "a new heaven and a new earth." In this
verse, I do not believe the Lord was speaking of
bringing into being a different planet, but rather
that the very earth on which we live, including
its "heaven" or atmosphere, will be changed,
REnewed,
transformed and brought into a new realm in the plan and
purpose of God.
No more curse. In Rev, 22:1-2,
we see a pure river of water of LIFE proceeding out of
the throne of God, which flows to the tree of LIFE, the
leaves of which provide "healing for the nations"
(of the earth). Then follows a most significant
statement: "And there shall be NO MORE CURSE" (Rev.
22:3). It was this present
earth that came under the curse because of sin (Gen.
3:17), affecting all life on
it, and all the elements thereof. Isa. 24:4-6 says, "The
earth mourns and fades away. . .the earth also is
defiled under the inhabitants thereof. . . Therefore has the curse devoured the earth." But
Paul informs us in Rom. 8:19-21, that all creation waits and
earnestly anticipates deliverance through the
"manifestation of the sons of God,” and this includes
the earth on which we live. Certainly, when the final
vestige of the curse is lifted from this earth, it will
become a "new" (renewed) earth. In Rev. 20:11, we read
that when a certain epoch is
reached in God's program, that "the heaven and earth
fled away" (moved to a different location in the
universe) and "there was found no place for them" (where
they were before). The same is intimated in Isa. 24:20,
where the prophet says that the earth shall be "removed
like a cottage. . . and it shall fall (be moved to a different location)
and not rise again" (never return to its previous
placement). Thus it seems that in making all things new.
God will move the earth and its surrounding atmosphere
(perhaps even the entire solar system of our sun and
planets) to a new orbit and placement in relation to His Throne and
the rest of the universe.
God's
process. First, we must consider the matter of HOW
God is going to make all things new. The scriptures are
very clear concerning this matter.
The "new earth" not only involves change in this
physical planet, and in the animal, vegetable and
mineral kingdoms, but in particular it involves a new
humanity. But before the new
can come, the old must be taken away. The earth (and all
humanity) is languishing under the corrupt systems of
man's civilization, and nothing that is of the old can
enter into the new. We read in Isa. 24:5: "The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants
thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting
covenant. Therefore has the curse devoured the
earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate:
therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left." This scripture
describes the consequences of man's folly, but also
depicts the means whereby God shall judge and purge
the earth of that which cannot remain to mar the
righteous kingdom which is to come. The only way the
earth could be "burned "and "few men left" would be
through all-out atomic warfare. God's time for this is
symbolically depicted in Rev. 8:5, where an angel takes
fire from off the altar in
heaven and casts it into the
earth (following which there were voices, and
thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake).
Seven times in the book of Revelation, the word
"earthquake" is used to describe catastrophic events which bring man's
corrupt civilization to an end, and remove that which
man has built apart from God.
To
illustrate. We have been hearing much in recent
years about "urban renewal." Many programs have begun in
large cities to reconstruct certain blighted and
decaying areas with new buildings, landscaping,
etc. But before this could be done, the old buildings
had to be torn down. God, as the architect and
master builder must do the same with what man has
built apart from Him. God's plan is that man be a co-laborer with Him (I Cor.
3:9), but man as a whole has failed to follow the plan
and design of God, and has, over many generations,
corrupted the earth with his pseudo-civilization under
the dominion and devices of Satan. In Rev. 11:18, the
inspired writer refers to the time when God shall
"destroy them which destroy the earth." The Greek word
translated "destroy" in this passage is diaphtheiro, which literally
means to "through pollute" or "pollute
thoroughly." It can also be translated to "mar or
corrupt thoroughly." How well God foresaw the time when
man would greatly mar the land, pollute the air and
water, and corrupt the minds of the masses, and the
judgment would be that man would REAP the tragic
consequences of his own folly, even to his own
destruction.
God
shakes. In Heb. 12:27, we
read of God's purpose to so "shake" all things, that
those things which can be
shaken will be removed. Read all of Heb. 12:18-29, and
notice how the final shaking is contrasted with the
shaking at Mt. Sinai when God brought His people out of
the old (Egypt) that He might lead them into the new
(Canaan). This is very important, for the shaking (and
related events) at Mt. Sinai is a TYPE of the final
shaking of all things. You can read the story in Exodus
19. It is not our purpose here to go into detail, but
notice in Ex. 19:11, 15-16, 20, that it was at the
beginning of the THIRD DAY that God CAME DOWN on Mt.
Sinai. This was after Moses was commanded by God to sanctify the people and cause
them to wash their clothes
for two days as a preparation (Ex. 19:10-11, 14).
We know that a day is with the Lord as a thousand years
(II Pet. 3:8). During the last two days (two thousand
years) our "Moses" (Jesus Christ) has been PREPARING A
PEOPLE for His coming DOWN or RETURN to this earth, by
doing a sanctifying
(separating) work in them and by causing them to be cleansed "with the washing of
water by the WORD" (Ephes. 5:26). See time periods
[below] which show that we are now coming to the close
of two days or two thousand years since the time Christ
began preparing a people and are in the dawning of
the third
day.
Note: Time periods referred to
[above] are as follows: Two days or two thousand years
of lunar time ran out in 1941 (2000 x 354+ - 365.24 =
1941). Two thousand years of prophetic time ran out
in 1971 (2000 x 360 - 365.24 = 1971). So from two
perspectives we are already in the dawning of the THIRD
day since Christ. Solar reckoning runs to 2000
A.D.
[
Ed. Note –Obviously
we are well into the 21
st century without the
fulfillment of these time patterns having occurred.
While referring to the cross as his time point of
reference, Brother Earls erroneously makes all his
calculations from the birth of Christ—which was the
common starting point for anybody calculating the Lord’s return in the late
20 th
century. Truly, if we use Calvary
as the starting point of reference for calculations, two
thousand solar years will not actually occur until
approximately 2030 AD.]
Shaking of
heaven. In Heb. 12:26, concerning these last days,
God says: "Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but
also heaven." This "shaking"
will be both literal and symbolic. Looking first at the
literal application, we know that an earthquake can
shake the earth and also the sea (tidal waves), but
cannot affect the heaven. But there is one phenomenon
which has been released in recent years that does shake
the heaven. Jesus Himself indicated that one of the
great signs of the consummation of the age would be
the fact that "the powers of the heaven shall be shaken"
(Lk. 21:26). The Greek word translated "heaven" is
ouranos, from which we get
the word uranium, the root
word being urano, concerning
which Funk & Wagnalls Standard Universal Dictionary
says: "urano; from Greek ouranos, heaven: a combining
form. In chemical and mineralogical words it refers to
the element uranium." We know that uranium is the
fissionable metalic substance used in the production of
atomic bombs. Atomic energy is derived from the
disintegration (or the "shaking" or splitting apart) of
the nucleus of atoms of elements of high atomic mass,
e.g. uranium 235. Thus when Jesus said that the "power
of the heaven would be shaken," He was speaking of that
which could be paraphrased as follows: "The powers
(energy) of the heaven (ouranos—uranium atom) shall be
shaken (split through nuclear fission)." Scientists tell
us that an atom consists of a small, massive nuclear
"core" composed of neutrons and protons, surrounded by a
relatively empty region in which the electrons
revolve in elliptical or circular orbits around the
nucleus. Thus an atom is a tiny "solar system" in
itself, with its "sun" or nucleus and "planets"
(electrons) revolving around it. Thus when an atom is
split, its "heaven" is surely shaken, and God's
Word is fulfilled.
Atmospheric
disruption. Another unique feature of atomic bombs
which fulfills the prophecy of the "shaking of the
heaven" is the fact that an atomic explosion takes place
in the air (atmospheric heaven) rather than through
impact on the earth as conventional bombs. And the
resultant damage is to a great extent through wind action created by the
explosion. We have a symbolic allusion to this in
Rev. 7:1 where four angels are seen standing on the four
corners of the earth "holding the four winds of the
earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor
on the sea, nor on any tree." These winds no doubt speak
of the complete and consummating judgments to come on
the earth, and the verses following in 7:2-3 indicate
that these judgments are to be "held back" until God
does a certain spiritual work of "sealing the servants
of God in their foreheads." In other words, God must
finish the work of preparing His people before final
judgment comes. Certainly the "four winds" might
indicate destruction from natural storms, but when
we couple this symbolism with others in Revelation where
the judgments of God come through "fire" (Rev. 16:8-9,
8:5-7), we can see that the fire of atomic explosions
plus the terrific and devastating wind action which
comes as an aftermath does fulfill the picture. We also
find in Heb. 12:26-29 where God says He will shake not
only the earth but also heaven, that the final statement
of that passage is, "for our God is a consuming fire." It is the
blazing, all-consuming fire of God that is released when
an atomic bomb is exploded; the "heaven" of the atoms is
shaken or split, the atmospheric heaven is violently
disrupted, and the "winds" of God's judgment are
released on the
earth.