"...wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat." Matthew 7:13

"From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast." Joshua 1:4

"Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them." Joshua 1:6

My beloved friends – near and far away, GREETINGS in the Name of Christ our Lord. TODAY I bring you tidings of marvelously good things. Do you not know that God is GOOD? Even completely good! Therefore, His every true messenger has nothing but marvelously glad messages of wonderfully good things. Perhaps at times we might speak of a dark cloud rolling up on the horizon; but IF so, it has a most wonderful silver lining, and behind it shines the sun in the power of its glorious brightness, ready to flood the earth with its LIGHT – to be appreciated more than ever before.

Whether or not I bring you prophecy this time I do not know at this moment, but I do know that I have marvelous tidings of great treasure, which Christ our Lord is eagerly waiting to give unto you, His children. If your Bible is convenient, you may look up the sixth book therein, under the caption of the Book of Joshua, from which I will shortly read. But first I have a fully honest and serious warning for you: if you expect me to paint a black and sad picture, you are going to be horribly disappointed. Or, if you expect me to tell you that Moses and Joshua of old stood for the Republicans and the Democrats that we have today, you will also be disappointed; or if you think I am going to grow eloquent over the orations and world travels of some great Pontiff, then your hopes will also be forlorn. In fact, I haven't even any hell-fire and brimstone; so what does that leave me to talk about? I have by far the greatest subject in the entire world to talk about – even the very Son of God Who left the throne of glory to incarnate in a manger's babe, in order that He might accomplish vicariously our absolute redemption, and, thus, fully set us free! – And that includes you.

Now, I am not talking about freedom from hell-fire; I am not talking about the lifting of a sentence which is supposed to have consigned you to the horrors of a raging cauldron in a bottomless pit. No, indeed!

Since that matter of the Pit and the everlasting torture in the cauldron of God's fury was mentioned, I have a thought to present to you. Has it never occurred to you that people who believe in such concepts out of the Pit, are actually nothing short of monstrous when bringing children into this world? If people actually believe that the wide gate on the broad road which leads to destruction (on which most of the world's population travels) is a road that leads to the Pit, where the "soul" shall endure the "tortures of the damned" time without end, then I repeat, those people (who believe that) are responsible for a monstrous evil when they bring many children into the world to face such a gruesome and unending fate....

From that thought I have just set before you, I trust you realize more clearly than ever before how sadly our Bible has been misunderstood, and how horribly the words of our Lord and Savior have been misinterpreted. I cease not to remind you that our Lord Jesus was a human being like you and I; and more than 99.9% of all that He ever spoke was addressed to the objective consciousness of His fellow man, and that as concerning the earthly life here and now.

Although that is not the text for our discussion this time, I think it in place to quickly look at this wide road leading to destruction of which our Lord spoke. Look out upon world humanity: what is the situation? Do not most commence to get sick at an early age? Are not misery and disappointment, failure and frustration, unhappiness and despair the common human lot? And all to be swallowed up in the blackness of death! Then the body decays and molders into the dust of the ground. That was the "destruction" of which our Lord spoke.

Bear in mind that none of that was the experience of the primitive pair in the Garden of Eden; but after their disobedience they went to "destruction." That work of the Devil is what the Son of God came to earth to undo, and that He gloriously accomplished upon the Cross on Calvary. Adam and Eve were created immortal beings, not carrying the seed of death within their bodies. Their life was an Edenic paradise! God is good and creates nothing but the very best for all His children. But of course, if, as, and when His children listen to Lucifer, and become disobedient to the loving Heavenly Father, He may see it prudent to take them "across the barrel" for a while. Not in the spirit of vengeance, but that they may be corrected, to come back into the ways of the Father. Therefore came the Son of God to earth, to completely undo the works of the enemy in order that everyone who fully receives Him may be guided back into the glorious Edenic paradise which man lost through his gullibility in listening to Lucifer!

Now from the first chapter of Joshua, let us read 5 verses:
"Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, `Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.
Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.'"

To understand God's message for us, we must also understand the meaning of the names used. We find the basic setting in verse 4, where He speaks of "From the wilderness and this Lebanon." Repeatedly I remind you that a wilderness is a type of this world. A wilderness is an area not settled, with scant vegetation. In the Edenic paradise of God were trees loaded with good things to eat, and beautiful to look upon. But from that paradise the disobedient were driven out into a land where they would have to labor diligently in order to secure something to eat and live. With that thought in mind, you will readily see wherein the wilderness becomes the proper symbolic picture of this entire world, under the rulership of Lucifer.

Lebanon was the name of a mountain range, in fact, twin ranges; the word means `white.' There is an abundance of white limestone in that mountain, so that at a slight distance it gives the appearance of being white. The limestone typifies humanity, and that which man creates, while the granite rock is used to symbolize God. Limestone crumbles and cannot stand up to the granite rock. White has always been known to symbolize purity. So, "this Lebanon," or white limestone range, is a symbol of that kingdom or humanity which hears the Word of God; and consequently, as our Lord said to His disciples, "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you" (Jn. 15:3). I repeat: Lebanon stands for that kingdom or person who has heard and received the Word of Truth unto his cleansing, and is consequently "white" in the sight of God. Now, that Lebanon was linked with the wilderness: that is, this world. Observe, this world, not an unknown world in a hopedfor tomorrow, and the human "soul" which you hear so much about.

Next is mentioned the river Euphrates. The word simply means "going forth." In other words, it means the people who have been cleansed by the word of His Truth, and are willing to go forth through the wilderness of this world in living that glorious truth which Jesus Christ brought to our understanding. Then God told them that the utmost coast would take in the land of the Hittites and reach even to the Great Sea. The word Hittite means "fear." That is what I keep talking to you about perpetually: the citizens of Lucifer's kingdom have been so brainwashed that they live in perpetual fear, and according to their faith have they received. Clearly did God tell Joshua that he should conquer all this land, even the land of the Hittites, and that no one, or nothing, should be able to stand before him. In other words, we are to walk victorious throughout this world with its multiplied problems, and fully conquer the entire "land of fear," marching right up to the heaving waters of the Great Sea, which symbolizes the successful conclusion of our studies in this school of experience which our good God and Savior has graciously granted us.

I will again come back to this, but momentarily I want to show you something very interesting. At the outset I said that I didn't know as up to that time that there would be any prophetic revelation given in this talk, but no sooner had I spoken that than His shimmering sword commenced to flash. Shortly I will show you how Joshua and Jesus were originally the same names, but the Greek form of Jesus is the way it has come down to Christendom. In the Greek alphabet, numbers are attached to every letter. When we take the letters of our Lord's Name, they add up to 888. My students know that number 8 signifies regeneration. It is the most powerful single number we have, for it is the only numeral which is the cube of another number, namely, the number 2. Two times two times two = eight. When we cube the number 3, we get 27, which is no longer a single number. Thus we see that, numerically speaking, according to the Greek language, the name of Jesus is the most powerful that could possibly be put together! In the Bible, the regenerated person is depicted as being clothed in white (Rev. 3:4-5, 7:9,13-14), which again we see links with this Lebanon. When Joshua stood at Jordan, the waters were divided; our Lord also said that He came to divide the people and the families (Lk. 12:51-53; Matt. 10:34-36). Our number 2 is the first and basic number which links with division.

Now, back to the happy news of Joshua at the Jordan. But first I must remind you that his name was the shortened form of the very name by which the manger's Babe was christened: its fullness is Yahoshua. Its first part was the name of their God, while its shua ending denotes preservation.

Who led Israel across the Jordan into the Land of Promise and to Jericho's downfall? That was Joshua, which is the shortened form for Yahoshua. Here God was showing us by living drama how our Savior "Yahoshua" would take us into the Land of Promise; even from this Lebanon throughout the world's wilderness, conquering the kingdom of fear and making life a glorious success!

Moses stood for the Law, and its bondage. But now observe, just so soon as Moses was dead, and the newly appointed Joshua was accepted by the congregation, I repeat, just so soon as the great Yahoshua lifted the scepter of authority, and the people were ready to follow him, then divided asunder were the waters before them: the "kingdom of fear" trembled and went to utter ruin, and its moon-city of illusory lights and Lucifer-deceptions crumbled into the dust, just so soon as the followers of Yahoshua encircled it with the Keys to the Kingdom, trumpeting the truth of God! (Oh, what glory!)

Do you get the point? How could God make that any clearer? Just so soon as the Law, and man's bondage thereto is dead; just so soon as you realize that the great Yahoshua is able to take you dry-shod across the raging Jordan, and lead you victorious against the mooncity of Lucifer with all its twaddle, fear, and deceiving dogma; just that soon do you wake up to find that the heavensent Yahoshua is both able and willing to transform your life from a funeral dirge to a joyous wedding march! Lucifer's moon-city in the kingdom of fear crumbles to the ground, and you go to take the spoils! It is as simple as that! You personally need to do no fighting – it is the power of our invincible Yahoshua that gives you the glorious victory.

Hear the words of the great Yahoshua, Who is the ever-living Preserver for man, "Be strong and of good courage, for you shall inherit the entire `kingdom of fear' according to My oath unto your fathers."

Why should we not take God at His Word? Why read the Bible with fingers crossed, and run away to someone who is prepared to "interpret" the Word of God to mean something different than it says? As was later said to His people, "Why halt ye between two opinions?" (I Ki. 18:21). Decide here and now that you are going to accept the Word of God in its totality, or else take the Bible and all that pertains thereto and throw it in the rubbish. Take God at His word and try Him out!