Herbert W Armstrong

   Luke 8:18. It seems strange that people can sit in the same service, hear the same preacher say the same things. One can go away and say, "Wow, that was really valuable and really moving." Why? The other one might say, "Well, I didn't notice anything special," and yet they both hear the same person say the same thing, same time, everything exactly the same, except what Jesus says here.

   Verse 16, Luke 8: "No man, when he has lighted a candle, covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed but sets it on a candlestick that they which enter in they see the light. Nothing secret that shall not be made manifest, neither anything hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. Take heed, therefore, how you hear."

   And of course, up above in verse 12, He'd spoken about how people hear. How does it affect you? What soil does the seed fall on? What's your attitude when the Bible is opened up to you?

   Now, back in Isaiah 66, we have one of our memory verses that all of the old-timers have had to memorize in the past. Isaiah 66, here, God is talking about the attitude that a person has toward the Holy Scriptures. Verse 1 (Isaiah 66:1), Jesus says, "The heaven is my throne, the whole earth is my footstool. So where is this house you're building to me?" So men had tried to impress God and get God's attention by various things, but God is going to show you here the one that gets God's attention. The whole heaven is merely God's throne. The whole earth is God's footstool. So where's the house a man could build to impress God or a place for God to rest? God said, "My hands made all those precious stones, all of those jewels, my hand made all that wood, all those things, my hand has made. All those things have been," says the Eternal. "But to this man, I'll look: to him that's of a poor and contrite spirit and trembles at my word."

   How many people have that attitude when someone opens the Bible? Well, now that's what the Bible says. That's it. You know, when you were baptized, you were baptized in an agreement to live by every word of God. A man is humble and teachable, meek, easy to be entreated. That's what he means here: poor and contrite spirit. And if you show somebody in the Bible, they're going to do it. They tremble at God's word. They don't say, "Well, yeah, I know the Bible says that, but, oh, you know, you can make the Bible say anything." "Well, that's in the Old Testament." So the devil has done a good job of causing people to have doubting, disbelieving, questioning attitudes toward the Bible. You know, we live in an age of criticism, doubt, disbelief, questioning, and that's dangerous. That's very dangerous when it comes to dealing with the word of God.

   Now, I want to read a passage of Mark, and we'll read it like a scholar and a critic at first, or maybe we should read it like a Christian first and then read it like they do. Mark chapter 4, we'll read it first to get a real spiritual inspiration, a real spiritual lesson to increase our faith. And really read it with that Isaiah 66 attitude. Beginning in verse 35 (Mark 4:35), "The same day, when the even was come, Jesus says to them, 'Let's pass over to the other side.' When they sent away the multitude, they took Him even as He was in the ship. There were also with Him other little ships, and there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full. And Jesus was in the higher part of the ship, asleep on a pillow. And they awake Him and said to Him, 'Master, don't you care? We're perishing.' Jesus arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, 'Peace, be still.' And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And He said to them, 'Why are you so fearful? How is it you have no faith?' And they feared exceedingly, and they said to one another, 'What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?'"

   Now, when we read that, as Christians, for inspiration and faith and encouragement, we'll read it that way. But if we read it like a skeptic and a doubter and a critic, like so many computer brains maybe of our day, Matthew chapter 8 is the parallel with this. And let's just read this like the critics do and notice in Matthew 8, you find the story about the storm and calming the storm. And yet if you notice in Matthew, Jesus doesn't call the disciples until chapter 10. Notice Matthew 10, He calls His twelve disciples, gives them power against the unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. And then He gives the names of the twelve. So Matthew says this calming of the storm happened before He sent the twelve out. And yet back in Mark, if you notice, Mark chapter 3, the miracle is in chapter 4, but Mark 3, He calls the disciples and sends them out actually before He did the miracle, just the opposite of what Matthew says. So Mark chapter 3, beginning verse 13 (Mark 3:13), Jesus goes up into the mountain, calls whom He would; they came, He ordains twelve, that they should be with Him, that He might send them forth to preach, to have power to heal sickness and cast out demons. And then He gives their names. So Mark said, He called and sent the twelve before the miracle, and Matthew said just the opposite.

   Well, that's not the only trouble. Back to Matthew 8 and notice how inconsistent Matthew is, how contradictory Matthew and Mark are. They just can't agree. So Matthew chapter 8, beginning verse 23 (Matthew 8:23), "When He was entered into the ship, His disciples followed Him. And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves. He was asleep." Now, you notice, it doesn't say He was asleep in the back of the boat on a pillow, and it doesn't say there were other ships with Him. "Well, His disciples came and awoke Him, saying, 'Lord, save us, we perish.' And He said to them," and notice He corrects the disciples first here, "'Why are you so fearful, O you of little faith?' Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea." And it's just the opposite of Mark. What about that? You know, can you trust Matthew and Mark, Luke and John? They're full of contradictions. They just disagree. They don't agree. "Well, the men marveled and said, 'What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?'"

   Now when I first ran up against that, I said, "Well, I wonder if He may have calmed the storm twice. Is that allowable? Could Christ have done it twice? Do you have to harmonize where maybe it won't harmonize?" And I thought, "Well, if there's any contradiction there, it's in my understanding. I'd better just dig a little deeper and see if I can't see through this skeptical, critical, negative, doubting way of reading." So as I got out an exhaustive concordance and other translations and began to look into Mark 4, look what you find out. Mark chapter 4, "They sent away the multitude," verse 36 (Mark 4:36), "took Him even as He was in the ship." So I looked up the word "ship," and sure enough, there's one word that means a smaller type of boat. They're both the same root word for "ship," but one means a smaller one and the other means a bigger one. So it's not even the same word for "ship" exactly in Mark as it is in Matthew.

   Well, let's just check a little further. This word for "ship" here means an open fishing boat, the kind you have with oars or paddles that you paddle around, and that's backed up by the next sentence. "There were also with Him other little ships." So that shows the one He was in was a little ship, and the others with Him were also little ships. "And there arose a great storm of wind." So I looked up the word "storm" here and found out the Greek word is "lailaps," and it's the word normally translated "squall." "There arose a squall of wind, and the waves beat into this little open fishing boat, and it's beginning to fill up with water." Well, that's a mighty serious situation. So He's in the higher part of this open fishing boat, asleep on a pillow. They wake Him up. He better rebuke the storm first, or He won't have any disciples to rebuke here. They're going to be drowned if He does the opposite. So He rebukes the wind and stops the sea first, and then He corrects the disciples.

   Now, let's go back to Matthew 8 and see what you find back there. If you just dig a little deeper, give God the benefit of the doubt, tremble at God's word, and say, "Well, you know, I don't understand yet. There's something wrong with me. It's not wrong with God, not wrong with God's word." Matthew chapter 8, "When He was entered into a ship," this is the bigger type ship, a cabin boat, covered boat. "His disciples followed. There arose a great tempest," and I looked up the word "tempest." The Greek word is "seismos," where we get "seismograph" for seismography, earthquake, earthquake study. So this is not a squall of wind coming down out of the clouds, whipping up the waves. This is a tidal wave type effect from an earthquake. "There arose a great seismos in the sea, not up in the clouds. This ship is covered by the waves." It's not an open boat; it's not filling up. It's a covered boat. "He was asleep down in the cabin, not out in the open, on the pillow in the back of it. There's no imminent danger of life and death in this case." So Christ has plenty of time. He rebukes the disciples first and then calms the storm. There is no contradiction at all. It's all harmonized if you just dig a little deeper, if you have respect for God, or as you find back in Romans 3:4.

   Because I've been in the church, this will be my 39th Passover. And the more I read the Bible, the more I find out how infallible, how unbelievable, how accurate. And I've seen this Romans 3:4 fulfilled again and again and again. Now, verse 3 said, "What if some people don't have the faith? Can you doubt God because people supposedly believe something and they don't have the faith? What if some don't have the faith?" The word "believe" and "faith" are the same. "Shall their unbelief make the faithfulness of God make you question God's faithfulness?" Well, you can't judge the truth by people.

   I remember when we lived in Red Bridge, down on Virginia, and our girls had a little friend across the street who was a Catholic girl. And they came home one time, and they said, "Daddy, Daddy, Carol said such and so, and we said this, and she said that, and we said this, and she said, 'Who's right?'" And I said, "What?" "See, you got mixed up somewhere. Right's not what, right's not who. You want to know what's right? Get out the encyclopedia. Look up Christmas and Easter. It's not a matter of who. It's a matter of what."

   Well, you can't doubt the truth because of people. You don't prove the truth by people. What if some people don't have the faith and don't show belief, don't obey? Shall their lack of faith make you question God's faithfulness? Why, God forbid. Yay, let God be true, but every man a liar. You're going to find that's always so. People question the Bible, doubt the Bible, make light of the Bible, get sarcastic and negative. God is going to prove true, and every man that does that is going to prove to be a liar.

   When we were going through freshman Bible in Ambassador College, back in 1952-53, Mr. Armstrong was our teacher, and we were sailing along through the Robertson's Harmony of the Gospels. I don't know why church members don't get a Harmony and put themselves through freshman Bible. You ought to do that. You can do that. What's best is borrow a Harmony from one of the Ambassador College graduates, and then you get his notes, and you can read the Harmony. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John side by side in parallel columns and get their input and their notes. Oh, you can learn a lot that way. Well, we were sailing through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John word for word, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. No other college did that. I checked out the Adventist College in Berrien Springs, Michigan, the Baptist College in Marshall, Texas. I didn't know where I wanted to go, but they didn't just go through the Bible and say, "OK, let's just say, see what it says, and that's what we believe." Oh boy, that's what Mr. Armstrong did. That's great. Who does that? Nobody does that. Nobody dares do that. If they did, they would have to believe the same way we did.

   Well, we were sailing along, and we came to Matthew 27. Matthew 26 and 27, verse 37. Matthew 27, verse 37 (Matthew 27:37), "They set up over Jesus' head this accusation: This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." Well, right across the line in the next column in this Harmony was Luke 15 and verse 26, and Luke, I mean Mark 15, excuse me, Mark 15:26, and the superscription of his accusation was written over, "The King of the Jews." Well, can you believe that? Matthew said, "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." Mark just said, "The King of the Jews." How about that contradiction? Boy, they can't even agree with what was written above Christ on the stake there. You can't believe these gospel writers. Look how inconsistent and inaccurate. Well, right across the line on the next column was Luke chapter 23 maybe he'd help us get that straightened out verse 38, Luke 23:38. "The superscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew: This is the King of the Jews." Well, now you've got three choices instead of two, or instead of one explaining the other two. Well, maybe John will straighten it all out. So we turn to John 19:19. "And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the stake. The writing was: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." And can you believe that? Not one of the four said the same thing? Did they contradict each other? Well, no, they didn't contradict each other. Did one say, "Jesus, the King of Israel," and the other say, "Jesus, the King of Syria?" No, there wasn't any contradiction. No one remembered all that was written there. And why did God do that? If God inspired four different men to write four separate gospels about the Christ, then why didn't He cause them to write the same thing about that superscription written over Him?

   Well, we had to figure that out. We had to study that. Then we began to study the background of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and they do that a lot more in college now than they ever did because we've realized how much more important it is to know why God had four different gospel writers write four different gospels in such a different way. Now, most people don't notice the difference between Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And I'm teaching the doctrine of hell in the doctrines class. That's quite a shock to me to find out who never did use the word "hell." Can you imagine a man could write one of the gospels, and the book of Revelation, and three Epistles, the beloved disciple John, and never used the word "hell?" How would you like to have had him for your preacher? That'd have been bad news. He preached and never told you about hell, never used the word. Well, you know, we Baptists, we thought Paul was the great, he was the Liberator from Judaism. He came in with Pauline theology and the gospel to the Gentiles, and he freed all of us Gentile Baptists from the law. And we didn't have to follow that old Jewish practice. Well, Paul wrote 14 Epistles and never even used the word "hell." Boy, that's bad news. How is he gonna answer for that? All these people he preached to and wrote to and never used the word "hell." Well, why would he? If you tell all these Greeks about a place in Palestine, that's a garbage dump. You know, that'd be like me telling people in New York City about Hammers Valley down in Big Sandy, where we burn all the trash and garbage, and they don't know Hammers Valley from Smith Valley." You know, why tell somebody in New York about some valley down in Big Sandy? That's why the only men writing in the New Testament that ever used the word "hell" were the ones that wrote to Jews who'd know about the Valley of the sons of Hinnom.

   You know, we had an enjoyable study about Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John because all of a sudden you find out God had a reason for having four different people with different backgrounds. Imagine Matthew was a tax collector. So you know good and well he is going to write the longest book. He's going to write the most technical, the most specific details, but Luke was a doctor and he wasn't there. He wasn't one of the original twelve. Luke was a Greek, a doctor that came along later and worked with Paul. How did he know anything about the life of Jesus? How did he write a gospel? Well, he must have gotten most of it from Paul because that's who he worked with. That's where he spent his years. He didn't come along until later, and yet, you know, as you read the Gospel of Luke, you won't ever hear Luke saying, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites." Well, he's writing to the Greeks. Mark wrote the shortest one. You can read about John Mark in the Bible. He's the guy that forsook Paul and Barnabas on one of their tours. And Paul said, "I've had it. I'm not using him. He forsook us. He went back home." Well, Barnabas was his uncle, and he said, "Well, I can understand that. He's young and he got homesick and he got scared, and, you know, he's got good potential. I'm going to use him." And Paul said, "Well, then you take him, and I'll get somebody else." And Paul took Silas, and Barnabas took John Mark and later on, you know, the Apostle Paul said, "Hey, you were right. That John Mark's a dandy. I'd like to have him. Send him and let him help me." So he worked with Paul. But a little later, he worked with Peter. And where did he get the information to write a gospel? He wasn't there. He's a young guy that came along in the days of Paul and Barnabas. Well, he got all that information from Peter. That's why some accounts of Mark are written in Hebrew. That's why it's written the way it is.

   Now, can you imagine if God had allowed Peter to write a gospel? Well, you'd have read the others very lightly and said, "Oh, well, don't worry about that. Let's read Peter. He's the top man. You know, let's read his gospel." So God didn't let Peter write a gospel. Well, he did in a way, through Mark. But, you know, you learn a lot from the fact that God did not make any one of the four gospel writers remember all of the things written on the stake.

   And I won't ever forget the lesson I learned there because Mr. Armstrong wrote Matthew 27 and wrote out, "This is the King of the Jews." Then he wrote Mark, "The King of the Jews." Then he wrote Luke, "This is the King of the Jews." Then he wrote John, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews," just drew a line underneath it, put a plus sign, added it up: "This is Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews." The lights went on in my old Baptist head, and I said, "Well, look at that. Sure. You add the Bible together. If you want to learn all about anything, you've got to put all the gospels together." They add. Mark adds. Luke adds. And as you're reading the Gospel of Luke, he wrote many technical terms about diseases. When somebody had an ailment, he'll tell you exactly what the Latin term later came to be from the Greek he used. Dr. Luke. Boy, you learn a lot about Luke.

   Then why didn't God make all four of them remember exactly what was written? Because God allowed them to write in their own style, their own background, their own memory. God inspired them to write, as I'll show you very plainly here later. The deeper you dig into the Bible, the more dumbfounded you are about the infallibility in the Bible.

   Now, I want to come back to the book of Daniel. One of the best books I ever read when I was in college, people probably thought I was crazy as I was reading it because I was sitting there in the library reading this book, "Daniel and the Critics Den." I was having a time. It was funny because Daniel made this blunder, and then Daniel made that blunder, and he just got himself into all kinds of criticisms. And we can take a look at a little bit of that.

   Chapter 3. I used to wonder why God had this in Daniel like this. Verse 2 (Daniel 3:2-3), "Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Then the princes, the governors, and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces..." Why does he do that? You don't need to repeat all those again. Just say all those guys mentioned above came on, and you know. Why repeat that? It's almost like he's rubbing it in or trying to get it through your head for some reason. And he was.

   Now, that's not as bad as the next one. Notice reading on down, verse 4 (Daniel 3:4), "And herald cried aloud, 'To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up. And whoso falls not down and worships shall the same hour be cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.' Therefore, at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of music..." And you know, he mentions these in verse 15, "If you be ready, at what time you hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music..." Why does he just keep mentioning those again and again and again and again?

   Well, the critics really like that because they said, "Well, old Daniel's using words for musical instruments that didn't exist in his day." Why, Daniel wrote all that after it happened. You ever look up Daniel in the Encyclopedia Britannica? They say he's a liar. He wrote all that after it happened. He didn't prophesy all those things ahead of time. Boy, they put Daniel and the critics den right and left. They said, "Can you believe that dumb Daniel? He said that if Daniel was able to do a certain thing, the king would make him third ruler in the kingdom." What a blunder. And he uses the name Nabonidus. Nobody ever saw that name anywhere in history. What a fraud that Daniel is. How inaccurate. You can't trust that Daniel. And can you believe, do you ever notice how he uses the word Chaldeans? How dumb. Didn't he know that was a country? But much later it was no longer the word used for a country. It was a word used for a group of religious kind of dreamers and skeptics.

   Well, they had great fun with the book of Daniel. I imagine God and Christ, as these critics were laughing and ridiculing and writing their books against the book of Daniel, and God and Christ would say, "Well, shall we let them have it now or leave them, leave them alone?" I imagine God said, "No, let's wait till all those windbags get their signatures on their stupid writings, and once they get all their necks up halfway to China, whack, we'll let it fall." And they did. They criticized everything. You can't even imagine what they found to criticize in the book of Daniel. They said, why that Daniel proves he wrote later because there's no record of any lion's den back at his time when he claims to have existed. And as far as the burning fiery furnace, that is really a farce. There wasn't any burning fiery furnace back in the time he claimed to write.

   Well, you know how easy it is for God to change things. What do you think happened when God started whispering in Gorbachev's ear? Boy, look what happened all of a sudden, people were dumbfounded and stunned. They said, "What's gotten into those Russians? This can't be. I don't believe it. It's a dream. This is not real." Well, that's easy. All God has to do is whisper in somebody's ear, keep leaning on them and whispering in their ear, and they've got to say what He tells them to say in time. And God did that with the book of Daniel.

   There was a man that worked for the British military. He loved to delve into history and look into the past records. So God said, "I want you to take a leave of absence and go over to Babylon and dig." So a man named Henry Rawlinson did that. He went to Babylon, began to dig, the real father of archaeology. And you won't believe what he found over there. Well, you will believe it because you can see it with your own eyeballs over in the British Museum and down in the Egyptian Museum because he dug up a cylinder, very well preserved, with the name Nabonidus right on it. In fact, it's called Nabonidus's Cylinder. And he was ruling jointly with his dad, and if Daniel had been put in a prominent position, he would have been third in the kingdom. Boy, how about that for Daniel looking onto it, huh? Just happen onto it, I guess.

   And you know, they found out that the Babylon of that day was so far advanced that they had much earlier acquaintance with Greek instruments than all the other countries. And just because other countries didn't have the general knowledge about these musical instruments till centuries later, they did have in Babylon because they found it on things they dug up. And they found these governmental structures about governors, captains, judges, princes, treasurers, counselors, sheriffs. They found those on these cylinders they dug up. And they found remnants of a fiery furnace and remnants of a lion's den. And they found the word "Chaldeans" used by the real advanced civilization of Babylon at the time in its true sense, no longer the country but a group of religious spooks.

   In every accusation, God proved true and every man a liar. I wish I could write a book, "Daniel Escapes the Critics' Den," but I'm not a writer, so I just have to preach it. I can't write it, but Daniel is true. Every bit of it.

   We had a second-year Bible class when I was in Ambassador College all about the Bible. Mr. Armstrong said, "Now, before we start teaching Epistles and Old Testament Survey and doctrines and prophecy, we need to get people to have a healthy respect for the Bible. So when we teach Epistles, they don't argue with it, question it, doubt it, disbelieve it. They've already proven and they know and they know that they know this is the word of God and it's infallible. And from there on, what you teach them in their third year and their fourth year, they'll receive it with fear and trembling and respect and reverence. If we can get that into them in their second year, then they'll really have a great respect for the Bible."

   Romans chapter 1, verse 2 (Romans 1:2), "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, a called apostle, separated to the gospel of God, which God has promised before by His prophets in the Old Testament." Anybody's Bible say that? If your Bible says that, you've got a bummer. You better get you a different one. Where do we get that "Old Testament?" Just a way of disrespecting the word of God. That's not what Jesus called the Bible of His day. How do you know you have the Bible that Jesus had in His day? I know I do. We prove that in the second-year Bible. Notice what that verse says, "promised before by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures." That's what Genesis to Malachi is: Holy Scriptures. It's not the Old Testament. Imagine the attitude that gives people about the Bible. People say, "Why, how come you're going to those Jewish feasts? Those are Old Testament." That makes it sound antiquated, no good, outdated. And it's never called that in the Bible. You don't ever have a Bible basis for calling it that. You can look up "Old Testament" and find it once, but it's mistranslated. It shouldn't be called that.

   In fact, let me read you what the Companion Bible says about translating that word "Testament." The word "Testament" as the translation of the Greek word "diatheke" means covenant. But to translate that word "Testament" has been nothing less than a great calamity because by its use, truth has been effectually veiled all through the centuries, causing a wrong turning to be taken as to the purpose and character of this present dispensation by which the heirs of tradition have usurped the place of important truth. The word "Testament" as a name for a collection of books is unknown to Scriptures. It comes to us from the Latin Vulgate. That should tell you where we got it. People that don't want to follow the Old Testament don't want to obey the Old Testament. People that want all the New Testament is all we need.

   I remember plainly one time in the Baptist church, they had these little cards you put your money in and you check off, make 100 if you do everything on there. You brought your Bible, you studied your lesson, you're staying for church, and you gave an offering. And I said, "Well, teacher, I'm sorry, I just brought this little Pocket Testament." "And that's all we need, brother. That's all we need." I didn't have to have a Bible, just the New Testament. Why, that Old Testament.

   You know in the doctrines class at Ambassador College, truth is founded in Genesis to Malachi. And can you find the Trinity back there? No. You ever look up Trinity in an encyclopedia, Shaf-Herzog, or some Protestant or Catholic encyclopedia? It's funny to see the grounds they try to come up with for substantiating a Trinity doctrine. "Holy, holy, holy." That proves the Trinity because the speaker sang "holy, holy, holy" to each God. Now, what if you've got four holies? Four gods. Five holies, you've got five gods. Two holies, you've only got two gods. That's consistent. You can't say you've got three just because of three if you don't admit you've got five with five. You know the Holy Spirit, those three words together, are never in the Old Testament. You don't ever get any Trinity out of the Old Testament. Ever burning hell? You don't get that out of the Old Testament. The gates of Jerusalem are burning with unquenchable fire. You've been there and seen them burning? Why, they're not burning. Well, then it must have been quenched. That scripture is a lie if you believe in that kind of a hell. You can't get a lot of those pagan doctrines out of the Old Testament. No wonder they want to do away with the Old Testament. You don't get anybody going to heaven back there either. You don't get anybody having an immortal soul back there either. You don't in the new either, but they think you do. At least they try to word it into the New Testament.

   Notice II Timothy 3, in verse 15, our textbook that year we used "Equipped for Every Good Work," which was a Jehovah's Witnesses book. We used "All About the Bible," which is a textbook today by Sidney Collett. We used the Angus-Green Bible Handbook, Halley's Bible Handbook. You can get "All About the Bible" in those. People need to study. You know, Mr. Armstrong years ago said, "God's people, above everything else, are lazy when it comes to study. People pray, and people visit, and people go to Bible study or go to Spokesman's Club. But when it gets right down to hungering and thirsting for the spiritual meat of the word of God, how many people really study?" People say, "Oh, well, I don't need all that background, all that. I just read the book, you know. I'm just going to stick to the book." That's like finding a letter out here and not bothering to get the background of the writer or the receiver and trying to figure out what it's all about without knowing. You can't do that.

   When we put books in the church libraries, I always write "Ambassador College Second Year Bible Textbook" because I figure people ought to try to put themselves through college. You can read those books. You can read the Geopolitics book. You can read a lot of the textbooks we have at Ambassador College, but we need to study, not just read the King James Version. Notice here in II Timothy chapter 3 and verse 15 (II Timothy 3:15), the Apostle Paul says to Timothy, "From a child, you've known the Old Testament." No, nowhere it doesn't say that, that's disrespectful to the word of God. It's not Old Testament. "From a child, Timothy had known the holy scriptures, and those holy scriptures, Genesis, prophets, writings, they are able to make you wise to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus."

   Verse 16 is really moving in some of the more modern translations. "Every scripture is God-breathed." You believe that? We had teachers at Ambassador College that said, "Well, the book of Jonah, it didn't really happen. That's just a story to illustrate a lesson." And what's the problem of Jonah? So why, there's never been any whale big enough to swallow a man. Oh yeah there have, people have gone to the effort to prove there were whales that swallowed people that stayed alive in them for some time to try to back up God and the Bible. In the first place, it doesn't say a whale swallowed Jonah. It says God had prepared a great fish, which suggests there wasn't one big enough in the area, so He went to the effort to prepare a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. It's not a story. It's not just made up to give a spiritual lesson. Every scripture is God-breathed. You believe that?

   You say, well, I know God said that, but, that's what's happened in the past, you know. God said, "You will circumcise your newborn sons on the eighth day." People said, "Oh, you don't need to do that. It's cheaper, just let the doctor do it after the baby is born, and a lot less trouble and a lot easier on you." And God says, "Circumcise the newborn sons on the eighth day." And if you get a mother's encyclopedia and read the article on circumcision, the very first thing in it says, "The Jews undoubtedly found out by trial and error, like we in the medical profession have, that the clot factor reaches its peak after the seventh day." Well, how about a shot in the dark for God on that one, hu? God just kind of throwing darts and lucked out, I guess. God said the eighth day. He didn't say whenever it's handy or whenever it's cheaper. That's like God said, "Don't plow with an ox and an ass together." Humans get in their carnal brain reasoning and say, "Well, why would God say that? Well, let's just think about that. An ox is a great big creature, and an ass is a little bitty, small-footed one. And an ox is a proverb for strength, and an ass is real reliable in the mountains, but boy, it's a little bitty animal, and it's obvious that big ox and an ass plowed together, you'll kill the ass." No, it's not right at all. An ox is a clean animal. God says so. And an ass is an unclean animal, and an ass will eat anything and everything and stinks, and the ox can't stand it, and the ox turns its head away and it kills the ox. Well, how about that for a shot in the dark on God's part, hu? He just said, "Don't plow with an ox and an ass together." And you just say, "Yes, sir, God. If that's what You say, that's it. God said it; that settles it. God said it; that's good enough for me."

   Yet, one of our ex-evangelists in another church now said, "Well, somebody on the way to church said they saw a bumper sticker that said, 'God said it; that settles it.' I said, 'I don't agree with that. God gave us brains. He expects us to reason.'" And I read in the Bible seven times about people reasoning themselves astray. And any time you say, "Well, yeah, I know God said that, but," you're in trouble already. That's not the way to handle the word of God. You can't have that attitude toward the scriptures.

   Look back in the last chapter of Luke. I've gone through the New Testament and looked up all of the books out of the Old Testament and found out what writers in the New Testament said about these Old Testament writers. They all said they were inspired, that God spoke through them, that they're a prophet, that they're scripture. So you can't cast away the Old Testament and still believe in the guys in the New Testament.

   Luke 24. Notice Jesus is going to go back all the way through the Bible of His day and review all the things prophesied about the Messiah and prove to them that He fulfilled all of them. So notice verse 27, Luke 24 (Luke 24:27): "Beginning at Moses." Well, that's great. That's where my Bible begins: at Moses. Moses wrote Genesis, says so in the New Testament. Moses wrote Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. There's no question about that. There's no way to doubt those unless you don't believe Jesus and you don't believe Paul and you don't believe John and you don't believe James and you don't believe Matthew. The Bible of Jesus' day began at Moses. Then it went through the prophets, and that's the way the Holy Scriptures are to this day. If you get the Jewish Publication Society copy of the Holy Scriptures, that's the name on the outside. In Hebrew, it kind of strikes fear and reverence in you when you see that: The Holy Scriptures in Hebrew on the outside of the Bible. Well, Jesus' Bible began at Moses and then went through the prophets. He expounded to them in all the scriptures, not the Old Testament. He expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.

   Now, verse 44 (Luke 24:44): "Jesus said to them, 'These are the words that I spake to you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled concerning me, which were written in, number one, the law of Moses; secondly, the prophets; thirdly, the Psalms.'" So the Bible of Jesus' day is laid out right there. There were three parts to it: the law of Moses the Petito, the prophets, and the last part should begin with the book of Psalms. And it's really called the Writings. The Psalms is just the original biggest book that starts that group of books.

   Now, in your Bible here in the New Testament, we call it, you have the Gospels, you have the book of Acts, you have the Epistles, and then you have the Revelation. So there are really four sections to the New Testament and three in the Old, and that's seven. That's perfect. That's great. You can't understand the three without the four. You can't understand the four without the three. If you don't live by every word of God, you're never going to learn the truth. The Jews don't know it with the Old Testament. Christians don't know it with the New Testament. If you don't have the whole Bible together, you're never going to understand the truth. Well, that plainly shows me the Bible of Jesus' day is the same one I have, and you can prove it in much more detail just going from there. So He showed them the things written in the law of Moses. There were things in Genesis about the Messiah, and Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And we'll go through those in the next few weeks. There were things in the prophets about the Messiah, and there were things in the writings, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, all of those about the Messiah.

   Verse 45: "Then He opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures." So the scriptures of Jesus' day were the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms. And it's still that way to this day in the Jewish Bible, the Jewish Publication Society.

   Now, if you notice back in Luke 20... well, let's look in the book of Acts, Acts 1 and verse 20. There are many other places you can track these down on your own. You get a Cruden's or a Young's or Strong's Concordance and carry on the study on your own, and I'm just introducing you to it.

   In Acts 1 verse 20 (Acts 1:20): "For it is written in the book of Psalms." So Psalms were one book. It's not chapters. You don't call Psalms chapters. That's not accurate. They're individual Psalms. Psalm 2, Psalm 8, Psalm 150. It's written in the book of Psalms. "Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein." That's Psalm 69 and Psalm 109, two different Psalms quoted there. But he says it's written in the book, singular, of Psalms.

   Now, notice Acts 13 and verse 33 (Acts 13:33): "God has fulfilled the same to us, their children, in that He raised up Jesus again, as it is also written in the second Psalm." Were they numbered in Jesus' day and Paul's day and the Acts day like they are today? What's the second Psalm in your Bible? "You are my Son, this day have I begotten you." Yeah, the second Psalm there is the same as the second Psalm today.

   Now, one of the areas that people get mixed up, they see capitalization, they see punctuation, they see chapters and verses, and they think that's inspired by God. Well, that's ridiculous. That's all been added in the last few hundred years. You say, "Well, what difference does that make?" Well, we know one famous difference about the thief on the cross. He said, "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And Jesus said, "I say to you today, you'll be with me in paradise." Now, you better watch where you capitalize and punctuate there, hadn't you? Look how much difference there is. "I say to you today you'll be with me in paradise." That'd be fraud. That's a lie. Jesus wasn't in paradise that day. How could He promise the thief he'd be with Him in paradise that day? And that's not what the thief asked anyway. He didn't say, "Lord, take me to heaven with you as soon as we die." That's not what he asked. That's what Baptists would ask Him, Protestants, you know. The thief on the cross said, "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus said, "I don't have to wait till then to remember you. Well, I can tell by your attitude today, you're going to be with me in paradise." But look how people make the punctuation. Now, look at this. If you say, "What's that in the road, ahead?" That's a little different than, "What's that in the road ahead?" Boy, there's a lot of difference there, and you better be careful.

   Let me read to you about punctuation, marks, accents. No accents were found in any manuscript before the seventh century. What about punctuation? That's entirely absent. Texts read on without any divisions and punctuation between letters or words until a manuscript in the ninth century. None of our modern marks of punctuation are found anywhere until the ninth century. Capital letters. Oh, it puts Holy Ghost. What is that? So what? Whoever capitalized an adjective? Tall Bill, you capitalize the T? No, you don't capitalize adjectives. Look where people capitalize, though. You know, there's no difference between Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit. Exactly the same Greek. Why capitalize one, not the other? Why translate one "ghost" and the other "spirit?" I'm trying to get a Trinity God into your brain. Capital letters, those don't exist in the original manuscripts. Chapters and divisions, they are destitute of any manuscript authority. Verses are unknown in any manuscript in the Greek New Testament. They were first introduced in 1551 in Steven's Edition. The Old Testament verses in the Hebrew were fixed and counted for each book by the Massoretes. So when you read your Bible, don't establish beliefs and things by chapters.

   Let me show you what that can cause. Look in the book of Hosea. Because of where the chapter is divided here, you miss a lot of truth. Hosea chapter 5 and 6. God says in verse 14 of chapter 5 (Hosea 5:14), "I'll be to Ephraim as a lion, but I'll be as a young lion to the house of Judah. I, I'll tear and go away. I'll take away and none will rescue. I'll go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offense." God predicts in their affliction, they'll seek Me early. God said, "I'm the lion. I'm going to punish Israel and Judah, but they're going to wake up and repent and turn back to Me." And then we end the chapter. But look at chapter 6 verse 1 (Hosea 6:1): "So Israel and Judah that have been afflicted by a lion, they say, 'Come, let's return to the Eternal. He's the lion that's torn us. He'll heal us. He's the lion that's smitten us. He'll bind us up. After two days, He'll revive us, and in the third day, He'll raise us up.'" Well, that tells you exactly how long the great tribulation is going to be. God's gonna cut it short somewhere after two days but somewhere in the third day. And you miss all that because you put a chapter division in there. Well, you better watch out for chapters and verses and punctuation.

   And one last lesson, the greatest lesson of all, in a way, I learned about the Bible and respect for the Bible. Our teacher said, "Turn to Genesis 1:1." And he said, "I want to show you something about the Bible that will dumbfound you." Genesis 1:1 is the paragraph all by itself: "In the beginning, God created heavens and the earth." And that's a paragraph. It stands all alone. And then we know what happened, that because of Satan's rebellion, Tohu and Bohu came to exist on the earth, but God didn't create it that way. Other chapters prove that. But verse 1 all by itself in a paragraph. Now, our teacher said, "I want you to learn to appreciate this book." So he said, "If you looked at the Hebrew, you'd find seven words there. 'In the beginning' is one word, and 'God' is one, and 'create' is one, 'heavens' is one, and 'the earth.'" So you have seven words. But if you added up all the letters in those Hebrew words, it will come out divisible by seven. If you add up in Hebrew and Greek like Roman numerals, you know, we have the letters also represent numerical amounts. So they don't have a separate alphabet and a separate number system. They let their alphabet also have numerical value. Roman numerals: X is 10, C is 100, V is 5. We know that. So if you take "In the beginning, God created heavens and the earth," those seven words, and you add up the number of letters, and it'll be divisible by seven. And then you add up the numerical value of all those seven words, it'll be divisible by seven. You add up the verb, it will be. You add up the nouns, they will be. The conjunction, the prepositions, they all will be divisible by seven. So in those seven words, you have seven sevens in those seven words.

   Now, our teacher said, "I want you to go home and write a sentence with seven words and then add up the number of letters, and if it doesn't work out, you've got to change one of the words to make the number of letters come out divisible by seven. Now, when you've done that, give a numerical value to the numbers. A is 1, B is 2, C is 3, whatever. And then add up the numerical value of all those letters. You've got very little chance it's going to work. You're going to have to change words, but you can't change the number of letters. You can't change the numerical value." Well, we worked and worked and worked several nights. We worked till two and three in the morning. We came back to class. "OK, anybody have seven sevens?" Nobody. Six? Nobody. Five? Nobody. Four? I think one or two actually got four features of sevens. Their sentence didn't make any sense though. Now, do you think God could write the whole Bible that way?

   I've been studying this for about 30 years. You don't think God could do that in the whole Bible. And I looked up the name Moses because we Baptists did away with Moses. And I found out Moses is mentioned in the New Testament 80 times, not 79, not 81, exactly 80, numerically great. And you know what? Every major word in the Bible comes out an exact significant number. Never any odd numbers, never any weird numbers. I looked up the word "Sabbath." Something was wrong. 59. Well, that's a bum number. That doesn't divide by anything. 59. Well, wait a minute. What about Hebrews 4 and verse 9? Oh, Hebrews 4 verse 9. Look what you find out. The word "rest" all the way through chapter 3 and 4 is "katapausis" until you get to verse 9 of chapter 4. If you've got the New International Version, you already know the answer here. You can read it. "There remains the keeping of the Sabbath to the people of God." There's the word "Sabbath" there, and you add it to the other 59, comes out 60, man's number, six. God made the Sabbath for man. 60. The number 10 is the number of judgment. I've got many places to prove that. The 10 Commandments, the 10 virgins, the 10 tribes, 100 years, 10, 10, 1,000 years, 10, 10, 10. Everywhere you find judgment is a multiple of 10. Saul ruled 40 years, David ruled 40 years, Solomon ruled 40 years, 400 years between the Old and the New Testament, 4,000 years till Christ came. Everywhere the number 10 is tied in with the number of judgment.

   Now you can take, I took the word "Passover," and I thought, "Well, I wonder how many times Passover is mentioned." And I found 75. Well, that's a bummer of a number. That's not significant of a 7 or a 6 or a number we know to have a significant meaning. 75. Well, how about Acts 12 though? You see what happens. God actually can nail people for adding or taking away from the Bible. You can't get away with it. God's numerical pattern all the way through the Bible will catch you no matter what you're trying to add to or take away. You try to take away the Sabbath in Hebrews 4. You try to take away and add Easter. Look at this. Acts 12 verse 4 (Acts 12:4). Herod apprehended Peter, put him in prison, delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter. Why, Easter is in your King James Bible. Well, it's not in the Greek. The Greek word there is "Pascha," the word for Passover. So you add that to the 75. That's 76. Four times 19. God revealing Himself. 19 we've always known is the complete cycle. Number 19 kings of Israel. Look how many people in the Bible. 38 years wandering in the wilderness. 38 years in nineteens. How many holy days do you keep? Seven annual Sabbaths, seven feasts, 19 days altogether. You'll find 19, the complete cycle, everywhere, all the way through the Bible. And I've got many other places I could show you, but any name you want to pick out, I'll show you a few here.

   Isaac, 19 times in the New Testament. Isaiah, 21 times in the New Testament, 32 times in the Old Testament. Always significant. The number 4, you may not have been aware of before, but if you take the Bible and go through and look up all the 4s and 40s and 400s, and one of the students put one of God's names in the computer, the Hebrew name, and it came out 4444. God revealing Himself. Four Gospel writers, four living creatures that be before God, four trumpets, God's revealing Himself, intervening in man's world. And after 4,000 years, Christ came in BC 4. You'll find as you read, 4 is connected with God revealing Himself. Now, if you have 40, you've got God revealing Himself in judgment. 40 years each king ruled, they had peace 40 years in the days of judges, 40 years, 40 years. There's never anything odd like 13 or 27. It's always a significant number.

   Savior, 24 times in the New Testament. Vision, 12 times. Shem, 16 times in the Old Testament. Solomon, 12 times in the New Testament. You know, I first looked at the 12 apostles and I thought, "You don't read about many of those hardly at all." Four of the 12 are mentioned four places just in the list. There are four lists of them, and maybe you never noticed. Always the same four are listed together, and the same one's always first in each group of four, and the same one's always last in each group of four. How did God do that? How could God write a book like that? You know, you take the name Timothy. 12 books of the Bible have the name Timothy in them, 24 times altogether. How could they do that? Those guys writing say, "Hey, Paul, how many times are you going to use Timothy's name? And hey, John, hey..." No, they didn't see each other. Sometimes they were writing at the same time. Barnabas, 24 times in the New Testament. Jesus said, "I am," about seven things. Seven miracles in the Gospel of John. You notice in the Gospel of John how many times Jesus said, "My Father, My Father, My Father?" 35 times. 77777. Do you want to try to write a book like that?

   Look at the book of Lamentations just a second. Lamentations. You notice chapter 1 has 22 verses, chapter 2, 22, chapter 3 has 66, chapter 4 has 22, chapter 5 has 22. Now, that's odd. There's no other book like that. 22 chapters in each or verses in each chapter. How come? Well, if you had a Jewish Publication Society, you'd find out why. Because God alphabetized those chapters. What does that mean? Well, if you saw Lamentations, verse 1 would have to have the first word begin with the letter Aleph. Verse 2 would have to begin with the first letter with the word Beth, verse 3 with Gimel, and then Daleth, and Hey, and on down through the Hebrew alphabet. Now, do you want to try to write like that? Boy, you talk about work. One sentence has to begin with the letter A, and the next one with a B, and the next one with C and D. Not gonna make sense. Well, chapter 3, you have three verses in a row have to begin with Aleph, then three with Beth, and three with Gimel and Daleth. Boy, that's complicated. How would you ever do that? You've seen Psalm 119. Eight verses, and yet each line has to begin with Aleph, 8 lines in a row beginning with the first letter. You know, God alphabetized like Psalm 9 and 10 put together 22 verses. They're alphabetized when you put the two together. And yet there are two separate Psalms written by different people. How are you going to do that? I'll tell you what, you've got the word of God in your lap.

   Now, chapter 5 is not alphabetized in Hebrew because when man translated and wrote, he respected God's ability and put 22 verses, but he couldn't alphabetize it. Boy, how about that? You ever notice Proverbs 31, the Virtuous Woman chapter, 22 verses? And if you read that in the Hebrew Publication Society, every one of those 22 is alphabetized: ABC, the woman of valor, the virtuous woman. God alphabetized a lot of the Bible. Boy, that is, that's unbelievable. How could God do that? Let me just give you a few other examples, and then we'll quit. Candlesticks in the book of Revelation, seven times. God even does this in the sense of the book of Malachi. The "Lord of hosts," 24 times. And you take the major names like the 12 apostles, Philip, 16 times. James, 19 times. John, 35 times. Thomas, 12 times. When I ran into Peter, I thought, "What's the deal here?"

   [Tape Flipped]

   James used his Hebrew name, Simon, 210, seven 30 times. Always comes out perfect. All the major names you want to look up. Unleavened Bread, 49 times. Psalm, seven times in the New Testament. Liberty, 12 times in the New Testament. Teachers, 48 times. Just in the Gospels. God revealing Himself.

   We know 12 is the perfect foundation number: 12 apostles, 12 patriarchs, 12 gates to the city, 12 foundations, 24 elders up in heaven. Why didn't they start the New Testament church with 13? Why didn't they just leave it with 11? They couldn't pick between two men, and they had to have God pick one of them because it had to start with 12. That is the foundational number. It is also a tithe, that is 120. In the beginning. God reveals Himself. That's in the Bible four times. Hell is 12 times. Paul wrote 14 letters. Four of them are personal, eight of them are the churches. There are eight writers of the whole New Testament. Out of the 21 letters, the General Epistles, seven of them written by four men. There's no error anywhere. You'll never find one. It's impossible. Caleb, boy, nine times the numbers. Joshua, nine times. 32 times altogether. Never any odd numbers. No 31s and 33s. Abigail, 14 times. Abimelech, 24 times. The man who lived longer than anybody else should be six times. That's man's number, and it is Methuselah.

   Come back a second to Genesis. It shows what happens when you try to divide a chapter like they have here. You ever wonder why they put the Sabbath in chapter 2 and all the rest of creation in chapter 1? Why they want to separate the Sabbath from that by chapter. It's a fraud. It's ridiculous. The name Elohim is in verse 3. Chapter 2 verse 4 begins the new name of God. It's a new manuscript: "The Lord God" starts verse 4. Those three verses ought to be in chapter 1. What does it do to the numbers if you take it out of chapter 1? Well, you can know for sure. The word "created," six times. God said, 10 times. God saw, seven times. God made, seven times. After his kind, 10 times. The number of judgment. People ignore that law and go into evolution. That's a fraud and a lie. Seasons, four times. Atonement, nine times twelve, 108. Tabernacle, 32 times. Wine, 28 times in the New Testament. Four times seven. I wondered about some of the bad guys, like some of the Herod's. Well, their numbers show. Herodias, six, a man's number. Herod the Great, Great what? Ten times, the number of judgment. Well, the worst Herod of all was old Herod Antipas. Three times three times three. That's about as bad a number as you can get: a triple trinity.

   Lust, 54 times in the Bible. Three times three times three, doubled. So when you find the number three, it's kind of a dead giveaway that that's not the kind of number you want to look for. "Will a man rob God?" In Malachi, four times. What happens if you try to add to a book or take away from it? You can't do it. God will nail you. You'll get caught by fouling up the number system. Well, I got eight pages, and I can't cover all those, but at least I've introduced you to them, and I think you can see.

   Let's turn back to that one scripture in Timothy. The longer I've studied into this, the more I've dug into this, the more I tremble at the word of God. Oh, one thing I might mention, the Jews decided they would put the Bible to the test in the Hebrew. People said, "Why, you can't go by that book of Esther. God's name isn't even in the book of Esther." And you read the King James Version, you won't find it. But guess what? They put the book of Esther in Hebrew through the computer and said, "Give us every seventh letter, every twelfth letter, every nineteenth letter." And oh boy, how could God do that? The names of God: YHVH. The different names of God came out if you picked out every twelfth letter or if you picked out every nineteenth letter. You want to try to make the book make sense and have every certain letter flow through the names of God? Might as well give up. You can't even do that in the computer. Well, the Jews thought, "Let's give it a big shot. Let's try the book of Isaiah." Sixty-six chapters, huge book. We went through it in Bible study in Pasadena one time. It took four years. Four years. They put the Hebrew of Isaiah in the computer and said, "We want every twelfth letter, the names of God." The names of God just kept coming out. No mistake, no slip-up, no error. "Well, let's try Jeremiah." Well, you know, after the Jews did that, they just said, "Hey, be careful of that book. That's God's word." I've got the Xerox copy of the study they put that through.

   Well, I guarantee you, verse 16, you're gonna find this true. Every scripture is God-breathed. If you read that in the Greek, the word "God" and "breathed" is joined together, a compound word. Every scripture is God-breathed. Well, I guarantee you're going to find that out. The deeper you dig, the more you search, and the more you study and prove, the more you're going to do that. So when you open the Holy Scriptures from now on, open them with reverence and respect. Don't chunk that book around and say, "I have Old Testament." Be careful being hasty criticizing it. "Now why did God write that stupid book?" One book maybe you don't understand, or you haven't gotten the meaning out of it. This is the Holy Scriptures. These are the words of God. This is God-breathed. It's not something you argue with, second guess, criticize, condemn, find fault with. You're gonna prove God true and every man a liar.