by Norbert Link
The number of this week’s Update is 1,000, meaning that we, in the Church of the Eternal God, have published 1,000 weekly Updates since we began publication on or about August 25, 2001. These initial issues had a humble beginning with just one page or a few pages of Church announcements and of some news developments, but soon, beginning with Update #32, we added a regular Editorial and, commencing with Update #54, a regular Bible study which we named “Q&A”—with our Current Events (News) section having reached over the years a sizeable scope as well. Our weekly Updates have grown to in excess of 20 pages on average.
Is there any significance to the fact that we have now reached now the milestone of 1,000 editions of our weekly Updates? We believe there is.
In the Bible, the number 10 has great significance… even more so, of course, 10x10x10.
We explain in our free booklet, Hidden Secrets in the Bible, that the biblical number 10 stands for godly judgment. And so, God is judging us as to how well we have performed so far, realizing that there is of course always room for improvement in our search for excellence, but we believe that God is also judging those who were reached over the years with the Gospel message—and even those who could have been reached, but who refused to respond by closing their ears and shutting their eyes. Yes, God is judging and evaluating us as to how we have responded to the preaching of His Word and whether we have turned to or from God’s Way of Life.
We say in our above-mentioned booklet that God gave us the law of the Ten Commandments, which is still in force and effect today, and it is by that law that we will be and are being judged. God also asked us to pay Him His tithe—ten percent of our increase—and we will be judged as to how diligent we are in fulfilling His command.
God brought judgment upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians and their false religion (Exodus 12:12; Numbers 33:4), by striking them with ten plagues—the tenth plague being the death of every Egyptian firstborn. God told Abram that He would not destroy Sodom if ten righteous were to be found in it (Genesis 18:32), but Sodom was judged as lacking even ten righteous people. We also read that during God’s judgment, only ten out of one hundred people (that is, 10%) will be left in the cities of Israel (Amos 5:3).
There are ten generations from Adam to Noah (Genesis 5), and God judged the world at the time of Noah when He destroyed it in a Flood. At the time of Moses, the children of Israel rebelled ten times against God in the wilderness (Numbers 14:22), judging themselves as unworthy to enter the Promised Land (verse 23).
We read about ten virgins in the end time—five of them are judged as being foolish, and five as being wise. The five foolish ones are not too concerned with using the Holy Spirit that had been given to them, while the five wise virgins—even though they also fell asleep with the others—had still enough Holy Spirit within them to be able to prepare and make themselves ready for their Master’s return. The church in Smyrna was to be tested for ten days, but if they were judged to be faithful, they would inherit eternal life (Revelation 2:10).
All these examples, and there are many more, show that 10 (or a duplication of the number 10) signifies evaluation and judgment in many cases. We believe that God has given His Church the end-time responsibility of preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God to this dying world as a witness, which includes a warning message of doom and destruction, unless there is repentance, and God’s Church is also to feed the flock and to nourish them in the Word of God. Yes, God is judging all of us as to how well we are fulfilling this responsibility, collectively and individually, and He is evaluating and judging all of those who have responded to His Word and are changing their lives for the better, as well as those who returned to the world, or refused to listen even though they were given the opportunity to respond.
We do not know how much time we have left before the Great Tribulation begins, and how many more weekly Updates we can produce in combination with our other activities and services, with the hope of reaching as many people as possible, but as much as we have opportunity, we will continue to do the Work and “march onward” as “Christian soldiers,” knowing that time IS running out.
