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Part
Seven:
A
Voice Cries
Out
Amid Religious
Confusion
How could the world have become so mixed up? Out ofthis spiritual wilderness, a voice cries out in
clarily and power, with the reassuring truth of the world's only and sure hope!
Editor's note: We are printing here.
serial/y, the new book by Herbert
W.
Armstrong with the same tille as this
article. The b.ook will appear in U.S.
bookstores later this year.
Chapter 6
WHATANDWHY
THE COSPEL?
e
OULD ANYTHlNG
BE
more
unbelievable? To say that
the Gospel of Jesus Christ
was not proclaimed
lo the
world
for 1,900 years- 100 time
cycles-from the middle of the
fi rst century until the midd1e of
the 20th-assured1y sounds pre–
posterous.
And yet that happened!
One may wcll ask: "But hasn't
the Gospe1 about J esus Christ
been preached throughout the
world all through the centuries?
Have not missionaries carried the
6
by
Herbert W. Armstrong
message about Jesus Christ into
most or all pagan countries? lsn't
Christ preached around the wor1d
today-by radio, by television, in
print, by personal evangelism?
lsn't a well-known radio program
called " Bringing Christ to the
Nations"?
Ah yes, true! But from about
A.D. 53 until 1953 the Gospe1
of
Jesus Christ was not proclaimed
10
lhe world.
You see, preaching
about
J esus Christ-proclaiming
that He is the promised Messiah,
the Son of God, is not proclaiming
the Gospel
OF
J esus Christ.
The world has not known that
Jesus Christ carne as a NEWSCAS–
TER, forecasting world-shaking
news of the FUTURE. I t is recorded
in Ma1achi, chapter 3, verse 1, that
Jesus was to come as a divine
Messenger, bringing a supremely
important message from the living
God. J esus taught that message to
His original apost les. He sent them
forth proclaiming that message.
That message
was Jesus' Gospel!
The word
gospel
means
good
news.
In this case it was advance
good news- to occur soon now in
our time. The Gospel
of
Jesus
Christ is not man's message
about
Christ. The Gospe1
of
Jesus Christ
is
the M essage
that God the
Father sent to mankind by His
divine Messenger.
In about A.D. 53 the apostle
Paul wrote a letter to the churches
in Galatia. Immediately after his
opening salutation, Paul wrote: " I
marvel that ye are so soon removed
from him that called you into the
grace of C hrist unto
another gos–
pel,
which is not another; but
there be sorne that trouble you,
and would pervert the gospel of
Christ." Already the true Gospel
was lost in Galatia!
The Gospel was SUPPRESSEO!
No longer- after about A.D. 53-
was the Gospel proclaimed to the
world! However, the true Church
of God retained the Gospel- but
they were forced by persecution to
" go underground," holding ser–
vices secret ly, communicating the
truth of God privately only to
those to whom they felt it safe to
(Continued on page 39)
The PLAIN TRUTH