Below is a Co-Worker letter from Mr. Armstrong presenting a transcript of a sermonette outlining our responsibilities as a part of God’s Work and how we impact that work.
HERBERT
W. ARMSTRONG
PASTOR GENERAL
August
25, 1985
Dear Brethren and Co-Workers with
Christ:
Two Sabbaths ago, in a sermonette before the Pasadena Headquarters
P.M. congregation, Mr. Dwight Viehe, a local elder, referred
to my letter to you dated June 25. He elaborated on my letter.
What he said is important and timely at this critical time. I
want to share it with all of you, and I repeat it here as
transcribed from a taped recording of his sermonette:
I brought with me this afternoon a recent member and co-worker
letter from Mr. Armstrong. I'm sure most of you will recall
this one. You should. He began by telling us how we are
helping fulfill Bible prophecy. It goes on to explain how there is
indeed a purpose being worked out here below, and that the
events working out that purpose of God are recorded in the
history of the past, and the prophecy of the present and the
future in the Bible.
A few paragraphs below that he mentions how, right now, it
seems that God has been holding events in the world back.
Mr. Armstrong says: "We had expected the Great Tribulation to
come before now. Why the delay? Surely it seems God has held
the winds of terrorism and the Great Tribulation back to allow
time" for the preaching of the Gospel message as a witness
unto all nations "in a more complete way." And then
Mr. Armstrong concludes the paragraph: "Perhaps we ourselves
have been holding the march of events up."
Mr. Armstrong has mentioned that before. I've heard him
mention it several times. And each time I pondered that thought, but
then something else would get on my mind and I would soon
forget it. But this time I decided to think a little more
deeply, because it's an incredible, awesome
thought that it is possible for God's chosen people, his
called-out ones, spiritual Israel, to actually alter the
divine agenda of the Almighty God. Let us look at an
example. In Acts 13 Paul is giving what has been said to be
his first sermon. Beginning in verse 14: "... when they [he
and Barnabasl departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia,
and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down.
And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers
of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren,
if ye have any word of exhortation [or earnest urgings]
for the people, say on."
Speak up. What an invitation, because Paul, being Paul, stood
up, and he said, Well, as a matter of fact, I do. It says then
he, "... beckoning with his hand said, Men of Israel, and ye
that fear God, give audience. The God of this people of Israel
chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as
strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought
he them out of it." In this passage I want you to notice that
Paul always bases his ministry on the plan of God. Verse 17
talks about how God has chosen a people for the outworking of
his purpose. He brought them out of Egypt by many wonderful,
powerful miracles and he began guiding them and teaching them
in the way they should live their lives. In other words,
teaching them how to be in the world but not of the world. A
large portion of scripture is devoted to the recounting of the way
in which God labored to prepare his chosen people for his
plan, for his purpose.
We never want to forget that God has a purpose being worked out
here below, that he has a plan. We need to remember that God
calls a people to himself for the working out of his purposes.
He always has. And God has predestined a people to himself in
this end time to be the very basis of his divine work on
earth. For that people to be effective, they must be a people
who are convinced of his plan, who are solidly committed to
and supporting that plan, and who are diligently preparing
themselves for the very next step in that plan. And it also
must be a people who are fully convinced that God is
totally and utterly able to carry out the entirety of that
plan and purpose to the nth degree.
Through God's Church we've come to understand that God
brought ancient Israel out of Egypt, a type of sin, to make of
them a society to show other people how to live. So today he
is calling his Church, spiritual Israel, out of this world, to
show and to teach people ultimately how to live in God's
kingdom. God led ancient Israel through Moses teaching
them, preparing them, showing them his way. So God today is
leading us through his apostle for the working out of his
purposes. And just as his purpose was rooted in ancient Israel
then, so is it rooted in us today.
It's very important that we understand this duality. God
began his purpose from the day he breathed air into the lungs
of Adam. And of course, he continues that work today right
through his Church, the Body of Christ. As long as we can keep
this clearly in mind -- that we are the ones whom God
has called out and through whom God is working out his purpose
in this world today-- then we're less likely to let the world
get to us with its message of permissiveness, because we're so
wrapped up with and committed to the task of getting God's
message to the world. When we lose sight of the purpose, then
we begin to get ourselves into all kinds of trouble.
Paul was quick to point up the plan and the purpose that God
is working out through his chosen people. But now I want you
to notice something else, the second thing that he speaks on,
which concerns the patience of God. Look at verse 18. "And about
the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the
wilderness." Now this concerns the tremendous patience of God.
Any of you who may have young children and had guests over to
eat with you can understand what this statement
means: suffering their manners. [Laughter] Because it seems
that young children want to slurp their soup, and put their
elbows on the table, and perhaps eat with their fingers when
there are guests. They assume if there are guests you won't
correct them, and so they can go ahead and do what they would
like to do and somehow get away with it. That is, of course,
unless it's my house. And as we have guests quite often, we go
right ahead and correct them. I believe I have seen
some fruits of consistency taking place lately. But we suffer
their manners, so to speak, in many different ways. And that
seems to be what God had done with the children of Israel,
suffered their manners. The New King James Version reads: "put
up with their ways" for 40 years. When the time came to bring
the descendants of Israel out of Egypt, God prepared the human
leader, and he brought them out with a high hand. But I
don't believe that he intended it to take 40 years to get them
into the land of promise.
Israel left Egypt on Passover and arrived at Mount Sinai and
received the law at Pentecost. Conceivably they could have
gone right ahead and taken the land of promise on the Day of
Trumpets, and perhaps enjoyed the Feast of Tabernacles with
the abundance of the harvest. If not in that one year, surely
leisurely, the next. But 40 long years God patiently waited to
get on with his plan. Let's look at Psalm 78 and get another
view of this. In Psalm 78 David had been recounting all the
mighty miracles of God in bringing the children of Israel
out of Egypt, and all the mighty miracles in preserving them
in the wilderness. He says, verse 32: "For all this they
sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works. [They
kept forgetting the mighty, powerful workings of
God.] Therefore [listen to this] their days did he consume in
vanity, and their years in trouble." And the New King James
Version says, "their days He consumed in futility." Forty
years of futility. Forty years Israel went around and around
in that wilderness, getting deeper and deeper in their
groove, accomplishing nothing.
Then in verse 41, "Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and
limited the Holy One of Israel." Incredible. Limited the
Holy One of Israel. They did not remember his power.
I thought how Mr. Armstrong recently has reminded us of that
time during the '70s when men whom he had put in charge of the
day- to-day affairs here at Pasadena began to liberalize the
sound doctrine of God's Church. Men who lost sight of God's
purpose and began to let the world get to them [TODAY THAT WOULD BE
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS AND LIBERALISM] rather
than them getting to the world with God's message, and began to water down his
doctrine, did not believe his wondrous works, his
almighty works, his great miracles, the miracle-working power
of God who heals, the miracle- working power of a God who's
able to work in the minds of people whom he would call, and open
their minds, and give them an intellectual awakening by the
power of his Spirit to understand things that they could never
understand before. I believe they limited the Holy One of
Israel. As a result, God
removed his blessings.
We can honestly say that God consumed their days in futility, because,
during that period, for the first time in the history of God's
Church in this era, there was negative growth.
Can a group of little human beings stop an Almighty
God from doing what he wants to do? No! No, God's purposes
will stand. But can a group of little human beings alter the
time agenda for God doing what he wants to do? The Bible speaks
loudly that it can, especially when his time frame involves
their faith, and their cooperation, and their commitment.
We're told that ancient Israel limited the Holy One of Israel, and therefore their
days He consumed in futility. God's work was
hindered; not stopped, but slowed down. Plan A shattered. Plan
B came into effect. And you know it's a grievous thought, a
sad thought, to think that a people that could be enjoying the
tremendous blessings of the promised land were not,
and instead were still wandering around in the wilderness.
Of course, that's the lesson. That's the lesson that came home
loud and clear to me. And that is why we should indeed be
very, very thankful for the plan and purpose of God, and that
we've been given the knowledge of it. And why we should indeed be
very thankful and grateful for the incredible patience of God.
We dare not presume upon that patience.
With that thought in mind, I'm overwhelmed again with how
thankful that we should be that God has brought his apostle back to
put God's Church back on the track of faith, back on the track
of repentance, and back on the track of doing the will of God
so that we can do the work of God by the power of God.
Thankful that he's exhorted us to come out of this world
and be separate from it so God can restore his blessings to
the Church and thereby we can get the message to the world and
thereby bring to fulfillment man's only hope for salvation,
for peace, for joy.
And very thankfully God's Church is again moving
forward with great power. The statistics are amazing. God has
again restored his blessings. We need to make
sure that we're growing with it and we need to make sure that
our spiritual statistics are improving. We need so to commit
ourselves that it never again need be written in the annals of
church history, or even alluded to, that they limited the Holy
One of Israel. But rather, let it be said that by their
faith and obedience, and by their commitment and zeal, they
hastened the day of his coming.
That is the end of the transcription.
Finally, brethren in Christ, I call your attention to the fact
we are now facing the most critical month of the year in
financial income for carrying on this tremendous
worldwide work-- the final concluding work of GOD. Cash
reserves are always at the lowest ebb of the year during
September. I know you will pray earnestly that God
will prosper his called-out people so we may safely hurdle
this difficult month. THANK YOU for your urgent prayers.
With great love, in Jesus' name,
Herbert W. Armstrong
