|
AN OPEN LETTER To
the true and faithful members of
God’s Church –
Worldwide
–
Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ
Jesus, By
the time that most of you will
have read this letter God’s
Passover will be at hand.
It is possible that you
will already be hearing sermons
intended to remind us of the
supreme sacrifice Jesus Christ
paid for all humanity – the
whole world – including you and
me (John 3:16).
The
question I ask each of you -- if
you are hearing such sermons, are
you hearing them as the Bible
really teaches, and the way that
was taught by God’s late
apostle? More
than any other time of the year
all of us must be conscientiously
thinking about ALL the
Scriptures that bear on the
horrible price Jesus Christ paid
for us and made known by the
Passover. Brothers
and sisters, we should realize we
are not all that far away from the
return of Jesus Christ back to
this earth! It is becoming
increasingly important, more than
ever, that we fully understand
that even before that time, it
will have been determined by the
way we live our lives, based on
the true teachings and laws of
God, as to whether we will then
become members of His Family, or
will have been rejected! (I Peter
4:17; Matthew 25:10-13). The
apostle Paul wrote that we have to
work out our own salvation with
fear and trembling while holding
fast the word of life (Philippians
2:12, 16).
No one, a Church leader,
husband, wife, or anyone else can
do this for us! We must each
individually struggle very hard if
we are to be found acceptable by
Christ (Luke Passover
is the crossroads of time that we
come to when we have to really
look inside ourselves – looking
deeply into our hearts and minds
-- judging ourselves, and then
with determination make the
necessary corrections in our
lives, lest God has to do it for
us (I Corinthians 11:31-32). If
we choose to ignore and walk away
from the correction that a loving
Father gives us, then terrible
things are in store for us!
(Hebrews 12:3-17, 25-29) Brethren,
God is working with any number of
you at this time, just as He did
with all of us, to draw you out
and away from false leaders within
the various Churches of God who
have you in their deceptive net!
It
is His desire for you to be among
other faithful members worldwide
who are joining hands in helping
to reach out to others. When this
work of preparing the Church is
completed, it will result in those
who do stand up for God’s truth,
to be among the selected number
who will be counted worthy to
escape the Great Tribulation that
is fast coming on the whole world,
and then to stand before Him at
His coming Revelation 3:10-13;
Luke 21:36). These
are not idle words! I receive
letters from members who tell me
they are aware of the lying, and
have witnessed the hypocrisy,
along with seeing the changes in
the teachings God restored within
His Church through His late
apostle! These erroneous teachings
are fed to the flock by these
leaders who claim to have added
understanding over and above
God’s late apostle and the
Elijah to come! They
tell me that the members have been
brainwashed, just as they were,
and live in fear that has been
instilled within them through
intimidation, and are afraid to
leave lest they remove themselves
from the “true” Church, and
the “work” that is to go to
the world. I
personally know of at least four
corporate Churches who claim that
singular distinction! Which one is
right?
Is anyone of them right?
God tells you and me that
we are responsible for coming up
with the answer ourselves based on
the teachings of the Bible (II
Timothy And
if you have really proved that Mr.
Herbert W. Armstrong was God’s
apostle, then it behooves you to
use the last book he wrote, The
Mystery of the Ages alongside
your Bible to enable you to
discern the differences in the
teachings of these false leaders
and Scripture! When you see the
unrepentant wrong, then God’s
intention is for you to LEAVE,
NOW! One
of the traps most of us have
fallen into was to connect with a
group who indicated they are going
to follow completely the teachings
God used Mr. Armstrong to restore
within His Church; and over some
time they begin to think more
highly of themselves than they
ought, and begin to shape the
Church in their own image by
making changes in those teachings.
God
knows and will judge them unless
they repent for what they are
doing to His people! One
very grave error in their teaching
is in the Passover service itself,
and because of it, any number of
you will be involved in a Passover
service that is wrong and could
result in sickness or even
physical death!
(I Corinthians 11:27-30).
This erroneous Passover service
was changed after 1986 and
continues to be used today. Though
there may be others, but I know
personally that leaders of two of
the larger Churches teach there is
no such thing as physical sin! In
doing so, they bypass the symbolic
meaning of the piece of bread.
This is very serious! It
is essential that we understand
the symbolical meaning of the
bread, as well as the wine, if we
are to properly observe the
Passover, as the Bible teaches,
for they picture both the horrible
and excruciating painful scourging
of the body of Jesus Christ, and
His death by crucifixion. This
horrible beating that took place
before the crucifixion is pictured
by the symbolism of the little
piece of bread we partake of
during the Passover service. And
regardless of the erroneous
teaching to the contrary, it
pictures the forgiveness of our
physical sins (Isaiah 50:6; 52:14;
Matthew 27:26; I Corinthians It
is said by such leaders, “Sin is
sin -- there is no difference in
sin!”
To make this claim one has
to believe there are no
differences in the Spiritual laws
of God and the physical or natural
laws! To make the point: Is it a
spiritual or physical
transgression when people
mistakenly eat toadstools instead
of mushrooms and die as the
result? This took place in our
area not so long ago!
Mr.
Armstrong wrote in his booklet, The
Plain Truth About Healing,
Page
44: “…
His beaten body paid in our stead
the PENALTY we are suffering when
the physical laws in the human
body have been transgressed and
have brought on the PENALTY of
sickness, disease or whatevcr –
sometimes the first death. To say
there is no such thing as physical
sin, as has been said by
self-professing intellectuals, is
NOT intellectual – it is rank
STUPIDITY, IGNORANCE, or WILLFUL
PERVERSION OF PLAIN SIMPLE
TRUTH.” Do
NOT believe the deceptive lie that
Mr. Armstrong changed his mind
regarding this subject or any of
the other doctrinal teachings
before he died!
It can easily be proved he
did not!
And even of he had – the
Scriptures are still there, and
God does not change! Please
consider the following Scriptures
that make this subject very plain: “Surely
He has borne our grief (Greek:
sicknesses),
and carried our sorrows (Greek:
pains, grief, affliction, sorrow);
… smitten by God, and afflicted.
… He was bruised (beaten)
for
our iniquities (physical
sins);
the chastisement for our peace (welfare)
was upon Him, AND BY
HIS STRIPES WE ARE HEALED” (Isaiah
53:4-5). To
make certain that we understand
what is written here, Scripture
records the following: “And
when evening had come, they
brought to Him (Christ) many who
were demon-possessed.
And He cast out the spirits
with a word. And HEALED all who
were sick, THAT IT
MIGHT BE FULFILLED which
was spoken by Isaiah the prophet,
saying, ‘HE HIMSELF TOOK OUR
INFIRMITIES AND BORE OUR
SICKNESSES’” (Matthew To
emphasize the fact that this needs
to be thoroughly understood, and
must be an essential part of the
Passover service, the apostle Paul
wrote the following: “…
the Lord Jesus on the same night
He was betrayed took bread; and
when He had given thanks, He BROKE
it and said, ‘Take eat; this is
My body which was BROKEN FOR
YOU; do
this IN REMEMBRANCE of Me. …
Therefore whoever EATS this bread
OR drinks this cup of the Lord IN
AN UNWORTHY MANNER will be guilty
of the BODY and BLOOD of the Lord.
… For he who EATS and DRINKS in
an unworthy manner eats and drinks
JUDGMENT to himself, NOT DISCERNING
THE LORD’S BODY. FOR THIS
REASON MANY ARE WEAK AND SICK
AMONG YOU, AND MANY SLEEP!’”
(I
Corinthians 11:23-24, 27-30) These
Scriptures clearly reveal that
Christ’s body was broken for the
forgiveness of our physical sins.
And when we are sick we are
then to call upon the elders of
the Church and ask them to pray
and ask for the application of
Christ’s broken body to be
applied to us that we might be
forgiven and be healed. Once these
are fulfilled the healing is sure
to come, either now, or in the
resurrection, for God does not lie
(James Brothers
and sisters, are we really
converted?
Do we know when we pray to
God that there is that knowing,
a very deep realization that
God’s presence is there with us?
If so, then we should also realize
we have to fully follow in His
footsteps in all of the true
teachings if our relationship with
Him is to continue. We
are in great need of having that
first love for God rekindled up
into real flame! Preparing
for the Passover is a great place
to begin for it pictures the
forgiveness of our sins, both our
physical and spiritual. How
many more Passovers will there be
before God removes His elect from
the horrors to befall You
and I must be making the right
changes now in order to prepare
ourselves to partake of this
coming Passover as God as so
foreordained, with fullness of
teaching, a good heart, and hold
to it year-round from one Passover
to another. In
so doing we can insure our chances
of being included in that number
as worthy, as opposed to those who
will not be due to their
carelessness shown by their
sleeping through it all. Our love
for Jesus Christ must grow and be
shown by continuing to fully and
faithfully believe those restored
teachings in God’s Church, that
also includes the correct Passover
service (John 14:15; Matthew 4:4).
Brethren,
let all of us with love and great
concern pray for one another.
I, along with others, will
be praying earnestly that you will
make the right decision by being
where you will hear the true
Scriptural teaching of the
Passover symbols, with the right
attitude, preparation, and
understanding. Don
Billingsley |