VIKING I AND MAN'S DESTINY
Plain Truth Magazine
October 1976
Volume: Vol XLI, No.9
Issue:
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VIKING I AND MAN'S DESTINY

Personal from Herbert W Armstrong
   A few weeks ago. I was sitting in our Ambassador Auditorium here in Pasadena looking in on Mission Control Headquarters at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory located only walking distance away as scientists manipulated the safe landing of the Viking I spacecraft on Mars.
   The JPL scientists had cooperated with Ambassador College and the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation so that everything at Mission Control — as the scientists maneuvered the Mars landing — was shown on a large screen in our auditorium. We had opened the auditorium to the public. A thousand or more people were there.
   I had risen at 3:30 a.m. Many had been watching in the auditorium from 11:00 p.m. the previous night. I arrived in the auditorium just before 5:00 a.m.
   The Viking I spacecraft is a marvel of mechanical precision. It landed safely right on schedule at 5:12 a.m. (It actually landed at 4:53 a.m. Pacific Standard Daylight Time, but due to the vast distance, the signal did not reach Mission Control at Pasadena until 5:12 a.m.) Enthusiastic applause — filling the auditorium — greeted the landing.
   Very soon, just before 6:00 a.m., the first strip of two spectacular pictures arrived. We at the Ambassador Auditorium were looking in, just as if we were at Mission Control ourselves. Dr. Thomas Munch, geology professor and leader of the team of scientists in the Mission Control room, gave a cry of delight as the first strip of the first picture came through. As strip after strip of the pictures came through, he was unable to conceal his excitement. As the strips were pieced together, the scientists were absolutely amazed at the quality and clarity of the pictures of the Mars surface — pictures taken perhaps only four or five feet above the surface. It was just as if a man were standing there, pointing his camera straight down, taking close-up pictures.
   Later, the second picture looked out over the landscape to the horizon. The pictures showed the Martian surface as a sandy desert littered with rocks — from very minute size up to perhaps a foot or more in diameter.
   But I had to think that it showed precisely what I had expected from what is revealed from the God of creation in the Bible. It was a dry, barren surface of futility.
   Few indeed have any remote conception of the fact that God Almighty often reveals facts about this universe — the origin of planets, their present state, and the causes and reasons thereof. Sometimes it seems futile that many of the BEST MINDS of humans are devoted to a lifetime of vain speculation, based on erroneous hypotheses totally untrue.
   I had to realize that from this scientific laboratory, right here in Pasadena, great minds are, in fact, uncovering facts ACTUALLY REVEALED IN THE BOOK THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND AND PROBABLY DO NOT ACCEPT — the revealed FACTS and TRUTH of the ETERNAL LIVING GOD!
   For example, in Hebrews we find this: "For unto the angels hath he [God] not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak" (Heb. 2:5). In other words, this passage is speaking about "the world to come." The Bible mentions three worlds: (1) the world "that then was," from Adam to Noah, (2) "this present evil world," and (3) the coming millennial world — which we call so often "the WORLD TOMORROW." Also, the Bible speaks of three heavens: (1) the air, or earth's atmosphere, (2) outer space, and (3) the heaven which is the seat of God's throne, to which no man except the resurrected Christ has ascended (John 3:13).
   So now, speaking of the NEXT world, "the world to come," continue in Hebrews 2: "... What is MAN, that thou [God] art mindful of him?... Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: Thou hast put ALL THINGS in subjection under his feet. For in that he [God] put all in subjection under him [man], he left nothing that is not PUT UNDER HIM. But now we see not yet all things put under him" (Heb. 2:6-8).
   In the first chapter, "all things" is translated in the Moffatt translation as "the universe." It means EVERYTHING God has created — everything that exists.
   This remarkable, almost INCREDIBLE revelation of the fantastic HUMAN POTENTIAL continues to reveal how what we do now see or know is that Jesus, as the firstborn (by resurrection) of many brethren. as our pioneer, has gone on ahead of us paving the way and now already is SUSTAINING THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE BY THE WORD OF HIS POWER (Hebrews 1:2-3).
   Chapter 8 of Romans ties in with this. We — if His spirit dwells in us and if we are being LED by His spirit — are HEIRS of God and CO-HEIRS with Christ, who already had INHERITED THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE!
   In my Plain Truth series on the "Incredible HUMAN POTENTIAL." I have shown how angels inhabited this earth prior to the creation of man. That might have lasted up to millions of years. Those angels SINNED (II Pet. 2:4-6). As a result, physical disaster came to the earth's surface. It became (Gen. 1:2) "without form, and void" — better translated " in confusion and chaos, waste and empty." In six days God "renewed the face of the earth" (Psalm 104:30) and then created man. Since the angels FAILED to improve and develop this earth, they were disqualified from developing and improving the rest of the universe, and God has created MAN after God's own image and likeness — form and shape — to be developed into God's own perfect, holy CHARACTER. And what evidently was the original possible heritage of the angels becomes that of MAN — after man is changed from matter into spirit composition — from human to divine — from mortal to immortal.
   This is all part of the wonderful TRUE GOSPEL — the GOOD NEWS of the KINGDOM OF GOD, soon now to come — the gospel the world has NOT HEARD from the first century A.D. until now — revealing this glorious GOOD NEWS of the future GLORY OF MAN in his SALVATION and what we shall accomplish throughout the ENTIRE UNIVERSE!

The Book The Incredible Human Potential

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Plain Truth MagazineOctober 1976Vol XLI, No.9