Ewald Frank

preached on 12. 5. 1991, 14:30, Bremen,

Topic: "God’s Whole Plan Of Salvation!" Part 1

broadcast on 22. 8. 2026

I would like to extend a warm welcome to you all in the precious name of the Lord. And I wish that together we may receive God’s richest blessing on this day, this afternoon. As I said earlier, we wish we could always have a full hall, for the message we have is truly God’s message, the gospel of Jesus Christ with all that it entails, with all the promises for the end times, with everything God has in His plan. And it would actually be best if the whole world were to learn what God has in store for humanity, what His plan looks like and in what way He is now bringing it to fulfillment, indeed to completion in our day.

Before we pray and ask God for His blessing, I would like to read a few verses from Luke chapter 4 before the prayer. Luke chapter 4 verses 17 to 22. I would ask that we all stand for this. Luke chapter 4 verses 17 to 22:

[17] And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,

[18] The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

[19] To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

[20] And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

[21] And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

[22] And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?

Thus ends the reading.

Heavenly Father, we ask you for your grace, for your presence, for the guidance of your Holy Spirit. O God, you are not a concept nor an illusion. You are the Creator of heaven and earth. You are the Supreme Judge. You are Saviour and Lord. You are a personal God who entered into fellowship with mankind. You created us in your image.

We ask you, O Lord, speak to us in a very special way through your Word and through your Spirit. Make us still before your presence, that we may sit at your feet and take in the sweet words from your mouth, so that you may bless them and that they may bear fruit. Together we ask you, let us lay aside the cares and troubles of daily life. Forgive us all our sins. Be gracious to us for the sake of your great mercy.

Indeed, crown us with mercy and lovingkindness, so that we too may join with your servant David in saying: “Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name… who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases.” [Psa 103:1, 3]

May you save, heal, set free and bless us today. Yes, beloved Lord, you who have risen, reveal yourself as the living one, as the one who speaks, as the one who acts, as the one who is present, as the bridegroom of our souls, who will soon return.

Once again we ask you, be in our midst according to the Word of promise, which you yourself have given. “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” [Mat 18:20]

Be in our midst today and do us good according to your great mercy and loving kindness. We thank you for this. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

You may be seated.

Today we shall not merely address a single topic, but consider a whole series of scriptures, so that God may speak to us in a comprehensive manner. It would be good if you were to make a note of these scriptures and perhaps read them for yourselves later. For this is how we are told of the church at Berea: “They were more noble and searched the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” [Act 17:11]

It is absolutely essential that we examine what is being preached, but it is just as essential that we examine it by the Word of God, not by our own teaching or by the doctrine of the church to which we belong or the denomination or fellowship, that we do not judge from our own standpoint, but first of all place ourselves in the divine standpoint, and that has already been laid down in the Bible. And once we have placed ourselves in this biblical divine standpoint, it is still necessary to think the thoughts of God and under the anointing and guidance of the Holy Spirit to see the Word as the prophets and apostles saw it, without our own opinions, without our own interpretations, but quite simply through the revelation of the Holy Spirit to get to the heart of the matter, just as the prophets and apostles did.

Perhaps I might like to emphasize once more, ladies and gentlemen, dear brothers and sisters, that of course I would have been delighted to see a thousand people before me. I am after all one of those who have had the privilege of preaching to large crowds. I mentioned it somewhere over the last few days. It happened in Kinshasa, formerly Leopoldville, where we had, I believe, hired the stadium, which could hold 8,000 or more people. And when I arrived at the grounds, there were at least 3,000 to 4,000 people outside. And I thought to myself, the doors haven’t even opened yet, and the people are already here. I was delighted that so many had come.

And when I finally reached the door, the entrance, two men suddenly grabbed me by the arms, from the right and left, and said: “We won’t let you in unless you make sure that we get to hear the sermon too.” And lo and behold, the hall was packed, the doors were closed, and thousands were standing outside to hear the Word of God. And they really wouldn’t let me go unless they were assured that all those thousands outside would still be able to hear the Word via a broadcast over the loudspeakers.

Here at the front I can see a lovely elderly lady, whom I believe I have known the longest. She heard me preach in 1953 at a large conference in Bornum in the Harz Mountains. I was still very young at the time. I began preaching at the age of 18 after sensing the divine calling which was then confirmed to me by the Lord on the 2nd of April 1962.

Now we come to the topic of the day. As we have already announced, we will be touching upon and briefly discussing a number of points. These concern the greatest events of world-shaking significance. The question is where these events are leading, where they will culminate. It is also about whether the promised return of Jesus Christ is now truly imminent. Are there only vague answers to all these questions which we come up with ourselves, or are there clear statements on the matter in the Word of God? And these are precisely the points we wish to explore today in order to gain a biblical, divine perspective.

For when people are mistaken about earthly matters such as a career path and also make other wrong decisions in life which they later regret and then make anew, that is one thing. But when it comes to eternity, when it really comes down to what the Americans call… when it is a matter of taking the path from which there is no turning back, no going back but which commits us to our eternal destiny, then it is indeed necessary to know whether the matter has a purpose, whether that purpose is divine and biblical or whether we are merely deluding ourselves or others.

And since there are now so many voices on earth, and please do understand me correctly, I am not here to pass judgment, but there really are so many voices, and they all claim to come from God, they all believe they are in the right. We have so many churches, denominations and fellowships right down to the smallest groups, and they all say: “We are in the right, you must come to us to be saved.”

It was, after all, the Roman church that began with this notion of salvation, and it is written black and white in its literature. It is said: “Whoever does not have the church as their mother cannot have God as their father,” and much more besides. People are saved there throughout their lives, from infant baptism to the last rites. And at the end comes the confession that one must admit the brother or sister has not ascended, but has descended into an invented purgatory, and so on.

I mention this only—and please do not take it as criticism, but as the pain of my soul—because millions of people are being misled in the name of God and with the Bible with misinterpreted words. They are being led astray from what God actually intended, and that is a great sorrow.

Then we come to all the free churches and fellowships, and when you then see that people are being led astray even from the very essence of the matter at hand, it makes you feel quite sick. I am, after all, someone who knows the churches and denominations. I come from those circles myself, and when I make these remarks, it is really only to give us a wake-up call so that no one assumes that the matter is automatically correct, but rather that everyone should convince themselves on the basis of the Word of God whether it really does correspond to what the apostles and prophets proclaimed in the name of the Lord, whether the practice we see today is in line with that of early Christianity, and whether the details fit together perfectly.

And for this reason, let us have a brief Bible study, so that we may then turn to the part concerning the end times. For I am convinced that this is very important. There have been or are within the era of the Christian Church or the Christian period two generations of particular significance as regards the prophetic nature and cause of the plan of salvation. The first generation lived at the time of Christ’s first coming. And if we wish to understand what God is doing now according to his Word, we must also look back to see what he did back then.

Back then he sent a forerunner. One might ask: “Did the Lord God need a man to prepare the way for him, to arrange everything so beautifully for him?” Oh yes, this is what is written. And I would like to read these two scriptures from the Old Testament to you, so that we may gain a little insight into what God is doing: namely Isaiah chapter 40, verse 3:

[3] The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

And the second scripture is found in the book of Malachi chapter 3, verse 1:

[1] Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me.

These two scriptures are summarized in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1. Here the man of God in the New Testament directly grounded the divine work of redemption in the prophetic Word. Thus the New Testament began, firstly, with the fulfillment of Bible prophecy, and secondly, with the man of God in the New Testament grounding the divine work of redemption which they were then witnessing and experiencing on the prophetic Word.

I shall read from Mark chapter 1, verse 1:

[1] The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;

[2] As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.

[3] The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

What does God wish to tell us today through such a word? Not “I think, I mean, perhaps”, but men sent by God under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit foretold in the Old Testament what would happen, and in the New Testament they placed what happened within its biblical context, and the Old and New Testament agree one hundred percent, praise be to the name of the Lord.

If we have now been commissioned by God to proclaim his Word, it is surely not to tell a few stories, or interpret a few parables. Rather, at this decisive moment in the history of the plan of salvation, we must be able to set before people, on the basis of the Old and New Testament, the promises, and then also their fulfillment.

Look, in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 11, the Lord Jesus was asked about John the Baptist, who was sent as a forerunner, as one who would prepare the way. And he gave the following answer. Matthew chapter 11. Here we read from verse 9:

[9] But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet.

[10] For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.

Here the Lord Jesus bore witness to John the Baptist, and he did not speak off the cuff, but based what he said on Scripture. That is what matters today, not stirring up excitement with lots of hallelujah and so forth, but a true proclamation of the true Word of God, to bring God and his plan of salvation closer to the people of this generation, so that they may make their own decision as to whether they wish to share in it or not.

We read in our introduction from Luke chapter 4, where our Lord was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah, and he opened chapter 61 and read from it. And suddenly, when he had finished reading, he said: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” [Lk 4:21] He closed the book, and blessed words came from his mouth. So, our Lord, the prophets and the apostles, they all drew from the same divine source, the same Word.

In Hebrews 1, verse 1, it is written that “God spoke to the fathers in diverse manners through the prophets, but in these last days he spoke to us through the Son”. [Heb 1:1-2] And in the Son, God has summed up all things; “the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.” [Joh 1:14] Men of God, whether in the Old or New Testament, have always communicated to the people whatever was currently on the agenda in God’s plan of salvation. That is what they spoke of, and that is what they wrote about.

I would like to read a few passages concerning the responsibility associated with the divine calling from the Epistle to the Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1, verse 24:

[24] Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

[25] Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God.

We can see, after all, that it is not a philosopher or a theologian speaking here, but a man of God who was conscious of his responsibility before God. He knew, after all, that he was not acting on his own initiative, but had been placed in this ministry by virtue of a divine calling. He had no choice, for God had appointed him to it. Here he says: “Whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me by God”—not by a committee, not by some seminary, not from anywhere, but by God—“which is given to me for you.” [Col 1:25] And to what end, what was the objective? “To fulfill the Word of God.”

We read in Isaiah 55 that the Word of God will not return void, but will accomplish what God sent it to do. [Isa 55:11] But Romans chapter 10 says: “How can anyone preach unless they are sent? How can people believe unless they hear?” [Rom 10:14-15] So God can only accomplish through his word what he sent it to do when that specific Word of promise has been preached and has been believed, and God can watch over this Word that we receive so that it may then become a divine reality within us and through us.

This is not about theory today. Today we are talking about divine reality in your life and in mine. We see in Jesus Christ, our Lord, the Word made flesh, how it actually came about. [Joh 1:14] The angel Gabriel came to Mary and delivered the message that she would give birth to a son whom she was to name Emmanuel, for he would save his people from their sins. [Mat 1:21, 23; Luk 1:26, 31] See, this is God’s way, the Word of promise. And when the Word of promise is received, then the Spirit of promise comes to bring to life within us the Word that we have received. Only in this way the new birth is possible.

There are many people today who speak of being born again, of conversion, of other experiences. And as I said yesterday, or the day before, either in Hamburg or Berlin, on one of my recent flights across the United States, the flight attendant greeted me with the words: “Have you been born again?” And of course I said: “I am born again, but what about you?” That was my spontaneous reaction. And then I was told: “Half the population of the United States of America are born-again Christians, including Jimmy Carter and all the rest of them.” If only that were the case, then we would thank God from the bottom of our hearts, for then the world would look very different today.

Jesus said in the Gospel of John, chapter 3: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” [Joh 3:3]

We can preach about the kingdom of God, we can dream of it, we can sing about it, but we shall not see it, unless we have been born again, through the divine seed of the Word, by the begetting of the Holy Spirit, unto a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. [1Pt 1:3]

You, ladies and gentlemen, dear brothers and sisters, have not come here this afternoon for me to present you a scheme or create a bit of a religious atmosphere, rather you are here today, whether you knew it beforehand or not, doesn’t matter now, you know it now at the very latest, you are here today, to be informed by God, about God and with God, to be made familiar with what he has foretold in his Word, and the rest is then up to you. Only on the Day of Judgement will no one be able to complain to me that it didn’t work out, but that they had missed the mark.

From James chapter 1, I’ll read what pertains to this topic we’ve just touched upon. James chapter 1, verse 18:

[18] Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

So there are indeed always two things, theory and practice. In theory, if we were to go round the churches today and ask, “Have you been born again?” they would all say they have been born again. And you would hardly find anyone in Christian circles who would dispute that. But where are the people who have received the Word of Truth as divine seed, which is the prerequisite for being born of God? No birth comes from blowing of the wind or falling of rain. Seed must be present.

Seed is present where union takes place, where a union of love takes place. And so man must be united with God and divine seed must be planted in his heart. And then the Holy Spirit comes upon the divine seed to create new divine life within us and to transform children of man into children of God. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the pure truth.

In 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 23, we read the following:

[23] Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.

These were men of God. They proclaimed the truth to us. So the question now is, whether we have personally had this experience with God. And I shall also tell you why I am raising this question in this way.

Paul writes to the Corinthians, “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him.” [1Cor 2:14] Spiritual things must be discerned spiritually, but before that can happen, we must be born of the Spirit and filled with the Spirit, so that we may receive grace upon grace from his fullness. [Joh 1:16]

I shall read to you the words from 1 Corinthians, chapter 2. One could read many verses. They can be looked up. 1 Corinthians, chapter 2, from verse 6 right up to almost verse 16. I shall read only verse 14:

[14] But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

I am thinking here of Professor Brunner who held a very high position amongst the Protestant professors of theology in Basel and Zurich and other prestigious cities such as Marburg and so on. And he spoke or wrote about the mystery of the Godhead. And in it he writes and explains: “One can tell the intellect time and again, there are three up there who are to be one, yet it remains merely a command, it cannot be grasped by the intellect.” He was not granted the grace to see God’s revelation as it is, namely not that three come together in unity, but that the one God has revealed himself as Father in the Son and through the Holy Spirit in order to be able to realize his own plan of salvation for humanity.

Let us return to what God’s servants receive from the Lord in terms of commission and ministry. To this end I shall read from 1 Corinthians chapter 4, 1 Corinthians chapter 4, just two verses:

[1] Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

[2] Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.

God has mysteries that are not accessible or comprehensible to the general public. If we think of Matthew 13, there the Lord took his disciples aside and said: “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the others it is not given.” [Mat 13:11] And then he summarizes what he wished to express so clearly in the following verses and words. Matthew 13, verses 16 and 17:

[16] But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.

[17] For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

“Blessed are your eyes, for they see.”

I am not God; I cannot presume to judge why one person believes and another does not, why one sees and another does not, why one is saved and another is lost. That is not my decision. For it is God’s will that all people be saved, and that they all come to the knowledge of the truth. [1Tim 2:4] Yet God knew and recognized before the foundation of the world who would believe and who would not. Thus he was able to inscribe the names of those who would believe into the Book of Life, even before the foundation of the world, as is recounted to us in Revelation 13 and in other scriptures. [Rev 13:8]

Let us return to the next passage from 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and then we shall straight come to the specific point under consideration. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, here we read verses 19 to 21:

[19] To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

[20] Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

[21] For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

So here we have before us the redemption that has taken place. God wanted to save humanity. God is eternal. His plan is an eternal plan. God is not content for man to blossom like a rose and then slowly wither away and cease to be. God created man in his own image to have eternal fellowship with him. [Gen 1:27]

Since the fall, man has been lost, separated from God and fallen under the influence of the evil one. And here is the point. The twisting and distortion of the Word is not just 2000 years old. It began in the Garden of Eden, there the enemy came in the form of the serpent and said: “Did God really say?” [Gen 3:1] That was when the enemy of God began to sow doubt in people’s hearts, doubt regarding God and God’s Word.

Even today, humanity is plagued by doubts regarding God and God’s Word. And these are demons that torment people, causing them to ask, time and again: “Well, is God’s Word even true, who was actually there and who can confirm it?” and so on. Whether or not I was present at the creation, the majestic creation still exists today, just as God brought it into being. The question is not at all whether we were there. The question is whether we have common sense and realize that there must surely be a Creator behind this majestic creation.

How can there be a creation without a Creator? If I were to tell you that this desk made itself, you would be scratching your heads, perhaps even mine. No, there is nothing that has made itself. God is the Creator of all things. And anyone who understands the universe even a little, there will know more than Lindbergh did when he crossed the ocean in the first aeroplane at the end of the 1920s. My dear friends, I have been to 104 countries. It is far better to preach to the pagans than to unbelieving Christians.

Do you believe me? Of course, because there you can truly present the divine message and you can proclaim the Word of God from the heart. Here you still have to hear: “Prove it, prove it!”

I’ll never forget that day. It was a man from Hamburg. I was traveling with him on the ship from Europe to Newfoundland, and he saw me reading the Bible. You do have time to read the Bible over the course of those 11 days. And lo and behold, he came over and said: “Are you reading that fairy tale book?”

And I thought to myself: “The Word of God, which is so precious to me, he is describing it as a fairy tale book.” I said: “My dear sir, rest assured, we shall meet again on this journey.” And lo and behold, it happened very soon after. He wanted everything to be proven and demonstrated to him.

Then finally I simply said: “If you show me your intellect, then I will show you God.” And he began to fidget. I said: “Show me your intellect, right here and now.” He said: “I can’t do that.” I said: “You are too stupid to show me your intellect, and yet you demand that I show you the Almighty God.” And then things really got going.

Back then I was young and quick-witted. Today I’ve grown old. See, what are these days all about? It is about that we agree with God and not casting doubt on anything he has said in his Word.

Here, in this passage, 2 Corinthians 5, the servants of God are described as messengers, as ambassadors of Christ, who have been placed in an office, a ministry, a calling, and the responsibility namely to call on behalf of Christ: “Be ye reconciled to God.” [2Cor 5:20] God’s reconciliation with humanity has taken place in Christ. There is only one personal revelation of God on earth and that is in Jesus Christ our Lord. The prophets spoke of him and the Word came to them, but there was only one who could say: “Whoever sees me sees the Father, I and the Father are one.” [Joh 10:30; Joh 14:9]

“So God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.” [2Cor 5:19]

It is a finished work of redemption, fully accomplished and carried out and perfected by God. We need only accept what God has already given us by grace. And that is why the Gospel is proclaimed, so that people might become believers.

I would like to read from Titus. Titus chapter 1, verses 1-3:

[1] Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;

[2] In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

[3] But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour.

Here we come to the point. The Word, the counsel of God, was established from eternity. The prophets foretold what would happen. And then the apostles put the foretold and unfolding events into context and were able to write, at the appointed time, proclaimed through the preaching on behalf of God.

There were men who did not speak of their own accord. I believe it is written in the Gospel of John, chapter 8, that whoever speaks of his own accord bears witness to himself, but whoever speaks in the name of the Lord bears witness to the Lord.

Two scriptures, one from John 8, verse 12, here our Lord says:

[12] Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

In John, chapter 7, we read from verse 16:

[16] Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.

And now comes the crucial point, please listen carefully:

[17] If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

So this still applies today, only to those who are truly willing from the heart to know and do the will of God, will the will of God be revealed. All others have an inherent resistance, and they resist the Spirit and the Word of God.

But as it is written, I shall read it once more:

[16] Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.

[17] If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

[18] He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true; and no unrighteousness is in him.

What a glorious word! I am so grateful to God that I do not need to represent a church, nor even have my own mission work. God has placed me in a cause; I wish to serve everyone, all God’s children.

As the Lord said: “If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all the children of God unto me.” [Joh 12:32] Today it is no longer a matter of building a church. Today it is about the calling out, the preparation, and the completion of the church of Jesus Christ. Which church then are we to build?

My dear friends, we are here today, and if that comes as a shock, so be it, but we are here today to hear God’s true Word. In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 16, Jesus said: “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” [Mat 16:18] He did not say to Peter: “You build My church.” He did not say to Paul: “You build My church.” He established various ministries within the church. He Himself has redeemed the church, He builds the church, He perfects the church, and He will return to gather the church which He purchased on the cross of Calvary.

So no one can say that it is this person’s or that person’s church. Rather, insofar as we have become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ, we are part of the Lord’s Church which consists of all languages, peoples, and nations, and all denominations, indeed all who are born again unto a living hope, and baptized into one body by the Holy Spirit in accordance with 1 Corinthians chapter 12 from verse 12.

Let us turn to the divine commission, for this I shall read from the book of Acts, chapter 1, verse 2 and 3:

[2] Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen.

There are two kinds of situations, there are those who imagine they have a commission, and there are those who are acting on His commission, who would have no idea what to do unless they had been specifically commissioned in some way. If we look at the Old Testament, the commissions of the men of God were always different. Noah had his commission, Abraham his, Enoch his, Moses his, Joshua his, Job, whoever they all were, Elijah, Elisha, whoever they all were, not one of them copied the other. Each had his own unique commission, and concerning Noah it is written, “he did everything exactly as the Lord had commanded him” [Gen 6:22], and concerning Moses it is written, “he did everything as it had been shown to him on the holy mount” [Heb 8:5], and of Elijah it is written in 1 Kings 18, “I have done all this according to the word of the Lord.” [1Kin 18:36]

So men of God are placed in God’s work by virtue of a divine calling in order to proclaim to humanity the Word of the hour and that which is currently part of God’s plan in accordance with the progression of the plan of salvation. True men of God have an overview of what God has done in the past, is doing in the present, and will do in the future.

There are those who simply look down on the Bible disregardfully and say: “Huh, that’s just a book that tells of Israel and what happened 2000 years ago, what I am supposed to do with this book, they are all just old stories, what use are these old stories to me today in the 20th century, who were these people anyway, Paul or Matthew or Peter, John, those people, why should I care about them today?”

You see, that’s not how it is at all. It’s quite different. God has had his servants and messengers throughout the ages. What we need to find is this common thread of Bible prophecy that runs through the Old and New Testament, where we see God shedding light on the past, present and future and gain an overview of the entire plan of salvation of our God.

I mean, it is written in Hebrews, in connection with the Old Testament. Here in Hebrews 3 the man of God recorded and expressed the following. Hebrews chapter 3, verse 5:

[5] And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after.

Not just the Ten Commandments, not just all the descriptions of sacrifices, he was appointed to bear witness to what was later to be proclaimed as revelation.

Let us read in the last book of the Bible, in chapter 1, verse 1, where the following words are written:

[1] The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John.

So it is not just the past, but the future, the entire future of the church that has been illuminated and the seven church-age messages have a prophetic character in the plan of salvation. And we are now living in the final church-age, the age of the church at Laodicea, and have by grace heard the final message, in which all mysteries have been summarized and revealed by grace. We therefore have no partial truths to proclaim. Please also take this as it is. This is not a judgment, let alone a condemnation, but merely a statement of fact.

When God brought about the new beginning in the days of the reformation, not everything was revealed all at once. It happened step by step. Justification by faith, that was the first breakthrough. We must picture it this way. Right up until the Middle Ages, everyone, whether Jew or Christian, who did not belong to the Roman church, was fair game. There was no open proclamation of the gospel, the Bible was banned, the clergy could do as they pleased. And I lived through the time when Catholics were not allowed to read the Bible.

Now everything has changed, because there was no stopping it now. But back then, it was quite different. Only the village mayor and the pastor could read. Today everyone can read. Today everyone can write.

But look, God has made a new beginning since the days of the reformation. There were men in Switzerland, in Spain, in Holland, in Germany, in England, everywhere. Here Wycliffe, here Hus, over there Zwingli, over there Calvin, Luther, Schwenkfeld, Erasmus in Rotterdam. There was no stopping it now. The breakthrough had come. God had made a new beginning.

And Martin Luther was the greatest man of God we have ever had. Schwenkfeld, his companion, had already gone beyond what Luther had in terms of insight. But we shall not go into that in detail now. In any case, a truly new beginning has been made by God.

After that came revival after revival. John Wesley and many others arose to proclaim the Word, William Booth and all the others. And then came Moody, then Sankey, then Finney, then they came, and right up to the turn of the century, Wigglesworth here, Dr. Price there. God had men everywhere at all times.

But now we are living in the last days. And if you, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, dear brothers and sisters, if you think that I do not know what I am talking about, then you are mistaken. I would not travel around the world if I did not know what I was talking about and in whom I believe. We are living in the end times. We shall come to this very clearly in a brief summary shortly.

What is important is that we understand the spiritual aspect, namely that God leads his people from knowledge to knowledge, from clarity to clarity, from justification through faith in Jesus Christ, in the work of redemption accomplished on the cross, to sanctification in the Word of truth, from sanctification in the Word of truth, to the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and from baptism in the Holy Spirit to the infilling with the fullness of God, of which Paul has already written, until all things are restored and returned to the state in which the church stood at the beginning. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the one who is, who was and who is to come, just as he worked in the beginning, so he will do in the end. [Rev 1:8; Rev 22:13]

The church, which God is now calling forth, in which all things are being restored, must in the end be found in the same state, in the same power and with the same doctrine. Everything must be and will be in the end just as it was in the beginning.

When Jesus returns, the following is written of him and the event of his return in Matthew 25:

[10] And those who were ready went in with him to the marriage supper, and the door was shut.

There are people who say that the Lord Jesus has already come, and that makes me smile a little, even though it pains me. But I say, as long as I am still on earth, he has not come, for when he comes, I shall go. It is written: “I go to prepare a place for you, and I will come again to take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14, 1 to 3. And that’s how it remains.

Jesus will not come to this earth. That is why he warned, and had it written as follows: “When people say, He is here, or He is there, He is in the wilderness, He is in the secret chambers, believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall all also the coming of the Son of Man be.” [Mat 24:23, 26-27]

And when it comes to the Word of God, Brother Frank knows no compromise. You can have my head, but no compromise. Did you hear that? You can have my head, you can behead me, but you shall get no compromise from me when it comes to God’s Holy Word. For I have been called to preach the truth of God’s Word, and I am prepared to pay for it with my life. That was very clear.

We’ll move on now. Anyone who needs to leave is free to do so. We are not angry with anyone. After all, time is limited for everyone…