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MYST
AGES
Mystery
of
the Church
We continue, with this tenth installment, part two
of this chapter of Herbert W. Armstrong's last book,
Mystery of the Ages.
S
o, once again, WHAT
and WHY is the
CHURCH? The Church
is the called out (from this
world) begotten children of
God.
It
is the Body of Christ
(ICor. 12:27; Eph. 1:23).
It
is
the spiritual organism that
shall be t he "Bride of
Christ"-after its resur–
rection to immortality. Then
it shall be married to Christ!
1t is the spiritual TEMPLE to
which Christ shall come at his
second appearing (Eph.
2:21).
The Church could not be
actually founded
UNTIL
J esus
had ascended and been glorified
(John 7:37-39). But in a sense
God began calling out sorne to
form the foundation of the
Church with Abraham and the
prophets of the Old Testa–
ment-even, perhaps, with
Abel, Enoch and Noah (Eph.
2:20).
And Jesus, immediately after
qualifying by overcoming Satan,
began calling out his future apos–
tles. They were to form, with the
prophets, the very FOUNDATION of
the Church, under Christ who him–
self is the real foundation and
June
1986
HEAD of the Church
(I
Cor. 3:11;
Eph. 5:23).
The average person has no con–
ception whatever of the
tremen–
dous, supreme
supernatura1
achievement Almighty God has
undertaken in REPRODUCING HIM–
SELF-ultimately into bill ions of
spiritual Goo BEINGS! Or of the
many-faceted stages of develop–
ment necessitated in this pinnacle
of all divine accomplishments!
God's Plan: A Step at a Time
God coú1d not hurry.
lt
required a
master plan, which must proceed a
step at a t ime.
lt
required
PATIENCE and never-deviating de–
termination on the part of the
divine Creator!
Through the years from Abra–
ham until Christ, God bad called
out of Satan's world begotten and
prepared PROPHETS, as the prel imi–
nary co-foundation of God's
CHURCH! Jesus himself is the main
foundation .
During Jesus ' 3
1
/2-year earthly
ministry, he called out, chose and
trained, to begin with, tbe second
co-foundation, his original 12 apos–
tles.
During bis human earthly minis–
try, Jesus announced publicly the
future KINGDOM
OF
Goo. He
taught and trained bis apostles as
he proceeded.
But he
DIO
NOT CALL to salva-
tion the public to whom he
preached. He spoke to them fre–
quently in parables. And WHY in
parables? To cloud, tó hide from
them the meaning (Matt. 13:10-
17) that was given to bis chosen
apostles to understand. There was
an all important reason why God's
plan, a step at a time, did not, as
yet, call for saving the world. God
first called out the Church to be
converted and changed to become
kings and priests (Rev. 5:1
O)
under
Jesus
WHEN
Jesus comes to save
the world. Consequently, much of
the truth was revealed to the
Church, which was being trained to
assist Christ in saving the world.
But the time had not yet con:te to
reveal these truths to the world.
Yet this world's churches are
teaching doctrines diametrically
contrary to this truth.
Completio.n of Jesus' Earthly
Ministry
By the end of his earthly ministry,
Jesus had completed preparations
for founding his Church. He had
finished the work he, as a human,
had come to do. Then he gave bis
Jife on the cross. He took on him–
self our human guilt for our sins.
Understand, however, Christ did
NOT take on himself Satan's prima–
ry share in all human sins. Satan
will continue to pay bis own penal–
ty throughout all eternity!
9