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   Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce Garner Ted Armstrong of Ambassador College with the World Tomorrow. In this series of programs, we will tell you something of the problems of the world today, how they will affect you, and their solution in the World Tomorrow. Ladies and gentlemen, Garner Ted Armstrong.

   What has the world today got to do with the world tomorrow? What is your life now got to do with the future? Say 100 years from now when you die, what happens next?

   Theologians have all kinds of real interesting ideas. Some of them are so hilarious; they really are funny. Have you ever heard about going to heaven? Now, probably you're thinking, now here's the guy about to make fun of the most precious doctrine to the Christian world. I don't think it deserves being made fun of. I think that somebody ought to take a serious look at the world today, at conditions in the world and where we are with pollution, the population explosion, the stockpiling of nuclear weapons, a world armed to its teeth, a world which could explode at any time through accident, if not design—a world with such enormous problems they are almost impossible to catalog or to find, let alone to find solutions for a world that has lost its way.

   Nations in chaos, the United States in particular, having lost its way. Not sure of what it was, what it should be. Not sure of where it is going. What is its transcendental national purpose and reason for being? And in the midst of all of this mankind and all of our guises—our colors, our religions, races, creeds, our theologies, and our geopolitical ideas; our personal hates and prejudices, likes and dislikes; our group instincts, our ISMs, our sects, our various religious divisions—in the midst of all of this, the idea of the Christian religion that God has a soul factory, that really what happens in Managua, Nicaragua is only important to the people to whom it happens. But for the rest of the people with breakfast, toast, and coffee, it's another, "Oh, did you hear about that tragedy? Oh, my. Yes. And isn't it also a shame that the Cowboys did what they did in this football game? And isn't it a shame about Mrs. So and so, you know, burnt the toast."

   I have gotten several letters recently in which people have asked me, "What are you doing talking about religion, Garner Ted? Now, before you got on that subject, you used to have some pretty good programs. You were talking about what to do with our tin cans, and you were telling us to put a brick and a water trap with the bathroom to save a few gallons every day. And you were telling us about automobile wrecks and about personal health. And you were talking about, you know, geopolitical problems and mental problems and physical health. And you were talking about government and science. But now you've gone off into religion, and I'd like to know what has that got to do with the price of putting."

   So would I; that's why I talk about it because I'd like to ask you and everybody else, what has religion—the religions of the world, the way they are taught—got to do with this world in which we live with our lives here and now and with the way our lives are lived and especially with what happens when we die because there's nothing more sure or surer, as they say, than death and taxes and elections. And it looks to me like we ought to at some time or another find out whether or not there is any painstaking, careful, analytical, perfectly objective too. You gotta be sure to be objective, method or manner in which you can investigate some of the so-called Christian doctrines about going to heaven or going to hell about going to limbus infantium puerorum. Now, if you don't know Latin and I don't, that means limbo for infants. So that means that when little babies are born, I know a man real well that they adopted a child and the little baby only lived a very short period of time and died. I know many other couples who have had babies live only a very short period of time and die.

   I had to perform the funeral for a very close personal friend of mine who has other children thankfully but whose wife gave birth to a tiny baby girl. She only lived a matter of hours or days, a very short period of time and died. The parents were very distraught. There were a lot of fears. They were deeply affected. It was a tremendous shock even though they had not had the child very long now, in most people's method of reckoning. And I think it makes sense the idea that there is either one place or the other.

   Now you take a look at the Protestants, you know, we have lots of problems here between Protestant Christianity and Catholic Christianity or I will prefer to call it Protestant theology and Catholic theology in one sense of the word.

   Is the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is true, which it is not, then the Catholic doctrine makes more sense to me, but it isn't true. So therefore, neither of them makes sense to me. I'd like to point that out Protestant or Catholic and that's not attacking anybody. These are broad vast religions with millions of members.

   Here's the problem for the two since the Protestant religion has just two places you can go. No, in between. Obviously a sweet little innocent baby that has only been here for a very short period of time has done nothing to deserve. Going to hell. And we all agree with that. I hope so. Everybody would say, well, yeah, that's right. I, I don't see why the baby would go there, but on the other hand, the child has not met what most of the fundamentalist Protestant religions would say are the prerequisites for going to heaven because the child has not repented has not been baptized.

   Now, sometimes they do baptize babies, but the word baptized funny. They don't baptize them. Baptized means to immerse. Baptizo in the Greek means to sink into, they don't do that to babies. They Sprinkle them, damp claws, sponge liquor, postage stamp, whatever it is and whatever you would like because churches do this, they just arrange whatever seems nice and it gradually evolves. The first guy to come up with is a man. I'd like to talk to way back in the Middle Ages or the third or fourth or fifth century, but the baby has not met any of the prerequisites for getting into St. Peter's portals or gates.

   And so you're left with this unbelievable problem of, well, where do babies go? Are they taken up to heaven immediately when they die? Now, the Catholic doctrine has an even better idea. They don't really feel that the baby is qualified to get into what they might call the beatific vision. Now, don't let those words bother you. That merely means the beautiful aura. It means the presence of God.

   So they have this idea that babies go into limbo. Now. You know, you feel a lot of times like you're in limbo, I have felt that way many times. I'm just in limbo. Just nothing to do. Nowhere to go. Nothing exciting happening in a kind of a vacuum. People are left as they say, hanging in limbo. Well, it's a kind of a suspended animation situation. So they have the idea that when the baby dies, it goes off to someplace. Now, this place is rather a vast place. It has no definable limits. It isn't in any particular place in the way that we mean the word place. But somewhere, somehow the Catholic doctrine goes, there is a limbus infantum, which is a place where babies go.

   Now, there isn't any clearly definable period of time during which they are gradually expurgated, expunge cleanse where they overcome or where they grow. I don't really understand it. I don't pretend to and I don't even know if I'm going to try to, but that's the idea.

   So if you accept the doctrine of the immortality, the soul, then I would say that the Catholic idea since you got the Protestant thing of either heaven or hell and nothing in between the Catholic idea of various stages, makes more sense. Actually, none of it makes any sense to me because the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is not even found in the Bible.

   What has religion got to do with the course of world events, everything there have been more wars fought in the name of religion and started by people believing in religion and practically any cause or purpose. Great religious leaders have spoken out about peace and war and other major issues. Not only theological issues but social issues.

   My life is being interfered with every single week in a very serious manner and more serious than depend upon which state I'm in by blue laws that I think are absolutely contrary to the free principles of the United States of America that holds with the doctrine of separation of church and state.

   To me, a state does not have the right. I can't change the laws, but I mean, that's just my personal feeling about it to enforce upon me Sunday observance because I don't observe Sunday. I don't care anything at all about Sunday. They can take Sunday and throw it in the ocean. Sunday is just another day. It's a good work day, first day of the week, no special propitious signs for me. And I don't even think that really it is Sunday, it could be Star Day, it could be Sly day, not Friday, it could be, you know, it could be the day it is which it really is, which is the first day of the week. I don't call it the day of the sun because that got started back in history. But, you know, they impose upon me and it interferes with my life. Blue laws, they close stores, often times they close stores that I like to go to. Now, sometimes in real small communities where there is a very heavy religious influence, the local businessmen just do not dare go against the blue laws in other places. They do dare. And so sometimes the supermarket or the corner drug store stays open on Sundays.

   What has religion got to do with our daily way of life? Everything, everything because you see the Bible has a great deal of prophecy in it. Jesus Christ was a prophet. He talked about the end of the age, the end of an aon, the end of a span of time, he talked about a resurrection. He talked about people dying and then being risen, raised from the grave. And of course, as I said, some weeks ago, in modern-day theology, many churches cheerfully admit that the resurrection has no place in our religion. We don't emphasize it. Well, let me tell you something they do emphasize, they do emphasize death and life after death because that's what religion is all about.

   You're going to be shocked. Then when you see in a painstaking careful analysis that by historical analysis, by trial and error, by requesting information of eyewitnesses by using logic by using people who were potential witnesses against the apostles by using people who did not come forth and say what was on their mind as well as those who did profane and secular as well as spiritual in nature. I intend to absolutely prove to you that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was raised from the dead.

   Why were you born? To become a farmer trying to feed the population bomb to become an entertainer to give people a fleeting moment of laughter, to be a millionaire with big houses and fancy cars and ulcers, to live out your last days at the end of a plastic tube in a hospital, to be the last to die in a war you don't understand, is that all that is the human existence just putting in your time on a troubled planet? No, there's a great purpose for your life. A reason you draw breath and you need to know what it is. Read the free booklet. Why were you BORN? This knowledge gives reason to life adds meaning to all you do for a true added dimension to your life. Be sure to read. Why were you BORN?

   I'd like to make it clear one more time that anything that I say on this program should be taken with a very large grain of salt. And you know, I'd like to liken the Bible to that large grain of salt. Jesus said salt is good. But if the salt is lost its favor, then where will it be, salt is good for nothing to be cast out. He also said that the Bible is liked unto water, a refreshing, clear sparkling glass of water. He said, if any will thirst, let him come unto me and drink and out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Talking about the analogy of God's spirit and of love.

   Now, I just say, be very careful that you don't swallow one thing that I say unless you're until you absolutely prove it and prove it by going to the source.

   Now, first, it doesn't matter what I believe because you see what I believe isn't going to change, you, change your job, change your life, your desires, your tastes, your appetites. It isn't going to change the course of world affairs. It isn't going to change the lives of those people closest to me. It probably is going to have no effect whatsoever on your existence on your right to believe what you wish.

   But I'm taking up some valuable time that cost a good deal of money and is supported directly by the Tithe paying membership of the Worldwide Church of God, that underwrites Ambassador Colleges on its three college campuses with its vast global worldwide educational extension program. And the booklets you see advertised the Plain Truth magazine, full color, tremendous, vast correspondence course, it goes out free of charge all of these programs underwritten by sincere people who believe the things that I'm telling you about on this program. They believe the Bible is the word of God. They believe it is literally the word of God. They believe it says what it means and means what it says. And they do believe in the resurrection of the dead.

   All right, the resurrection of the dead is not gonna happen in some real sneaky way. Like maybe we're down in the middle of another convention in Miami Beach or something and they're having a caucus out in the back room and maybe Senator so and so is talking to George or Henry and Senator, so and so, Will your people go along with my people if we compromise on this issue? About that time, some little page boy runs into Senator. Senator. The resurrection of the dead has occurred. Oh, good. Fine. Don't bother me. Boy.

   Now, getting back to the problem with Andy here smoking on a stogie, you know, is the resurrection of the dead going to be announced on page 27 of section three of the newspaper. Some people seem to imply that it will be because there's something as they get all twisted up in the resurrection of the dead, which is called the rapture. It's sort of like Haley's Comet coming at 3 a.m. when nobody is aware of it. And Jesus is supposed to make a near miss to the earth and everybody that's tuned in that they take what Jesus said about the time that this is going to happen, we'll see one man taken and the other left, two women will be doing laundry and one is taken and the other is left and two fellows may be sharing the same bed and one is taking the others left. And he talks about a dividing of people who are worthy to be caught up with the Lord, is the resurrection of the dead.

   I mean, when all the graveyards of the entirety of the world are opened up and when the battleship over in Pearl Harbor gives up the dead that are in there. And when all the ashes are scattered out to sea, not the original ones but new bodies actually recreated. That's another question we need to come to and to see at least what the Bible says because it talks about that being a foolish question. It says you're just trying to short-change God. You're trying to say that if he's talking about a resurrection is he required to take every last molecule, each individual cell and get the original substance from which that cell was made and of which it was composed and arrange them all back together and then take that very same body. The Apostle Paul was asked that question and I'm going to answer it just the way he did before this short series of programs is over. He said, thou fool the one that shall not come up is not the one that was planted.

   The problem is dealt with in the Bible. But let's understand that Jesus talked about the resurrection. That's the focal point of the entire Bible. Both the Old Testament and many of the prophecies in the Psalms in the Book of Job in the book of Daniel. Other prophecies is the resurrection. In the book of Ezekiel there are chapters that picture the resurrection of entire tribes and whole nations, all at one time, Jesus talked about a resurrection of the just and the unjust.

   The Apostle Paul talks about it. Peter did James and John I Corinthians 15 is the resurrection chapter. So we know that the Bible theologically talks about a resurrection. It says in I Corinthians 15:17 of the Christian faith, "If Christ is not risen, then our faith is in vain and we are still in our sins." So the Bible does say that the doctrine of the resurrection is important.

   I say that it's not a matter of whether or not the doctrine is something you must believe because the resurrection doesn't happen to people just because they believe it. It's going to happen to them, whether they believe it or not. It's just like somebody going around, he's of the sect of light. Now, I don't believe in death. Now, what kind of religion is this? We got a new religion. We don't believe in "BAM" because the Bible says he that is dead, is freed from sin. And if we be dead with Christ, we believe we shall live. So we're in Christ, so we're alive and I can make up the doctrine by granting the scripture. I didn't know was there.

   I remember a fellow telling me the Bible says, henceforth, I shall know no man after the flesh. And that meant to him that he wasn't here. I said, come with me and we searched out. I don't know what it was. We got a hold of it was either a hat pin or a straight pin or a pair of scissors. I says, let's take a check and find out. I don't want to do anything. But if you would please, let's find out if you've got blood in your veins, let's find out if you take this and just barely prick the end of your thumb or your finger, whether you bleed. And if you do, you are a human just like I am. And I tried to persuade him that no matter what he thought in his mind that he couldn't psycho somatic, spiritualize himself away that cars could still get him and you know, bullets could, falls could, freezing, heat, etc could still get him.

   But let's say that there is a group of people walking around the world that are called the reorganized revitalized, leaping and jumping two seed in the spirit, fire, baptized non-death believers. And that these people do not subscribe to the idea that people die. They're sort of like the flat earth society that claims the moonshots don't really happen that the guys over in Arizona somewhere with a lot of fake cameras jumping around and faking the entire thing, you see the rocket go, but all they're doing is orbiting around. Maybe there isn't even a man in there. Some people believe that. They had an elderly gentleman down there 115th birthday or something. I've forgotten what his name was and he said, no sir, I don't believe this in the television stations, you can tell a little embarrassed.

   It was supposed to be a great event, this one fellow who was still alive in a remnant from the civil war. And nope, I don't think they're really going to the moon and they weren't going to convince him. So it's realistic, I say, for me to draw the analogy that maybe we've got a sect who denies that there is death and one of them is walking across a busy highway one day, you know, and smack and it's all over. Now, you and I know that no matter what they believe that they can still die.

   So the point I'm making is that your belief in the resurrection or my belief in the resurrection does not make God go away. It doesn't change Christ. It doesn't take the Bible and nullify it. It doesn't do away with all of history. It doesn't erase from all of historical testimony, the personal eyewitness statements of all the men who were there with Christ, James, Bartholomew, Thomas, the Thaddeus, John, Jude, et cetera, Peter. It doesn't do that. So what I believe about it shouldn't bother you any if you go to a church or you're the member of a religion that says now, we don't think that we should emphasize the resurrection because there are many churches that say that they don't really believe in the resurrection and they don't really make that a strong point of their doctrine.

   Well, that's their business. They're free to do that. There are religions that may make soap ads, the strong point of their doctrine. There are religions that may make Nostradamus and his prognostications a strong point of their doctrine. There are gay religions that have mint ends on the Governor's steps. There are religions that marry people in coffins. There are religions that put wheels in little screens and sports shirted Americans can pull a camera off and say, "Isn't that quaint?" and take pictures of them and smell incense and all this. There are religions that believe in dancing around, leaping and dancing in robes and shaving their heads. There are religions that believe that you ought to lie on beds of coals or stomp around on nails or sit cross-legged in the cave and stare at the sun until you go blind. There used to be religions until the British got put a stop to it in India who believe in instant and human sacrifice. There have been religions that believe in practically anything you can imagine. And your mind is not fertile enough to come up with all of the aberrant human behavior that has been accomplished under the guise of religion.

   So I'm trying to get across the point in this introductory program that it doesn't matter what I believe or what you believe, it really matters what is and if there is coming a resurrection it's going to be. And this is no pun in title and earth-shaking occurrence.

   Why were you born? To become a farmer trying to feed the population bomb, to become an entertainer to give people a fleeting moment of laughter, to be a millionaire with big houses and fancy cars and ulcers, to live out your last days at the end of a plastic tube in a hospital, to be the last to die in a war you don't understand? Is that all that is the human existence? Just putting in your time on a troubled planet? No, there's a great purpose for your life. A reason you draw breath and you need to know what it is. Read the free booklet. Why were you born? This knowledge gives reason to life. Adds meaning to all you do, for a true added dimension to your life. Be sure to read. Why were you born? Send your request to Ambassador College Box 345 GPO Sydney, New South Wales. That's Ambassador College Box 345 GPO. Sydney, New South Wales.

   So what has religion got to do with the world in which we live? Absolutely everything. I've said time and again that there is coming a supra-national world government that is going to absorb all other governments and that is going to rule on this earth with a rod of iron. I talked about all things that are going to lead up to that. Everything that I have said about pollution, the population bomb, about the disparity between the have and have-not countries about the insoluble problems of all of humankind on our little spaceship earth in which 6% of the population enjoys about 50% of its wealth. All the attendant problems that lead inexorably to this grand smash finale at the close of an age fall within the framework of my absolute utter conviction that the gospel of Jesus Christ, which talks about the resurrection and the setup of a world-ruling kingdom of God on the earth with Christ in charge with David as his lieutenant, his right-hand man governing and ruling over Israel with the prophets of old out of their graves, with New Testament saints as they were called out of their graves with people who were believers in Christ who repented and were growing and becoming more like Christ out of their graves. People who are alive and remained until the second coming of Christ as it says in I Thessalonians four caught up with him in the air. But his feet shall stand that day in the Mount of Olives coming right down on the very same day as the Bible says, on this earth. The Old Testament focuses upon the return of Jesus Christ to set up the government of God. It talks in Isaiah in Daniel in Hosea, the whole book of Zephaniah, Jeremiah 23, Ezekiel many, many chapters of the book of Ezekiel about the resurrection. It even names who's going to be in it. It talks about a great vast general resurrection.

   Now, look, if Jesus was not resurrected, he's not coming again, he's dead and gone. Either they stole the body away or something. We're going to settle every last one of those questions by historical testimony in a logical fashion. We're going to see what his enemies said. We're going to wonder whether or not there were people who were still alive. If somebody had written about something that happened 35 years ago, let's say that somebody said a famous man was dead but his body came back up and he was resurrected. And he said this in Madison Square Garden and he said it in maybe a sports palace up in Chicago and one in Dallas and Houston, another one in Los Angeles, and so on, tens of thousands of people heard it, it got in the newspapers. He wrote it up and said this man only 35 years ago was resurrected from the dead. Now, wait a minute. Where? They want to know what? Ok. Albany, New York or something. Don't you think that there would be sufficient thousands of people still alive? Of course, there would be, 35 years only, that they could prove it one way or the other. And if this one was talking out of the side of his head and was just making it up out of whole thought. They would call him to task on it.

   So here came Matthew, the gospel writer of Matthew. Some say the critics say that maybe that was the very first book written in The New Testament, written approximately 35 years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, talking about the fact that Christ had been killed, but that he was raised from the dead. Weren't there plenty of people still living that could have come forth with testimony to the contrary? And what about it? Did the disciples steal the body away? Did the Jews steal it away? Did the Romans steal it away? Did his own family? Was he not really dead? But he himself removed the stone and crept away, concealed his identity, lived out his life in order to perpetuate a religion. And people began to assume that he had been resurrected, but he wasn't really, what are the problems? What are the questions? What are the answers? I intend going through it on this short series on The Resurrection, the very focal point of the Bible. And it's got everything to do with world governments, with where you live, with your life and your personal life and death, as well as with the entirety of every last government and all humankind on the entirety of this earth. So you be sure to catch every program in a short series.

   In the meantime, write for these two books: "After Death ...then What?" and the booklet about The Next Life. You've never talked to a person who came back from the grave to be able to tell you. So where do you go? I know recently I was standing at the graveside ceremony where I had to talk to a few bereaved loved ones. I went to the Bible, I went to the Book of Job. It asked that same question. If a man dies, shall he live again? I asked and I answered those questions from the Book of Job from the Bible. There are many, many scriptures, literally dozens that talk about the state of the dead in the Bible. I know when my mother died, I was perplexed. Everybody is usually it's a great calamity, a great personal tragedy in the family. I looked through the Bible. I had in previous times, of course, I had written articles on the subject, but at that time, I wrote a special article entitled "After Death ...then What?" What happens after you die? This booklet "After Death ...then What?" is the result of that research and that writing at that time in my own life and that of my father, Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong. You write for that booklet and find out what the Bible says, and all you need to do is to request it by sending your letter to Post Office Box 345 Sydney, New South Wales. Be sure to tell us the call letters of your station. We need that. That's all there is no cost. But tell us the name of the radio station to which you've been listening, the call letters and then send your letter to Box 345 Sydney New South Wales. Until next time. This is Garner Ted Armstrong saying goodbye, friends.

   You have been listening to the World Tomorrow. If you would like more information, write to Ambassador College Box 345 GPO Sydney, New South Wales. That's Ambassador College Box 345 GPO Sydney, New South Wales.

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Broadcast Date: 1974