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PART THREE: AWORLD HELD CAPTIVE
HE
Is the
True Church?
by
Herbert W. Armstrong
Jesus Christ said, " 1 will build my church." He did not say "churches."
Somewhere that original true Church exists today. But where?
Which? What is the Church? Why is it? Here is the eye-opening plain truth!
W
HAT
a bo ut thi s
whole e h ur ch
question - as it
concern s
YOV?
HERE IS
the original
true
C hurc h that J esus Chr ist
founded- t he one the
living
J esus C hrist
STILL HEADS
today? That is the question
that haunted me, back in
1926 and early 1927.
I had been reared, like many
of our readers, in one of t he
respected and older Protestant
denominat ions. From infancy 1
was taken to S unday school and
church. J was told that I was
"saved" because J had a "birth–
r ight member s hip" in the
church . 1 didn' t know much
abou t what my church be–
lieved- but J don't remember
worrying about t hat.
But by age 18 1 lost interest, and
seldom attended after that. On
leaving school 1 entered the adver–
tising profession.
I
was ambi tious. 1
craved STATUS. So 1 worked hard,
July / August 1984
studied continually to improve my
abi lities, drove myself relentlessly
toward that goal of STATUS!
Then, after nationwide occur–
rences beyond my control had
twice taken b usinesses 1 had
s tarted, 1 was
angered
into an
intensive study of the Bible for the
first time in my life. So far as the
Bible was concerned, 1 had always
said,
" l
just can't UNDERSTAND the
Bible."
Strange- 1 had a lways
craved
understand ing, but about other
things. The Bible seemed to me a
dry, dull, dead book that NOBODY
could understand. 1 assumed that
the churches had received all thei r
beliefs, teachings and customs from
the Bible-but then, 1 j ust had no
interest in rel igion.
But finally , early fall of 1926, 1
was challenged! 1 was
doubly
cbal–
lenged! My wife had taken up witb
"religious fanaticism"-that
is," it
seemed fanatici sm to
me!
She
claimed she found it IN THE
BIBLE-bu t 1 knew well that was
impossible, because it was a belief
and practice utterly CONTRARY to
the churches.
"All these churches can 't be
wrong," 1 said. "They get the ir
teaching from the Bible, and this
fanaticism of yours is
contrary
to
what they teach."
" Well, maybe they teach
con–
trary
to the Bible, then," my wife
insisted, "because
I
got THIS out of
the BIBLE!"
Argument was no use. She said
if l'd show her where the Bible
taught differently, she'd give it up,
but not otherwise.
At the same time a sister-in-law
challenged me in regard to the
theory of evolut ion.
I
had never
happened to study evolution in
school or college. She said 1 was
j ust plain IGNORANT if 1 didn't
bel ieve in evolution! This stung
my pride! Me IGNORANT? What
an INSULT!
"All right ,"
I
answered, " 1'11
study into the evolutionary theory
t horoughly, and if you 're wrong, as
1 know you are, 1'11 PROVE IT to
you , and make you
eat those
words!"
Proving God Exists
1 had always believed in
Goo–
though 1 knew little about him, and
just was not concerned about "reli-
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