The following Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The readings and commentary for this week are more in line with what has become usual; for the following will most likely be familiar observations. The concept behind this Sabbath’s selection is raising the spiritually lifeless.
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Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of September 25,2010
The person conducting the Sabbath service should open services with two or three hymns, or psalms, followed by an opening prayer acknowledging that two or three (or more) are gathered together in Christ Jesus’ name, and inviting the Lord to be with them.
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And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, He said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” And they asked him, “Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?” And He said, “See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them. And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once.” / Then He said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name's sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives. (Luke 21:5–19 emphasis added)
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Beginning in the last great Depression—the previous occasion when American progressives [American socialists] obtained control of both the executive and legislative branches of the Federal Government as Fascists [National Socialists] obtained control of Germany and Communists [International Socialists] threatened the Colonial world—an American Sabbatarian ministry drew followers into what could be described as Theistic Socialism; i.e., belief in a soon-coming, world-ruling theocracy fashioned on Marxist principles, a top-down autocratic reign over human beings that was for their own good, a theocracy that permitted no dissent and had no tolerance for diversity. And using fear of eternal damnation and his advertising skills, Herbert W. Armstrong, the principle and for years, sole advocate for Theistic Socialism broadcasted his version of what The World Tomorrow would be like to America, then beginning in 1953, nineteen years later, to the world.
Theistic Socialism was, for Armstrong, a “racial truth” as well as a “spiritual truth” … absorbing the Zeitgeist of racism that was influencing socialists worldwide, Armstrong explicated biblical prophecy without being called by God to do so. A decade or so earlier, his wife, Loma, had a vision that God had a great work for Herbert to do, and Armstrong interpreted this vision to mean that he was to preach the gospel that The kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matt 10:7). But the kingdom of God was not at hand. However, for five, almost six decades, Armstrong wore out two generations of saints with his message that The Kingdom was at hand.
Armstrong was a man truly called by God, but called to bring to an end the last Elijah’s second attempt to breathe life into the corpse of Christ. He was called to bring certain knowledge to the saints so that the third attempt by the last Elijah to breathe life into the Church could successfully be brought to fruition. And at the end of his life, Armstrong delivered the still-lifeless Body of Christ back to the glorified Jesus: this Body of Christ remains spiritually lifeless to this day, but not for much longer. … Armstrong, himself, never taught that saints were born of God as sons: he knew that his disciples were spiritually lifeless, and with very few exceptions, that was true. Whereas Catholic Christendom, Reformed Christendom, and Evangelical Christendom teach that human beings are born physically with indwelling immortal souls—a falsehood coming from the Adversary—Armstrong was a good enough reader of Scripture to realize that eternal life is the gift of God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6:23) and is not received from a man having his way with a woman. Although he never understood what Paul wrote, he understood enough to teach his disciples that they were not born again, or born of God, which was true. His disciples, coming closer to breathing on their own that any disciples since the 1st-Century, were correct in believing that they were not born of God. Unfortunately, Armstrong used the archaic word “begotten” to describe the spiritual status of his disciples, the status of a fetus in a womb. But fetuses do not drink milk or eat solid food. They receive “nourishment” through an umbilical cord, which in Scripture is seen in shadow as the first Elijah taking the dead [breathless] son of the widow of Zarephath in his arms and carrying the youth up into the upper chamber where he, Elijah, lodged. There he, Elijah, laid the lad on his bed:
And he [Elijah] cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child's life [breath] come into him again.” And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.” (1 Kings 17:20–24)
Elijah laying over the lad (stretching himself over the child), breathing his breath into the lad, warming the lad with his body, is in type the spiritual umbilical cord that delivered spiritual understanding to Armstrong and his disciples. Hence, Armstrong teaching that his disciples were begotten of God and not born of God was “true”; for Christians were not able to “breathe” on their own throughout Armstrong’s half-century ministry. They had the spirit of God [the breath of God pneuma Theon] for only as long as the last Elijah “breathed” into them in spiritual mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. They were not able to “breathe” on their own. They lacked indwelling eternal life. So when the last Elijah paused in His efforts to cause the Church to “breathe” on its own, those disciples who had displayed evidence of having the spirit of God lost the spirit and returned to being spiritually lifeless. A few, who had been faithful, died physically while they were still breathing from having the last Elijah stretched over them. They will, because they died physically while the last Elijah was stretched over them, be resurrected to glory in the resurrection of firstfruits. However, those disciples who sampled the goodness of God—those disciples who breathed spiritually when the last Elijah was stretched over them—and did not continue in well-doing (who did not continue breathing on their own) have no more sacrifice available to them. They will deny Christ Jesus and will be denied by Christ before the Father. So, in a way, Armstrong did as much or more harm than good; for in using his advertising skills to capitalize on a Zeitgeist of socialism thereby bringing many people to God, Armstrong blasphemed the Father and the Son, blasphemy that will be forgiven, and Armstrong set the stage for his remaining disciples, few in number (less than 25,000), to commit blasphemy against the spirit of God when all of Christendom [every sect, denomination, fellowship] is truly born of God: when the Son of Man is revealed at the Second Passover liberation of Israel, every “Christian” will be filled-with and empowered by the spirit of God and thereby liberated from indwelling sin and death. Blasphemy against the spirit will not be forgiven, with this blasphemy being returning to sin [unbelief]; for to return to sin (to take sin back inside the self) will be in deeds a statement saying that the spirit of God was “inadequate” for salvation (i.e., unable to save the person). Armstrong’s disciples will, because of Armstrong’s begotten teaching, refuse to believe that greater Christendom is then genuinely born of God; hence, they will deny legitimacy to the disrobed Son of Man, for even today they have no love for anyone not of them.
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Among Sabbatarian disciples called into faithful obedience by Armstrong’s Theistic Socialism, a serious problem developed following Armstrong’s death in January 1986 … many of Armstrong’s disciples indentified Armstrong as God’s essential endtime man, the “Zerubbabel” whose hand laid the foundation of the house of the Lord and whose hand would complete the house (Zech 4:9) —
But the Apostle Paul said,
According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Cor 3:10–15 emphasis added)
The Zerubbabel who laid the foundation for the house of God is Christ Jesus, whose hand will also finish construction of this “house” of living stones. The cornerstone is Christ Jesus; the capstone will be Christ Jesus at His return. And the pillars of this house is The Philadelphia Church, disciples that stand on the foundation Paul laid: as an instrument of Christ Jesus, Paul laid in the 1st-Century CE the foundation, and Philadelphians reach upward to support the endtime harvest of firstfruits throughout the seven endtime years of tribulation.
Christ Jesus isn’t just the cornerstone and capstone of the house of God, but the indwelling of Christ Jesus in disciples in the 1st-Century created the living stones of the foundation, the stones Paul as a master builder set into place in heavenly Jerusalem, where the house of God [the temple] is located—and the indwelling of Christ Jesus in disciples in the 21st-Century will create the pillars that support the endtime harvest of firstfruits. So Armstrong’s disciples who taught and still teach that Armstrong was the Zerubbabel whose hand laid the foundation for the endtime house of God are without understanding: they are spiritual bastards, idolaters, haters of righteousness all-the-while posing as ministers of righteousness. They are the 21st-Century equivalent to Paul’s 1st-Century deceitful workmen; they are the endtime Circumcision Faction who have come from Jerusalem [Sunday-keeping teachers and theologians don’t come from heavenly Jerusalem, but from spiritual Babylon]. And they are as much of a plague to the endtime work of God as their predecessors were to the 1st-Century work of God, with their ends being the same.
But it isn’t the pastors and teachers trained in Theistic Socialism by Armstrong that are of concern today: they are spiritual dead wood, fit only for the lake of fire because of their unbelief. It is the many disciples that were set adrift when Armstrong died in 1986, set adrift on an uncharted course without sail or power or provisions for the future that remain the concern of The Philadelphia Church.
The concept of disciples being begotten when the last Elijah stretched Himself over them and breathed His breath into them in spiritual mouth-to-mouth resuscitation is too difficult for most spiritual infants to grasp or to believe. The word begotten is usually used to identify fetuses in the human birth process; it is not used in efforts to restore life to a corpse. Thus, the word introduces problematic imagery that would have been best never introduced. There are better words to describe the process of disciples receiving the spirit of God and indwelling eternal life when the last Elijah stretches Himself over the Church. But if begotten is used, then being spiritually stillborn occurs when disciples lose this indwelling eternal life because they are not able to breathe on the own when the last Elijah pauses to figuratively see if life has been restored to the Church.
The pauses were necessary and are presently necessary to kill off error that the Body of Christ isn’t otherwise able to overcome, with the first pause occurring in the 16th-Century when Sabbatarian Anabaptists began to physically circumcise adult males. The second pause was necessary to kill off errant prophetic understandings; i.e., was necessary to set the stage for the unsealing of Daniel’s visions, which in turn opened up John’s vision so that it could be understood.
Once introduced, socialism in its variant forms doesn’t go away, for the idea originates with the spiritual princes of Persia, the arms and chest of the humanoid image Nebuchadnezzar saw in vision. Socialism is an aberrant manifestation of being my brother’s keeper: to the pious, socialism is the realization of Christian ideals. Hence, it was relatively easy for Armstrong to sell Theistic Socialism to impoverished Oregonians in the early 1930s; for socialism under human control inevitably results in a dictatorship of the people [that is never truly of the people] that opposes the people, killing those who are deemed less able to contribute to the common good. Therefore, Armstrong’s answer was that Christ Jesus had to be the dictator, the one who ruled by fiat, and that no form of socialism would really work until the Kingdom of God which was at hand came at the Second Advent—and because this Kingdom of God was at hand, the saints must sacrifice their meager earnings to deliver this message to all the world before Christ could return. Thus, Christ’s return was conditioned on the saints sacrificing financially in a way analogous to how Russians sacrificed physically for International Socialism, and how Germans and Italians sacrificed physically for National Socialism. The results were the same: their labors were burned up as if they were military munitions.
The Zeitgeist of the 1930s—that is the broadcast of the spirit of the power of the air [the still reigning prince of this world] (Eph 2:2)—was socialistic in scope and perspective, and the evidence that Armstrong was “listening” to the broadcast of the prince of this world rather than to the Father and the Son is manifested in his autocratic rule [his Nicolaitan rule] of first the Radio Church of God, then of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). If Armstrong would have been listening to Christ, he would have ruled as Jesus rules His Body, with an unseen hand and a light touch instead of with a heavy hand and centralized dictates. For presently, all authority to rule in this world has been given by the Father to the Adversary; so any organization’s authority to govern, from the local PTA to Federal governments to corporate boards, comes through the Adversary. Until the Second Passover liberation of circumcised-of-heart Israel, the authority one person exercises to rule over another person comes through the Adversary: that authority will originate with the Father, but for a specified period [until the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man], that authority will come through the Adversary. Thus, the hierarchal structure of the Worldwide Church of God, a 501(c)(3) corporation, is prima facie evidence that “the Church” was no more of God than are the many fellowships, denominations, and sects of lawless Christendom. Yet, “the Church” was of Christ Jesus and represented the conclusion of the last Elijah’s second attempt to breathe life into the dead Body of Christ, a spiritual Body that was crucified with Christ and died with Christ and was buried as the earthly body of Jesus was buried to be resurrected after the third day. And the spiritual Body of Christ will be resurrected to life at the Second Passover liberation of Israel.
It is factual to say that Armstrong was called by God to terminate the last Elijah’s second attempt to breathe life into the corpse of Christ as the first Elijah took three attempts to breathe life back into the widow of Zarephath’s son. Armstrong was called to either bring the Church to life, which he could have done for prophecies can pass away, or to kill the Church. Either scenario could have occurred. But it was known from the beginning that Armstrong would not bring the Church to life … his work proved to be of wood, hay, straw, for his work was burned up. However, Armstrong was brought back from death in 1978—his claim—so that he might be saved, for (again) Paul writes, “If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire” (1 Cor 3:15). Certainly Armstrong suffered loss when his hand-chosen successor abandoned his (Armstrong’s) form of Theistic Socialism, but at his end, Armstrong himself knew that the Church had jumped the tracks and was not where it ought to be. He knew where the answer to the Church’s dilemma lay in Scripture, but he couldn’t take that answer from Scripture because he, like the drunken priests of Ephraim, took meaning from Scripture here a little, there a little, the means by which he had caused the Church to fall backwards, away from God, be snared and broken (Isa 28:13) by the Adversary. Thus, in his last seven years [January 1979 through January 1986], Armstrong strived to invigorate Theistic Socialism in an era when the prince of this world was broadcasting liberty and freedom to the mental topography of humankind. Armstrong could not have succeeded; it was too late for him to alter prophecy.
After Armstrong’s death; after the Worldwide Church of God (WCG)’s return to lawlessness, fellowships broke apart, with some members remaining with the new WCG, and with some members following this dissenting pastor or that dissenting pastor of the old WCG, and with some members giving up on God entirely, and with some members drifting into the Sacred Names Heresy, but with most members regardless of where they were theologically believing that God had called them to do a work for Him and that they were now free to do that work and that they were required to do that work. They were to bear witness to the world. What they didn’t know then (in the late 1980s and early 1990s) and what they still don’t realize is that it still isn’t time for them to bear witness.
Solomon wrote,
For everything there is
a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and
a time to die;
a time to plant, and a
time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a
time to heal;
a time to break down,
and a time to build up (Eccl 3:1–3)
There is a time when the saints will bear witness for Christ Jesus (Luke 21:13), with this time coming in the Affliction, the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years … as a trap used by the Adversary to entangle, snare, and slay disciples, presumptuousness has no equal—
Sabbatarian Christians will have an opportunity to bear witness about Christ Jesus before the rulers of this world, but now is not that time; so for a disciple not specifically called to a ministry as Paul was called to now [late September 2010] strive to bear witness about Christ Jesus is an admirable thing, but is also a presumptuous thing. It’s for this reason Christendom and especially Sabbatarian Christendom is blasphemed by the world, with Christians making the name of Christ a hissing and a stumbling block over which the world stumbles, falling backwards, away from God (as an aside, the person who falls backwards when under the power of the spirit or when in a vision, falls away from God; for the spirit or the vision is of the Adversary, who appears as an angel of light). When a Christian, Sabbatarian or otherwise, teaches without being called by God to teach as Paul was called, the person—despite his or her good intensions—does Christ and the Body of Christ more harm than good. This person is presumptuous, with the evidence of his or her presumptuousness being the person witnessing for Christ before Christ Jesus gives the person his or her opportunity to witness. For every Sabbatarian Christian will, in the Affliction [again, the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years of tribulation], have hands laid upon the person and will be delivered up to the religious authorities of this world, the then-ruling civil authorities, and will be made to give an account of why the person keeps the commandments and defies the authority of the man of perdition, the lawless one who establishes himself as god in the greater Christian Church, presumptuously claiming the authority the Lord gave to Moses as his own authority whereas that authority will be given by Christ Jesus to the two witnesses who will be brothers as Moses and Aaron were brothers … the man of perdition will have no brother by his biological mother.
Armstrong never realized where and when he went wrong: it was at the beginning of his ministry when he, influenced by his Quaker ancestry and drunk on the heady wine of socialism, fancied himself as one of the elite, a minister who ought to wear a threadbare suit rather than calluses on his hands. He claimed to be humbled by poverty, but making the claim belies the truth of the claim; for the truly humble person doesn’t speak about being humbled. The subject isn’t one that enters the humble person’s mind.
When Armstrong came to the conclusion that the United States and Britain—the English speaking peoples of this world—were endtime Israel, he went wrong; for Paul writes, “For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter” (Rom 2:28–29) … a Jew is an Israelite, a person of the nation of Israel, a nation that is now circumcised-of-heart, not a physical people such as the English-speaking peoples of this world, but a people born of God.
Because Armstrong could have brought the plan of God to fruition but didn’t because of his physical-mindedness, the era when the last Elijah’s third attempt to bring the now-dead Body of Christ to life will have similarities to the era when the conclusion of the second attempt began [i.e., the era will be like the 1930s].
Again, American progressivism is simply American socialism, recognizable in socialism’s rubric as a variant strain that slowly kills a society rather than quickly kills as Fascism does. Whereas Armstrong’s Theistic Socialism promised Sabbatarians a Third Reich in which they would rule as kings and priests (or kingly priests), American progressivism promises social justice and equal outcomes in life through redistributing the world’s wealth as Communism promises to redistribute wealth, taking from those who have much and giving to those who do not have enough, with an elite exempting themselves from the vagaries of economics. For Soviet Union Communists, this elite was party officials; for German Fascists, this elite was party officials; for American progressives, this elite is union bosses, progressive politicians, federal bureaucrats, or in other words, Democratic party officialdom; but the promise of Armstrong’s Theistic Socialism was that the elite would be all who financially supported him in his ministry, with a super-elite being ordained men educated at one of the Ambassador College campuses.
The similarities between Armstrong’s Theistic Socialism and other strains of socialism are not chance coincidences, but the product of the broadcast of the prince of this world. Likewise, the present movement to scare-the-Homer-Simpsons-of-this-world into green compliance through hyper-inflating global warming fears has a prototype in Armstrong’s early messages: an excerpted example is,
"The WORLD TOMORROW"
A NATION - WIDE BROADCAST
HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
Analyses Today's News, with the Prophecies of The WORLD TOMORROW
Publishing The P L A I N T R U T H
Box 111, Pasadena, California
A Magazine of UNDERSTANDING
December 8, 1947
Dear Family of Co-Workers' in God's Service:
GREETINGS! in Jesus' name: TIME is running out! This world is moving swiftly to its destruction! Yet there is still time---and just barely enough time---to finish the work of God for this present age. THERE IS NO TIME TO LOSE. But the work of God is progressing on schedule---amid handicaps, thru obstacles and trials that try our souls, our patience, and our faith to the limit---under the divine direction of God, and as a result of MIRACLES performed by him in our behalf.
The "Big Four" diplomats are locked in an uncompromisable duel between East and West---between Russia and the United States---between Communism and Democracy---between Atheism and professed Christianity. At the London conference, the nations merely lock horns and fight, and quarrel, and deadlock, in their efforts to restore the peace of Europe and the world.
The United States announces the invention and production of horrible, terrifying new atomic weapons---without giving the public any hint as to the nature of those weapons. The Russians give out hints that they, too, either HAVE the atomic bomb, or have its secret and are now preparing to actually produce it.
The United Nations recommend the partitioning of Palestine, and actual setting up, at last, of a new Jewish NATION in the holy land. This sets off the Palestine powder-keg. The Moslem nations, 300 million strong and solidly ORGANIZED these past three years, have announced they will never permit it---they spring to action---fighting and violence is intensified in the holy land, and terror reigns.
Europe faces its hardest winter, and the United States, with diminishing food supplies, sets out to try to feed the world to save it from chaos and communism and starvation.
Yes, this world is being hurled rapidly TOWARD UTTER DESTRUCTION---we approach the END OF THE WORLD!---which means the end of this AGE!
The WORLD TOMORROW will soon dawn, bringing peace, prosperity, happiness and joy at last;---and in the short time that remains our calling and sole important mission in life is to SHOUT THIS GOOD NEWS (the true Gospel of Jesus Christ) TO THE WORLD! It must go, not only to America and Canada, as it is now going, it must go to ALL NATIONS, in ALL LANGUAGES! To this end, AMBASSADOR COLLEGE is now operating in sober earnest---instructing consecrated, eager young men and women in the true Message, training them in speaking foreign languages.
THE OUTLOOK, at the moment, is for six or seven more years of PROSPERITY here in America---(even tho it is an artificial, unsound and inflated "prosperity")---while meantime the world moves relentlessly toward WORLD WAR III and final DESTRUCTION!
YOU, dear Co-Worker, are not going to be permitted to enjoy your home, your freedom, your present privileges and pursuits, many more years. Just a few more years---perhaps six or seven---perhaps twelve or fifteen---and a re-united Fascist-Nazi Europe will STRIKE---America's great cities will be blown out of existence in one night without warning---we shall see such tremendous atomic destruction as the world has never even dreamed ---more than 40 MILLION Americans will perish in the horrifying blasts! At the same time drought and famine will strike dead another THIRD of our entire population---men, women, and children ---thru starvation and disease! And our second great commission ---our divine calling from Almighty God---is to WARN our beloved nation, and other Israelitish nations, before it is too late! Every individual who HEEDS this warning, turns to God, is WATCHING and PRAYING ALWAYS, being filled with God's Spirit, living by every Word of God, with a life consecrated to Him, will be given special divine protection---taken beforehand to a place of SAFETY--- preserved thru the final horrifying tribulation, time of plagues and human anguish soon to visit this earth!
But if we to whom God has revealed this terrible future thru His divine prophecies fail to heed it---if we fail to each play his or her full part in WARNING this nation and the world, now, while we may---then God says we shall not escape, but He will require the blood of this entire people at our hands!
God Almighty is causing a "prosperity"---if only a temporary, stimulated, prosperity---to shine brightly upon our LAND. Listen! Do you know WHY? TO ENABLE US WHO UNDERSTAND TO HAVE ENOUGH FINANCIAL MEANS TO CARRY OUT GOD'S PURPOSE---to WARN our nations of the soon-coming prophesied destruction---to WARN the entire world of the fast-approaching "TRIBULATION" and true Gospel of Jesus Christ---the Gospel Christ brought and preached, and commissioned every true minister of His to proclaim to the world throughout this age---THE GOOD NEWS OF THE COMING WORLD-RULING KINGDOM OF GOD! The denominations, preachers, and evangelists are not proclaiming THIS true Gospel!
The destruction of the United States of America is foretold in YOUR BIBLE. It is foretold by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos, Micah, and others. It was foretold by Jesus Christ Himself! But the worldly churches and their ministers, all divided into sects and denominations, bound by sectarian creeds and blinded by world-wide spiritual deception, deceived, by a devil who poses as GOD and has deceived the WHOLE WORLD---they do not under- stand the Bible, and do not perceive what is so clearly prophesied!
Yet this catastrophe is sweeping on toward an unsuspecting America with increasing momentum---and in a few years it will STRIKE---suddenly, unexpectedly! "AS A SNARE," said Jesus, will this SUDDEN DESTRUCTION come. Then it will be too late!
Listen, dear Co-Worker! To set your heart, your mind and interest now in the pursuits of THIS WORLD, or THIS LIFE,---to ignore this appeal, and this PRIVILEGE, to HELP TO YOUR VERY UTMOST in the closing work of God---to figure that you can't afford to spare anything now for God's cause because of OTHER worldly interests---is to enjoy a fool's paradise, and find yourself suddenly, when least expected, in just a few years, caught in the snare of this on-coming DESTRUCTION!
I tell you, ON THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS CHRIST, IT IS COMING! Many of you NOW, are in financial condition to DO A LOT MORE than you are doing for GOD'S CAUSE---to help me get out this Message over the air, and in print---to help me train and prepare talented, able, consecrated young men and women for THEIR part in soon carrying this vital message to THE ENTIRE WORLD---into EVERY NATION!
[Because of its length, the remainder of the letter, except for its concluding paragraph and signature, has been omitted.]
By immediate return mail if possible---otherwise, at the very earliest possible moment, please send the largest offering you can, in addition to God's tithe. And, if you cannot give a large amount, but can LOAN it for the use of God's work, SEND THE MONEY by return mail or as soon as you can get it, and a letter stating when, and in what amounts, you may need to have it returned, and I will send you our NOTE for it. And remember, we are maintaining a cash reserve fund to guarantee repayment of all such loans.
Once again, I leave the issue in your hands. I know you won't fail me, or our God. THANK YOU, and GOD BLESS YOU! And PLEASE remember above all, KEEP PRAYING EARNESTLY, and IN FAITH for God to deliver us, and keep this great work going.
With love to all, in Jesus' name,
Herbert W. Armstrong
Except for the highlighting of the letter’s date, no emphasis is added. The letter is cutoff because of its length, but the portion included is as published.
A scriptural basis for Theistic Socialism exists; for in God’s rest [ancient Judea], land was held by clans, and if “leased” or “sold,” it was returned to clans on the Jubilee. The tithe was used for the support of the Levite, the widow, and the fatherless [for all who do not have an inheritance in Israel] on the 3rd and 6th years of a seven year cycle. But when moving from physical to spiritual and to the breath of God being poured out on all flesh so that there is no one without an inheritance, the Theistic Socialism that is seen in the Lord’s commands to ancient Israel must be rethought and applied spiritually in the Millennium, Christ Jesus’ 1000 year reign over the mental topography of humankind through inserting His mind and His thoughts in every person.
Christ Jesus will never rule as a dictator as the world understands “dictators” … He will rule by baptizing the world in the divine breath of God (Joel 2:28; Matt 3:11), thereby filling every person with spirit so that sin and death no longer dwells in the person. He will rule by liberating the person from indwelling death. He will rule through liberation of the enslaved inner self. He will rule by inserting His mind and His nature into every person. Nothing will be imposed from outside the person.
How will rebellion against God be possible when Christ Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords reigns over the minds [thoughts] and hearts [desires] of human beings? Rebellion will occur, but not until the Adversary is loosed at the end of the 1000 years. And if every person has the mind and heart of Christ Jesus, will not charity be a routine aspect of life? It will be; so the need for any form of redistributive socialism will cease to exist.
Armstrong never understood that in the Millennium, Christ Jesus will not reign as human kings rule over men in this present era, but will reign as the prince of the world presently reigns through being the prince of the power of the air.
Armstrong was both the victim-of and the production of his era. His merits as a human being will be argued for a while longer, but it cannot be denied that he was called to do a work, that of killing off the last Elijah’s second attempt to breathe life into the dead Body of Christ. He will, most likely, be resurrected to glory when Christ Jesus returns—and he will most likely be embarrassed by how much damage his teachings did to a second generation of disciples. Nevertheless, since the righteous are scarcely saved (1 Pet 4:18), it should come as no surprise to anyone when Armstrong finds himself scarcely saved.
Theistic Socialism is of the Adversary, not of God. And the time for Christians to bear witness for Christ is in the Affliction, and especially during the year following the opening of the fifth seal [i.e., between day 220 and day 580 of the seven endtime years]. With very few exceptions, Christians will be as Armstrong was, doing more harm than good, if they attempt to bear witness before it is time for them to bear witness.
Jesus continued, saying,
But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. / And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
And he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. / But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:20–36)
The cares of this life have taken the breath of God away from many disciples brought to Christ by Herbert W. Armstrong, who for a season, succumbed himself to these cares. They almost claimed him as one of the scalps. They are still out there, killing the saints …
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The person conducting the Sabbath service should close services with two hymns, or psalms, followed by a prayer asking God’s dismissal.
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"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."