Did anyone ever think to ask WHY God raised up the ancient nation Israel, denying them His Holy Spirit and eternal salvation — except their prophets only?

I’ve been writing on chapter 6 of my forthcoming book, A Voice Cries Out, covering this very question. I hope to have the book ready for distribution to our membership at this year’s Feast of Tabernacles. Meanwhile, it is being published by installments, a chapter a month, in The Plain Truth. But this chapter 6 will not appear in The Plain Truth until about August. I thought our membership might be interested in a preview of it, so I’m including it in my lead article in this issue of The Good News.

Why were Old Testament Israelites called God’s “chosen people” — and still denied the Holy Spirit to beget them into eternal life?

“Chosen” — for what? To be teacher’s pet? For special favors above other nations? Was God a respecter of nations?

To understand, we need to start with Adam and Eve. It is an intriguing story, and I have never seen it put together in this manner before. The true reason for ancient Israel is an integral part of God’s supreme master plan.

Why Did God Raise Up the Nation Israel-and Deny Them Spiritual Salvation?.

Old Testament Personalities

NOAH

But now the sad part. Wickedness was multiplying just as fast as the population. Most everyone had rejected the commandments of the true God and disregarded any code of moral conduct.

By the end of another 1,300 years the population had mushroomed; and mankind had sunk to new lows of depravity and corruption.

NOAH – Old Testament Personalities.

Church of God Faithful Flock

You are cordially invited to attend . . .” began an invitation to a formal dance I went to recently. It was beautifully printed, and went on to describe the elegant and enjoyable evening I was going to have.

I accepted. And the invitation was correct. I did indeed enjoy it.

A simple dance or party invitation is easy for us to understand. But many people today do not understand how God invites — calls — those He wants into His Church. They do not understand the Christian calling. That is, they do not understand whom God calls, or how, or why.

Such a lack of understanding is saddening, for those God now makes the heirs to salvation are commanded to “walk worthy” of their calling (Ephesians 4:1), and to make their calling “sure” (II Peter 1:10). How can we do this if we don’t even understand what our calling is?

Yet we need not remain in darkness about this vital and foundational subject. The Bible teaching is plain.

The Christian Calling.

Church of God Faithful Flock

“AS IN THE DAYS OF NOAH”

“And the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth” (Gen. 6:11, 12).

Philadelphia, 1971: Two boys aged 10 and 11 were put on probation following an orgy of beating, raping, robbing and burning in the apartment of an 84-year-old widow. The boys used the ruse of offering to do some shopping for the widow as a means of entrance, then proceeded to wreck the apartment, spray paint graffiti on walls, cut the widow’s hair off, burn her breast and stomach and rob her of $200.

Maule, France, 1972: Two fifteen-year-old youths, bored after watching the local afternoon matinee, went rampaging through liquor cabinets in private homes. With the help of an appropriated .22 rifle they staged a “western-style” shoot-out by blasting out window panes in one residence. In the process, they managed to wound two children and hold off police for several hours.

Sydney, 1973: A 57-year-old driver returning home one night dies suddenly and violently from a knife plunged through his chest. Motive for the murder — unknown.

AS IN THE DAYS OF NOAH.

by George Ritter
Good News Magazine March 1976
Church of God Faithful Flock

This Xeroxed volume represents the first crude attempt to put the history of earliest ancient times based on the bible into story form. The main sources for this material are the bible and the two-volume ‘compendium of world history’.

The reader is cautioned that the incomplete account presented here should not by any means be regarded as the final and authoritative word on the subject. It must be emphasized that this is merely an initial attempt at telling the actual story of what went on in the distant past. Much research remains to be done.

However, what has been gathered into these pages will help provide a general, overall concept as to what was really taking place in the centuries before and after the flood. Certainly a more accurate concept than modern-day histories provide.

Our tentative plan is to present the story from the creation to the Exodus in the form of four parts or units broken down into twenty-eight chapters. As this is being written, some six chapters are yet to be completed. The gaps have been partially filled in with outlines. Only seven copies of this incomplete version are being Xeroxed at this time for limited library use.

Dr. Hoeh has stated, “the time is coming when all history books will be rewritten.” Although this monumental task will not be completed till the world tomorrow is here, the work has already begun in earnest.

EXPLORING ANCIENT HISTORY — THE FIRST 2500 YEARS

Church of God Faithful Flock

THE ADVANCE news of tomorrow’s world is good news!

This news is reported, before it happens, in the Bible. An entire third of all the Bible is devoted to foretelling world events. Why doesn’t the world know about it?

The main course of history, up to now, was written before it occurred. What has happened to Egypt, Italy, Greece, ancient Babylon, Persia, modern Britain, America, Russia, was all written 2,000 or more years ago.

What is now going to happen to the leading nations of the world in the next five to 20 years is also written in this same awe-inspiring Book—and is just as certain to happen. The Bible contains history, prophecy, wisdom, spiritual knowledge and truth. If you want the most necessary, basic knowledge of all life—the very foundation of all right knowledge—where would you go? No book ever written, except the Holy Bible, reveals this foundation of all knowledge. It explains what we are, whether we were put here on earth for a purpose and what that purpose is.

Would a Creator—with the supreme intelligence and wisdom and love to have thought out, planned, designed, and brought about, all creation—have left his created beings in ignorance of his purpose?

The Bible is God’s divine revelation of basic needed knowledge that mankind is not capable otherwise of finding out. It is the starting point.

Read Full Article

Church of God Faithful Flock

God’s master plan continues to unfold before your very eyes! As you discovered in the last two mini studies, there are seven annual festivals picturing God’s plan of salvation for mankind.

God instituted these festivals to remind His Church year after year of how He is bringing about His stupendous purpose for our lives — of ultimately becoming spirit-born members of His divine, universe-ruling Family.

The Passover is the beginning, the very first step, in His master plan for mankind. It is a memorial to remind us that Jesus Christ (“our Passover” — I Cor. 5;7) paid a tremendous price for our sins.

Pentecost Pictures the Firstfruits in God’s Plan.