The Third Day

Transcript

It’s time to begin our service, and I am so glad to have you here with us today. I am glad to be back with you.

If this is your first time joining us, and you wonder who we are and what we are up to, my name is Charles Paisley. I and most of our listeners here are formerly members of the cult following of William Branham known as The Message. The Message is a global doomsday cult with millions of members. The Message started here in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and spread all over the world. I am a formerly associate pastor of the second oldest Message church in the world, right here in the Jeffersonville area.

This service is a little mission we operate to offer encouragement to those leaving the Message, and to take a look at the plain reading of scripture as we seek to wash out of our minds what, for most of us, has been a lifetime of indoctrination.

And our text today is from the book of Hosea, chapter 6. The main verse we will be focusing on is Hosea 6:2. I invite you to turn there with me. And I am actually going to back up and read from the end of chapter 5, and then into chapter 6. So I will start at Hosea 5, verse 13, and then I will read down to verse 11 in chapter 6. I will be reading from the English Standard Version.

The prophet Hosea writes:

Hosea 5
English Standard Version

13 When Ephraim saw his sickness,
and Judah his wound,
then Ephraim went to Assyria,
and sent to the great king.
But he is not able to cure you
or heal your wound.
14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,
and like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I, even I, will tear and go away;
I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.

15 I will return again to my place,
until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,
and in their distress earnestly seek me.

Hosea 6
English Standard Version

6 “Come, let us return to the Lord;
for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
2 After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.
3 Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;
his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
as the spring rains that water the earth.”

4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that goes early away.
5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;
I have slain them by the words of my mouth,
and my judgment goes forth as the light.
6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

7 But like Adam they transgressed the covenant;
there they dealt faithlessly with me.
8 Gilead is a city of evildoers,
tracked with blood.
9 As robbers lie in wait for a man,
so the priests band together;
they murder on the way to Shechem;
they commit villainy.
10 In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;
Ephraim’s whoredom is there; Israel is defiled.

11 For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed.
When I restore the fortunes of my people,

Let us pray.

Lord God, as we approach these scriptures today, we humbly pray that you grant us understanding by the Holy Spirit. You see how, in the places I come from, these verses of scripture have been used to cause incredible harm and destruction. Divorces, family separations, suicides, and all manner of abuse have all happened as a result of what our leaders did with these verses of scripture.

Lord, help us to look at these verses with a clear mind. Help us to understand the words written on the page. And this we ask, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

Well brothers and sisters, if you are from the message churches I come from, Hosea 6:2 is going to be very, very familiar to you.

I come from the message churches associated with Faith Assembly here in the Jeffersonville area. There are hundreds of preachers around the world today who carry on a version of the Message which came from Raymond Jackson, who started Faith Assembly in 1955.

In Raymond Jackson’s version of the message, these verses in Hosea became very, very important starting in the early 1990s. William Branham also spoke of these verses just a few times in passing during his lifetime, but Raymond Jackson took what William Branham said about Hosea 6:2 and then had a supposed supernatural experience that fully opened up his understanding of these verses in about 1992.

In that experience, he said a light shined over his head, and he heard a voice say, “I will show you the order of my coming.” Then he came into possession of different knowledge of scriptures, and the knowledge of Hosea 6:2 was among those he received at that time.

In case you are not familiar with what he taught, let me give you a summary of it. He essentially arrived at the belief that the two days there in Hosea 6:2 were the period between the death of Christ and the second coming. And then, the third day, was the millennial age in which we will rule and reign with Christ, and we would live in his sight.

And let me read that verse to you again, and when I do, I think you will see how what I am describing could fit:

2 After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.

So two days would pass, and in the third day we would live before him. And so, the question then is how do you calculate how long those two days are? Because if you can calculate how long the two days are, then you can arrive at an approximate date when Christ should return, and we will live in his sight.

And brothers and sisters, you and I know, the message was a doomsday cult. And starting in the early 1990s, Raymond Jackson started offering calculations for how long those two days were. And we always referred to it as, 2004 ½.

2004 ½ was the middle of 2005. That was where his math calculations ended up. And he always said, maybe it could be off by a year and a half. So that gave us a range from the beginning of the year 2004 to the end of 2007. That was the initial time range – 2004 to 2007.

And of course, you and I are still here, and Christ has not come back. The two days are over, but the millennial age has not started. And in the places I come from, they have been trying to fix and repair these calculations over and over again since 2008. And just like Raymond Jackson was wrong, they have been wrong every single time they redid the calculations.

And in the process, they have divided the people into all kinds of factions. And in doing that, they break up homes and families. They force people to turn on each other. They do horrible things to people on the other side of the debate. And they have even pushed a number of people to commit suicide from all the fallout.

And all the other horrible things that come along with being in a doomsday cult also follow. It really takes a ruinous toll on the life of many of the people in the groups, especially the younger people. It stunts their entire life – because instead of doing the typical things to grow and mature and work to better yourself in the world, they instead get obsessed with the doomsday mindset.

And they are doomsday prepping, and they’re not thinking about tomorrow, because they don’t think there will be a tomorrow.

And I could just talk for hours about all the fallout from that sort of lifestyle. Because it is really very terrible, but I will leave that alone.

What Are The Two days?

Now that we are on this side of things, and we come back and examine these verses, I want to question the very premise of what they told us these verses meant.

I want to ask you, whether you are in the message or whether you are out of the message: Why did we ever believe these verses were talking about the millennial kingdom? Where did we ever get that idea? Why did we ever think that?

It’s a very simple question: Why did we ever think that this third day was pointing to the millennial kingdom? Because that is an assumption you have to have before we even get to the sort of calculations we were making at Faith Assembly.

And, I just read you these passages at the start of this service, and it really didn’t say this had anything to do with the millennial. And I want to point that out to you. It is through interpreting symbolism in this prophecy that we arrived at the idea that it was pointing to the millennial kingdom. Not because this passage of scripture actually says it is the millennial kingdom in a plain way.

If we just sit down and take a plain reading of these verses, there is not really any way to walk away with the belief this is talking about the millennial kingdom and two thousand years of time after the death of Christ. We would have to make certain assumptions about the symbols to get there.

We would need something else to make that leap because this text right here does not do it.

But I will tell you how we did it in the message. It is pretty clear these verses are talking about a restoration of Israel. Verse 11 there makes that pretty clear. Hosea is prophesying that God will restore the good fortunes of Israel when these two days pass, and they come to live in his sight.

So, this is definitely talking about a restoration of Israel. But here is the problem: If you know the Bible, Israel has fallen away and been restored several times. They left the promised land and went into Egypt, and God restored them. They were taken away to Babylon, and God restored them. There have been multiple times God has already restored Israel in the pages of the Bible.

And it may seem natural to you and me to say this restoration we are reading about here in Hosea is a restoration off in the future, that has not happened yet.

But how do we know that? How do we know this prophecy is not talking about a restoration in the past? A restoration that has already been fulfilled?

And then the restoration it talks about is that they will live in his sight. And that is a pretty vague statement. God is watching in heaven right now. We are already living in sight. And so, just what that phrase about living in his sight means, is very vague. We really are making a leap when we say that is Christ returned to earth in a millennial kingdom. It doesn’t have to be that. There are other ways that we or Israel could live in Christ’s sight, that have nothing to do with the millennial age.

And I am pointing all this out to you because, once again, angels never came to William Branham and told him these things about the two days. Raymond Jackson had no special authority to tell us what these symbols mean. And when you take away the authority we thought they had to interpret these verses, and just come back and look at the plain text, what are we left with?

And here is what I would suggest to you: The only reason we believed this had something to do with the millennial kingdom, and two thousand years after Christ died, and a last-day restoration, is because Raymond Jackson had a supposed experience where he got divine revelation. And then William Branham, who we believed to be a special prophet of God, also said these two days were the time between the death of Christ and the second coming.

That is it. We believed this was a last-day restoration because that is what Raymond Jackson and William Branham said. Not because it was the actual text of the passage says. It is really on the authority of Raymond Jackson and William Branham that we ever believed what we did about these verses.

Because the plain reading of the text absolutely does not get us there.

And so, today, I want to offer you an alternative. I want to point out to you what the plain reading of this passage says. And I want to suggest to you that these two days, and this third day, may be about something else altogether.

Now before I walk through these scriptures to show that to you, I want to tell you where I am going. That way you can watch for clues with me as we read it. And, to begin with, I want to ask you a question.

It’s a simple question. If we maybe just close our eyes and think for a minute, think about two days… And then on the third day, someone is revived. Two days torn and smitten, and a third day, revived. Is there anything that pops into our head that might fit that pattern?

Two days torn, third day revived.

Anything at all that comes to mind? How about this? How about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Two days, he was buried in the grave, with his body ripped and torn from what he endured, and on the third day, he was resurrected from the grave.

Brother and Sisters, let me make this very simple assertion: What if the two days are the days in which Jesus Christ was buried in the tomb, and the third day is the day on which he resurrected?

And, we are going to look at these scriptures today in Hosea, and we are going to see if this could possibly have anything to do with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And, if this is the first time you ever thought of that, if this is the first time it even entered your mind that the two days and the third day could be about the death and resurrection of Jesus, I want to suggest that it is possible you are in a church that never preaches the gospel.

Because any church that preaches the gospel, if you say… two days torn, and third day revived, they are going to immediately think you are talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is where the normal Christian’s mind would immediately go to.

Not doomsday calculations for determining when the end of days is going to happen.

And the fact that your mind never even considered the resurrection of Jesus as a possibility for these verses is a pretty good sign that you might have been brainwashed by a cult. Because, as we look at this – like so many other things – I think you are going to see it’s pretty obvious, if you take the time to think it through.

Now before I start examining these verses, I want to take you to 1st Corinthians 15. And I want to read you something the apostle Paul wrote. And, in chapter 15, I will read just the first four verses. Paul writes:

1 Corinthians 15
King James Version

1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.

Now, did you notice there in verse 4, Paul said, that Christ rose again the third day according to the scriptures?

Now, I want to ask you a very simple question – which verse in the entire Old Testament said Christ would rise the third day? Because Paul is telling us, there is a verse in the Old Testament that says Christ rose the third day.

And, which verse is that? In the entire Old Testament, which verse talks about someone reviving on the third day? And here is what I will tell you: Hosea 6:2, is the only verse in the entire Old Testament about someone reviving on the third day. That is it. There isn’t another one.

And when we read what Paul writes here in verse 4, it lets us know, there is a very good chance the Apostle Paul is talking about Hosea 6:2 here. There is a very good chance Paul is telling us Hosea 6:2 is about the resurrection of Jesus on the third day.

And to make sense of that, we have to consider how the apostle Paul taught unity. Remember back to Ephesians, or the book of Romans? Paul explained that we are all in Christ, and whatever happened to Christ, happened to us because we are in him. When he was crucified, we were crucified with him. And when he rose to new life, we rose with him.

And so, when we take that back to Hosea 6:2, when it says, “After two days he will revive us,” the reviving happens because everyone who is in Christ revived with him from the grave on the third day because they were one with him.

We died with Christ on the cross. We were buried with Christ for two days. We revived with Christ on the third day. Those are all things the apostle Paul teaches us in his epistles. And right here, Paul is telling us it comes from a verse in the Old Testament.

Now, here in verse 4, is Paul talking about Hosea 6:2? We cannot be perfectly 100% sure, because he does not give us scripture and verse. But he does tell us, there is a verse about resurrecting on the third day, and Hosea 6:2 is a very good candidate for that. Because, as I said, it is the only verse about reviving on the third day in the Old Testament.

Ok, so, having explained where we are going, let’s go back to Hosea. And let’s read it through, and let’s see if what I am telling you actually fits with the scripture.

Hosea 5

So let’s go back to Hosea chapter 5, because chapter 6 is just a continuation of chapter 5. And chapter 5 is what helps us set what we are reading into a time period. Chapter 5 will give us multiple points of reference which we can use to set Hosea 6:2 into a proper context and time frame.

And, I want you to remember it’s always important to do this. Never just go jump to a verse of scripture and read it all by itself, and then go base some big important thing on that.

You have to read the whole passage. Look at the broader context of what is being said. And if you do that, you will be a lot less likely to end up with the whackadoodle kind of idea that is out in left field.

But let’s go back to chapter 5, and let’s get some context for the time period that Hosea is prophesying about. And let me read verse 13 again to you. Hosea writes:

Hosea 5
English Standard Version

13 When Ephraim saw his sickness,
and Judah his wound,
then Ephraim went to Assyria,
and sent to the great king.
But he is not able to cure you
or heal your wound.

So in these two verses, we see that Hosea is writing about Ephraim and Judah. And those are the two kingdoms of Israel back in the days of Hosea. Ephraim was the dominant northern tribe, and the kings of northern Israel came from Ephraim. And Judah was the dominant southern tribe, and their kings came from Judah. And they had two separate kingdoms, with two separate kings, and two separate capital cities.

And here Hosea says that Ephraim, which is the northern kingdom, had a sickness, and he went to the great king of Assyria to seek a cure. And you can actually read that story in the book of Second Kings, chapter 15, to see what all that was about. The king of Ephraim was having troubles, and he sent money to the king of Assyria to help him. And you can read about how that unfolded.

But here, Hosea is giving us our first clue in these verses about what he is talking about. Verse 14 is pointing to a specific event that happened in history, and it happened somewhere, maybe a few years before Hosea wrote this prophecy. And now Hosea is speaking about it. And when we understand that, we begin to see Hosea is not prophesying about something in the last days, but he is prophesying about something that happened thousands of years ago. Something that happened in the land of Israel, to the people who were living those many, many years ago.

Now let’s read verse 14 for another clue. Hosea writes:

14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,
and like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I, even I, will tear and go away;
I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.

So, we all know what happens to Israel and Judah after Hosea made this prophecy. The kings of Babylon came and took them all away into captivity. And that also happened thousands of years ago. So here, Hosea is prophesying in advance that Israel is going to be carried away. And we know that this prophecy was fulfilled. It was already fulfilled thousands of years ago by the Babylonians, by Nebuchadnezzar.

And the prophet Daniel was one of the people who was carried away and put in captivity. In the book of Daniel, God showed Daniel a dream with the great empires of the world. And in that dream which God gave Daniel, Babylon was represented by a lion. And God said Babylon had been his servant and had done his will.

And when we look here at verse 14, we see that fits just perfectly. Ephraim and Judah were carried away by the kings into the captivity of Assyria and Babylon, which God represented as a lion. And Judah was torn like a lion tears, and they were all carried off, and no one rescued them. And that is exactly what happened. It matches up perfectly.

So we can have a pretty high level of confidence that these verses are talking about the Babylonian captivity of Israel.

And just like verse 13, verse 14 also happened thousands of years ago. The tearing up of their nation is speaking about the time that the tribes of Israel were taken into Babylonian captivity. And I want you to pay special attention to that word “tear,” there in verse 14. If you got your Bible, you could circle that word “tear.”

That is an important word to remember when we get to chapter 6. So remember, there in verse 14, Israel is being torn. And in context, it seems like this tearing is related to what happened when they went into Babylonian captivity.

Now let’s go to verse 15, and see another clue for the time frame. Verse 15 says:

15 I will return again to my place,
until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,
and in their distress earnestly seek me.

Now, this is speaking of Israel being separated from God. God is going to withdraw himself from Israel until they seek his face. And the prophet Ezekiel, who was also in Babylonian captivity, he saw that happen in a vision. He saw the glory of the Lord depart from the temple and leave Israel when the Babylonians came to destroy the city and take them all away as prisoners.

And we know that after they spent a few years in Babylon, that the Jewish people started to call on the Lord to save them and deliver them. We could read in Daniel or Ezekiel about how the people of Israel started to turn back to the Lord. The same thing in Ezra and Nehemiah, we could read there and see how they cried out to God and told him they wanted to return to Jerusalem and to go free from their bondage.

And so verse 15 has the Jewish people praying and seeking deliverance from their captivity in Babylon, which once again, we know that happened thousands of years ago. It already happened.

And so now, we turn over to chapter 6. And chapter 6 starts right after the Jewish people are seeking to be delivered from their captivity in Babylon.

I will read verse 1:

Hosea 6
English Standard Version

6 “Come, let us return to the Lord;
for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.”

Now, when we read this verse, we can be absolutely sure this is a continuation of chapter 5. This is not the start of a new prophecy. And we can be sure that is true several ways. One of those ways is that this is all part of the same scroll, it was not a separate document. This passed down from ancient times as a single document, and there were no chapter or verses. This just went from chapter 5 to chapter 6, and there was no division in the ancient documents.

But there is one other really strong clue here to let us know it is the continuation of the prior prophecy. Let me read it to you again. And remember that word I told you to circle back in chapter 5. See if you catch it here in verse 6. Hosea writes:

Hosea 6
English Standard Version

6 “Come, let us return to the Lord;
for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.”

Now if you caught it, the word there was “torn.” Back in chapter five, Israel got torn by a lion, and here in chapter 6, they are getting healed from that tear. The tear here in chapter 6 is the same tear from chapter 5. And that helps us see that this is a continuation of the same prophecy. The last chapter was about them being punished, and this chapter is about them being restored.

And, in context, they are being restored from the punishment in chapter 5. They are being restored from when they went to Babylonian captivity. And, as you and I already know – that happened thousands of years ago. They were already restored and healed from when they were torn like a lion.

So verse 1, in that context, was already fulfilled. Verse 1 was fulfilled thousands of years ago, when Ezra and Nehemiah led the people back to Jerusalem. And God began to bless the Jewish people again, after they left Babylon.

So this wound that is being healed in chapter 6, it is really hard to say this has anything to do with a last-day restoration of Israel. All the evidence in this passage, if we read it honestly, would point us to a restoration of Israel that already happened thousands of years ago.

And that is not to say Israel has not been restored in the last days. But it is to say, that does not really seem to be what this passage of scripture is about. And we are really grasping at air if we try to say something like that.

And so, if this does not have anything to do with the last days, and instead it has to do with them being restored from Babylon, then we can say this passage absolutely has nothing to do with what William Branham and Raymond Jackson and James Allen and all these other message preachers told us. They were just way off the mark.

And I would say this as a challenge – go back, read the preceding verses in detail and see if you can find a single thing that would lead you to believe this is talking about a last-day restoration of Israel. And if you do, you will find just what I am telling you. Everything here points to the restoration from Babylon, which already happened, not a last-day restoration.

So, as we go here into chapter 6, this is speaking about the reconciliation between God and Israel that took place after they came back from Babylon.

Reconciliation

Let me read it again:

1 “Come, let us return to the Lord;
for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.

Verse 2

2 After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.

So this verse 2, in this context, is pointing us to something coming after the Babylonian captivity. Something during their period of reconciliation.

Now, very simply – Jesus died, and he spent two days in the grave. And on the third day, what did he do? He raised up and he resurrected from the grave. And, if we read in the gospels, it says the graves were opened and other people were resurrected too – other saints from the Old Testament period were resurrected and were seen around Jerusalem. I will ask you, could that anything to do with this verse? Could this verse be pointing to Jesus resurrecting from the grave, and Old Testament saints resurrecting with him, like we read about in the gospels?

And let me also remind you of what I have said already: You and I, and all the righteous of all the ages, were spiritually raised to newness of life with Christ when he resurrected. Every single one of us were revived with him, when he came out of the grave.

And, if you go to Romans chapter 6, Paul paraphrases what we are reading here in Hosea. Paul says the same sort of things in Colossians and Ephesians too. And I will just read one of those to you. Turn to Colossians chapter 2 with me, and I will give you an example of this.

Starting in verse 9, Paul writes:

Colossians 2
English Standard Version

9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.

So you notice there, how everything that happens to Christ, also happens to us because we are in him. He was circumcised, so we are circumcised. He was buried, so we are buried. He was raised to new life, so we are raised to new life. These things are all a parallel occurrence. As in Christ, so in us. Because we are united with him.

Turn over to Colossians chapter 3, and I will give you one more example in verse 1. Paul writes:

Colossians 3
English Standard Version

1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

So you can see, being raised with Christ is not something we are waiting for in the future. There is a way in which we have already been raised with Christ. There is a way in which we have already been revived with him. And not just us, but all the saints of all the ages. Including the Jewish people who believed on him, like Peter, and Paul, and James and John, and Daniel, and Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, and Ezra and Nehemiah. They were all raised with Christ, just like Paul is speaking about there in verse 1.

So when we take all that back to Hosea 6:2, it paints a picture to us. The truth is, it seems quite likely that Hosea 6:2 is the very verse of the Bible which Paul had in mind as he said all those things.

Let me read Hosea 6:2 to you again:

2 After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.

It is possible to say Jesus entirely and fully fulfilled Hosea 6:2 with his death, burial, and resurrection. And he fulfilled it for Jew and Gentile. All the righteous of Israel believed on Jesus, and they were saved. Because they were one with him. Because they were one with him, they died with him, and they were resurrected with him. Peter, Paul, James, John, Mary, Martha, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus. They were all raised up to new life with Jesus on the third day, just like you and I were raised to new life on the third day.

Just like Paul speaks about in Romans chapter 6, or Colossians chapter 2, or Ephesians chapter 2.

And, let me ask you, as you are hearing this, and as you take some time to think about it, what fits better? If you just sat down and read this passage, without a message preacher clogging up your mind, what would the plain reading of this passage lead you to believe? Would it lead you to believe that Hosea 6:2 is about doomsday calculations for the end of days, or would you think it was about the resurrection of Jesus, which came to Israel after their Babylonian captivity?

Christ’s atonement is what truly healed the wounds of Ephraim and Judah. His death opened the Holy of Holies to restore true communion with God.

And all through the days of Jesus’ ministry, the people in Israel kept asking him, “Will you now restore the kingdom? Will you restore the kingdom of Israel now?” That is where their focus and obsession was. They were obsessed with Christ restoring the kingdom on earth. And that was the only thing a lot of them were interested in. And it blinded many of them. They were too busy looking for a kingdom to realize they needed a Savior. And they totally missed it when Jesus said that the kingdom of God is within you. There will be a kingdom of God on earth one day, but restoring our relationship with God, and establishing that kingdom within our hearts, that is far more important. It is more important for us to be saved and in Christ, and have the kingdom of God with us, than for us to obsess over when he will bring an earthly kingdom.

And what we see throughout the gospels, is that people who were obsessed with the earthly kingdom ended up totally failing to see the far more important spiritual kingdom that was his priority. That is really the most important thing that Jesus was here to do. That is what he had come for. And that is what the prophecies had been pointing to. And today, nothing has changed. That is still the priority and the central mission of the church. Jesus forbid us from obsessing over the end of days. He directed us to focus on the kingdom that is within us, and to spread that kingdom until he returns. That is where the focus belongs.

But that is exactly the opposite of what many doomsday-obsessed men have done. Including many of the people in the message. They are obsessed with the second coming and the heavenly kingdom in a way which Jesus directly forbid them from doing. And they are actually in rebellion against God. And they are so consumed by their doomsday obsessions, they can’t see the resurrection of Jesus slapping them in the face when they read Hosea 6:2.

A Final Clue

There is a lot more I could say here, but I will give you one final clue before we end our lesson. Let me just keep reading here in Hosea 6.

2 After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.

That perfectly fits the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

Verse 3

3 Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;
his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
as the spring rains that water the earth.”

Could that verse be about the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost? If you go to Acts 2 and read Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost, he talks about the Holy Spirit coming like rain to water the earth. So even verse 3 would point us to something that happened thousands of years ago.

3 Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;
his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
as the spring rains that water the earth.”

Let me keep reading.

Verse 6, Jesus quoted that verse himself to his critics. You will find that in Matthew chapter 9. Verse 6 here points to the ministry of Jesus while he was on earth. Verse 6 is a sermon Jesus preached. “I desire love, not sacrifice.” Jesus reoriented things. He pointed the Jewish people to love. He explained that love was the great commandment on which the whole thing hung. Love was the driving point of all the law. And the Jewish people had got hung up on the letter of the law and missed the spirit of love that it really was pointing them to. Verse 6 here is pointing to the ministry of Jesus. Read Matthew 9 and see for yourself.

And, I am going to just stop reading here. But the truth is, if we keep on reading, everything here can very easily be connected to the restoration of Israel after their Babylonian captivity and up to the coming of Jesus Christ.

And, while we may still have some questions, while maybe things may not seem perfectly clear, I hope I have said enough today to show you that there is another perfectly viable way to understand this scripture. And I hope you see that the entire premise of what our Message preachers did with these verses is a massive stretch, based more on the words of William Branham and Raymond Jackson, rather than the Bible.

Amen.

Closing

As I bring this lesson to a close, I hope and pray this lesson will be helpful to the ones who have left the message churches where I come from.

And there is one thing we can be totally sure of. Raymond Jackson was wrong when he made his calculations. The ministers who came after him have been repeatedly wrong in how they have tried to fix the calculations. The preachers have made prediction after prediction that the end was supposed to happen and tied it to all kinds of things—the blood moons, the schmita, the jubilee, on and on. And all of it, in some way or another, comes back to these two days in Hosea 6:2.

At this point, it is obvious, they have no idea what they are talking about. If they had a clue, then the end would have come already. They have cried wolf enough times that we know we can’t trust them. The wolf never came. And when he does come, it’s not going to have anything to do with all the times they cried wolf already. Professing themselves to be wise, they have become fools.

And what is worst of all is all the harm and destruction they have caused in the name of their false beliefs. It’s one thing to have silly ideas. It’s quite another thing to go out and destroy people’s lives in the name of those false ideas. They cross a line when they do that. They cross the line from simply being mistaken and enter into a realm of deep sin and wickedness.

And that is where so many message leaders are today. They have entered into a realm where they are destroying in the name of their false beliefs. A lot of the average people who follow along are just mistaken, but the leaders are actually carrying out destruction in the name of their beliefs.

When Christians talk about the third day, they are talking about the day Christ arose from the grave, the day Paul said that we also arose from the grave with him. We are resurrected to new life in Jesus Christ. And when I talk about the third day, that is the day I am talking about. The people who have instead used the third day as a source of division—to break up homes and families, to cause divorces, to sever relationships, to drive people to suicide—those are people who are wicked, who have been distracted from the truth of scripture, who have abandoned the gospel of Jesus Christ, and who have embarked on becoming a doomsday cult. We need to never give our ears to listen to such false and wicked doomsday preachers ever again.

Let us pray that God will wake them up.

Let me close in prayer.

Lord God,
We thank you for the scripture.
We thank you for the Holy Spirit, who is our teacher.
As John wrote, we have no need that anyone should teach us, because we can read the scripture, and your Holy Spirit can reveal to us what we read.
We are not in need of special men to dispense the truth to us.
We are not in need of special groups to save us.
But we are in need of Jesus Christ to save us.
And we are in need of the Holy Spirit to teach us.
And we are in need of you to speak to us through the scripture.
Help my brothers and sisters today, each one.
I especially pray today for all my friends in Africa.
Lord, you see the challenges of various sorts which they face.
I pray that you give them strength and help them all, in Liberia, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, South Africa, Ivory Coast, and every other country where they are listening from.
Bless them and provide for their needs, I pray.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.