THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE
Armstrong's Empire Exposed
by
John Tuit
(Published in 1981)
CHURCH DOCTRINE TRUE OR FALSE?
AND WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE PAULA AND ME? WHERE DOES IT LEAVE
the others who have spoken out against this corrupt religious
organization? One might ask, why we haven't done the same as many
of those who have left organizations commonly known as "the
cults." Why haven't we proclaimed our escape from Armstrongism as
some others who have left the Church have done? The reason we
haven't done that, the reason that this book is not an expose of
Armstrong's false unscriptural teachings, is simply because
basically his teachings have been correct. The problem here is
that he is a man who has turned from his righteousness, and in so
doing threatens to drag those who remain into a system of growing
apostasy. The financial dealings, the way the money was handled,
the way that Church leaders did not comply with California state
law, all these matters which are a concern of the state
authorities, are only a small part of the entire problem. What
must be understood here is that this was not some religious
belief invented by Herbert Armstrong for the purpose of building
his own private Church.
What about the beliefs of the Church as taught by Armstrong?
True, there were some erroneous teachings as mentioned earlier
regarding the matters of healing, divorce, make-up, etc. Most of
those errors have been corrected and are errors in teaching that
are not unique to the Worldwide Church of God. Many other
religious organizations, many of them highly regarded and
respectable, in corporate some of the same self-righteous errors
in their teaching. As we review the basic doctrines of the
Worldwide Church, it can be shown that they are true, but have
been criticized as being false, due to the fact that in some
cases they are not in line with the teachings of the traditional
modern Christian Church.
(REMEMBER now these were the teachings of the WCG back in 1981
when this book was published. Since then the bulk of the
Worldwide Church of God have either gone back to the world, gone
back to Protestant teachings, or moved out and formed what today
we would call "off-shoots" of the old WCG - Keith Hunt)
To begin with, God the Father is all powerful and eternal,
He has always existed and is the Creator of all things. With God
the Father, and also being Eternal, was the Word. It was through
the Word that God the Father created all things. This is clearly
spelled out in the first chapter of John and of course ties in
with the opening verses of the book of Genesis. The Word, who was
referred to as the Lord in the Old Testament, is the personage of
the God family who later gave up His divinity to be born as a
human being in order that he may be tempted as we are, suffer and
die and then be resurrected to eternal life. The various books in
the New Testament attest to this fact. He is our Savior, the
first born of many brethren, and salvation is only through Him.
When we repent and are baptized in accordance with Acts
2:38, we then receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit is the power that God imparts to us in order to enable us
to follow His ways. That is not to say that we have perfection,
since we can still sin because we are still human. But by asking
for forgiveness, those sins are covered under the shed blood of
Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit is not the third person of some mysterious
trinity, an impossible-to-understand concept of three beings in
one. In the first chapter of John it is clearly stated that in
the beginning there was God the Father and the Word, who later
became Jesus Christ. The Trinity doctrine is false and comes out
of Babylonian paganism. Only by understanding this and
understanding the fact that the Holy Spirit is God's mighty power
does it then make sense that Christ was conceived in Mary of the
Holy Spirit. Obviously, He could not have been conceived of
Himself through some mysterious three in one personage. Nor would
Christ later have prayed to God the Father, if God the Father was
Himself. In fact, He clearly stated that all the power that He
had came from His Father in Heaven.
While salvation comes only through Christ and His grace, and
not through keeping of the Commandments, we are nevertheless to
keep them. The Commandments are the Royal Law of God. We are not
to keep the Commandments out of fear, but for a very simple
reason. Christ said: "If you love me, keep my commandments."
(John 14:15).
Clearly the Commandments are still in effect. They were not
done away with at Christ's crucifixion. What was done away with
was the penalty of death under that law, for those who repent and
accept Christ as their Savior are no longer under that penalty of
death but have the promise of eternal life. What was done away
with by Christ's sacrifice was the need to keep all of the ritual
laws; and animal sacrifice which was symbolic and prophetic of
His sacrifice.
And what is wrong with these Commandments? If all mankind
were to strive to keep the Commandments, out of a love for Jesus
Christ, the world wouldn't be in the mess it's in. Can any reader
find fault with the following?
1. You shall have no false God.
2. You shall not make any graven images (idols).
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it Holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet your neighbors' belongings.
It's that fourth commandment that so many people say does
not have to be kept. Protestants claim that the seventh day
Sabbath is Jewish, and that Sunday is to be kept as a memorial to
Christ's Resurrection. Yet the Scriptures clearly record that
Christ and the apostles kept the Sabbath. The Sabbath is the
seventh day and the keeping of Sunday has come into most of
Christianity through the Roman Catholic Church which in turn got
it from the pagan Babylonian religions. They have chosen to
follow the ways of false religion rather than follow and believe
in Christ's simple statement: "For the Son of man is Lord even of
the Sabbath day." (Matthew 12:8). The Sabbath is the day on which
the Lord rested after His six days of creation. To keep the
Sabbath is to keep a memorial of that creation. And the keeping
of the Sabbath serves to identify those who desire to worship God
in truth. "My Sabbaths ye shall keep, for it is a sign between me
and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am
the Lord that doth sanctify you." (Exodus 31:13).
In the book "From Sabbath to Sunday," Dr.Samuele Bacchiocchi
clearly establishes that Sunday was adopted by the Christian
Church as it drifted away from the truth. The introduction to the
book states: "The investigation shows that the adoption of Sunday
in place of the Sabbath did not occur in the primitive Church of
Jerusalem by virtue of apostolic authority, but approximately a
century later in the Church of Rome. An interplay of Jewish,
pagan, and Christian factors contributed to the abandonment of
the Sabbath and adoption of Sunday observance instead. The fact
that Sunday became a day of rest and worship not by Biblical
apostolic authority, but rather as a result of political social,
pagan, and Christian factors, makes it virtually impossible to
construct a valid theology for Sunday observance. The author
argues that the traditional attempt to justify Sunday rest by
appealing to the Sabbath commandment is paradoxical, to say the
least. How can the fourth commandment be legitimately applied to
Sunday, when it is the seventh and not the first day that the
commandment demands to keep holy when it is claimed that Jesus
abolished it?"
The book goes through a lengthy scholarly investigation of
the factors which ultimately led to the declaration by the Roman
Catholic Church that Sunday was to be the day of observance. It
was the influence of the sun-worshipping cults, which had their
origins in ancient Babylon, that so corrupted the early Church
and finally resulted in the abolishment of God's Sabbath in favor
of Sunday, the day of worship of the sun.
In addition to the sun worship origins of Sunday, another
motivation was the anti-Judaic feeling prevalent in the Church at
Rome in the fourth century. Pope Sylvester said during his reign
from 314 to 335, "If every Sunday is to be observed joyfully by
the Christians on account of the Resurrection, then every Sabbath
on account of the burial is to be regarded in execration of the
Jews." This was part of his proclamation of a fast day on the
Sabbath as a means of showing contempt for the Jews.
By the middle of the fourth century, Sunday worship had
supplanted the Sabbath and only a small remnant of faithful
believers remained outside of the established Church. Today, all
Sundaykeeping groups unknowingly acknowledge the authority of the
Pope whether they are part of the Roman Catholic Church
officially or not. This includes every sector of the Protestant
Church. Several years back, in Chicago, a Roman Catholic priest
named Father Enright, gave a speech entitled "The Power and
Authority of the Catholic Church." He said; "Take, for instance,
the day we celebrate Sunday, what right have the Protestant
churches to observe that day? None whatever. You say it is to
obey the commandment, 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.'
But Sunday is not the Sabbath, according to the Bible and the
record of time. Everyone knows that Sunday is the first day of
the week, while Saturday is the seventh day and the Sabbath, the
day consecrated as a day of rest. It is so recognized in all
civilized nations. I have repeatedly offered $1,000 to anyone who
will furnish any proof from the Bible that Sunday is the day we
are bound to keep, and no one has called for the money. If any
person in this city will show me any Scripture for it, I will,
tomorrow evening, publicly acknowledge it and thank him for it.
It was the Holy Catholic Church that changed the day of rest from
Saturday to Sunday, the first day of the week. And it not only
compelled all to keep Sunday, but at the Council of Laodacia 364
A.D. anathematized those who kept the Sabbath, and urged all
persons to labor on the seventh day under the penalty of
anathema. Which Church does the whole civilized world obey?
Protestants call us every horrible name they can think
of-anti-Christ, the Scarlet Colored Beast, Babylon, etc., and at
the same time profess great reverence for the Bible, and yet by
their solemn act of keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the power of
the Catholic Church. The Bible says, 'Remember the Sabbath day to
keep it holy', but the Catholic Church says, 'No, keep the first
day of the week', and the whole world bows in obedience."
Enright said simply that the Catholic Church could establish
Sunday as the day of rest because, "Show me one that claims or
possesses the power to make laws binding on the conscience. There
is but one on the face of the earth - the Catholic Church - that
has the power binding upon the conscience, binding before God,
binding under pain of hellfire."
And just to make it more interesting, Dr.Bacciochi's book
distributed in the United States by the author, in Berrien
Springs Michigan, is printed by the Pontifical Gregorian
University Press, in Rome and carries the Papal Imprimature on
its cover. Dr.Bacciochi is a Seventh Day Adventist, and was the
first non-Catholic to graduate from the Pontifical Gregorian
University. The book is from his thesis for his doctorate.
There can be no question, then, that Sunday observance is a
man-made observance contrary to Scripture.
And just as pagan, just as contrary to Scripture, is the
observance of many days commonly accepted as Christian holidays.
Days such as Easter, Christmas, New Year's Day, and lesser days
such as Valentine's Day, May Day and Halloween, have all come to
us from the pagan Babylonian religions through a Christian Church
that long ago departed from the truth. It is a historical fact
that Christ was not born in December. It can be proven from the
Bible that He was born six months after John the Baptist, and
John the Baptist was born around the time of the Passover. This
would place Christ's birth at the time of the Feast of
Tabernacles in the fall. By December, the area around Bethlehem
is very cold and there are no flocks in the fields for the
shepherds to be watching over, as the Scriptures record having
been the case at the time of Christ's birth.
Easter is a paganization of the Passover. The other days and
their origins can be found in any good encyclopedia. In the book
"Babylon Mystery Religion," Ralph Woodrow the author shows that
the pagan beliefs that are now part of Christianity originated
with Nimrod in ancient Babylon. The author states: "After
Nimrod's death, his wife Queen Semiramis, claimed that he was now
the Sun-god. And later, when this adulterous and idolatrous woman
gave birth to an illegitimate son, claimed that this son, Tammuz
by name was Nimrod reborn. Now the queen-Mother of Tammuz had no
doubt heard of the prophecy of the coming Messiah to be born of a
woman, for this truth was known from the earliest times (see
Genesis 3:15). Satan had first seduced a woman, Eve; but later
through a woman was to come the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Satan, the great counterfeiter, also knew much about the Divine
Plan. Thus, he began to set up counterfeits of the true plan
centuries before Jesus came. Queen Semiramis, as an instrument in
Satan's hands, claimed that her son was supernaturally conceived
and that he was the promised seed, the 'Savior'. However, not
only was the child worshipped, but the women, the MOTHER was also
worshipped as much (or more) than the son! As we shall see,
Nimrod, Semiramis and Tammuz were used as puppets in Satan's hand
to produce false religion - though often appearing as the true! -
and this corrupt system filled the world."
This Nimrod and Semiramis were the origins of all the
Sun-god legends that have come out of the middle East and spread
throughout the world.
Christmas trees, rabbits, eggs, all the other trappings
associated with these so-called Christian days, are merely pagan
symbols of fertility and have no place in Christianity. The early
Roman Church, in its attempts to spread its religion throughout
Europe, took the easy way. Instead of teaching people the truth,
they forced the people to convert to what they called
Christianity and, to make it easier, allowed the people to
continue with their pagan practices, and absorbed these practices
into the Church by "Christianizing" them.
As an example, after Woodrow refers to the Encyclopedia
Britannica reference to the Easter egg as a symbol of fertility
he then says, "How then, we ask, did this custom come to be
associated with Christianity? Its adoption into the Romish
'church' is but further evidence of the great compromise that was
made with paganism - a compromise to gain popularity with both
sides! And as when other rites were adopted by the 'church',
apostate leaders attempted to find some similarity between the
pagan rite and some Christian event; so in this case, it was
suggested that, as the chick comes out of the egg, so Christ
comes out of the tomb! Thus, fallen church leaders - void of
God's Holy Spirit - told the people that the egg was a symbol of
the resurrection of Christ! Pope Paul V even appointed a prayer
in connection with the egg! 'Bless, O Lord, we beseech thee, this
thy creature of EGGS, that it may become wholesome sustenance
unto thy servants eating it in remembrance of Our Lord Jesus
Christ.' And so another 'mixture' passed into Babylon Modern and
has in turn become part of our present day customs."
An earlier, more detailed book on the same subject was
written in 1853 by Alexander Hislop, a minister in the Church of
England. At that time, there was a rather large movement to bring
about correction in the Church, and bring about a repentance and
a return to the truth, away from the pagan beliefs that it had
adopted from the Roman Catholic Church. Entitled "The Two
Babylons" (Loizeaux Brothers, Neptune, New Jersey, p.4) it goes
into great detail documenting that the traditional Christian
holidays are pagan. It states: "In leading proof of the
Babylonian character of the Papal Church, the first point to
which I solicit the reader's attention, is a character of MYSTERY
which attaches alike to the modern Roman and the ancient
Babylonian systems. The gigantic system of moral corruption and
idolatry is symbolized in this passage by the emblem of a woman
with a 'GOLDEN CUP IN HER HAND' (Revelation 17:4) making all
nations DRUNK with the wine of her fornication", (Revelation 17:2
and 17:3), and is divinely called, 'MYSTERY Babylon the Great'
(Revelation 17:5)."
It's interesting that the only time anything close to the
current practice of Christmas is mentioned in the Bible is in
Jeremiah 10:24: "Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the
heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the
heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are
vain: for one cuteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the
hands of the workman, with the ax. They deck it with silver and
with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it
move not."
And Easter customs are also mentioned in a similar way. In
Ezekiel 8:16, God is showing Ezekiel various abominations,
regarding the worship of Tammuz. He then tells Ezekiel to turn
and he will see greater abominations. "And He brought me into the
inner court of the Lord's house, and, behold, at the door of the
temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about
five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the
Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the
sun toward the east."
God called it an abomination for people in His temple to be
facing the east worshipping the sun. It appears that the Easter
sunrise service was in existence long before the time of Christ.
It is purely of pagan origin.
And what about hot cross buns and the Queen of Heaven? In
Jeremiah 7:18, God inspired Jeremiah to write: "The children
gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women kneed
their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour
out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to
anger." And in Chapter 44:19, it again records the making of
cakes to the Queen of Heaven, and that God poured out famine and
pestilence on Jerusalem for such practices.
The Worldwide Church (in 1981 when this book was published)
correctly teaches that these pagan practices should not be
followed, and instead God's true Holy Days should be kept. These
days were mentioned earlier in the book and are outlined in the
twenty-third chapter of Leviticus. It says in the first and
second verse: "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto
the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts
of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations,
even these are my feasts." And the feasts were then listed as
explained in the opening chapter. The forty-fourth verse
concludes: "And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the
feasts of the Lord."
Those feasts were kept by Christ and the apostles, as we are
to keep them today. In I Corinthians 5:7-8, Paul wrote: "Purge
out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump as ye are
unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven neither
with the leaven of malice and wickedness: but with the unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth."
Christ, in keeping the Passover with His disciples before
His Crucifixion, changed the method of observing the Passover. He
instituted the foot washing ceremony as a sign of humility, and
instructed us to continue doing so, as recorded in John 13:14-15;
"If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also
ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example
that you should do, as I have done to you".
Regarding the taking of the wine and the unleavened bread,
Christ said in Luke 22:19 and 22: "And He took bread, and gave
thanks and broke it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body
which is given to you: this do in remembrance of me."
Likewise also the cup after supper, saying: "This cup is the
new testament in my blood, which is shed for you." We are to keep
the Passover service annually as Christ did, and are not to keep
a monthly, daily, weekly communion or any other such observance.
Pentecost also is to be observed, for it is quite clear that
the New Testament Church continued to observe the day. In Acts
2:1, it says: "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they
were all with one accord in one place."
This is the account that tells of the giving of the Holy
Spirit to the Church. Had the early Church not assembled on the
day of Pentecost after Christ's Ascension into heaven, those not
there would not have received the Holy Spirit. By the example set
forth in the Scriptures, we are to continue observing this day.
The Fall Holy days - the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of
Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles and Last Great Day - are also
to be observed. It was so important for Christ to keep the Feast
of Tabernacles that just a short time prior to His Crucifixion,
He kept the feast in disguise, as His time was not yet come to be
killed. At that time the religious leaders were seeking to kill
Him, as recorded in the seventh chapter of John. The disciples
attended the feast without Christ and then John says in Verse 10:
"But when His brethren were gone up, then went He also up unto
the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. Then the Jews
sought Him at the feast, and said, where is He?" After attending
the feast secretly, Christ later spoke out publicly and caused
quite a commotion. John records: "In the last day, that great day
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, 'If any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water.' (But this spake He, of the Spirit, which they that
believe on him shall receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet
given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified)." (John 7:37-39)
If we are to believe on Christ, and have the Holy Spirit, we
must do as He says: "And why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not
the things which I say?" Luke 6:46.
Other pagan beliefs that have permeated Christianity are the
ideas that when one dies, one either goes to heaven, if they were
good, or to an ever-burning hell, forever to be tortured if they
were bad. There is no scriptural support for this belief. The
dead are dead in their graves. "For the living know that they
shall die; the dead know not anything, neither have they any more
a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten." (Ecclesiastes
9:5)
The apostle John made it quite clear that no one had gone to
heaven other than Christ. In Chapter 3, verse 13, he said: "And
no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from
heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." And in the Book
of Acts, Peter is recorded as saying, in Chapter 2, Verse 29:
"Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch
David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with
us unto this day."
The truth of the matter is very simple. It is that at
Christ's coming, all of those who have received His Holy Spirit
and had died will be resurrected. The entire chapter of I
Corinthians 15 should be read to get a clear picture of this.
Paul makes it quite clear that a natural physical body that has
died, when it is resurrected, will be a spirit body. He says in
Verses 52 and 53: "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at
the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall
be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this
corruptible must put on incorruptibn, and this mortal must put on
immortality."
The Bible clearly shows that the traditional doctines of
either go to heaven or go to an ever-burning tormenting hell are
false. The truth is that when Christ returns after the great
tribulation, which is a time of trouble, atomic war, famine and
all types of natural disaster, soon to come on the earth, He will
descend from the sky with power and great glory, and, according
to Matthew 24:30, all the earth shall see Him.
The apostle Paul in I Thessalonians 4:13 through 17 makes
the entire chain of events that will take place quite clear. He
says: "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,
concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as
others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and
rose again, even so them which sleep in Jesus, will God bring
with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that
we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall
not prevent (precede) them which are asleep. For the Lord himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ
shall rise first; Then we which are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in
the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
That does not mean, however, that we will remain forever in
the air. It means we will be with the Lord wherever He is going.
And He is going to Jerusalem to descend on the Mount of Olives.
The prophet Zechariah in the Old Testament tells of this coming
of Christ, as He comes to destroy all the waring nations who have
given themselves totally over to Satan's ways. In Chapter 14,
verse 4, Zechariah says: "And his feet shall stand in that day
upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east,
and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward
the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great
valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north,
and half of it toward the south."
And the apostle John, in his prophecy in Revelation 20:4,
said: "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment
was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were
beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and
which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither
hath received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands;
and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years."
That is the destiny of all the true believers and
worshippers of Jesus Christ: to be given immortality at His
coming and to reign with Him for a thousand years over the earth.
Christ will reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords from
Jerusalem, which will be the capital city of the entire earth.
During that thousand years, Satan will be bound and will not be
able to go out and tempt and deceive the people of the world. It
will be a time of great cleaning up and reconstruction, which
will be a necessary result of the great wars which would have
just previously encompassed the entire earth. This, then, will be
the Kingdom of God. All living at that time will then have the
opportunity to see what it is like to live in a world of perfect
government under Christ as King. The saints, those then reigning
with Christ, will have the wonderful opportunity to assist Him in
instructing the human inhabitants of the earth in the good and
righteous ways of God.
One may ask what will happen to all the other dead people.
If they haven't gone to heaven or hell, where are they? The
apostle John records in the same chapter of Revelation: "But the
rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years are
finished. This is the first resurrection."
This means that the people who have died, not having
attained salvation during their human life, will remain in their
graves during the time of the Kingdom of God. At the end of the
thousand years they will be resurrected into a perfect world.
This would take place after Satan will have been let loose for a
short period of time to continue to attempt to deceive people who
had had the opportunity to live under Christ for a thousand
years. Those who then follow Satan will be destroyed, not
eternally tormented, but destroyed. Satan and all of his demons,
being spirit beings, will not be destroyed and they are the ones
that will be tormented forever and ever.
After this takes place, and the rest of the dead are raised
at the end of the thousand years, they will be judged according
to their works. Christ, in His righteous judgment, will then give
each one of these people either eternal life or death. That
second death will be permanent, but not a time of eternal
torture. And at that time death and hell, hell meaning the grave,
will also be destroyed.
The last two chapters of Revelation describe a wonderful
scene, where at the end of the thousand-year-reign of Jesus
Christ on earth, God the Father will bring His throne down from
Heaven to the earth where He will then reign over the entire
universe. The earth will then be the headquarters of God's entire
creation, with inhabitation by God the Father, Jesus Christ, the
angels, and all of the millions who will then have been given
eternal life and will be as Christ; in other words they will
actually be gods as He is God.
One may ask, what then? This can only be understood by
grasping the wonderful reality that God created the entire
universe. In order that man, after conversion to spirit beings
and sons of God, may have dominion over it, Hebrews 2:b through
8, says: "But one in a certain place testified, saying: What is
man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that thou
visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels;
thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over
the works of thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection
under his feet. For in that he put in subjection under him, he
left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet
all things put under him."
What Paul is saying here is that eventually man would have
authority and rule and control over the entire universe. And this
is what will begin to take place after God places His throne on
earth at the end of the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. The
universe is endless; the stars and planets and other heavenly
bodies are uncountable. Man cannot begin to grasp the immensity
of God's creation. But yet the entire universe, except for earth,
is void and barren. It will not remain that way, however. Under
God the Father and Jesus Christ, all of the born-again sons of
God will have a job to do. That job will be to make new creations
throughout the universe, to make the entire universe a creation
of great beauty that would be so wonderful that we cannot even
conceive of it in our human minds. This is the purpose for which
we were created. This is straight from Scripture and this is how
it has been taught by the Worldwide Church of God.
Since the teachings of the Church are true, it would be
foolish for one to reject those teachings because the leader, the
one who brought that truth, has gone wrong and turned from God's
ways. If only the Church leadership would repent. God is so
merciful, that as He says in the Book of Ezekiel, He would forget
their sins if only they would repent and turn to His ways. The
fact that the leadership has now turned from God's ways, and is
leading so many of the members back into Babylon from whence they
came, is no reason to reject the truth that they had brought.
......................
To be continued with "The Origin of the WCG"
There were many other truths that the WCG had, such as Jesus was
crucified on a Wednesday not a Friday, and three days and three
nights later was resurrected. The WCG was correct as to WHEN you
are "born-again." They had correct the reason why mankind was
created, the destiny of Christians. They had correct the basic
outline of end time events, great tribulation, heavenly signs,
day of the Lord. They had correct that the teaching of a "secret
rapture" is totally false. They had correct that it will be
Europe that brings about the last resurrection of the holy
Babylon/Roman Empire, the Beast power of Revelation (even many
Protestant prophets now admit this is the truth and teach it).
There were many truths that the WCG at one time taught. They had
the truth of the visible bodily return of Christ to establish the
first 1,000 year age of the Kingdom of God on earth. They had
correct that water baptism is by complete immersion under the
water. They had the truth of WHO the people of the so-called
"lost ten tribes of Israel" are today.
And they had some errors! Those errors have been corrected on
this Website.
It must also be pointed out that MUCH of what the WCG taught
under Herbert Armstrong was truths that HWA himself learned from
the Church of God, Seventh Day, when he became a member and
finally a minister of their organization. And he learnt the truth
of keeping the Festivals of the Lord from other people before
him, and at the same time as him, who also taught the Feasts of
God needed to be observed. HWA learnt the truth that most of the
people of the Western world are the very people of the House of
Israel, from the writings of people from organizations like the
"British Israel Association."
The MAJOR errors in the last 20 years of the life of Herbert
Armstrong are what Tuit is bringing forth in his book. WRONG
"Church Government" being the highest EVIL, for it turns a free
and loving church organization into a CULT!! Where one man
controls everyone, including ministers, under him. It brings upon
that group exactly what the organization under Jim Jones and
David Koresh (Google their names and read about the final result
of how their organization developed) became - a one man
domineering cult! In many ways this end result is more evil than
the Roman Catholic church, who also have a "top man down
organization" but the Pope is NOT sending our letters to every
church member telling them what to think, do, talk, in every
aspect of their lives, and asking for huge financial sacrifices
time and time again. The Pope does not try to dominate and
overpower everyone in sermons and letters, to control and bring
fear into all that enter Roman Catholic church doors. That time
will come when it will be, as it was during the so-called "dark
agaes" - then indeed they will enter on the depths of the
"cultic-mind-set" that Jim Jones, David Koresh, and Herbert
Armstrong, entered into in the later part of their lives, to the
exposing and finally to the destruction of their empires.
Keith Hunt
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