Herbert W. Armstrong Audio Sermon Transcripts
The Church of God Faithful Flock brings you transcripts of sermons given by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong.
Creation And The Gospel
Sermon Date: May 13, 1978
Well, greetings everybody once again this afternoon; and to all of you people up in Canada listening at Vancouver, British Columbia; and all of you over in Big Sandy, Texas. I didn't know you were listening last night, but I'm informed that you were. And I am so happy to be back once again on this platform, in front of this microphone, before all of you.
That song "Jerusalem" means something very special to me right at this moment because I am due to arrive in Jerusalem, I think it's the 30th of June. I'll be there until after the 4th of July. The city of Philadelphia has donated to the state of Jerusalem, or the nation of Israel I should say, an exact replica (an exact duplicate) of the Liberty Bell. And Mayor Teddy Kollek, the mayor of Jerusalem, came to me about oh, a year and a half or maybe almost two years ago. He wanted to build a big park in downtown Jerusalem. There was none. He felt one ought to be there; and he wanted to call it the Liberty Bell Park, and this big Liberty Bell is right at the entrance of the park.
I agreed to help with it and to take care of the construction of the children's playground right at the entrance. Now it is complete, and it is to be opened to the public and dedicated on July the 4th, America's Independence Day. And it is an independence park and has very great significance to the United States. You might say that the United States has kept the nation of Israel alive.
You know there's been a great deal of debate in the last few days in Congress about sending arms to Israel, and Saudi Arabia, and to Egypt. But it seems like that's been settled finally by increasing the number of jet planes that the United States will send to Israel.
Anyhow, we hope for peace. We know there's not going to be too much for a while. Then is coming the great time of peace when Christ comes back to set up and to restore the government of God on this earth and set up the Kingdom of God. I hope to show you this afternoon the difference between the government of God and the Kingdom of God, because they are not synonymous.
Now just by way of a very, very brief announcement, I want to say that in the early days of my conversion, going back 50 years ago up in Oregon (and we were living in Portland, Oregon at the time) I was beginning to fellowship with the Church of God people up there. Now we find various eras of God's Church in the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Revelation, and that was what we call the Sardis Era. You read of it in the beginning of the first several verses of the 3rd chapter of the book of Revelation.
There was a mix-up in the Church. It was divided. And the man who had been the real leader of the Church, Andrew Dugger, had lost out by one vote. They were voting. They still had more Bible truth than any other church on earth; but they had lost a great deal of the original truth, which God has restored through me. And one of the things that was lost was on Church organization. Then Mr. Dugger left and, with another man, went to Salem, West Virginia and organized what he called the Bible form of organization of the Church.
Now we in Oregon knew that it was not the Bible form of organization at all. It was a true misapplication of some of the scriptures. The result is my mind was pretty much mixed up on just what is the form of executive organization in the Church. That is a thing that was hardest for me to understand, and it took longer for me to come to an understanding than anything else in the Bible. Now it is all clear.
I have made a mistake in the past because of that misunderstanding, although I have always known that God's form is government from the top down. Now this is too big a subject for me to go into in this one sermon, because I have something else that I think takes precedence and is so important I don't want to neglect it. But there will be an article in the Worldwide News thoroughly explaining that.
Now, let me just say that my recovery permits me to take the active position in the executive management of God's Work; and due to this, the announced changes in administration have been made. And now the Church is organized God's way, and it will have God's blessing. It will go forward. We expect to go forward now in radio broadcasting, getting back where we once were on the big radio stations coast to coast. It's very hard to get them to open up time; but we are doing everything we can. And that we will soon be daily, seven days a week, around the clock, on radio coast to coast. I know that's what the brethren all over the United States and Canada want. And of course, so far as other countries are concerned, we can't reach them with those same programs.
I'd like to read right at this point a verse that was my mother's favorite verse in all the Bible. It's the one 133rd Psalm, and verse 1.
Psalm 133:1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
We are in real unity, and the Work will go forward as never before. I'm sure I can promise you that on the authority of Jesus Christ.
Now let me just say that God has put one apostle in His Church. I have never claimed to be that apostle — that is, I didn't originally — until I found that all of the Church recognized it anyway. And I would just simply point to 50 years of the fruits, and what has happened, and what God has done, and how He has used me in the last 50 years.
You know when John the Baptist sent some messengers to Jesus, when Jesus was on earth, to ask Him whether He was the promised Messiah, Jesus didn't say, "Yes." He didn't say, "No." He said, "You go tell John what you see being done. Tell him the fruits that you see, and he will know."
Well, no man made me an apostle; and men cannot elect an apostle. That would never have the approval of God in a million years. Christ Himself selected me, and laid on me the Great Commission of getting the gospel of the Kingdom of God (which is the good news of the coming government and kingdom of God) to all the world. Now that's why I've had to be away from here and in the capitals of the world for the last several years, a great deal; and again I will have to be.
Now I am planning to leave here on the 25th of June. I will be a few days in London, just in case I need a little resting up from that trip (because it is around, I don't know, an 11, 12, 13-hour flight). And then on the 30th of June we will fly on over to Jerusalem, and special plans are being made that our plane can land right at the Jerusalem Airport instead of the airport that is the only one that has been open in Israel at all, which is near Tel Aviv. And then you have a long full hour's automobile ride to Jerusalem. Well, I hope that we'll be able to land at the Jerusalem Airport, and they're trying to get special provision for that. I think that I will inaugurate the Liberty Bell Park with the inauguration prayer. And I will dine with the mayor, Teddy Kollek. Incidentally, he's been here and spoken to the college students; and he's a very good friend of mine.
Now, let me just say that I was never called to get into the college business. God called me to get the message that He sent by Jesus Christ, which is the good news of the coming Kingdom of God. Since it is good news of what is going to happen, it amounts to an announcement. It is not a soul-saving mission to convince people that it's true, or get people to agree. It doesn't make any difference. Whether you agree or you disagree, it's going to happen — because God is going to do it! And, as my son Garner Ted has said many times on television and radio, God doesn't have to convince you or anybody. We're not going to do it. It's going to be done to us. But God is going to FORCE this world to have peace and to be happy, and tell people how to really enjoy life for the first time in 6,000 years. And that's going to happen soon, in our lifetime.
Now as I say, I was not called to get into the college business. But in the first years of my ministry, I held six-week evangelistic campaigns in many towns and villages up in Oregon. And always there were converts, and I would organize a small local church; but there was no minister. Now when the sheep have no shepherd, they do fall prey to the wolves or they run astray; and that's exactly what I saw happening. I saw that we had to have ministers in the churches. That I needed educated personnel to serve under me, and to help me in the many other facets of the administration of the Work of God.
And that's why Ambassador College was started. Then later God opened the college in England, and we were all of us that saw it and were at the top at the time, were convinced that God had shown us that He wanted a college over there. And then even after that, about 1963 or '64, the college in Big Sandy, Texas. Now we had the three campuses. God blessed it, and we now have in the neighborhood of 700 ordained ministers around the world. We have an educated ministry. We have many people in top executive positions that are Ambassador College graduates. And, actually the mission of the college has been fulfilled.
So we've come to see that the operation of a full 4-year liberal arts college is not longer necessary to fulfill the Great Commission. That's what I've been called to do. That's what my life has been devoted to, and will continue to be devoted to. So the college has closed its undergraduate program, and will continue to operate only in schools for ministerial and biblical studies. In other words, we will no longer have courses for job or professional training.
All the colleges and universities of this world, they devote their time mainly to teaching people for the various professions, various jobs or positions. And this college has never had that, except partially. But to what extent we have, that will now be eliminated; and it will be, as I said, a school for ministerial and biblical studies. This school, by the way, is a fulfillment of the concept that I invented and that I had back in 1951. And just this morning a copy of The Plain Truth from that time was shown to me, where it is stated out. And I am glad that we are doing what God has shown us must be done. That will greatly reduce the expenses and allow funds to be spent for the radio broadcasting and for getting the gospel around the world, which is the thing that we will be committed to from now on.
Now last night I told you that above all God is the Creator. But God also is perfect, holy, and righteous character. God first created angels and put them on the earth. He created angels BEFORE He had created the earth and the physical, material, universe. He put them here to have a part with Him in Creation. In other words, I wonder if you have seen and we have stores here in this area of unfinished furniture. It is furniture that is made complete except the polishing, or painting, or finishing has not been put on. Now you can buy very fine furniture that way if you can finish it yourself and save a lot of money.
Well, in a sense, that is the way God created the earth and the other planets around the world. He put the angels here to finish it, to build it up, to glorify it, to make it more and more beautiful. In order to do that, as I explained last night, He put His government over those angels. And to do that, He sat a super-archangel (one of the three top ones that He's ever created) on a throne to administer the government of God. But that super-angel did not administer the government of God. Rather he led his people into the very opposite; Instead of building up, tearing down; Instead of light and truth, darkness and error. And instead of love, it was vanity and all of the things that we call human nature (which do, incidentally, come from the Devil and not from God) — vanity, lust, and greed, envy and jealousy, a spirit of competition and strife and violence and tearing down.
So I read to you last night of the angels who sinned, and they are now demons. And the archangel Lucifer has had his name changed from Lucifer, which means shining star of the dawn (which he is not any longer); and God has named him what he now is — Satan, which means adversary, competitor, rival, or the one working against you. That's what Satan is doing.
The one most necessary thing — the one that is first of all in God Himself — is holy, righteous, perfect spiritual character. The angels were made of spirit, not of matter. But there's one thing, as I explained last night, God cannot just create as it is and as a finished work of creation, and that is that kind of character. That must be participated in. Of course, it has to come from God; but the angels had to make the decision, and man has to make the decision. And it's like God said before Israel. He said, "I have set before you light and darkness, truth and error, God's way of love and the other way of hate, and jealousy, and envy." And He said, "CHOOSE!" Humans have to choose. He said, "Choose God's way."
Now, of course, He never forces anyone to do that. We are creatures of free choice. And character can only be built by those who have made that choice, and who have then opened their minds and their hearts to God to put His love, His Holy Spirit, His character within them. Now unless you have come to that point, unless you have repented of the way of this world — as I say, of vanity, lust and greed, jealousy and envy, and competition and strife — you are not on the way to that kind of character.
I told you last night that the angels went the wrong way. That left only God in the Person ... As I explained last night from John 1:1, one was God and one who was the Word. Now the Word later, about 2,000 years ago, was made flesh and dwelt among us. In other words, it was Jesus Christ; and God then became His Father. He had been with God for all eternity. There never was a time when they did not exist. Now don't try to understand that, because your minds can't understand it; but nevertheless you can't imagine it any other way either. You can't imagine anything else. Where did God come from if He hasn't always existed?
Anyway, the angels failed and did not go ahead; and the result is (we read it in the 2nd verse of Genesis 1):
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
But, as I say, there was part of that Creation that He did not finish at that time, and like the unfinished furniture; and the angels were intended to finish it, they didn't.
Genesis 1:2 And the earth was [or, had become] without form, and void.
That comes from the Hebrew words, tohu and bohu, which really means chaotic, in confusion, waste and empty or deteriorated. And that was the thing that had come to the earth. It was covered by water. It was in darkness. The sun was no longer shining. Lucifer had been a bringer of light, but he had turned to darkness. And even the sun was not shining.
Genesis 1:2 And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
The Spirit of God was there. Now I'd like to read to you from the 104th Psalm and verse 30.
Psalm 104:30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou RENEWEST the face of the earth.
Now notice that. God renewed the face of the earth. That's what you read of in Genesis 1:1. Not the original Creation at all! In verse 1:
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens [and it should plural] and the earth.
But He put angels here first; and they had turned the wrong way, and turned light into darkness — righteousness into sin. And so now, here was the Spirit:
Psalm 104:30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit ...
Here was the Holy Spirit of God over the watery surface. There was no land. It was all water.
Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
The first thing God did was to restore light upon the earth. Now we are not told just how that light was. Because apparently it did not come from the sun because the sun did not shine on the earth until what is mentioned in the 4th day of this 7-day creative week — which is not the original Creation but the renewing of the face of the earth for man.
Now then, as I said last night, when the angels had sinned, God was the only One ... God and the Word (who was to become Christ but had not yet become Christ), the only Ones! And you could say it was the God Family — those Two — who would not, and therefore could not, sin. God had to have people that He knew could be relied on never to go the wrong way, to do the job He wanted done. Not only this earth, but the whole vast universe!
This earth was a training ground. If the angels had made good, they would have gone on to Mars and Jupiter and Saturn and then after this solar system, to other planets of our galaxy and then to other galaxies. But they failed! And deterioration, and ... Ah, that word I tried to think of last night; it came to various planets. And that's the condition we find on the moon, and now we find it on Mars.
As I said last night, the first pictures of Mars — photographed right on the surface of Mars — were shown on a screen right on this platform by people about 5:05 to 5:10 in the morning when they began to come through. And I ... in fact some of you were here, and I was. I got in about 5 minutes before five, because I knew I'd been checking on when the picture would come through; and I was here in time for it.
Now God had to do something because He had tried angels, spirit beings composed of spirit. They are not composed of matter at all. There was no matter and no material universe when He first created the angels. They were already here when He created the material universe and the earth. And I read that to you in the 38th chapter of Job last night.
But it left only God, who had that kind of character and who could be entrusted to go on with the Creation and carry the Creation to its ultimate limit — because, first of all, God is Creator; but He rules over His Creation. And He was the One who is the basic Source of truth, and knowledge, and understanding to those that He creates. A lot of people don't understand that much about God, which is too bad.
Anyway, God now saw that the only way was to reproduce Himself. To do that, He knew it was necessary to make man in His form and His image. God is formed and shaped just like we are. He looks like us except, instead of our pale faces and other colors of faces, God's face shines like the very sun for brightness. It'd probably put your eyes out if you looked straight at it because His face is so bright. It's not the sun but He created the sun. But now God had to create man in His own form and His own image. So He restored the earth, renewed the face of the earth; and then, coming down to verse 24, the 1st chapter of Genesis now:
Genesis 1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind.
There is no evidence that there was any such thing as reproduction before this time here. God started reproduction in animals, in fishes, in birds, and then finally in human life. Now notice: "God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature." The original word is the same word that is elsewhere translated "soul." Souls are made of matter; and they are not immortal, as the world has been misled to believe.
Genesis 1:24-26 ... after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: at it was so. (25) And [then] God made the beast of the earth after his kind [And so on. And then in verse 26.] (26) And God said, Let us [Not "Me" because God was Elohim, which is a uni-plural name and meant the One that became the Father of Christ, or originally God and the Word. He said, "Let us ... "] make man in our image, after likeness.
So man was created in the image of God, but so there could be reproduction because God was going to reproduce Himself. And He put reproduction in the fish family, the bird family, the animal family, and the human family. And there probably had never been any such thing as reproduction before that time. There's certainly no evidence of it anyway. But now God made man male and female. Verse 27:
Genesis 1:27-28 God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. [And told us to reproduce ... Well now, wait a minute.] (28) And God blessed them, and God said unto them, [I want to read this.] Be fruitful, and multiply, and REPLENISH the earth.
It had already been "plenished" by angels, and "replenish" means fill it up again. A lot of people read right over that word and never get the meaning. Replenish the earth! Now you take back in Genesis, after the Flood, and you'll find that God said the same thing to Noah — to reproduce and replenish the earth. Fill it up again after all had been destroyed except Noah and his family.
Well, now next I want to come to the creation of man. God spoke to the man He had created, and the woman. It says here in the 7th verse of the 2nd chapter of Genesis:
Genesis 2:7 The [Eternal] God formed the man of the dust of the ground.
He had formed angels out of spirit, but now He formed man out of the dust of the ground. That was necessary so that, if man went the wrong way (as the angels did), God had a plan to have Christ come and be born as a human being, to live a perfect life and never bring on Himself the penalty of sin. But then to take our penalty on Himself and die for us, so we could be forgiven if we change our minds, repent, and begin to BELIEVE GOD.
God had thoroughly instructed this Lucifer, but he didn't believe God; and he turned angels away, so they became demons. Now "The LORD God formed man out of the dust of the ground." Ultimately, after the character of God has been formed in us, we will be changed to immortal spirit beings too; but only after that character has been formed in us in this first life.
Genesis 2:7-9 ... and [God] breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (8) And the [Eternal] God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. (9) And out of the ground made the [Eternal] God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden [of Eden], and the tree of [the]knowledge of good and evil.
Adam had to make a choice. God first talked to him and instructed him. Then He allowed Satan (the former archangel Lucifer) to get to him. And it was to see whom he would believe. Now Adam believed on God all right. That is, he knew that God was the Creator and that God was his Maker. That he knew. But he didn't believe what God said! That's the big point, and that's exactly what people have not been doing ever since.
Very, very few; as a matter of fact, only 120 out of the thousands to whom Jesus talked after He came 6,000 years ago (and 4,000 years after Creation, approximately), there were only ... Let me see, it says 120 wasn't it that were left. You'll find that in the 1st chapter of the book of Acts, where all that really believed what Christ said and believed in Him — had repented and believed and received the Holy Spirit on that day of Pentecost.
So there were the two trees.
Genesis 2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden [This is verse 15.] to dress it and to keep it.
I have been criticized for building such a fine college here, but that is the way God does things. Whatever God has ever made, He looked at it and "Behold, it was very good." Not very bad! And God has not criticized, but some people have. Well, I'll go on taking that kind of criticism because I'm dedicated to the way of God. And if you don't like it, as the old saying goes, you can lump it. You know I mean that in love. But I'm glad that you people here do like it. But he took the man and put him in the Garden to dress it and keep it.
Twice, two years in succession, which is the limit allowable, this college has been honored by receiving the award of being the most beautiful, the best landscaped and the best MAINTAINED campus in the United States. Now, why? I saw right here God put man in that beautiful place "to dress it and to keep it,"not let it run down to weeds.
Genesis 2:16-17 And the [Eternal] God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou may freely eat: (17) But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.
Or "Thou," as it is in the King James, "shalt surely DIE." Now he was not an immortal soul. God said, "You will die." YOU, not just some kind of body that you are in, He said, "You will surely die."
Genesis 2:18 And the [Eternal] God said ...
Well, that's when He said it's not good for man to be alone; and He was right. And, of course, the apostle Paul talked to the unmarried and said it was better if they remained unmarried; but God said it isn't good for man to be alone, and I've always believed God. And I believe what God said! And He said it isn't good for man to be alone. Well you can make of that what you want.
But the thing is, after God had talked to Adam and Eve and had thoroughly instructed them ... Now, they were created on the 6th day of this what we call "creation week" but was only a renewing of the face of the earth; and the 6th day ended at sunset. Now undoubtedly that evening, after the sun had set, God talked with them for an hour or two and began explaining things to them. And then the next day until sunset was the Sabbath.
That was the first Sabbath, and God talked to them on that Sabbath day, just as God in the form of Jesus Christ later entered into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. God thoroughly instructed Adam and Eve in the ways of His government and of the possibility (if they chose life, instead of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) that they could enter into the Kingdom of God and be BORN of God until they're His absolute children.
Now get this: God is the ruler. Now He is God the Father. The Father is the head of the Family. And even though we can become His children, and even though we can be made immortal and composed of spirit — changed from matter into spirit at the time of the resurrection — authority will always reside in the Father. And the Son as the executive, because He agrees 100% with the Father, will rule the earth. God will be King over all of the universe. And Christ, then, will come back again to this earth and will restore the government of God. And the Kingdom of God IS the Family, born children of God, that have the government of God. So its more than just the government of God, we have to become the very children of God.
Well, I don't need to go into it. You know that Satan then got to Adam through his wife. God may have talked to them just until sundown, and then the Sabbath ended and Satan came along on early Sunday morning. Now Satan's churches started keeping their religious services early, about sunrise, Sunday morning. That is the source and the beginning of the sunrise services on what they call Easter. And you'd be surprised if you get... well some of you have gotten the history of all of these things, and you know how the world has been so terribly deceived and has not known what went on.
But Adam did not believe God. And then Satan came along and he believed Satan, and believed what Satan said. And so finally, it is here in the 3rd chapter:
Genesis 3:6 And when the woman [That's Eve, Adam's wife.] saw that the tree [that God had forbidden] was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Now, modern science has a certain ... I call it the tools of science that they use. But first of all of the tools, basic ones, of modern science today is to reject revelation as a source of knowledge. In other words, God's Bible is the Word of God and is the basic source of knowledge. The first thing they do is reject that.
In this world's education you will not find anything about the exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt. You will not find anything about the Flood. They don't teach that in the colleges, or in school. Whatever God has said, they don't believe. They rely on what the human man has written from way back and what they imagine. And mankind has always been like that.
God knew that probably man would go that way. And that's why He provided all in advance, before THE WORLD WAS, for Jesus to give up His great position as the Word of God, the One by whom God created all things, and to come down and to take on the form of a human being and become human so that He could die. Now He was man, He was human; but He was also God.
I was asked just this morning by one, "Did Christ ever marry?" He was God, and He is going to marry. But He is going to marry the Church after we are made immortal. And if He had married a human woman, it would have been one who was half divine (divine as well as human) marrying a human. And what would have happened? What would mankind have done to their children? It would never have done.
But Christ, you see, is engaged to the Church of God. And after the Church has by a resurrection or an immediate change from mortal to immortal, from matter into spirit, He is going to marry the Church. And God the Father will be Father over us all. And we will be Husband and wife; and we will bear fruit, but the children will be ... At that time, God will open the doors of salvation to all that live; and they are not open now.
Now let me explain that much right now. Adam followed his wife ... Oh I started to tell you about the tools of science. The first thing is to reject the knowledge of God and the next thing is observation with measurement and the third thing then is experimentation. Then human reason, and through human reason then based on those things they come to conclusions they do in modern science. That's precisely what Eve did because, as I read to you:
Genesis 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food [There is what she saw.], and that it was pleasant to the eyes [which aroused lust in her], and a tree to be desired to make one wise.
She thought that she would come to know what is good and evil herself! She did not have to believe what God said was good and what God said was evil. She would decide that herself. And then she took of that tree. Now, when she and Adam took of that tree, they TOOK TO THEMSELVES the creation of knowledge, or decision of the knowledge of what is good and what is evil. Men ever since have tried to decide himself what he thinks sin is.
I have even questioned ministers, "What is sin? Give me a Bible definition." And they won't do it. They may know what it says in I John 3 verse 4, that "Sin is the transgression of the law." But they won't say it, because they try to say the law has been done away.
And so it is. Adam had made his choice. In other words, Adam said to God in effect ... And let me just paraphrase it in my own words. In effect, he said: "God, I want you to keep your nose out of my affairs. I will not accept you as my ruler. I reject you as my king, as my ruler. I reject you as my God for salvation. I reject you as a source of knowledge to tell me what is good and what is evil, and I will decide it myself."
And God said, "Well, I've given you the choice." Now, instead of choosing character, he chose the wrong way; and God allowed that. God has not going to force you to choose the right way. Adam was able to choose whatever he pleased, and so are we. But, if you make the wrong choice, you'll never have the character of God. And God is able to take care of that too.
From then in effect God said, "Okay. You have rejected me. You have said you will create your own knowledge. You rejected me as your ruler and my government over you. You have rejected me as a Savior and a God and as the source of knowledge. So now I sentence you and your children after you — THE WHOLE WORLD that will come (and we have all come from Adam) — to 6,000 years of being cutoff from ME. All except the few in the world that I will decide I need to call and choose to do something for me in my service. Them I will call. But otherwise ALL HUMANITY will be cut off from me."
Now you read over here towards the end of the 3rd chapter of Genesis, and I want to take time to just read that:
Genesis 3:22-24 And the [Eternal] God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us [That is, God and the Word.], to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever [Lest he gain eternal life, lest he have salvation.]: (23) Therefore the [Eternal] God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. (24) And he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim [angels, or super-angels], and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life [lest people get salvation and immortal life].
So God took it away. And God said, "I will cut you off from me, and myself off from you." Now let me just explain a little further. 4,000 years later, Jesus Christ said:
John 6:44 NO MAN CAN come to me, except the Father which sent me draw him.
God left it that He could choose certain ones. And He has only chosen those He had a job He wanted performed in this 6,000 years. God has left Satan here on the throne until a successor shall have qualified (which Christ did just 2,000 years ago), and then be installed in office (and Christ is coming very soon to be installed in office). But until then Satan is still here. And he is the one who is "the prince of the power of the air" and who is broadcasting through the air. And the spirit in every one of us, our human spirit, picks up the message.
He doesn't broadcast in words. He doesn't broadcast in pictures, like a telecast. He merely broadcasts in attitudes and in, well, certain desires and impulses. And he puts it in human beings from the time they are little children — selfishness, greed, vanity, wanting to "get" instead of "give" and help and serve; and all the things that we call human nature.
Now, we turn over next to the 6th chapter of Genesis. We notice that about 2,000 years have gone by and it's about 1900 and some.
Genesis 6:1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth ...
They did multiply at first. That is, there was a great rapid population growth — a population explosion! We are now at that time once again when there's a population EXPLOSION. Do you know there are 2 or 3 times as many people on earth now as when I was born? That's how fast it's growing. And it will double in; well I don't know, within the lifetime of most of us. I hope that includes me. [And,]"When men began to multiply" as there was a population explosion at the time "on the face of the earth."
Genesis 6:1-2 ... and daughters were born unto them, (2) that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took [to] them [selves] wives of all which they chose.
Now "the sons of God" were merely human beings, not angels; because humans reproduce after their kind, and angels can't reproduce at all.
Genesis 6:5-6 And [verse 5] God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (6) And it REPENTED the [Eternal] ...
He changed His mind about it! And it isn't wrong, when you find you're wrong or have made a mistake, to change your mind.
Genesis 6:6-7 And it repented the [Eternal] that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. (7) And the LORD said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast ...
It had come to the place there was only one man that believed God, only one, Noah. Noah was the only one. Noah was the only one who was perfect in his begettal, his generations (plural) — of the original race of Seth, the son of Adam. By that time, of course, there were the various nations. But God did not intend intermarriage between the races, and does not today.
Some human being is going to disagree with that, because people decide on what they want. And I have been a little bit distressed to find that some of the girls on the campus want to date men of the other color, and that should not be — because marriage is a different thing. It should be love the one for another, and no difference whatsoever because of race and other things. But in reproduction we are to reproduce "after our kind." I hope I've made that plain without further explanation.
Genesis 6:5 The [Eternal] saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Now, there was no way to go on and save man. If you understand what God revealed to me 50 years ago, that we not only had been commanded to keep God's Sabbath, which is the very test commandment of the Commandments; but also the annual Sabbaths and festivals have very great meaning. I am quite DISTRESSED to be told that most of our ministers on the Feast of Tabernacles do NOT PREACH THE MEANING OF THE DAY; and I am going to take steps on that direction.
Today's holydays, annual holydays, are called TO TEACH US A LESSON. And the minister's sermons should be on what that lesson is. The first one, the Passover is the crucified Lamb. And it starts with our being changed from mortal to immortal, and it starts with Christ. The second, the seven days of Unleavened Bread picture our coming out of sin. AND I WANT THAT PREACHED IN THE CHURCH from now on!
And I say that with AUTHORITY, and I say it with POWER. If any of you think that I am senile and too old to carry on the Work of God, I think you are hearing it a little differently right now (because quite a few have suggested that, who are of opposite belief). And I speak with the authority of Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ called me and put me in the seat where I am. I didn't go to men. And it's something no man can do, and no man can put me out. Now then:
Genesis 6:11 The earth was corrupt [verse 11] before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
And, if you know now, God destroyed all the life forms. Some will say, "God isn't fair." Well, if you understand the annual holydays, the 8th day of the Feast of Tabernacles is to open our eyes to the Great White Throne Judgment. That's the time when ALL THOSE PEOPLE that were then destroyed are going to be resurrected and live perhaps a hundred years. The one scripture that has that can be translated another way. But anyway it will be the time that God has in mind, whatever that is — whether it's 10 years or 100.
And then they will have the chance to come to see the truth. God has taken away all chance of salvation from them. Those people were NOT lost. They were NOT condemned, because God had cut them off. Now I want to make that plain. I've said and used the expression that God adopted a hands-off policy. I find that doesn't make it clear enough to people. People then assume that everyone is lost unless they've accepted Christ. THAT IS NOT TRUE! In other words, except those that God has CALLED — no man can come to Christ. They are not lost, neither are they saved.
Now all who are living after the beginning of the Millennium, or after Christ comes, will have their chance then of salvation. All, everybody! But Satan will be removed. And now, with Satan here, God is not putting us where everybody has to overcome Satan. Christ had to, to lead. Christ had to overcome Satan in order to QUALIFY to take Satan's place and rule the earth. Jesus said, if we also overcome (and it means, overcome Satan.), we shall sit with Him on His throne.
And I told you last night how we are cleaning the debris and rubbish of 2500 years off of the throne where Jesus Christ is going to sit and rule. We are the preparing the way for Christ's coming and for the Kingdom of God, and no one else on earth is doing that. I want you to understand this great call and commission, and the great Work that this Church, and this is the Church of the living God, and not the church of man or the ideas of man in any way at all.
Now then: All of those people that God destroyed in the Flood will be brought back to life just as if ... They don't know anything in the meantime. And it's just like the next split second from the time they drowned and died, that they will wake up in the Great White Throne Judgment, after the thousand-year reign with Christ. And there won't be any Devil around. And God will show them the truth; and then I think most of them will take it, because they'll look back and see what they did. They'll look back and see that the 6,000 years have shown that if we go contrary to God's way, which the world has, it only brings all of the terrible wretchedness that we see in the world today. There is nothing ...
God said in effect to man (and I didn't complete that a while ago.), to Adam and to the whole world afterwards, "You go form your own governments." They've done it. Look what the governments of man do. They are at war all the time, and someone is plotting to overthrow every one of them. "You go and form your own religions." Look at the religions in the world. And not even those called "Christian" are not the Church of God at all; and do not get their truths out of the Bible, but try to read them into the Bible. I had to learn that 50 years ago, and that was the biggest upset in my mind that I had ever had in all my life. But nevertheless, let me just show you the wonderful justice of God as it is. Anyway,
Genesis 6:12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt ...
And, by the way, that's the word "corruption" that has come from the planets of the whole universe because of what the angels did. And man, when he is finally converted and saved (and there will be BILLIONS of us), that are finally going to be converted and will HAVE THAT HOLY RIGHTEOUS CHARACTER OF GOD. We're going to be sent to the planets all over the universe. That's after the Millennium. This earth will always be God's headquarters. Even God the Father is coming down to this earth. But the whole earth was corrupt:
Genesis 6:12 ... for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
Well, so that is the way it started. Now God called one man back here, who was righteous and who believed in God — Noah. God saved Noah from the Flood, as a type of saving from the eternal extinction of humanity. However, I want to show you now some things about how God has ruled; and God is the real Ruler, although He is allowing Satan to stay on the throne and to operate.
Now next we come to Abraham. And I would like us to turn now to the 12th chapter of Genesis and read the first verses.
Genesis 12:1-2 Now the [Eternal] had said unto Abram [his name was to begin with, but it became Abraham. To Abram] get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: (2) And I will make of thee a great nation [and so on].
Now he just simply said, there's no quibbling, there was no talking back. "Well, do I have to and can I do it tomorrow or next year? Can I go somewhere else?" That's about the way the average human would have resulted. But it says ... Let's see. Well it just says:
Genesis 12:4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken.
Abraham went. He didn't quibble. You know, when I first saw 50 years ago that we should keep the annual holy days as well as the seventh day of every week, I didn't know why. I didn't know the meaning of it, and I didn't know the real meaning until 14 years later. I talked to the people in the Church of God up in Oregon, that we call the Sardis Era of the Church now; and they only laughed me to scorn. And for 7 years my wife and I had to keep those annual days alone, by ourselves. But we did. I DIDN'T KNOW WHY. I DIDN'T ASK GOD "WHY?" I didn't say, "I won't do it until You show me why."
God said, "DO IT." I saw it was forever. I saw it was commanded. And that was enough for me. I said, "In due time." I craved understanding, and I wanted to understand it. But I knew that, in His own time, God would give me the understanding as to why and now I know. You've been taught why. You haven't had to wonder. You haven't had to just take it like God said. But I did, and that's the way Abraham did (and Abram, as he was originally called).
Now his sons Isaac and Jacob also followed with God. Jacob, of course, had a little trouble at first and was a supplanter; but finally repented and came back; and then Moses. But 430 years after Abraham, the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt. Now God called Moses. Moses was a ... (I'm not going to take time to read all of the scriptures on all of that, because the time is getting short; and I still have quite a little I want to say.)
God called Moses. Moses was not seeking God. Let me say this. Noah was not seeking God. He was obedient to God and all that but he wasn't seeking salvation or anything. But God called him out and said, "Noah I'm going to use you to preserve human life alive on this earth." God said, "I want you to do something. I want you to build a great ship right here on dry land." And for a hundred years Noah he was building the ship. And he was mocked at, ridiculed by the other people. It seemed so crazy to them. And some of the things God tells us to do do seem crazy to people who don't understand.
Well, anyway, he didn't seek God; but God sought him and called him in this world of Satan's. Then later He called Abraham, and Abraham was not seeking God; but God, it says here, let me read that again, "[Now] the [Eternal] said unto Abram." Abram didn't seek Him. God sought Abram, and called him; and he OBEYED. And he obeyed; he became the father of the faithful (spiritually speaking).
Then later we come to the time of Moses. No I won't go through all of it, but let me just tell you this much. Moses had been over at his father-in-law's place, who was the priest of Midian; and he was returning back toward Egypt. He was walking, and he came across a burning bush. It was just a small bush, but it kept burning. Now he saw it for some time before he had walked up even with it and then he eventually passed it. And finally he turned back to see well what could keep that little bush burning all this time.
And God spoke to him out of the bush and said, "Moses, take your shoes off your feet because the ground whereon you stand is holy ground." God's presence had made that ground holy. God was there, and calling him. Well, Moses was not seeking God. God wasn't trying to get people converted or saved in those years. That's the point I want to get through to you. The others were not lost. They'll come up to the Great White Throne Judgment. But if I've never made that plain before, I hope I'm making it plain now so you can understand it.
There's not injustice with God, in any way at all. But God wanted us to write the lesson. He knew that man would be misled and deceived by Satan, and would live Satan's way. And for 6,000 years of human wretchedness, and human anguish, and suffering and death have proved that only living the way of God is right. Satan teaches people to live just the opposite way. And Satan's churches on this earth try to say God's law is done away. They don't believe in the government of God. That's exactly what has happened.
Now we come a little later to others. God selected Joshua. God selected and chose the; well they are called 'judges' in the Bible or the one translation calls them 'heroes' that rescued Israel when they were taken captive by other nations. And here we have the nations all over the earth.
But in the time of Moses, God made a proposition through Moses to the people. And He said, If you will obey My voice, and do what I tell you, and live My way — I'll make you the greatest nation on earth. I'll make you the richest, the most prosperous. I'll make you the most powerful! So that five of you can chase 100, and 100 of you will put 10,000 others to flight. But if you do not, there is going to be a 2520-year time period when it would be withheld before that kind of blessing came.
God did not promise them any spiritual salvation. Only Moses, who led them out and the prophets that God called — them God gave His Holy Spirit to; but it was not to others. Now later there was David and God chose him. However, David was out tending the sheep. He wasn't seeking God. But God had sent the prophet over to the house of Jesse, and they thought every one of Jesse's sons except David was the one that men had chosen. But God chose David. And so it goes. And it has always been like that. Now God chose the prophets of Israel, but the people stoned and killed many of them.
And then we come on down to Christ. And Jesus Christ preached the coming Kingdom of God and how the whole earth then would be freed from Satan and would have peace and would have salvation, and that this character would be built within them. Christ came to live the perfect life, with the kind of character that God wants us to have; and set us an example in that. Christ let Himself be killed, and paid the death penalty in OUR stead! We have inherited the death penalty.
I'll tell you the first scripture that really opened my eyes to the fact that I and the other churches in which I'd been brought up were wrong was Romans 6:23: "The wages of sin is death." I said, "Well, that can't be. I'm an immortal soul. I can't die." Then, the very next part of the same verse: "But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Well, I said, "I've already got eternal life. I'm an immortal soul." But the Bible says, "The soul that sins, it shall die." Christ said to Adam, "You are a soul; and if you sin you will die." And I began to realize the truth finally, and that the churches are all wrong about going to heaven and their kind of a hell; and that they are wrong in saying that we are immortal souls, and practically all of their doctrines.
So God showed me those basic things, even during my intensive study of over six months before I was converted and baptized. And I don't know of any leader that is a world leader as God has made me now, or a founder of a religion. And of course I'm not a founder of religion. But I don't know of any that have ever come to it this way as a complete surrender to God, a complete believing what He has SAID. When Christ came and preached to thousands, only 120 believed what He had said after 3 ½ years of the very Master, Jesus Christ Himself, being here on earth.
Jesus did not come on a soul-saving crusade. Never once did He say, "Give your heart unto Me, and I'll give you salvation." He didn't say those things. Those are the things that Billy Graham and the modern Protestants say. The Catholics will say that they give you something at the time you die, and that's going to save you apparently. But those are the ways of the religions of man and not of God, my brethren.
Now the disciples went out teaching what God preached. God brought a messenger, a message from God; I mean God sent a message through Christ. And Christ brought that message, which was the good news that the government of God will be restored; but be restored by the very BORN Family of God. God is doing things in His time and His way, and God's way is PERFECT! But no man would do it that way, and the ways of man would be very imperfect.
Now, if we overcome, and turn from Satan's way unto God's way, and develop His kind of CHARACTER WE will sit with Christ on His throne and rule with Him. But the reason He has called us now, and called most of you, is to stand back of me in getting this gospel to the WHOLE WORLD, and not just the United States only. And not just Pasadena and some place like that alone, it's the whole wide world. And I am being heard in Canada as well as the United States right now, this very minute, and over in Big Sandy, Texas. I wish I was being heard in England and other places, but I am heard there on various times.
Now, let me see, is there anything that I overlooked that I've got to mention before I quit. Oh, about the college, one thing I did not say. The universities of this world in the main are devoted to teaching men for a profession, or for a job, or something like that. We will not have a job or professional training program. We will have, as I said, a school for ministerial and biblical studies. We do not need so many, so it's going to be ultimately cut down to 250 students. In other words, there's a reason for the college — to provide an educated personnel to assist me, and for ministers. We now have around 700 ordained ministers all over the world. And, as a matter of fact, we have even more than we need right now on the payroll.
For years every student who made good was taken into the Work on graduation. But for the last several years, we've just been unable to do that. We're graduating more than we can use. And so it's foolish to go on trying to be in the college business and taking the money of God's people and spending it on that instead of what God said: Go and get the gospel around the world.
Now I'm going to go on doing that all around this world. And kings, and presidents, and prime ministers, and emperors even, invite me. I don't go in on them except at their invitation. But I have private, personal meetings with them; and they usually last anywhere from 30-35 minutes up to 2 hours. Twice I spent 2 hours with the king of Thailand, on each time I spent 2 hours with him. He appealed to me for help in certain ways that I found that I could help him. I sent a team of several men to be over there for 10 days, all over Thailand, not only in the Catholic city; but all over, and to find out what we could do and what we ought to do to help him. And finally they came back with the report, and there were about 6 or 8 of our top men that I sent over there.
Well, I will tell you one thing that has been done. We have been sponsoring portable schools for the mountain people that were uneducated. Not only are we getting them educated, but they have gone from ordinary farmers of things that are good to eat into opium and things of that kind of drugs because there was a lot of money in it. And so we've had to try to convert them back to farming vegetables. We've had to work out markets for their produce, and many things. But it is a program of the king of Thailand, King Bhumibol, which is very difficult for us to pronounce, and he is a friend of mine.
But God has given me favor in the eyes of leaders and heads of government in Central America, in Africa, in Asia, and in Europe, and all over. And He is going to continue that and I'm going to continue in that Work and the Work of God now will go ahead as it never did before. I am hoping that we will now get back, very soon, on radio until all over the United States and Canada we are covering it with half-hour programs every day. And they will be programs that are going to proclaim the good news of THE KINGDOM OF GOD!
Now I tell you, so far as the finances is concerned, I've found that it depends more on our pleasing Jesus Christ, the Head of this Church, than it does on any methods we use to try to raise money. And I know that, as we do that which is pleasing to God, He will back us; and He will provide every need, as He always has and as He will continue to do.
Well, I didn't want to carry it on to a full 2 hours today; and I think that that covers it enough. It has finally come up to today, when God has called me to get this out to the world. We're living in the generation when it is going to happen, and God wants it announced to around the world. I'm not trying to convert people in these other nations. Don't misunderstand. That isn't what God called me to do. But He wants it announced so that they can't say, "Well, God, why didn't you tell us?" He'll say, "I did, but you didn't listen." And that's what I'm doing. I'm telling them and announcing, and that's all. I don't have to get them converted.
The cooperation that we've had in Israel, and the dozens and dozens of times that I've gone to Israel and Jerusalem, never once have we sought a single convert; nor, as far as I know, have we made one. And they know that. This is not the time God is trying to save the world spiritually, but to get out the message. Now the way is open to carry the message in the 40th chapter of Isaiah, to tell them of the cities of Judah, that the Lord is coming with A STRONG ARM — Armstrong. Is it a coincidence in the fact that God chose a man with that name to carry that message, to rule them in the Kingdom of God and to bring them peace? And they and the Arabs will all be at peace one with another.
We are helping to do it now and helping it with the Moshe Koll's Foundation, with the young people. And when I go over there, both Arabs and Jews are on the program. And they did for our students when they went over, and it's wonderful to see things like that happen.
And, by the way, the last time I saw the king of Thailand I asked him how was our program coming? He said over 90% (in fact, he said 95%) have been turned away from this drug production into food production. Now that's another wonderful thing that's been done. But at the same time it opens the door to have me, as I have had hundreds of times in Bangkok and over in Thailand, and get the truth of God there as an announcement. And that's all I am called on to do. It is being done, nobody else is doing it. This is the Work of God, and God has prophesied that He would send someone to prepare the way before Christ. That is being done, and not by anybody else — as you brethren ought to know.
So now, I'm going to say "Goodbye" for this time. I'm getting back, and I'm going to be writing more than before. And I'm just coming along fine. I need to be more physically fit. In fact, I need to get in more walking. But my heart is back into fine condition. It was swelled way up. In fact, I had heart failure. Not a heart attack. It was heart failure, and it completely stopped. My breathing completely stopped, but it was restored. But God had not taken my spirit or my mind. And He has restored my mind. If anything it's better than it was before. And I still am not over 55 years old in actual mental powers and abilities. And I just want you to know that I'm coming back into active service again. I've had to take a lot of time off, and I haven't even done an awful lot of writing. I've done a little. But I will be doing more from now on.
So God bless all of you, and let's carry on. We are now in complete unity and we're going on together to get this job finished that God committed to me almost 50 years ago. So thank you all, and God bless you.