Herbert W Armstrong

   The work was started in the single individual body of Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ, after He had laid down His life for us, was resurrected from the dead and ascended to heaven to direct His work from there. He is the head of the Church. But He said, 'I will build My Church,' and the Church of God is the Body of Christ. As God worked in the one body of Jesus Christ, and He said, 'I can do nothing of myself,' and He said He had spoken nothing of Himself. The Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works, and He has given me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.

   I wonder if you realize that Jesus Christ did not employ divine power inherent within himself. He did nothing that you and I could not do. He used the power of the Holy Spirit of God within Him, which we can have today, if we are as close to God as He was then. God started the work through that one body of Christ. He said on the cross, or before He went to the cross, in fact, it was His prayer the night before He was taken, after the Passover, Father, He said, 'I have finished what?' No, He didn't say He finished the work. As a matter of fact, I heard Ted say that, and it was a slip of the tongue on the broadcast the other night that he had finished the work. He had not finished the work. He said, 'I have finished the work Thou hast given ME to do.' Only the work that God had given Jesus to do. The work was only started then. Brethren, can we wake up to that fact?

   Jesus then commissioned His disciples 'go into all the world, and preach the gospel'. He knew that many false prophets were going to arise. They would go out in His name in the name of Christ as Christians. When they go out in His name, they call themselves Christians. They would say that He is the Christ. He said they would go out saying, 'I am Christ,' not saying they're Christ. That Jesus is saying, 'I, Jesus, am the Christ,' and deceiving the many. And that's what they've been doing by preaching a different gospel. Sure, they come in the name of Christ, but they are false apostles. Satan, the devil becomes a minister of light and represents himself as a minister of light, but he's a deceiver. And his ministers appear as the ministers of righteousness, but righteousness is keeping all the commandments of God. And they do not believe in keeping God's commandments. And so they preach the commandments are done away. They go in the name of Christ and they say you can have grace while you disobey. Isn't that what the devil said to Eve in the Garden of Eden, 'You can live forever, disobey God, and you will live forever?' That's what the ministers are saying today.

   He wanted to go to heaven. They tell you today that you go to heaven, the same thing that the devil did. And so a great time of deception has come, and there's come a great falling away, and it has lasted through the ages from about 69 A.D. until now. But Jesus Christ said, when they asked Him to tell what was going to happen at the time of the end, and before the end of this age and the second coming of Jesus Christ, the first thing was, many would come in His name saying He is the Christ, but deceiving the many. But getting down to the end time, we're finally going to have, after wars all through the time, finally, He said there would be world war, nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there's going to come a famine such as we have never had before. And you're beginning to see it in many parts of the United States now, that's only the very first beginning drops of it. The real famine is coming later, probably much later. I mean by that, somewhere around 13 to 15 years from now. And when it does, it's going to take the lives by the disease epidemics that will follow of one-third of this nation. We are coming into those days. And he said that we'd be hated of all nations, and the United States and the British are today. And they'll deliver us up, and our nations are going into captivity. But, then he interrupted to say, they had asked him, what's going to happen in the sign of your coming? And he said, and this gospel of the Kingdom, the same gospel He preached shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. After 18 1/2 centuries, when His gospel has been hidden, He said He would raise up His Church to do it.

   And brethren, that gospel is beginning to go to the world now. It isn't going yet into all nations. It isn't going as powerfully and as intensively in the many nations yet as it ought to go and as it must go and will go, but it is going around the world. The one continent we're not reaching now is South America. And then at least we're reaching and touching every continent, but we're not reaching them thoroughly and it's going to take the remaining time.

   Now we can't calculate dates, but it does appear that we shall have in the neighborhood of 14 1/2 or 15 more years, and that's all. And brethren, I'm glad when I see how this world is run and where we're coming now and the way things are getting, I'm telling you that things are changing.

   I hear just in the last few days while most of you have been on the way over here, at last, man has been able to get a rock or a little miniature moon about 2 ft in diameter, about this big around up into the air, some 500 miles that's circling this earth every hour and a half. One hour and a half way up there, it goes clear around the earth, and they have radio instruments within it and all over the world, they're getting a little beep, beep, beep being transmitted down from it, and it is transmitting signals to communist Russia that they understand about the density of air, about the temperatures and a great deal of information about upper space that our people don't know.

   Man says he's going to get to high heaven. The devil tried to get there; now, man says he will. They once tried to build a Tower to Babel and (Genesis 11:6-7), God says, go to now, look what man is starting already to do; this, they begin to do. And now he said, if we don't go down and stop them, there's no end to what they might accomplish. God said, "We", let "Us", more than one person in the Kingdom of God.

   And so God came down and divided their language and divided the races, but now the races are amalgamating. Now, at the point of the gun, the army is forcing integration, and they want to force intermarriage between races. And that is contrary to the way of God and our people here know it. Now in Christ, Jesus, there is no difference between sex or race or anything. We're all one in Christ, and I'm glad we can all meet here. We're no respecter of color because we're here to worship Christ and to worship God. But God segregated the races and intended them to remain segregated, and we should be segregated geographically, but we're not. And as a matter of fact, it was the leaders of the Negroes in that portion of Africa where the United States Negroes came from that sold their own brethren as slaves to our forefathers here in the United States, and they were guilty, and our forefathers were guilty. So, the forefathers of our colored people were guilty and the forefathers of our white people were guilty. They're all guilty alike and they have violated one of the great principles of God.

   Now, the next thing if we do not and cannot have geographical segregation is to have social segregation; that is God's way. And I think we all know that and believe it here, our colored people as well as our white people, but we do not have religious segregation. We're all brothers, if we're in Christ. We're brothers and sisters, and one is going to get into God's Kingdom just as quick as the other.

   But I tell you, we are in times where things are changing and they're changing rapid. Now we're not to be any part of this world. Here they are now, trying to force integration. They get a sentimental thing and feeling about it, and they're playing a lot of politics, and don't you think it's anything else except just a matter of trying to get votes in politics; that's what it is, and a lot of communist influence back it.

   All right, we're not any of us, regardless of race, going to take any part in that one way or the other. We have nothing to do with this world directly as such. We don't take part in it. We're not of it. We must live in it. But we are here to obey God according to his every word.

   But it is significant, the things that are happening that I tell you, we're near the time of the end when God is going to have to step in and straighten these things out. As Mr. Herman Hoeh has explained to you, the colored people have many talents and abilities that we need and that the world needs. And if they were left to themselves in their own nation and in their own way, they would contribute something that this world needs very, very, very serious.

   There is something that we people of the white Caucasian race have to contribute that all the other nations and races need, and God had intended it that way. One is no better than the other. Now, one individual may accomplish more than another. One individual may strive harder than another. One individual may study more and get a little better education than another; that's true. And they succeed and accomplish more or accumulate more money. One individual might even be better than the other, I don't know. Maybe morally one is better than another, that's an individual matter. In some respects, one race may be better than another, but in another respect, the other race is better, and so it goes. We hear this question all the time, which is better, a man or a woman. Well, the answer is, both of them. A man is better where God intended a man to be, earning a living, running the farm, producing things in a factory or in a business, and at the head of his family. And a woman is better where God intended her as the mother of her children, as the teacher of her children, as the helper of her husband, as a homemaker.

   But no woman wants to cut her hair short. She wants to manage men. She wants to boss men around and make a man out of herself. And what are a lot of young men trying to do today? Get their hair and rope it up and curl it around, have Marcel and go into a beauty parlor and make a woman of themselves. Now, just how superior is a man trying to have a baby and nurse it, just tell me. Man isn't worth very much when it comes to that, is he? And when it comes to lifting big weights and pitching things, well, some of the Russian women get out and pitch hay, I suppose, but that's not a place for a woman, when you get into a man's place; a man belongs there and a woman doesn't. So the answer is each one is superior in the place that God intended him to be. And that's the same as between Negroes and whites and China men and Indians and any other kind of race that you want to mention. So let's quit feeling that one is better than the other because we aren't. I tell you, don't ever compare yourself to some other race or anything of that kind and don't feel inferior and don't feel superior. Just compare yourself to Jesus Christ and see how little you shrink down to be. Just compare yourself to God, compare yourself to Jesus Christ. Then I think you will go and get down on your knees and say, "Oh Father, be merciful to me, a sinner." I don't think you'll feel very conceited about it either. And then get a little bit of the confidence that is the faith of God and know you're an instrument in God's power and that it's God that is doing it and you're merely an instrument and think how powerful He is and there's nothing that you can't do. Then you can feel pretty good and like rejoicing and be pretty happy after all. Now, that's the attitude we should get into. I think we all know that here and I'm glad we do.

   But God has called a church, and at this end time, he has raised up a church to carry on his work. Now, over here in the Book of Revelation he shows the history of the church, in seven different stages and there was a church just ahead of us. I never did get into that church; I never did join it. At that time the headquarters of it were in Stanbury, Missouri, 30 years ago, the Sardis church.

   But here's what God says (Rev. 3:1), "I know thy works, that thou has a name that thou liveth." That's the name, "Church of God". Yes, they have that name, and art dead". He's speaking spiritually- dead spiritually. Oh, they have never had a conclave like this, not in the last 100 years.

   (Rev. 3:2) "Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God." No, I should say not, not their works or anything.

   (Rev. 3:3) "Remember therefore, how thou has received and heard, and hold fast, and repent." He tells them to repent because they're on the wrong side of things. "If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I'll come upon the." When he speaks about that, he's speaking of the second coming of Christ and that shows that members of that church would still be alive at the second coming of Christ.

   (Rev. 3:4) "Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white", a few but not many, apparently.

   Then he says to the Church in Philadelphia these things write(Rev. 3:7), "These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, that hath the key of David, that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;"

   (Rev 3:8) "I know thy works: and behold I have set before thee an open door." Brethren, I want to tell you that we have no power to do the things that God has commissioned us to do. We lack the power. We're not able to do what God has told us to do. Then, how in the world are we going to do it? Why He says, "I have set before thee an open door". How much power do you think we have compared to the power of the early apostles, and that early church that was multiplied thousands over, multiplied, in just a few days' time? How much power do you think our ministers have compared to Peter and James and Andrew and the apostle Paul and those men that were with him? I tell you, we're so little and impotent that we have no power by comparison; no power at all by comparison. And yet God has given us the job of preaching to a world of multiplied millions more of population than there was back there at that time. And we've got to reach all nations when they didn't do it at that time. We've got to do a bigger job than they did and we're less able than they were. How then are we going to do it? Why God says, He says here, "I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." What is that open door? You study and you find out there was an open door for Paul that he could preach the gospel in Europe but he had been only in Asia and Asia minor and now it was opened up for him to go and preach the gospel in a bigger way in another place. But the Apostle Paul could not even reach very distinctly as big a crowd as I have before me now, because if you turn this off. Now how can you hear me? You don't hear me so well, do you? And, that's all the Apostle Paul could reach! We have amplification now. We have radio; I speak in a microphone like this in a little room and God has opened the door of radio stations and it goes way, way down across the ocean and way down into South Africa on the other side of the world. And more people are listening that are listening even to the combined national network of the British system of radio stations down there and their whole network. The same thing is true in Australia all over the nation. We have a national network there; now, we're going on to three more big city stations. The same thing is true with the national network of radio stations in the Philippines. Chiang Kai-shek station that beams across the bamboo curtain. The communists say, "nobody can get in here with your religion". We are atheists. We won't let the gospel of Christ come in here. They set up the iron curtain and the bamboo curtain. But God opened the door right through that bamboo curtain, right through that iron curtain and my voice and Garner Ted's voice goes right through the bamboo curtain to many thousands in China who gather together and have to have a sentry looking to see if anybody is coming to catch them at it, when they can turn the radio off. And they are hearing this gospel, Jesus Christ said this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached. And I tell you men can't stop it because God has opened the door.

   Now, what does he say about us? Did He say, I know you've got so much power that, oh boy, you can really do it. You're so powerful. Oh, no, he doesn't say that about us. I have opened the door and no man can shut it for thou hast why did he open the door? Because you have a little strength and one I think it's the Moffatt or the revised Standard translation says only a little strength. We have only just a tiny, little bit of strength. And so God has opened the door that magnifies that strength and that's the doing of God, that's why radio appeared. Radio didn't appear so the world could enjoy it. Radio appeared so that the gospel of Jesus Christ could go to this world as he said it would, he said, it would go and no man can stop it, it is going, and television. And I want to tell you brethren and I hope that inside two or three more years, the time will come, when we can be on television, coast to coast in the United States. And then if God opens the doors, in other parts of the world, but in other parts of the world, they're not using television so much yet. It's mostly radio, still in other parts of the world. We only have a little bit of strength. That's why God opened the door, but you only have a little strength and "have kept my word".

   When I first heard of the Church of God, I was looking for the true Church of God. I'm starting now the story of how I found it and to do it, I've decided to start back the time I was a boy and bring the autobiography up to date and show the experience of those days for the simple reason that that experience that I was getting, especially after age 16, was preparing the way for what had to be now. Little strength as we have, God still had to take a man that for some reason, I can't understand He had chosen, through the most peculiar experiences to instill and to build up just a particular experience that God was going to need for this great task today.

   And so coming over on the train, I wrote, not quite complete yet, I'm going to have to try to complete it in the next day or so the second installment. I was so busy with other things that you had to have one magazine without it. And I'm going to take two or three more installments of those early business years before I come to my conversion. Because I think it was a different experience than most men have gone through. I think it was unusual and I think God was planning it all then.

   But when I first was converted and I began to look for the true church. And the one that I could see very plainly as God opened my mind to understand his word was a church called the Church of God that kept the Sabbath Day. And their headquarters were then up here at Stanberry, Missouri. So, I contacted them. I began to write articles of what I was finding and sending them in. They published them on the front page of their weekly newspaper. I never joined them. I attended a meeting as a guest of brethren in the State of Oregon when they were getting into a fist fight almost, I dropped to my knees and told them that I was going to pray that the devil was there and I was going to ask God to remove him. And they looked kind of funny, and all they could do is drop to their knees too. And when they got up, there wasn't any fight left in them. I just asked God to take all that fight out of him. They felt kind of funny. I was just a guest, but they had asked me to act as the secretary to take down the minutes of the meeting. And then they asked me if I would hold an evangelistic campaign for them, which I did in December of 1930.

   Well, the purpose of that meeting was to form an Oregon conference to segregate them from Stanberry, Missouri, so that they could hold their ties in Oregon. And the next summer in 1931, that Oregon conference ordained me, but they had segregated themselves from the Stanberry, Missouri organization, the Sardis Church. And I never was in the Sardis Church. When we get back and get the account of things straight, I never was.

   But, I wrote to the headquarters and to the man who was the president of their conference and their main leader in their church, and I took a good many pages, of typed written pages, to show him an error in their teaching. Now, I wasn't trying to just harp and show an error, like so many people who write me and try to show errors in our teaching, when they are the ones that are in error. I wanted to know if they would repent where they were wrong. I reasoned out even then, if the individual must repent where he's wrong, so also must a whole group of individuals or the church as a whole. Look brethren, if I must repent if I'm wrong and acknowledge it and if you must repent and you and you, and you and you, then all of us together must do it just the same, must we not? And if the church will not repent when it's wrong, it is not the Church of God.

   Now, let me ask you, how many churches do you know that have ever repented and admitted their doctrine was wrong? You don't know one; the churches of this world don't do it. Not a one of them ever has. Well, this man wrote back, he had to admit I was right. He had to admit that the church doctrine was in error. But he says, "I fear Brother Armstrong if we would try to correct it, that it might cause division in the church and that some who have been members would go out and they would withdraw their money, and we have to have their money for support." Oh, he looked at the money.

   Well, I wanted to go a little further, would they accept any new light? God revealed to me our identity is Israel. I sent him then about 260 pages of manuscript, proving it. It took me six months to get an answer. I still have that letter and most of our ministers, I guess all of them have seen it. I still have that letter. He admitted, Brother Armstrong, you surely are right. And there's a reason why God has revealed this knowledge to you, this great truth to you now. But Brother Armstrong, I don't see what we can do with it and it was pigeonholed. And two or three years later, a man from Oregon went back there, and found it a pigeonhole and full of dust. The Sardis Church wouldn't accept it or use it. They refused to recognize new light. What does God say about them?

   (Rev. 3:2) "Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: because the whole church is dead. "I have not found thy works perfect before God". "Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent." But they wouldn't repent. Now to the Philadelphia Church, He doesn't say repent because they're already repenting. He doesn't have to tell them to, they've been doing it, and notice there isn't one word here about repenting.

   (Rev. 3:8) He said, "I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou, that's because, thou hast but just a little bit of strength, and hast kept my word and hast not denied my name". We have the right name, but we have kept His word. We have repented where we were wrong. We have accepted new light wherever God opened it up, and we didn't have it before. And because we've done that, even though we have but little strength, God has opened the door." He does not tell this Church to repent.

   (Rev. 3:10) "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, and the real translation of that is the great tribulation, the great tribulation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth".

   (Rev. 3:11) "Behold, I come quickly," and this Church is in action at the time just before Christ comes when he's coming quickly. This then is the Church that is taking this Gospel of the Kingdom to all the world as a witness, and God is opening the door that it can go.

   But brethren, I tell you, things are happening. Now listen, just recently, a number of police and court cases have been coming into this church. One member of this church was snatched, carried down, and interviewed by some doctors. And because she quoted the Bible for what she was doing; she had been living in adultery. They asked her, "Why was she leaving this man who was not her husband?" She quoted the Bible. The psychiatrist told the judge that she was brought before a judge with one of our ministers there. Why he said, "The woman's off her rocker." She just quotes the Bible to show why she's doing what she does. That woman is one of our sanest, most sound-minded members. If you quote the Bible, you need to be committed. He said he recommended that she be committed.

   Well, our minister was there and had an attorney. The attorney quoted the law. In California, they have a law if a minister is helping a person, counseling with them and praying for them, they call it, treating them with prayer, treating them as if they were some kind of an osteopath physician or something, treating them and giving them treatment. Sometimes we give you people treatments by praying for you, rather ridiculous. But the law is that, they can't do anything else with them as long as they are under this treatment of their pastor. And she was under this treatment of her pastor, and he was there in the court. And another thing, the psychiatrist hadn't signed his name to the document. So the judge was going to commit her all right, he was perfectly willing to do that. But he saw he was licked and he had to have an out and so finally, since the document wasn't signed anyhow, from the psychiatrist, he says, oh, he says, case dismissed for lack of evidence.

   Now, we've been getting into a number of other cases. One of our men is coming up for trial next Friday morning in Kansas City, and I've been in long-distance conversations all over to find what to do about it. This afternoon, and it lasted up until I just couldn't get here in time this evening. Because he's going to have to leave on the holy day early tomorrow morning because, he's commanded to appear up in Kansas City; And we have to be subject to the powers that be. I want to tell you, brethren, a number of things are happening lately, and I want to tell you that I think the time is coming now that is described here in Revelation 12 that's getting down to our time.

   (Rev. 12:7) "There was war in heaven, verse seven, Michael and his angel, Michael is the archangel for our church, and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, or demons.

   (Rev. 12:8): "And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven."

   (Rev. 12:9): "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, which is called the Devil, and Satan, that's who the dragon is, which deceiveth the whole world." He has the world deceived. But if we have the truth, they think we are deceived. They think we're crazy. Why they're like that old Quaker preacher, that old Quaker. He wasn't a preacher, I guess. He said to his wife, Martha, one time, he says, "Martha, does you know, it seems to me the longer I live that everybody's just a little bit queer except me and the, and does you know Martha sometimes it seems to me even that even the is just a little bit queer." He was the only one left himself. People think we're a little bit queer. Now, most of you people know what I'm talking about, because you've been taken to be kind of queer yourselves.

   Now, notice the devil is cast back into this earth. I think we must be coming to that time right now. We are mighty close to it. And I, I'm beginning to see some evidences of it, and his angels, who are demons, are cast out with him.

   (Rev. 12:10) "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God. That comes at the second coming of Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down," that's the devil, which accused them before our God day and night".

   (Rev. 12:11) "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto death.

   Many of the professing Christians, in fact, many real Christians, are going to be martyred, but those who have part in this work of God because, we have kept His word and have not denied it, are going to be protected. Now, part of those that are really converted and in God's Church, because all converted people are in God's Church, they may not all be in this work with us, but they are in the Body of Christ, whether we know them or not. Many of them, it may be, most of them, are going to be martyred in the time coming, and we're sure it will begin not more than 15 years from now.

   (Rev. 12:12) "Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them, but woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! for the devil has come down unto you, having great wrath…" Now, whose wrath is this? Why, it's the wrath of the devil. The seven last plagues and the Trumpet plagues in Revelation are the wrath of God, The Day of the Lord. But this is not The Day of the Lord. This is not the Wrath of God. This is the wrath of Satan, the devil. He's the one that's going to bring that great tribulation on our people, Israel, America, and Great Britain. But, especially on the people that keep the commandments of God. I want to read it to you.

   (Rev. 12:12) "He comes down having great wrath because he knoweth he has but a short time". It's only a short time now until the second coming of Christ. Praise God for that!

   (Rev. 12:13) "And when the dragon saw that he was cast into the earth, he persecuted the woman that brought forth the man child", that is Christ and that is referring to the Church.

   (Rev. 12:14) "And to the woman were given the two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly to the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time," And that is the Church that God opened the door before, that kept the word of his patience; And therefore, he's going to protect us. All right.

   (Rev. 12:17) "The dragon is wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, that's the last generation now that keep the commandments of God, and have the faith of Jesus Christ.

   What about the Sardis church? Well, they're not going to have this protection. Some very, very few, perhaps, because it says that there are some, but most of them, "no", because they would not repent. But brethren, we're getting down to the time where, I tell you, I think the devil is coming down having great wrath. We're getting down where we're coming in on the home stretch of the work God has given us to do. We're coming down, we've got to sacrifice more than ever. We're coming down to the place where we've got to forget television. We've got to forget the worldly entertainments and amusements. We've got to forget everything but the work of God and apply ourselves as we never did before, 100%.

   And another thing, we've got to realize we have an enemy, a devil who, like a roaring lion, goes forth seeking whom he may devour. But you don't need to fear the devil. Now, you do need to fear him unless you will heed the word of God. But the word of God says if you will flee from the devil, he'll have to flee from you. And draw nigh unto the Eternal or under the Lord, and He will draw nigh unto you. Now, that's what you've got to do.

   And then what you read here in Ephesians, the sixth chapter.

   (Eph. 6:10) "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, not weak but strong, but in the Lord and in the power of His might." Or, a better translation, is in the power that His might imparts, the power that God gives us by His Holy Spirit, because He gives us power. He gives us power over all the power of the enemy. He gives us power over demons to cast them out. He gives us power to heal every sickness and every disease. Is that Power here with us brethren, or isn't it? It's here. And the Power of the Spirit of God is here in this Feast of Tabernacles. God is here with us. This is His festival, and He's here with us.

   (Eph. 6:11) And we need now to, "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."

   Let me tell you, brethren, you can't stand against them any other way either. And we've come to that time now, and you need this armor. You better be getting this armor on because a lot of you have not yet put it on. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, not against other people. Here we think its other people doing these things and we get angry at other people. Oh no, it is the devil who has deceived them, who is turning them on to these things.

   (Eph. 6:12) "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, that's other people, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness or wicked spirits in high places". The devil and his demons, that's who you're really wrestling against.

   (Eph. 6:13) "Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." Through the power of God.

   (Eph. 6:14) "Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth" Study your Bibles as you never studied it before to know the truth.

   This evening, I received a collect call at the hotel. It was a young lad. I don't know where it was. I don't know where the town is somewhere in Texas, some distance from here. A lad 14 years old, I got that much. Well, I wondered who he was? Should I accept the collect call and pay for it? And he said something about being a student of the Correspondence Course. (39:30) And, I didn't, then my wife said, "Why don't you take it?" I said, "Alright, put him on, I'll take it." He says he just enrolled in the Correspondence Course and he was, well, he spoke like a well-educated little fellow, I'll tell you, very good English. And he says he's getting the truth and he knows it's the truth. But he says, "My parents do not approve of you, Mr. Armstrong." And he says, "My parents are forbidding me to do it. Now," he says, "I understand that the Bible says I must respect and obey my parents in the Lord, but not out of the Lord." And he says, "I want you to change the address and send the Correspondence Course to a different town over here, in general delivery." I said, "You sure, you know what you're doing?" He says, "I know very well what I'm doing, Mr. Armstrong. I know the Truth when I see it, and he says, "I'm going to get the Truth." Well, I cautioned him that he must obey his parents, except I said, "You certainly have a right to get God's Truth." But I said, "You must honor and respect your parents." Well, he said he did, and I said, "If they ever bring it up," I said, "you tell them, I told you that." Well, I said, "You just write in to the office and tell them to send it to a change of address, and they'll take care of it." So, he said he would.

   Well, I imagine we have some 14-year-olds here that are beginning to see and understand the Truth, haven't we? But I tell you, you can't understand the Truth, I don't care whether you're 14 or 104, you can't understand the Truth if God doesn't open your mind to see. And I think God can open the mind of a 14-year-old boy, and that boy really indicated he had, and I could tell by the way he talked, he understood the Truth. Now, you've got to know the Truth, and you'll have to study the Bible. And I tell you one way to study the Bible is to spend time on that Correspondence Course. That is the best thing, I tell you, that we have ever put out. I know most of you are. How many of you are really studying the Correspondence Course? Let me just see. Is Dr. Meredith here? Look Dr. Meredith, Isn't that wonderful? Now, that's pretty close to 100%. I won't embarrass the rest of you by asking for the hands of those who are not, but I will say, you better get started and join the rest of them on the right way, the glorious road into the gospel and into the Kingdom of God.

   (Eph. 6:14) All right, "Having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness;" Which is keeping God's commandments, obedience, subject to God's authority.

   (Eph. 6:15) "And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;" Remember, let's always be peaceful with all men, no matter what they do to us. We're not wrestling against these people. It's against the wicked spirits, remember.

   (Eph. 6:16) "Above all, taking the shield of faith, always trusting God, remember that He is your only hope and your only trust, wherewith you shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked."

   (Eph. 6:17) "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:"

   And now one final one which, I think is the seventh, (Eph. 6:18) "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit" Now, there's not only Bible study and prayer, but there is obedience and there is peace and there is faith in all of these things that you need and salvation and the Grace of God. And brethren, if you have those things, you can withstand.

   But I want to tell you that troubles are coming. We are getting private troubles among brethren. Ministers are being called. We're even having to go into the courts of the world. Now remember that the decision was rendered by the ministers here, I think one or two years ago, it might have been last year, but I believe it was at least two years ago, about this thing of going to court. The Bible forbids you to go to court with a brother; bring your troubles to the Church. God has given the ministers in his Church authority to settle issues if there are any issues between you. But you know, brethren, when it comes to an issue with someone outside of the Church, we can't settle it. We have no authority over anyone outside of the Church. So then the decision was then to bring it to the Church, bring it to the ministers, and let us see and counsel with you and we may then counsel you to go to court and get a lawyer and go to the kind of an authority that does have authority over them if it is justified, but we have advised you, don't ever do it until you first counsel with the minister to see if it is the right course if it's justified.

   But we have had cases recently where we've had to do it and I've had to call lawyers. I've talked to a lawyer in Kansas City. I've talked to a lawyer in Los Angeles, California on the telephone just to this evening. And two have been consulted in Dallas by one of our ministers in the past few days. There are cases where we have to go before the unjust judges of this world and where our ministers have no influence. There are times when we don't need to do it.

   Now, there was a case I had to take a quick flying trip to Chicago recently. You people in Chicago didn't know I was there, because I flew in one day. I got there at six o'clock in the evening. I was to appear before a draft board for one of our students at eight o'clock, where they were going to railroad him right straight into the army. They refused to recognize Ambassador College or to give him the 4-D classification to which the law entitled. I prayed over it. I didn't get any attorney. I just prayed over it that God would work it out and give me grace and favor in the eyes of that board. And, I appeared before the board, and God did do it. And as a matter of fact, finally, they just apologized all over themselves, and they wanted me to see on their sheet, they wrote a great big 4-D, and they said, "Look brother Mr. Armstrong, they didn't call me brother, Mr. Armstrong, we wanted you to see that we have written a big 4-D on there." And they wanted me to know that they were a fair board, that they weren't unfair. They hadn't been fair until that minute until I prayed enough to God. So sometimes, you know, we can go before them ourselves, but sometimes we can't, and we have to do the other. But let the ministers, I think God will give us wisdom and remember that. But, brethren, remember to get on this whole armor of God. I tell you, you're going to need it. Many of you are going to have troubles from now on. And while this is a feast of rejoicing, and I don't want to put any damper on it, we have to know the time in which we live. And you're living now in the most serious times that ever were. We're living in the times when this Asian flu is coming. It was foretold two years ago in the Plain Truth and it's here. Its taking lives, it's in today's papers of several lives that it's taken. It can take your life if you don't have that shield of faith. You've got to absolutely trust in God, and you've got to be so close to Him because you read His word so often and you pray so much that you know He's going to listen.

   Well, that's all for tonight. I want to give you that warning. I want that to be a keynote through this entire time, this whole festival, that we keep close to God because the time has come, brethren, we need to. Now, let's look forward to the Kingdom, the glorious reign with Christ for 1,000 years on earth when He's going to save the whole world and rejoice throughout the rest of this. Remember, try to keep watch of your children, brethren. Let's keep decently and orderly at all times. Remember the one thing that differentiates us from others is that we respect authority. We are under submission to God and His authority, even as it is in the church. So, out on the grounds when there are those there that are directing you here and there. Don't try to resist it, but go along with them. That's part of your Christian duty.

   And, oh brethren this, I want to say before we're dismissed, you'll notice there are no meal tickets this year. Now, back in the old days, we didn't have meal tickets, and it seemed like we were getting so big, we had to have them. Alright, it has given us a bottleneck, it's held us up and its caused a lot of trouble. We are the people of God. It may be that some have come here who are not the people of God, there might be one or two in all this crowd, I don't know. You know when the people of God came together, Satan came also among them as you read in Job. And I don't know whether Satan has come here now or not. If we find Satan, we'll cast Satan out. But Satan had better keep himself out of the way and not let us find him. But, and I promise you, if we find Satan here, we'll cast him out. We're trying to do it peacefully if he'll let us; and if not, we'll do it the other way. But, I think it'll be peaceful anyway as far as that's concerned.

   But, you're all on your honor, and we're going back to the system everybody will be expected to stop in at the business office. Keep track of the meals you have. I guess the, have we raised the price this year? It was last year that was just the slightest raise, wasn't it? I think we made all meals the same price. Its's just the same this year as last, I'm sure. I think, you know what they are, I'll, I'll get it and announce it tomorrow. I won't take any more time tonight.

   There are no meal tickets, but every one of you must keep track of the number of meals so, that you can go to the office and pay for what you've had. Now, I guess we shouldn't pay for anything, you know, on this Sabbath Day and this is an annual Sabbath, a High Day Sabbath. But you can begin, if you wish, beginning tomorrow night. And so that everybody doesn't go at once, I would suggest that each of you go as often or as soon as you can. If there's a crowd, wait until there isn't, and then be sure you go in. And if you can take care of the whole thing in advance, why do it. If you want to wait two or three days or towards the end of it, that's all right. But the meals should be all paid for, before one week from today; the last day, is the Sabbath Day again remember, and it should be all taken care of before that.

   Now you're on your honor. It is an honor system. There are thousands and thousands of dollars at stake for the food that's being fed you here, for those who take meals here, and we're going to just try it this year. And, well, frankly, we believe there's going to be more money in the office for the meals than there was when we had the meal tickets, because we believe that you're more than honest. So now it's up to you, and I, we certainly aren't going to bring the meal tickets back unless you make us do it, and I'm sure you're not the kind of people that are going to do that. And I think that you're all going to like this system better, it's going to cause us a lot less work. And if we're Christian brethren, we can certainly trust one another. Let's be honest with all these things. Let's be diligent in all things. And remember now the service tomorrow morning, 10 o'clock; you get a good night's rest everybody. Come back at 10 o'clock in the morning. And see, what time is it? Two o'clock afternoons', isn't it? Two O'clock in the afternoons, 7:30 at night. But now tomorrow, there will be a service morning and afternoon. I'm not sure about tomorrow night. There won't be a preaching service tomorrow night, but we'll announce that there are some pictures or maybe Mr. Hoeh will show his pictures; He's been all over the world almost this past summer, spring and summer and, with Dr. Meredith. And there is a night devoted later, and let me say that the, Ambassador Corral, is going to be here more this year than ever before. We're going to have them up until Monday or Tuesday, and they'll be here tomorrow. I haven't seen Mr. Adair, Mr. Martin and some of those, but I think they should be here. They certainly should be here tomorrow morning. Perhaps they're around here somewhere tonight, but they just didn't come up tonight. So now one final song and all be dismissed. Have a good night's rest. All be here at 10 o'clock before 10, that service will begin promptly at 10 in the morning.

   Link to: 32 Lesson: Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course