Page 2606 - 1970S

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Garner Ted Armstrong
SPIAKS OUT!
Freaking Out on Religion
He said hts namo was Jesus
Christ.
1 didn't beliavo htm. " Get
out of my offoce," 1 said . He
looked at me tn stanled amazement.
As 1 rose from my desk. 1 ftrmly
claspad htm by the arm and showed
him the door. " ls thís the way you
recetve me? " he asked . " What
makes you thtnk 1 am receovong
you?" 1 replted " 1am escontng you
out of my offocel " Wtth that. the
man who claomad he was Jesus was
shown to the outstde door
In my more than twenty years on
the monostry, 1have had vanous and
sundry Elt¡ahs, Jonahs, Jeremoahs
and even possibly an apostle Paul or
two come to me wtth the odea that
they had soma enormously ompor–
tant " sptntual callong" to fulfill
Many of these people havo
clatmad to havo expenenced dreams
or seen vosoons One person clatmed
he saw Jesus " standtng at the foot
of hts bad," and whon he awoke
from a trance-like state. he doscov·
ered the impnnted marks of a cross
on his foreheadl
He even had a snapshot 10
"prove" this oncredible phenome–
non. Frankly from the snapshot ot
appeared that someona had taken a
small wooden cross and firmly
prassed it on the man's head until it
made the same sort of imprint that
one would experience from, say,
dozing on a rough , terry-cloth pollow
cover, and thon that person had
taken a ptcture of it
Currently, 1 am findong an
enormous number of ' ' two wtt·
nesses" candtdatesl In fact, 1 havo
considerad calltng " a Two-Wttness
conventoon" whereon all the pre–
tenders could spend whatever end–
less amount of tome they feel
suotable to bocker and argue over
whtch one of them os the " other" of
the two wotnesses Whtle all these
people argue and bocker over who
truly os the bona flde " other wtt·
ness." 1 tntend to go about per–
forming God' s great work on thts
eanh
have become commonplace para–
phernalia associated w ith various
rel igions. In one instance. it might
be shavong the head utterly bald
and walking about barefoot, bereft
of clothes save only lor a sheet,
which passes lor a "robe. "
Elsewhere, it may be nothing but
a loincloth while the worshipper
stares endlessly at the sun which
causes total blindness tn only a few
moments. believong fervently thts
useless exercise is somehow "pleas·
ong toGod ."
But why tS ot that in the " Christian"
rehgoon. there are enough weirdos.
oddballs, nuts. scatterbrains. tdioos.
noncompoops, imbeciles. and boobs
to populate badlam?
1'11 tell you why. One of the great·
es1 motovaung tnfluences tn human
nature os vanity! (See Ecclesiastes
1, 2 .)
One of the greatest afflictions on
today·s chaotic world is thal of men–
tal dislurbance. Every olher hospital
bed is occupied by a mental patient,
and. thinking only ol the enormous
numbers ol people who are dis·
traughl, disturbad, addled. unable
to cope. schizophrenic, paranoid, or
afflicled with "dementia praecox"
and a sizeable host of assoned prob–
lems (thus the explosiva growth of
psychology and psych iatry over
lhese pas1 decadt>s) serves to preve
an omponant potnl
When you mox lhe three. human
nature woth ots enormous vanoty, the
tremendous number of people who
are mentally dtsturbed. and ttJiigron.
you have almost an automatoc recope
for the omergenco of thousands ot
would·be " wttnesses." Elt¡ahs. and
a Moses or two. loberally spronkled
woth many who clatm ro be Christ.
Pleaso don ' t mosunderstand. lf a
person is truly mentally sick, then
they nead hetp and loving caro. 1do
not speak here of the acu1ely men–
tally ill - and 1 am not awaro lhat
any of the claimants to the office of
Jesus Christ nor any of those who
have claomed to be " the two wit·
ness<9s" (including tho three persons
who showed up at our admonistra–
tion bui l ding and proudly an–
nounced that THEY wero the two
witnesses) wore totally montally oll .
Perhaps, goven enough tome, the
entore group of " two wttnesses"
would resalvo otsell onto some sem–
blance of sanoty . At least. each
" other" of the " wttnesses· would
have 10 agree that each of the others
were equally smcere. beltevtng thetr
own spectal calltng was unoque, and
¡ust as dadocated to tho odea of betng
one of the " 1wo wotnosses" ot Rove·
lauon 1 1 as were all the resr (The
prophecy about the " two wot–
nesses" indocates they wtll have tho
power to call down plagues on the
eanh and to wtthstand the " beast
and the falso prophet " for 3 Y, years
'" Jerusalem. before fonally betng
kollad as manyrs .)
Jesus warned tt would be so
He saod. " Take heed that no man
deceove you. For many shall come on
my name. sayong. 1 am Chrost; and
shall deceive many . and many
falsa prophets shall rose. and shall
deceive many" (Mat. 24:4. 5. 11) .
When the apostle Paul heard
sorne in the church of that day were
being convonced the resurrection
was already over and that Chrost had
Thos world has what 1 feel to be
soma very strange religtons. Strange
customs, behefs. and costumong ' 'I'VE OECIDEO TO START MY OWN CHURCH WITH ONLY
ONE COMMANDMENT - THOU SHALT "
14
alreadv returnad 10 eanh. he warned
that they " be not soon shaken in
mond, or be troubled. neither by
sptrtl, nor by word. not by letter as
lrom us [sorne would apparently
stoop to forgery for proof of their
claoms to spiritual greatness]. as that
the day of Chrisl is at hand. Let no
man deceive you by any means. lor
that day shall not come. excep1 there
come a falling away first "
(11 Thes . 2 :2·3).
Tho church was warnad there
would be pretenders to exaltad spiri–
tual calling and was given specific
instructions on how to PROVE the
truth of their claims. " Beloved. be·
lieve not every spirit, bul try the spir–
its whether they are of God; because
many false prophets are gene out
in to the world" (1 John 4 : 1) . And,
"11 there come any unto you . and
bring not this doctrine. receive him
not into your house. neither bid him
God-speed" (11 John 10) .
Since my Bible plainly tells me
Noah, Meses. Jeremiah. Jonah. Eli·
rah and all other of the patriarchs
and prophets are OEAD and BURIEO
(Heb. 1 1:13). 1always view wtth a
largo degree of skeplicism the
claims from people who claim to be
one of these individuals.
When one claims to be Chrost, 1
onstantly determine whether, on fact.
the greal tnbulation and the heav–
enly signs have occurred, whether
the Oay of 1he Lord has been fui–
tillad . and whether the battle of Ar·
mageddon has occurred. as well as
the seven last plagues and the great
eanhquake described on the book of
Revelatoon and in Zechariah 14.
lf one claoms 10 be one of the
"two witnesses"- the two human
beongs saod to be the cause of many
gogantic world upheavals in the fu–
ture - it is not quite so simple a
matter to merely compare their
claims with scripture and come to a
decision.
The one major thing that has me
conlused is that the Bible says there
were only to be rwo of them and,
according to the claims 1 have
heard. there seem to be dozens. or
even hundreds. of claomants. and 1
cannot find a stngle scroplure whtch
tndicates God wants people to app/y
for the job.
No, human var¡ity, mental prob–
lems. loneliness. frustration. fear,
lack of the proper bibhcal under–
standong - these all may contribute
to vanous false tmpressoons some
people receove of themselves, but
they are shaky " proof" for claims of
e><ahad spiritual calling and offoce.
To prove to you just how strange
the whole sttuation can be, 1'11 prom–
ose to share with you readers the
strange letters 1receive in rebuttal to
thos column. most especially any 1
might be sent which strongly rebuke
me for " kocktng Chrost out of my
offtce that way... O
WEEK ENOING MARCH 22. 1975