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PASTOR'S REPORT, May 14, 1979
Page 28
But God has worked through Mr. Armstrong in a powerful way. And He does
reveal doctrines through Mr. Armstrong and always has. But again, this
has been a very basic issue and some have questioned whether Mr. Armstrong
has a right to make the pronouncement about the sit-in. I mean, they
want to question if he is right or is he wrong.
Well, there's another startling thing that he has mentioned to me several
times lately.
He says, "God revealed certain things to me." Now God
didn't literally speak to him--he didn't say that. He said God has put
things in his mind. There are those who would gainsay and say, "Aw,
hogwash. That's ridiculous." Well no, it's not ridiculous. I think
it's either true or else there isn't a God because God has worked that
way for centuries.
I think what is difficult maybe for us to see is that "a prophet is
without honor in his own country." You know, it's very difficult to
realize this about Mr. Armstrong, whom most of us have come to know in
various degrees of intimacy. Yes, he is a man. He has problems and
frailties Just like all of us. But I think the thing we miss is that
God can still use a man and use him powerfully, and can reveal things
to him--and does indeed reveal things to him--things that He wants for
His church, for the benefit of His church.
I think until we come to that understanding, deeply and sincerely, then
all these things are always going to bother us. And if it's not a
sit-in, or it's not a demonstration, or if it's not tithing, or if it's
not how you keep the Sabbath, or whatever it is--these things are always
going to bother us. There is always going to be some other issue. You
can be assured of that! There will always be another issue. It's
justrnoments away,�hours away, or a day away. But something else is
going to come.
We must be willing and able in our own minds to come to the deep under
standing that God IS--the ''I am that I am," the Eternal; the Ever-existing
One who does stand forth and speak and reveal, and make known to the one
whom He has chosen what it is He wants done.
That's it. To me, that's what it gets down to, and that's what the great
test on the church is. It gets down to that basic issue. Because, like
I say, once the receivership is gone, once the demonstrations are over-
I hope they don't have to happen again. I didn't like them. Mr. Rader
didn't like them. Who liked th.em? Nobody liked them. ( It was a matter
of stepping in and doing something, based upon Mr. Armstrong's total and
wholehearted approval of it, and saying that it was right for we did need
to protect our property.) But there's always going to be something else.
There just will be. And we have to remember that that's going to be the
case.
When it comes down to it, we have to know where God is working, and if we
know that and through whom He's working, then everything else fits into
place. Then you've got the stability, you've got the foundation, and it
will all fit. It will not fit any other way. It just won't fit any other
way. Now you can force it. You can try to make it fit another way. You
can strive wlth it, you can wrestle with it, you can talk about it with
your fellow ministers. You can talk about it with all the pastors or
evangelists or whatever--but nothing else will work. It just won't work!