Herbert W Armstrong

   And greeting friends around the world, stockpiles of hydrogen bombs lie ready to lay waste entire continents overnight without warning. That's the world you live in. What's it all coming to?

   I've been telling you that world-renowned scientists say publicly that they are frightened when they look into the future. They know what's being devised, what's being produced and developed. They know what terrible weapons of destruction are now ready. And they are telling us that it is becoming possible now to blast all life, all plant life, animal life, and all human life off the planet that you live on.

   Now, my friends, we're coming to the place that unless something happens to stop it, your children, your grandchildren won't be existing on this earth nor will you very much longer. That's the kind of a world we live in. These men of science tell us that there is only one way to prevent it. And they tell us that is that we have world government do away with competitive governments and have one world government, and you know how impossible that is.

   And yet as I've shown you, these men of science are about 1900 years late. They're about 1900 years behind the times because as I've been showing you over 1900 years ago, a great teacher came along saying that we would be in a time of trouble so great today that, as he said, except these days should be shortened. The days that we're heading into, that we're coming into in the time of this prophecy that he made, is the time you're going to live into is speaking of this generation, except those days should be shortened. There should no flesh be saved alive.

   But, he added something 1900 years ago, but for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened. Are you one of those elect? Now, what does this all mean? I ask you again, my friends, why have you not heard the gospel of Jesus Christ? Why have you been hearing a sort of a sentimental emotional gospel about, well, about a salvation that the men who even proclaim it usually don't know anything about? They don't even know what it is. They talk about being born again, and they have no more idea of what Jesus Christ meant by those words than anything, as I was showing in the preceding program.

   He said that which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born to the spirit is spirit. He said, we must be born of the spirit. And I showed you that that doesn't mean during this life, that means by a resurrection that he proclaimed. And you don't hear much about that today. And not many people believe anything about it or know much about it. And you know that the gospel of Jesus Christ was about one thing that he would build it. Start.

[Tape seems spliced here.]

   Why have we grown up in such a world accepting these things, taking them for granted? Because everybody seems to practice them. And what did happen to the church? Now, Jesus said, I will build my church. He did build his church. Well, then where did that church? The true church. Where did it go? It wasn't divided up into hundreds of sects and denominations. It's only one church, many members but one body.

   Now, men have searched history for a large popular growing, visible politically organized religious body as the church of Christ. That isn't the kind of church that your Bible foretold. That is not the church that Jesus founded. And all prophecy in the Bible said that the church of Jesus would be a persecuted church. They're his people, they're his disciples. And he said to his disciples, if they have persecuted me, they will persecute you.

   And you read in the New Testament that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Are you suffering persecution? All who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

   You know, I heard the broadcast of a church service one time years ago in a certain city in another state. And the minister was bewailing the fact that he had so many empty pews; he couldn't understand it. He said it isn't as though we were persecuted or despised by the world; why, we're honored and respected by the world. He said, I dare say there isn't a single member of this church, and it was the first church in the city of its denomination.

   He said, I dare say, there isn't a single member of this church that has ever been persecuted for his belief or his attendance at this church. What a confession. When his Bible, out of which he read, said, all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution and it is through much tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom of God or don't we believe the Bible anymore?

   You know, actually, my friends, there's all the difference between the true church of God if you want to find it and those that are apostate, those that have fallen away from the faith once delivered. The true people of God are obedient to God, and they recognize the authority of God. God is the supreme ruler, but he has decreed in his rulership that we must choose right or wrong, as he said to ancient Israel. I think you'll find that in the 30th chapter of Deuteronomy. "I have laid before you, right and well not right. And wrong." It isn't there but life and death, but it is the right and the wrong way. And he said, "Choose," but he said, "Choose right." He commanded them to choose the right way. But the very fact, he said, "Choose" means God made them free moral agents and gives them the allowance to do the wrong thing.

   Yes, God allows us to do wrong, but he commands us to do right. But leaves it for us to make the decision, and we must make it. And mankind, starting with Adam, has always made the wrong decision and they've gone the wrong way. "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, the ends there are the ways of death," all the way through your Bible. You go back into Genesis, you go back into Exodus, you go over into the Epistles of Paul. You go all through the New Testament, you go through the Book of Acts, and those that are following God are following away, and always it is that the people wouldn't follow God's ways, they would not follow God's ways, they wanted their own way.

   Just before I came on the air, I was looking back here in preparing a certain message that will not be broadcast on the air. And I was looking way back here in the book of Exodus in the 32nd chapter and what happened to the ancient Israelites that God had called to be his people for that time. They were his nation, his congregation, the Old Testament Church. And what did they do? The first thing they did, they began to break his Sabbath. You'll find that in the 16th chapter of Exodus, even before they came to Mount Sanai, even before the 10 commandments were given, they knew all about God's Sabbath. He had revealed it to them to see whether, he said, they will walk in my law or no, to see whether they will or not. That means God gave them free moral agency that God made them so that they would make the decision.

   God was not forcing them to do it his way. He isn't going to force you to do anything and he won't allow any devil or any other power to force you to turn his way. Neither will he allow anyone or can anyone else force you religiously to believe the wrong thing or go the wrong way? So back here in the 16th chapter of Exodus, God said, he would see whether they would walk in his law or not about the Sabbath day. But you turn over here a few verses later in the same 16th chapter of Exodus. And Moses had said when the Sabbath day came, "Eat that today for today is the Sabbath unto the Lord. Therefore, you shall find none of the manna that was falling in the field." And it came to pass that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather and they found none because none came that day from heaven.

   Yes, God was showing them whether time had been lost and whether they had gotten mixed up because on that day, no manna had came from heaven. And on every other day, if they tried to save some of it over, it would breed worms and stink. And of course, they did try to do it. They did disobey God. Well, then the Eternal said to Moses, "How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws see for that, the Eternal hath given you the Sabbath. Therefore, he giveth you on the sixth day, the bread of two days, abide ye every man in his place and let no man go out of his place on the seventh day."

   My friends, that was some little time, several days before they came to Mount Sinai. That was several days before they even knew that God was ever going to make the old covenant with them. They hadn't been set up as a nation yet. They were just being led out of Egyptian slavery by miracles from God. They had no law of Moses yet that had nothing to do with the law of Moses. There wasn't any law of Moses at that time, that was a command from God to see whether they would obey his law or no.

   Now, a little later, what did they do? Well, God had called Moses up to the mount to give him some of their rituals and their ordinances and laws. You read here in the 32nd chapter of Exodus. And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron. And they said to him, "Come, make us gods which shall go before us. As for this Moses, this man that brought us out of the land of Egypt," they didn't realize God had really brought them out. No, they thought it was a man who did it. Just like people today, they can't see God in the picture. "As for this Moses, we want not what has become of him."

   You know, I found that people today are just the same way. They follow a man instead of God, and let that man get out of their sight and they say, "Oh, as for that man, let's quit following him and let's get back to some pagan religion or something." I have found that if I guide people into the truth as I have done and kept them in the truth for years that if in the work of God, God calls me away from that city or that town pretty soon those people are saying, "Oh, it's for that Herbert Armstrong. We want not what's become of him. Come on, let's get in some different doctrines, different practices, different customs. Let's get away from the truth of God."

   Let me tell you, my friends, you aren't any different today than they were then, you know, you say, "well, if we had lived in the days of Christ, we certainly wouldn't have had any part in crucifying him." You wouldn't. Now, would you, would you have had a part? Honestly, I'm talking to you now, you listening there, would you have cried out for the blood of Christ if you'd lived in that day? Why? Of course you say you wouldn't, of course you wouldn't.

   Listen, do you know that the people who lived in Palestine? And that day those very people that did do that? They came up and you read it in your New Testament. They said, "Look, if we had lived back there in the days of those prophets, we certainly would have had no part in stoning those prophets." God sent prophets to the people of Israel and they rose up and stoned the prophets. God sent because they didn't like the message that God sent to the people. But the people in Jesus day, they said, "Oh, well, if we had lived in that day, we certainly wouldn't have done that. Oh, no, of course, we wouldn't." And they're the ones that cried out for the very blood of Christ and crucified him.

   Don't be too sure what you do under certain circumstances. Listen, my friends, every one of you has a lot of human nature in you. Did you know that? Yes, you have, well, these people were human. So Aaron said to them, "Break off the gold earrings which are in the ears of your wives and your sons and your daughters and bring them to me." And all the people break off the golden earrings that were in their ears and they brought them unto Aaron. At least their ears got relieved of it, didn't they? They might have been, you know, it's an ill wind that doesn't blow some good. And he received them at their hand and fashioned it with a graven tool after he had made it a golden calf. And they said, "These be thy gods O Israel which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt."

   Well up on the mountain there, the Eternal said to Moses, "Get thee down for thy people have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way, get it now, they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them and have made them a molten calf and have worshiped it and have sacrificed there too and said, 'These be thy gods O Israel which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt.'" And so that generation never entered into the land of Canaan, the land of Palestine. That generation all died. That is all of those of, I believe it was 20 years and older. Those that were held accountable. They were never allowed to enter the land of Canaan and you my friends, if you're going to get out of the way of God, the law of God, unless you will surrender voluntarily and willingly to the law of God and let God govern your life, you will never enter into the promised land, which is your inheritance, eternal life.

   Because if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's children and heirs according to the promise. Yes. And he promised Abraham the land, didn't he? For an eternal everlasting possession. But it goes to those that are obedient and to no other. God will not save one soul. He does not govern.

   You know, I'll tell you where the trouble is today and the difference between the professing Christians and the real Christians is this: the real Christians follow the way of God. They realize God is the supreme ruler. They recognize the authority of God. Now, how does God rule us? God isn't here in person but he is here in another way. He left his word here, all of his law, all of his directions. His message to mankind has been reduced to writing. It's in your Bible. That's what your Bible is. It's the very message of God. It's the law of God, the direction of God, the way of God. Do you follow it? Do you study it to find the way to live? Do you study it to let it rebuke you, correct you? That's exactly what it will do. It's like a sharp two-edged sword. It's going to correct you. It's going to rebuke you, and it's going to hurt. It isn't pleasant. Correction is not pleasant.

   Over here in Hebrews, you read that God chastens and punishes every son he loves and that chastening is not very pleasant, but it works a great deal of good to those that are exercised thereby if you can take it. God's working out of purpose here below and there's a purpose in your salvation and you haven't heard very much about it. What's wrong? Where did the true church go? That did have that truth and did preach these things and believe them. Today, you take professing Christians and you say, "look, the Bible says so and so here is the way of God revealed in the Bible. This is what God says in the Bible. This is the way of God that's in your Bible." They'll read it. Yes. Well, yes, I know, I see the Bible says that, but you know, I don't see that that makes any difference as long as I do what I think is right? And I don't violate my conscience. I am under grace. I am not under any law.

   Where do we get that kind of teaching now? Law or grace? No one ever seems to think there is any such thing as law and grace. And I guess nobody ever read did that today in the book of Jude or did you read it that they have turned the grace of God into lasciviousness, which is licensed to do as you please and get out of the way of God. Did you ever turn over here in the Book of Acts? I read it to you a good many times about the way of God and how many places you find it over here in the book of Acts. Let's see if I can't turn to just a few little places real quickly here and read you just a few in the book of Acts.

   Well, here is one in the 18th chapter, here was Apollos, he was quite an orator and he came from Alexandria up to Ephesus, but he didn't have all the knowledge he needed yet. But this man was instructed in the way of the Lord being fervent in spirit. He spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord knowing only the baptism of John. Well, there was Aquila and Priscilla and when they heard him, they saw he didn't have the truth quite straight yet. He, he wasn't completely educated yet. He was one of these fellows that had more zeal than wisdom and he went off a little bit half-cocked as we'd say today. He was quite an orator though. And he had a great influence over the people. So Aquila and Priscilla called him to one side and verse 26 they expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. Well, then he got straightened out a little better, alright the 19th chapter of Acts and you come to the ninth verse. But when different divers, it is when different people were hardened and believed not. But spake evil of that way.

   Christianity was called the way that way in your New Testament. In the Book of Acts, they spoke evil. Here were the descender, they spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them and separated the disciples and so on. Well, you read in verse 20, so mightily grew the word of God. It was the word of God they believed in, in that early church. And now in verse 23 of chapter 19, in the Book of Acts, at the same time, there arose no small stir about that way. Persecution was setting in against that way, not just against people, not against believing anything, your own conscience would tell you, but it was the word of God. And that way, the way of the word of God. Jesus said, man must live by every word of God, every word of God. Well, there it is. And you can go all through the Book of Action. You can just find it in many, many places where Christianity is called the way of God. So my friends, if you're going to look for the true church, that's what you have to look for.

   Well, in the histories of this world, as I've been telling you the last couple of broadcasts, you don't find much of it. Because they've been looking for popular churches that were not persecuted at all. And that became very popular in this world, great churches.

   Now, as I've said in the Book of Revelation in chapter 17, you find the church of this world that professes to be Christian and it's a great church, but it's fallen and it's deceived the world. It's drunken with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, a persecuting church. And where does most persecution come from? From very religious people that profess a Christianity, they don't know anything about and don't really have and wouldn't take it if they could get it because it isn't their own way and they aren't going to be corrected and receive the truth of God. Most people love their own way a lot more than they love the way of God. It's pretty hard to admit your way is wrong and repent. But that's what you have to do, my friends. If you're ever going to really be a real Christian and ever going to inherit what is promised to the Christian in salvation, that promise was made to Abraham and you're an heir according to the promise made to Abraham, and you'd better know what it is.

   So now we've been going through first the history of showing you what happened to the professing church in its division into so many sects way back there. And there were more than 50 sects in one division of it right there in the 1st 200 years after Christ, I've given you the history of that and now we've been starting into the history of the true church and you find that prophesized and the key to it is to go through the Bible prophecy. It's the prophecy of Jesus himself as he inspired the Apostle John to write it in the Book of Revelation. And it is found in the second and the third chapters of the Book of Revelation.

   Now here it is pictured as we've been seeing in seven churches, which are seven successive stages of the one true church that Jesus did build. Of course, there were the seven literal churches at that time, which were a type in all of their character and characteristics of the way the church would go in these different epochs or periods from the time of Christ up until the second coming of Christ and all the time that he had departed to go to heaven, to get for himself, the kingdom and to return.

   And now we have seen too that while these were the real churches of God, that they still had human nature, even though they had received the divine nature of God and the Holy Spirit, and they were led to the spirit and yet they themselves began to fall away at times. And remember we have seen that the true church was scattered, it was composed of those individuals that collectively form a spiritual organism, not necessarily a visible organization all in one place, but a spiritual organism composed of those individuals who have and are led by the spirit of God and who are submissive to God. Yes, there are people who have grace. They are the only ones who have grace and they have a lot of grace and they need it because there is still human nature in them. And we find even them under temptation not being perfect.

   Well, the church of Ephesus, that was the apostolic church. And here Jesus said to them that he knew their works. Yeah, they had works. Today, Christians don't seem to want any works. They think that's all done away while the true church of God always had works. And this was the real original church of the apostles. And Jesus knew their works, their labor, their patience. And he said, how thou canst not bear them that are evil and thou hast tried them that say they are apostles and are not and found them liars and so on. But verse four, he said, nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee. They weren't perfect. Christ is the only man that ever lived that was perfect and even his church is not perfect. But I'll tell you, David wasn't perfect, but David is a man after God's own heart. And the reason was God does look on the heart and David's attitude, his spirit was right when David made a terrible colossal mistake and God called it to his attention. He repented. You read the 51st Psalm. You'll see how he repented and how he went to God and prayed and said, oh God, have mercy on me. Forgive me. I've been in the wrong spirit. Put a right spirit in me. Get me into a right spirit. Don't take away your holy spirit from me, but give me more of your spirit that I can go out and help others with it. And David didn't make that mistake again. He didn't commit that sin again. No, he turned away from it. He repented.

   Now, that's why God loved David because he would acknowledge it because he turned away. David was human. You're human. So am I? But if my friends, if you will acknowledge it, if you will only give up yourself your way and turn to God into his way and really confess how wrong you've been and how you need God and be willing to go his way from here on. Well, God is certainly going to love you.

   Now, we came to the Smyrna Church next and here again, God says under the angel of the Church of Smyrna, write, these things saith the first and the last which was dead and is alive. I know thy works and tribulation and poverty. But thou art rich. They didn't seem to know it rich spiritually. They were poor monetarily and physically and I know the blasphemy of them that say they are Jews and are of the synagogue of Satan. Now we went into that in the preceding program and yet there were some things against them.

   Now we come to the angel of the church of Pergamos, and he said, write this, these things say he that hath the sharp sword with the two edges. I know thy works and notice he has the sharp sword and that is the word of God, which is now in print in your Bible.