Herbert W Armstrong

   How much longer can this world get along without God? The world news lately has been boiling over, the Poland crisis, the world's economy is in terrible trouble all over the world. The unemployment is rising. More tensions around the world. Iraq and Iran war in early June, the Israelis were driving the PLO out of southern Lebanon. The British take over the Falklands and fear of the unthinkable is now beginning to grip people all over this world.

   The fear of the unthinkable nuclear World War III, all humanity is now in danger. For the first time, the weapons of mass destruction are ready that can destroy every man, woman, and child on this earth. And that includes you and me. What is the solution to all of these things? This world is in trouble. This world is in its last days. This world is tottering, ready for its final fall. Just what is the solution?

   Well, religious evangelists shout, "Well, Christ is the solution," but just accepting Christ, just believing on Christ. Well, that's what they preach. They preach that they want to get Christ, in the name of Christ, out to the nations of the world. So, they will have heard of Christ and just accept Christ, just believe on Christ, and they think that's going to solve everything. Oh, my friends, it's much more than that.

   Let me give you some very shocking words of Jesus himself, of what Jesus Christ himself said. It's in the book of John in the New Testament, in the eighth chapter, and beginning with verse 30 (John 8:30). And "as Jesus speaks these words, many believed on him". That's what they're trying to get people to do today. Just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, now here were many who did believe on him.

   I want you to notice, then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him. "If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed". To continue in his word meant do not the hears of the word, but the doers shall be justified." He said, "If you continue, if you do his word", was a way of living. It was to repent. It was to come out of the way you've been living, to change the way you've been living, that is causing all of these troubles in the world. That's what Jesus' message was all about, but the people have missed it entirely.

   Now He continued, "And then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free, but they answered him". They got into an argument right off the bat. Now they believed on Him. Remember, these were people who believed on Him, and they answered, "We be Abraham's seed and, we were never in bondage to any man. How do you say then you shall be made free?"

   And Jesus answered them; "Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin", and the wages of sin is death. That is in your Bible in Romans 6:23. You know, let me just say right here, when I first saw those words in the autumn of 1927, I was shocked. I was stunned. I said, "Well, that can't be true." I was taught in Sunday school, and I had heard, of course, I hadn't paid much attention to religion since I was 18 years old. And now I was 34 at that time. But I, I said, "Why the wages of sin, wages, what you get paid for what you do. And if sin is what you do, you get eternal life but in hellfire, it's a life sentence in hellfire, you never burn up. You just keep burning and burning." So, I was shocked.

   But the Bible said the wages of sin is not burning forever and living forever but death. And then the next part of that same verse shocked me even more. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And I said, "Well, gift of God, I've already got it. I'm an immortal soul." And you know, I had to begin to search the Bible and find that I had been taught wrong. Even there, the Bible says twice the soul that sineth it shall die. Adam was made a living soul. What came out of the dust of the ground became a soul. Genesis 2:7. And the dust of the ground then is a soul, not a spirit.

   And God said to that soul, Adam, that when he took of the forbidden fruit, he would surely die. So that soul could die and that soul did die. And all the souls have been dying ever since. That's why we read in Hebrews 9:27, "It is appointed to men once to die. And after this, the judgment." And again in I Corinthians 15:22, "As in Adam, all die," people have been doing that ever since Adam for the last 6000 years. But so, in Christ shall all be made alive. But that is to a judgment, and they're going to give an account for everything they did in that judgment. And it doesn't necessarily say to everlasting life, though some may find it at that time.

   Now, continuing on, "Jesus answered them verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth a sin is the servant of sin". And as I said a while ago, the wages of sin is death and you become a servant of sin and it becomes your master. And that's what has happened in the world and the whole world has become a servant of sin and sin, the transgression of the law of God, is the cause of all the troubles in the world today. That's why there's no happiness. That's why there's no peace. I am an Ambassador For Peace and I speak to the Kings and Prime Ministers and Presidents of nations all over this world, and I speak the message of peace.

   Now, Christ is the Prince of Peace. That's true. But there's a whole lot more to it than just believing. There is some doing as well.

   Now, let's go on in this same eighth chapter of John. I'm gonna drop down to verse 43 for a moment (John 8:43). Jesus went on saying to them, "Why do you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot hear my word," that is, they wouldn't do it. They wouldn't do what he said. He said, "You are of your father, the devil." What about this doctrine of people? Think about the doctrine of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, that we're all the Children of God. Oh no, we're not my friends. God's word says that until you receive God's Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ and become a doer of God's law with and through the Holy Spirit, the love of God should have brought in your hearts by the Holy Spirit, you are a child of Satan, the devil.

   Now, I didn't say that. Here's Jesus Christ saying that. I only say what He did. He said, "Here you are of your father, the devil." These are the people that believed on him, "and the lusts of your father, ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there was no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, you believe me not."

   Now, the two things you have to do. Jesus came calling people to repent, that is, admit you've been wrong. The hardest thing for any person to do is admit, Well I'm wrong. I have been wrong. I am wrong. I am wrong through and through, and I want to change and be different. And Jesus came with the gospel of the Kingdom of God saying, "Repent and believe." Now, they didn't believe Him, and they didn't repent either one. And those are the two hardest. The hardest thing to do is to admit you're wrong and to turn from it to the right way. And the second hardest thing, I think, for anyone to do is to believe God, to believe what God says. I'm giving you what God says in this program. You're hearing a whole lot of what man says. But not what God says. There are two different things altogether, and you need to blow the dust off of your Bible, which is the word of God, and see what God says and begin to, to believe Him.

   Now, just believing on Christ alone then is not enough. Turn to Romans, the second chapter, and verse 13 (Romans 2:13), "For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." Sin is the transgression of the law, and the law is a spiritual law. It's a spiritual way of life, not a physical way. It doesn't tell you how to build an airplane or an automobile, but it tells you how to love your brother as yourself. It tells you how to live with God. The law of God is the way to live, and sin is the transgression of that way.

   And then again, in Mark, the seventh chapter, notice verse nine (Mark 7:9). "And Jesus said unto them, Full well, do you reject the commandment of God?" And the churches today are telling you, the ministers today are telling you that the law of God is done away. That is God's way of life. And God's way of life is the only way that will bring us peace. And the reason we're in trouble all over this world is because we're living the wrong way. God had lived with the Word who became Christ, perhaps millions and billions and trillions times billions of years because they'd lived forever, and they lived in happiness and in peace. But it was the way of love, and it was the way that is the law of God, and the way they live is the way God lives, and that is the law of God. And yet they try to tell you that that law is done away, that you can live any old way and we'll have peace anyway. We don't have it. We've been living the wrong way for 6000 years, and there is no peace.

   He said unto them, "Full well, you reject the commandment of God, that you may hold your tradition." And then just above that in verse seven (Mark 7:9-7), "howbeit in vain, do they worship me". You can worship Christ, not only believe on Him, worship Christ, and do it all in vain. Do it all in vain, how? "Teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the traditions of men". The traditions of men have become traditional Christianity, my friends. It has become traditional Christianity, and it is the tradition of men. And it's time that all of us begin to wake up, and the time has come when God is sending a voice into this world, a voice to cry out and say, "Come out of her Babylon, my people, come out of this way of men, the traditions of men."

   Now, let me show you the connection between all of that and world news and what is going on in the world and what you're reading in your newspapers and hearing on your telecasts every day.

   Let's turn over to Revelation, the 17th chapter for just a moment, beginning with verse one (Revelation 17:1). John is speaking here of what was shortly to come to pass in these last days and very shortly before the second coming of Christ and in the 17th chapter, he's leading right up into the second coming of Christ, and he's telling what he saw in vision of things that were going to come on earth. And he said, "There came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials." Now the seven vials are the vials of the seven last plagues that are poured out at the time of Christ's second coming. So, this is just before that happens, "and talked with me saying unto me, Come hither, and I will show thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth on many waters."

   Now there is a great fallen woman, and that's a very ugly word, a very ugly word. It's in your Bible, Revelation, or sometimes it's called the Book of the Apocalypse. It's the 17th chapter and verse two (Revelation 17:2-3). "With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication." Now we get into government, "the kings of the earth", the governments of the world "have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the world have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication, claiming the law of God has done away", just believe on Christ. They go around not preaching the gospel, which Christ preached, the message God sent by Him, but preaching man's message about the person of Christ. And they even preach about a false Christ. They preach about a Christ that was a smart alec young man that did away with His Father's commandments, that knew more than his father and did away with them. Jesus Christ said, "I have kept my father's commandments," and he said, "I have set an example that you should do as I've done." That's what Christ said.

   Now, "with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, the inhabitants of the world are made drunk with the wine of her fornication". Now let's drop down to verse three. "So, he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman" which is a church now and in the Bible, woman is a symbol of church. And the Book of Revelation speaks it in symbols and symbolically, a woman represents a church. And when it speaks of her, it speaks in the female gender, her and she and so on. But this "woman sat upon a scarlet-colored beast", this beast was a government and is spoken of in the masculine gender of he and him all the way through the 13th and the 14th, the 15th, the 17th chapter of Revelation. If you go through it in your own Bible, "full of the names of blasphemy having seven heads and 10 horns."

   "And the woman was arrayed in purple", the color of royalty "and the scarlet color", the color of a harlot, "decked with gold and precious stones and pearls". This is a church "having a golden cup in her hand full of the abominations and filthiness of her fornication, and upon her forehead was a name written". Here is the name God calls her, "Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots". Mystery Babylon the Great. In other words, the Babylonian mystery religion, the religion of the ancient Chaldean Empire, the Babylonian mystery religion now masquerading under the name of Christ, the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth. Her daughters came out of her in protest."

   "And I saw the woman" and this is not the government. It's a woman riding the government, committing fornication with the government. And we're going right along with the governments. "And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, persecuting the true church of God and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. And the angel said unto me, 'Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carried her, which was a government and which had the seven heads and the 10 horns.'"

   So that is speaking of a deceptive and a deceiving church.

   Now, in the 12th chapter of the Book of Revelation, you find that Satan has deceived all nations, and he deceived the nation on which this woman was riding. And Satan gave that its power and seat and great authority. And so, it is connected with the Satan, which has deceived the whole world. In the 18th chapter, the first four verses (Revelation 18:1-4). "And after these things, I saw another angel come down from heaven". John sees this in his vision, "having great power, and the earth was lighted with his glory. And he cried with a mighty voice saying, 'Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become the habitation of demons and the hold of every foul spirit and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of her fornication. And the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. And the merchants of the earth have waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.'"

   "And I heard another voice from heaven saying, 'Come out of her, my people'", out of this Babylonian mystery of religion that is now masquerading in the name of Christ, traditional Christianity. "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins", saying that the law of God is done away and that you can just do whatever is right in your own sight. "And that ye receive not of her plagues." And that time is just ahead of us now. And this is the time for the voice to cry out about these things and tell the world, and you're hearing it in your ears, and don't say that you haven't been warned.

   Now, I'd like you to notice what Jesus Christ himself said about that in II Corinthians sixth chapter, verse 16 (II Corinthians 6:16), God's true Church, the called out ones. He said, 'For you', that is the people in the true church, 'are the temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them', that is in the world, in this system of Babylon and all that sort of thing, 'and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and my daughters,' saith the Lord Almighty."

   The Bible is plain about these things, but people need to blow the dust off their Bibles. They need to look into the Bible and see what it says because I was taught wrong things. I had to come to admit I had been taught wrong that I had lived wrong. I had done wrong. I was wrong. It was hard to admit. I thought, 'What will happen to my business colleagues will all forsake me, they'll turn against me.' Yes, and they did. But that was the price I had to pay.

   And Christ says, 'Come out from among them and be separate.' The world's troubles, the world's evils that you're hearing in the news every day and all of the discontent all over this world has a cause. And the cause of all of these troubles is simply the way we are living. We are living contrary to the way of the law of God. And that is God's way of life, the way God himself lives, the way Christ lives. And He wants us to live the same way that God lives and Christ lives, the way they live. And that is the way of love or I like to put it in the way of give because the world is living just the opposite way of get.

   Love doesn't mean love of yourself. It doesn't mean vanity. It's love toward God and love toward neighbor as much as yourself. You must love yourself to the extent you take care of this mind, this body, this self that should be the temple of God's Holy Spirit. And it's a responsibility that should take care of, but love your neighbor as yourself, but love God above yourself or your neighbor. That is the law of God.

   Jesus came with the government, the gospel, of the Kingdom of God, which is the family of God into which we may be born, ruling the whole world and teaching the whole world. My friends, I wonder if you understand we're living in the days spoken of in Matthew 24 and verse 14 (Matthew 24:14). And this gospel, or good news, which gospel means good news of the Kingdom, the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. That is the gospel Jesus preached shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come.

   It's near the end right now. And the second coming of Christ is not far off. I don't mean it's going to come tomorrow or next week or next month, but it's going to come in a very few years. I can tell you that no man knows that day or the hour. But we can know that we are in the very last days. You need to know that. And so, I'd like to tell you about a special booklet. I've mentioned this before on this program. 'Are We Living in the Last Days?', 'Are We Living in the Last Days?' Giving proof that this is the last days of this world, not of the earth's existence, but the type of civilization that we have with all of its troubles and all its heartaches and all of its suffering. And a world of peace is coming. The world tomorrow. A happy world tomorrow.

   Now, then with that booklet, "Are We Living in the Last Days?" I would like to send you also a year's subscription to the world's most unique magazine, a magazine of understanding about these things. It gives you understanding about life about world news. It analyzes world news and gives you the meaning behind world news and what is going on. Here's the last number: "Showdown in the South Atlantic" is the lead article. And here's an editorial that I have written, "Which Is the True Church?" Maybe you'd like to read what I had to say about that, which is the true church.

   And then a large article here, "Showdown in the South Atlantic," getting into the Falkland trouble down there. Then "What Howard Hughes Did Take With Him When He Died". Howard Hughes, you know, was a multi-multi-millionaire and he died and he didn't take any of his millions with him, but he did take something with him. You need to read what it was. And "Can The West Survive The Technological Crisis of the Eighties?" Can the West survive in this world the way it is?

   And then there are three pages showing the television and radio stations on which you can hear this particular program. And then, "Right or Wrong? Who Decides?" Does anyone know right from wrong? That's supposed to be a test of sanity or insanity. You need to get it and you need The Plain Truth. It's different than any other magazine published.

   Now, here's a large article, "Why the Threat of the New Trade War" and articles like that coming every month. 4 1/2 million people subscribe to this magazine, and we confidently expect it to go up past 5 million before the end of this world. Now, there's no subscription price. It's unique in every way. There is no advertising, there is no subscription price. You don't have enough money to buy it. It's not for sale, but we'd be happy to give it to you, but you must ask for it for yourself."

   So, call in and call in right away by telephone. That's the quickest way. Or you just write to me Herbert W Armstrong Pasadena California. That's all the address you need. Herbert W Armstrong Pasadena California 91123 for the zip code. Or just go to the telephone and call, toll-free 800. This is a free call now 800-423-4444. That's 800-423-4444. And if the lines are busy, try again. But if you live in California, Alaska or Hawaii, then call collect and we'll pay for the call but call collect 213 area code 213-577-5555. You can't forget that number 577-5555. So, until next time, this is Herbert W Armstrong, goodbye friends.

   For the free literature offered on this program, write Herbert W Armstrong Pasadena California 91123 in Canada Box 44. Vancouver BC or in the continental United States. You may call this toll-free number 800-423-4444 in California, Alaska and Hawaii call collect, 213-577-5555. If the lines are busy, please try again. The preceding program and all literature were produced and sponsored by the Worldwide Church of God.