'The Time and What Must Be Done' 2013 Lecture Series, Part 9
BY THE HONORABLE MINISTER LOUIS FARRAKHAN | LAST UPDATED: MAR 18, 2013 - 6:15:12 PM
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[Editor’s note: The following article contains a distillation of the hour-long message delivered by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan as Part 9 of his 52-week Lecture Series “The Time and What Must Be Done.” This message originally aired on Saturday, March 9, 2013. To order this message now available in its entirety on DVD and CD, please call 1.866.602.1230, ext. 200, or visit store.finalcall.com.
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.
Greetings to you. I am Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad: The Eternal Leader of The Nation of Islam, and that Great Preacher of Freedom, Justice and Equality to the Aboriginal People of the Earth, the Black Man and Woman of America in the Western Hemisphere, and a Warner to America and a Warner to the nations of the Earth.
Once again, it is my great privilege and honor to be able to speak to you on this timely subject given to us by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad: “The Time and What Must Be Done.”
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Last week, in Part 8 of this Lecture Series, I quoted from the Holy Qur’an, in the 2nd Chapter, verse 30, of this great Book of Guidance, where Almighty God Allah is speaking with the angels and telling them that He’s going to “place a ruler in the Earth.” And the angels questioned Him about His decision—but, they “extolled His Holiness,” and “gave Him praise for His Righteousness,” asking: “What will you place in it except that that will cause mischief and shed blood?” But Allah (God) said to them:“Surely I know what you know not.”
All of us are living in a world of “hate” and “division” and “bitterness” and “strife,” and “grief.” We’ve seen murderand rape and robbery and war and killing, where it does not even look like a prophet of God has ever walked among us, for the whole planet, it looks like, has gone into a Way of Rebellion against God, His Will and His Way. If righteousness was “The Standard” by which we judged and by which we lived; if we lived what Jesus gave to us as “The Golden Rule,” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and as Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said: “No man can be considered ‘righteous’ or a ‘Muslim’ unless he loves for his brother what he loves for himself”—but we have lived the exact opposite of these Great Teachings of The Prophets. And therefore, the world in which we lived has reached its “zenith” in confusion, in bloodshed, and in mischief-making and trouble.
And now we have reached, as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, “The end of this world and its system of things.”
So those of you who are scripturally wise should be looking for “The Coming” and “The Presence” of God, for it is written in the scriptures that God’s Coming is “after the working of Satan.” It is also written in The Gospels that when He comes, The Light of His Presence would be a “great light in the darkness,” and the wicked would be “consumed by the brightness of His Coming and The Spirit of his Mouth” for when He comes, He will speak Truth. And that Truth will undermine The Falsehood that this present world is based upon.
The ‘vicegerent’ allowed to exercise power and rule in the contrary world they built
In the Yusuf Ali translation of Surah 2, verse 30 in the Holy Qur’an, instead of using the word “ruler” he uses the word “vicegerent”: “I am going to place a vicegerent in the Earth...” And that word “vicegerent” means “a person exercising delegated power on behalf of a sovereign, or ruler”; a person regarded as an “Earthly Representative of God,” or “a God.”
Well, if God is going to place “a ruler” in the Earth, and give that ruler wisdom and power and dominion over the fowl of the air, the fish of the sea, and every creeping thing that crawls upon the Earth, then this “ruler” will build his own world over which he will be considered “a god,” “a vicegerent”: One standing in the place of God by God’s Permission—but not ruling in The Way and The Manner of God.
We have lived in such a world... And “The Good News” is that God is not “to come,” He is Present in the world in The Anointing of The Great Mahdi, Master Fard Muhammad, Who is in the world to set the world down that we are presently living in; and, set up a “Cornerstone” of a Righteous World that will have no end.
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This ruler, this “vicegerent,” has built a “world of evil.” And some of us love this world of evil, claiming “John 3:16” (“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son…”), that Jesus is the one that would give his life to save this world. But if you look carefully at that scripture: Jesus is willing to give his life not for this world, but for “the world” that he is bringing in.
The scripture teaches in The Old Testament, in the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 55, verses 7-9, that The Prophet Isaiah states: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
“I am from above, while you are from beneath”: These same words are found in The New Testament, in the Book of John, Chapter 8, verses 23-24, where Jesus of 2,000 years ago is saying something similar to the Jews of his day that he was in argument with. There was “Great Controversy” between Jesus and the Jews of that day; so, Jesus said to them in a very beautiful way regarding himself, and the world in which they are living—the world that they built: “And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”
What was Jesus saying to the Jewish people of his day? He said: “If you believe in me, then The Word that I preach to you: You will follow that Word. And if you follow that Word, you will come up out of your sins, and you would not perish.” So when the scripture teaches in John 3:16, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son…”—notice the next part of that same verse:“that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
So as I said before, the world in which we are presently living is a world that was “doomed” from its very beginning. And this world, now, is in peril; it is perishing, it is going down.
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Now when a man builds a “world,” what is he producing? In the dictionary, the word “world” means “the Earth, together with all its countries, people and natural features.” So a “world” is all of the people, societies and institutions on the Earth.
Well, this is what the Caucasian people have done; they have built “a world.” However, this is not “the world” set up by God,” this is “a world” permitted by God that was set up under a contrary way of rule—and that is the world in which we are living, “the world” that is under their rule and domination. And this is why Jesus said “you are from beneath,” meaning your world is from the flesh: Your world is from “beneath,” made from the weaker germ of The Original Man out of which you came.
But God is saying through Jesus, “I am from above,” meaning “my world, my way, my thoughts are from God,” and he is arguing with the Jewish people, telling them that “if you follow what I am saying to you, if you believe in what I’m saying, then you will do good.” So when this subject matter first began eight weeks ago, we quoted from the Holy Qur’an, Surah 103: “By the time! Surely man is in loss, Except those who believe and do good…”
Well, that argument Jesus was having with the Jews of his day is raging today! And as you read further in the Book of John, Chapter 8: Ultimately, Jesus gave up on the people to whom he was sent—and I want you to pay attention to the words he said to them: “I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.”
If The Revealed Word of God has “no place” in a people that have set up a world, then their world will be contrary to The Will and Way of God. And this is why today you are so confused, for Satan has made evil “fairseeming to you”; everything that God said “thou shalt not do,” the rulers of thisworld have made it “easy,” saying: “Whatever God said, that’s ‘yesterday’! We don’t have to do that today; we’re living in a modern time…”—and yet, God answers that foolish charge, saying, “I am God, and I change not,” for He sees all the way down the line of time!
You say God is “Omnipresent,” He’s “Omniscient,” He’s “All-Knowing,” so God does not have to “change.” And therefore, He comes at the end of this world to judge this world.
“The Discrimination,” “The Division” that God’s Presence brings into the world
Now, I want you to look at something that God said about what His Presence would bring. As we have studied scripture, we’ve read that Jesus is a “divider.” And just as you say of “Farrakhan,”“He’s divisive…”—so was Jesus! May I quote from his own lips, from several places in the Bible? Look at what Jesus states in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 10: “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, nay a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And they of a man’s own household will be his worst enemies.”
Jesus comes to bring division among those who want to hear The Truth, and correct their ways, repent of their evil and change their lives. That “Jesus,” then, will bring them out of this world and make them Citizens of The Kingdom of God.
Well again, in the Book of Luke, Chapter 12, verse 49—I want to quote from this, because Jesus is saying something that is so powerful if it is properly understood; Jesus says: “I am come to send fire on the earth. And what will I, if it be already kindled?” In the Book of John, Chapter 8, verse 12, Jesus states: “I am The Light of the world, he who follows me shall not walk in darkness.”
Continuing in the Book of Luke, Chapter 12, with verse 50, Jesus says: “But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!”; and in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 3, verses 7-12, when John The Baptist was baptizing the Pharisees and Sadducees with “water,” he says to them about “the one to come after him”: “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? … I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance.But he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire …”
The “light of the world” is The Sun itself; and, The Sun is “a great fire.” When Jesus comes, he comes with a Word that is like “fire” because it scorches the wicked, and it begins the destruction of the present world, its societies, its institutions and its rulers.
A Lesson from the Book of Luke: Pay attention to the prophets’ predictions
Study in The New Testament the Book of Luke, Chapter 17, verses 26-30, which states:
“And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”
The wicked in the days of Noah were partying and dancing and having fun when the end came. And when Lot went to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, warning them of their errant behavior, they laughed at him, and they mocked him—well, the scripture teaches that God burned Sodom and Gomorrah, because the people were partying, the were dancing, and giving in marriage. What are we doing today? We are not paying attention to the prophets’ predictions.
And I’m sorry to say, that most of the preachers; dear reverends, pastors and imams: You have run away from the preaching of “Judgment.” Why is that, when all the signs of The Judgment are in our face, and, the signs that herald “The Return of Jesus The Christ” are in our face? Why aren’t you preparing the people for His Coming? Look at what is happening! If The Judgment of this world is not in your sermons, then:How will your people have a desire to “clean up their act,” and repent?
How will those of us who lead the flock be willing to clean up our lives and repent of our wrongdoing, for The Kingdom of God is at hand?
When Jesus said in Luke 12, verse 50, “I have a baptism to be baptized with”—that, of course, is a “baptism of fire”; for he says in the following verses (51-52): “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.” What is happening in the households, that in the very houses the people, the family, is divided? It is because when The Truth that Jesus teaches comes into that house, it starts dividing the house. Some will say, “I believe,” begging to change their lives, and repent from the evil that they were found doing by The Word of God! And then others will say, “I will disagree”—and they will want to keep on doing evil. So, the house becomes “divided.”
And in verse 53, Jesus says to the people that they will see: “The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law”; likewise, in verses 54-55: “…When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is. And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass”—but then Jesus looks at them, and said: “You hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it that you do not discern this time?”
These are a people like unto the proverbial “swine,” whose nose is embedded in the filth, in the slop of this world’s life. Even though the “storm clouds” are gathering above the swine’s head, he is so busy in the slop that he does not look up to see that he should get in from out of The Storm. And unfortunately, we are like that: We are so busy partying, so busy “getting high,” so busy inour way that we’re not paying attention to The Signs of The Time, that we should get our lives in order that we may not perish in The Fall and Destruction of this present world.
The disease of our own wicked practices sentences our children to ‘death,’ ‘destruction’
Dear brothers and sisters, in the last book of The Old Testament, the Book of Malachi, I’d like for you to read what is written in the 4th Chapter, 1st verse: “Behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven. And all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble. And the day that cometh shall burn them up sayeth the Lord of Hosts, that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”
To those of you who listen, and read my words: We are “the root” of our children; our children are “the branch.”
Well, if this world is to be “set on fire,” and the fire is already kindled, then what about your love of your children? If this “tree” will be uprooted, meaning “wickedness” and “the power of this world to dominate the hearts of minds of The Human Family”—all of this is going to be destroyed! Then if we don’t change, if we are unwilling to change and we persist in evil, then we are sentencing not only ourselves, but our children, even, to death. That is a terrible prophecy in Malachi 4; nevertheless, it is now in force.
And in the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 14, verse 21 it states: “Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.” That is a tough prophecy in Isaiah; but, what we are trying to show you is that it is “our doing,” it is by the way you live your life that you can sentence your offspring to death.
If you wish to become a “crack addict,” and the mother is smoking crack, and she’s pregnant, then the baby comes into the world with less chance to live a “good life”; when we go out in these days when “sexual promiscuity” is at an all-time high, when The Wicked Satan of this world is titillating the entire Earth, particularly our young engaging in all kinds of sex where that which you are engaged in will bring you “disease”: The drugs you consume, that disease you have, will affect your “seed.” And if it affects your life germ, it affects your future.
When we come up with “disease,” that disease is not limited to “ourselves” because once we are pregnant with new life then we inflict that disease on those coming after us. And so it is with “the disease of wickedness”…
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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said to Harry Belafonte, “I fear that I am integrating my people into a burning house…” Well, the fire has already started. So if the world is set on fire by The Presence of Truth—that powerful Truth that was to come at “the end of the world” making “God” manifest, making “Satan” manifest, making “the two worlds” manifest; and then, putting all of us in “The Valley of Decision”: That Truth is in the world now! You are hearing it as we speak.
We have to make a Decision as to “which world” we want to be a part of. Do you want to continue with this “world”: The party life? The fun life? The drunken life? The adulterous life? The fornicatinglife? The life of sport and play? Go right ahead, if that’s what you want… But like the “Moses of Yesterday,” the Moses of today is setting before us “two signs”: One of Life and One of Death—and we implore you, we beg you, to choose “Life,” that you and your seed may live.
I quote to you from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s monumental book Message To The Blackman in America, Chapter “The Judgment,” under the section “Time is At Hand” on page 297: “[The Black people of America] (my people) are now in a time when they must decide on life or death. [For] the world we have known is on its way out, and it wishes to carry you and me [down] with it. …” And notice his next words: “But it will not...”—for he is sure that once The Right Path is made clear to you, you’ll make the right decision.
And in the Chapter “The Original Man,” under the section titled “If The Civilized Man Fails To Perform His Duty, What Must Be Done?” on page 46, he wrote: “It is written (Rev. 14:1) that 144,000 of us will accept and return to our God and people and the rest of my people will go down with the enemies of Allah. For this sad prophecy of the loss of my people I write what I am writing, hoping perhaps that you may be able to beat the old prophets’ predictions by making the truth so simple that a fool can understand it. …”
So when the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that the “144,000” John The Revelator saw coming out of this world was a very “sad prophecy”; that millions of us are going to go down with this world—for that sad prophecy, he said to me: “Through you I will get all of my people.” I am trying to make The Truth so plain, that a “fool” will find it hard to make a mistake.
Even if right now you’re a “little weak” in making your decision, The Chastisement of Allah that is in the world now, that will afflict “Black” and “White,” will force you to agree that “It is Time,” as Moses said, “to buckle on your boots and shoes” and let’s leave this present world; and get ourselves under “The Ark of God”—under His Truth, seeking refuge in Him.
Parables of Jesus we must study in order to make The Right Decision
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad also wrote in Message To The Blackman in America, in “The Time is At Hand”: “We are the lost members of the original black nation, and have been found and chosen by Allah to make a great nation—a nation under His Guidance to excel the nations of the past”; then he goes on to tell us to “study” certain Parables of Jesus found in the Book of Luke, Chapter 15.
Those of you who have a Bible in your house, get it down, dust it off; those of you who are dear pastors: Study “The Parables” that Jesus made of: “The Lost Sheep”; “The Prodigal Son”; “The Stone that The Builders Rejected”; “The Garden Taken From The Wicked Husbandmen and Given To Another”; and, “The Mustard Seed” becoming a tree under which “the beast found shade” and in which “the birds found rest.” In the exegesis, or “explanation,” of the Parable of “The Prodigal Son” as taught to us by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad: There were two sons; and one son wanted his earnings from his father, and left his father’s house and went into a strange land, and tried to join himself on to a citizen in that strange land.
The “Prodigal Son” had squandered all of what he had in his father’s house, and fell down in that land. He had a “job”—he was “feeding swine” and “husking corn”; and then when a great famine arose in that land, he then began to think of his father’s house: “I think I will arise and go to my father, for in my father’s house: a servant in my father’s house is living better than I.” And the scripture teaches that when he started journeying toward the father, the father looked and saw him coming “a long way off,” and went out to meet him; fell on his son’s neck, kissed him, and brought him home. Then, the father asked that a robe be put that son; a ring be put on his finger, and, thefatted calf be killed for him. However, the brother that was always at home, who had never transgressed, was upset! And that brother said: “But this son went into a strange land, living with the harlots and the sinners, and engaging in such. But on him you put the robe on him! You put the ring on him! And for him you killed the fatted calf!” And the father said: “Rejoice. Rejoice, for this that was dead is alive now… And this that was lost is now found.”
Look at yourself, Black man and woman of America and the Western hemisphere! Here we are, “eating at the slop trough” of filth and indecency: You are like “feeding swine,” who feed on the filth of this world’s life.
I would hope that you would “wake up,” and say: “I think I’ve had enough. I am going to arise, and go to my Father…,” for “The Robe” is waiting for you, and so is “The Ring.” And so is “The Fatted Calf.” You must make a decision for your life.
But I say also, “Woe!” to The Trouble-Maker; Woe to The Mischief-Maker—to the one who wants to put all of us “at odds” against each other! For now you will have to eat from “the bowl of food” that you have prepared for yourself and your children! If you are wise, America, you will flee from the coming disasters and The Calamities, and say: “I want to change my way of living”—yes, even though you are wicked, yet God will have Mercy on you if you turn to the Path of Righteousness, and do Justice by that People that God has Chosen for Himself.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is looking at the work of this world, and through The Word he teaches, that “Fire” that in his mouth is burning up the Political System; The Fire of Truth is burning up your Educational System, and it is burning up your Religious System. All of the religions have failed to produce “the fruit” that God is looking for, so He said, “Behold, I make all things new”—there will be a “new heaven” and a “new Earth,” and “the former things shall pass away.” Why don’t you come out of “the old,” and become a part of The New?
I pray that this Series of Lectures on “The Time and What Must Be Done” will help you to look back at scripture, look back at what you believe; and then apply The Standard of Righteous to our thoughts and our actions:
Are our thoughts “from above,” or, our actions “above”?
Are we “upright” in our dealing?
Or, are we crawling like the snakes in the grass, or living like the beasts of the field?
We’re putting before you “the picture,” so you decide! And then decide like “The Prodigal Son”: “I will arise, and go to my Father.”
