What Is Human Nature?
8W-30
Telecast Date: January 17, 1979
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   The World Tomorrow. The Worldwide Church of God presents, The World Tomorrow with Herbert W. Armstrong. Ladies and gentlemen, Herbert W. Armstrong.

   Now, there is a reason and a cause for all of the troubles that we've had in this world. For all of the evils, all of the heartaches, all of the suffering, the violence, the murder, the crime, the lawlessness, the rebellion, the wrong attitudes, the unhappiness. And if I were to try to sum up one word, and it's what I think most people would blame it on. They would say human nature, human nature has been the victim, human nature is the terrible cause.

   And people think human nature is something that God Almighty created and put in us. Now, I might give you a quick definition of human nature as a matter of fact, there are two outstanding definitions, one of the Old Testament and one of the New. There are many others. But these, I think, just about summarize everything. In Romans the eighth chapter, in the seventh verse (Romans 8:7), you will read that the natural mind of man, which is human nature, is hostile against God, hostile against God, is not subject to the law or rule of God, neither indeed can be.

   Now, did God create man in such a way that he would naturally be hostile against God? And, was unable to even be subject to God's ways of living? The others in the Old Testament, in Jeremiah 17 and verse nine (Jeremiah 17:9), where it says that the heart of man, in other words, his nature, the mind and the heart and the attitude of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

   I told you that there is the spirit in man and I can't go into the scriptures about that in this particular program, there isn't time. But let me say that here in the book of Ezra, the first chapter, in the first verse (Ezra 1:1). Now, in the first year of Cyrus, the king of Persia, the king of the Persian Empire, that the word of the Eternal by the mouth of Jeremiah that it might be fulfilled. The Eternal stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, the king of Persia. Now, God wanted to get this king of Persia to do something. He wanted him to write out and decree to send a certain number of Jews, a colony of Jews back to Jerusalem to build the second temple. Now, this was just 70 years after Solomon's temple had been destroyed. And after the Jews had been taken captive and had been made slaves and taken up to Babylon, and he stirred up the spirit that is in this man, this king. And that's the way he communicated with the man's mind was through his spirit. The spirit is what imparts the power of intellect to the physical brain. And so then that Cyrus made a proclamation throughout all the kingdom and put it in writing, saying that the Jews should go back and build another temple.

   Now I'd like for you to turn over into Ephesians in the New Testament. Paul was saying in times past, you walked according, that is you lived, according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air. Now there he's referring to Satan as the prince. Paul was saying in times past, you walked according that is you lived according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air. Now there he's referring to Satan as the prince of the power of the air, the spirit. He is a spirit being. The spirit that now works is now working now in the children of disobedience. In other words, Satan now and this was 4000 years later than Adam and Eve. But Satan was still around and Satan was still working inside of these people. How the same way that God got a message through to Cyrus, the king of Persia. He got a message through, through their spirit. He is the prince of the power of the air.

   I couldn't have understood that until I went on the air and began to broadcast myself, Satan broadcast. But he doesn't broadcast in pictures. He doesn't broadcast in words. He only broadcasts in attitudes, in thought, in moves. He broadcasts in the attitude of get. He broadcasts in the attitude of hate others, but love your own self. It makes me think of that song back in 1924. Some of you heard me mention this before I have mentioned it time and again. It was a song that really hit the nail on the head. Most of these popular songs are a lot of foolishness and ridiculousness. But this one really had a point to it. It was 'I love myself. Oh, I love me' was the song. I love myself. I'm wild about myself. I put my arms around myself and give myself a squeeze. Oh, I love me, but I don't love you.

   Now, that is human nature. That's what's causing all of the trouble in the world today. Satan broadcasts human nature is not something God created in us. Human nature is something Satan begins to broadcast through the spirit that is in man and that they receive as soon as a little child in his first year of life begins to use his, his brain to think.

   Now, a child begins to think long before you realize it because they have learned to speak before you realize what they're saying. And yet most children don't learn to speak until they're about a year older, a little more. And however their minds are beginning to work, and as soon as their minds work, Satan is getting in that attitude of selfishness. Like a little child, here's a toy and there are two or three children, and each child wants to get it for himself. He wants to take it away from the other. He wants to have his own way. He doesn't want to do what mommy or daddy tell him.

   What is that, that makes a child resent his parent? It's something Satan pumps into people. It is not something God put there. God didn't put a nature in us that we would simply by nature just naturally disbelieve everything God says and want to go the wrong way. God did not put a nature in us that he created in us that made us hostile against him and impossible to be subject to his law. He didn't do that.

   Herbert W. Armstrong will return right after this message.

   You're invited to learn more about these important issues through the pages of Plain Truth. This International Journal of Understanding comes along every month with a penetrating analysis of world views in the light of Bible prophecy. Plain Truth. This full-color monthly publication underscores the importance of biblical understanding in modern 20th-century living. Your subscription is free of charge. There is no cost or obligation. Call this toll-free number 800-423-4444. That's 800-423-4444. The Plain Truth, a magazine of understanding.

   Look, there's a striving going on right now between some people that I know from Egypt and that I know from Jerusalem trying to work out a peace treaty in the Middle East. And there's a striving going on between those in the Kremlin and those in the United States and between Communist China and Russia; it's a striving and it's a hostility and there's hostility between nations until they have wars and nobody can get along with anybody because they have that spirit of get, that's what's wrong in the world today.

   But here it says we're not wrestling against just human beings, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness or wicked spirits in high places, Satan and wicked spirits in high places and what they are doing to influence human beings and how Satan is getting that idea of get and he puts the idea of you can't do this instead of you can—negative thoughts. He is the most disconsolate person that ever, well, he isn't a person but more so than any human being. He is, he knows that there can be no redemption for him and he knows he is wrong and he can't do anything about it now because his creation is complete and he's the one who sealed it himself, but the whole trouble in this world it isn't people, they don't realize what they've been doing.

   Now, I say we're going to have peace, and we're here to look forward to 1000 years of peace. Human nature will be totally changed. Let me read that to you over here in the 20th chapter, the Book of Revelation.

   In the 19th chapter, you read the second coming of Christ, the sixth verse (Revelation 19:6-7), "And I heard", as it were, the 19th chapter of Revelation, "a voice of a great multitude and the voice of many waters and the voice of many thundering, saying, hallelujah for the eternal, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth". He's coming to reign and rule. You don't hear Jesus Christ spoken of as a great ruler very often. They only speak of him trying to get people saved, and they don't understand what being saved means even. "Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him. For the marriage of the lamb has come." We're here because God is going to marry his church when the church is changed from mortal to immortal, when we're changed from human to divine. And we're going to constitute the kingdom of God when Christ comes.

   Now, one of the first things he's going to do when he comes is recorded here in the 20th chapter of the Book of Revelation (Revelation 20:1). "And I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan and bound him a 1000 years and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him that he should deceive the nations no more until 1000 years were finished."

   Then he goes on and shows those who had been dead and are resurrected and a resurrection to immortality, the dead in Christ and how they are raised and made immortal just like, well, like angels only now superior to angels because they are the very born sons of God.

   Oh, if people who had governments like a President of the United States could only know what it does mean to be born again. What a pity that they don't understand. Jesus Christ said, you have to be born again to get into the Kingdom of God. And he said that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and flesh and blood, says the Bible, cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Well, I'm still flesh and blood, and I haven't yet inherited the kingdom of God, but I am an heir to it. I'm an heir before I inherit.

   But once I have been changed to immortality, then I will inherit the Kingdom of God. And then all of those who have been in Christ are going to come up in a resurrection, and they're going to reign and rule with Christ 1000 years, and Satan is going to be taken away, and a seal, he's going to be put in the bottomless pit and shut him up and put a great seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till the 1000 years be finished.

   So, we will have a time when there will be no Satan, there will be no one putting what we call human nature into people. Now, you think human nature is what you're born with? Oh no, it isn't. Let me turn back just a few little pages here in my Bible to Second Peter 1 and verse 4 (II Peter 1:4), "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises".

   Now, these are promises that God gives us, "that by these, you might be partakers of the divine nature", those who come to God through Christ who are really converted. And very few seem to know what that is, become partakers of the divine nature. In other words, God injects into us the divine holy nature of God. We weren't born with it, were we? Well, Satan has been injecting into us what we call human nature all of these years.

   Why are we going to have such happiness in the Kingdom of God that we're here to celebrate? Because Satan, the devil will be gone. But the spirit of Christ will be here, and I can read you back in the 11th chapter of Isaiah (Isaiah 11:6-9). "The wolf also will dwell with the lamb, and a leopard lie down with a kid, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child will be leading them. And the cow and the bear will feed, and the young ones shall lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox." In other words, it means, hey, it's the old English meaning straw. In other words, they will begin to eat on vegetation instead of raw blood and raw animals as they do now, and then they will become tame.

   And this is the way it's going to be in this wonderful millennium that we're here to celebrate and get a foretaste of. "And the suckling child will play at the hole of the asp", a very deadly snake, but it won't be deadly any longer. "And the weaned child will put his hand to the cockatrice den", another snake, "and they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the eternal as the waters cover the sea."

   The whole world will be as full of the knowledge of God. And people will begin for the first time to believe what God says as the waters cover the sea, and that is what we're coming to. And that's why we're going to have such a wonderful time and a wonderful millennium that is just ahead of us now, in the kingdom of God, and God is calling some to prepare for that now.

   Herbert W. Armstrong will return right after this message.

   Men shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore. When, when will the dreams of man become reality? The whole message of Jesus Christ is about a soon-coming world government that will bring peace to our troubled world. For a full understanding of this message of hope about the Kingdom of God, request 'Just What Do You Mean... Kingdom of God?' Call this toll-free number 800-423-4444. That's 800-423-4444.

   Now, brethren, a few things I want to say to you in closing. The first of a number of new books is out. Now, God has opened to us a new door, another new dimension entirely of a means of getting the gospel to the world. There are millions of people that throng in the bookstores, in towns and cities all over the world buying books. The average home has a lot of books in it, and some people read lots of books. There are millions of them who do. So, the first of the books, 'The Incredible Human Potential,' is already, that book I regard as the most important book that has been written since this word here, the Bible, because it is the Bible in a new form. That's what you might say. It is putting the Bible into the kind of language people understand today.

   Now, in the Bible, God was not a very good scholar. At Ambassador College, we got a lot of scholars in who had their Ph.D.'s from the big universities and they're taught that everything must be done in an ordinary scholarly fashion. And so, everything is outlined 1, 2, 3, and A, B, C, and 1, 2, under A, and 3, and 4, and so on. And that kind of outline, a systematic outline. Well, the Bible is not a systematic theology project. Did you ever think of that?

   The Bible itself? You will find, let's see, where is that the 18th chapter? Is it of Isaiah? Forget the exact chapter anyway, that God gives us the truth (Isaiah 28:10), Here a little and there a little line upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept here a little there, a little. You read a little. The beginning of the Bible is not Genesis 1:1, the beginning is John 1:1 in the New Testament in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. And that was, that might have been millions of years before Genesis 1:1 in the beginning, God Elohim created the heavens and the earth that was creating physical matter. That was a long time later; he created the angels before he created matter. Oh, there's so little understanding, this Bible is like a jigsaw puzzle. If you ever worked they were popular back here. When was it? About 30-40 years ago? I don't know whether if any of you remember those or not, but, a jigsaw puzzle it all confusion at first, but if you get it put together, right, you have a very beautiful picture, usually. They're always trying to make it a very beautiful picture. Well, that's the way the Bible is. You have to get a part of it here and a part of it somewhere else and put all on that same subject from the different places in the Bible together.

   Now, that's what I've done in this book, and I've gone back to the beginning and shown what God is. Now, there's another book that I've just finished writing and they'll be on the bookstores next spring. That book is on seven proves that will identify the one and only true church of God. Seven proofs. Number one. Who and what is God? Now, what is religion? Religion is the worship of God or the supernatural, and of all of the religions. It's just this one church of God that knows who and what God is now, that's gonna be an eye, eye-opener for you.

   Next, God is a creator. And how does God create? That's the second thing, he creates everything in duel stages. I said something about that this morning. You know, that's the way he created man, he didn't make us full and complete. He made us to need, as I said, another spirit. And then we have to acquire the nature of God and get rid of this thing we call human nature. And finally, then we would be made complete in a resurrection. So, we're not all there yet ourselves.

   Now, the third proof I come to is man. What and why is man? Of all of the religions and all of the different sects of Christianity? Not one knows what a man is except this church. They don't know what man is. They don't know why man is and why he's put on the earth. They don't know where he's going and they don't know the way and they don't know why he's been so unhappy and had all these troubles.

   All right, that will be proof number three, number four is Old Testament Israel. God never gave them any chance of salvation. Only the prophets had the Holy Spirit of God; Israel as a whole had no chance. Why then did God have that nation, Israel? What was his purpose? There's no other church that understands it or knows it. And we haven't had much teaching of that in this church, and we're going to have a lot more from now on, the whole mission and purpose of ancient Israel.

   Now, let me see that was four, wasn't it? Number five. What is the true gospel? What is the gospel of Jesus Christ? Today you turn in on Sunday morning and you get a religious diet, they preach, they say the gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you know, all we're preaching is the gospel about Jesus Christ. But the gospel of Christ is the gospel of Christ preached. And they, they don't know what that is. They don't proclaim that there's only one church that knows what is the gospel and that's this church. Does that shock you? The others, they don't know what is the gospel. They don't know what salvation is. They don't know whether it's going to some place or change a certain condition or where or what or why. They don't know anything about it. Now, number six comes to the church, and of all of the churches that call themselves Christians, there's only one that understands the church. Why the church? What is the mission of the church? Why did God have the church and all about it?

   Now, that includes the name of the church. God's true church keeps the Commandments of God. And when I saw that over 51 years ago, I said, well, as soon as I saw that the one true church, I didn't know where it was, but I said it'll have to be a church that is keeping the Commandments of God, and that narrows it down to three churches: the Seventh-day Adventist, the Seventh-day Baptist, and the Church of God's Seventh Day, which then had its headquarters in Stanberry, Missouri.

   But I went a little further, and I saw another thing is that Christ prayed that the church would always be kept in the name of the Father, God. It is the Church of God, and that's cut it down to only one. And that was this one church of God in Stanberry, Missouri. I didn't tell you the seventh, one of these proofs. The seventh is the condition as it will be in the Kingdom of God and showing how it will be and what we're here to get a foretaste of at this festival. And that makes the seven proofs and how the world will be organized and how things will be on earth for that 1000 years. And God's church is still together and it's going to stay together, and we're going to go on to the greatest victory.

   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. That's 800-423-4444 in California dial direct 213-577-5225. The preceding program and all literature were produced by the Worldwide Church of God.

7 PROOFS OF GOD'S TRUE CHURCH: Part One
7 PROOFS OF GOD'S TRUE CHURCH: Part Two
7 PROOFS OF GOD'S TRUE CHURCH: Part Three
7 PROOFS OF GOD'S TRUE CHURCH: Part Four
7 PROOFS OF GOD'S TRUE CHURCH: Part Five
7 PROOFS OF GOD'S TRUE CHURCH: Part Six
7 PROOFS OF GOD'S TRUE CHURCH: Part Seven
7 PROOFS OF GOD'S TRUE CHURCH: Part Eight

Please Note: The FREE literature offered on this program are no longer available through the Address and Phone Number given, please visit www.hwalibrary.com for all FREE literature offered on this program.

Telecast Date: January 17, 1979
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