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Garner Ted Armstrong
SPEAKS OUT!
Will Americe Have a Tricentennial?
I
n our Btcentennial year, we Amer–
icans have much for which to be
thankful. This country has given
us precious nghts that few peoples
in htstory have ever enjoyed.
On our 200th btrthday, we are
still the greatest stngle power the
world has ever known. Blessed with
the most fabulously rich piece of
real estate available on this good
earth, we have risen to dizzying
heights of technological and scien–
tific achievement. American foot–
prints dot the moon. Our language,
our culture, and our products girdle
the globe. Our standard of living is
still the envy of the world.
1,
as an
American citizen, am exceedingly
thankfulfor
all these blessings.
Nevertheless, our American way
of lite is being senously eroded by
mounttng cnme, political chicanery,
divorce, pornography, racial stress,
pollution and massive urban crises.
And on the world scene, a num–
ber of problems threaten the very
survival of the human race. lf the
oceans were to die, mankind would
probably last no more than a 100
years before breathing his last. Add
to that the largely unrestrained pro–
liferation of nuclear weapons,
greatly intensifying the possibility of
a thermonuclear holocaust. When
you sum it all up, you wonder
whether any Americans will be
around for our Tricentennial cele–
bration - 100 years from now.
lt goes without saying that you
also wonder whether or not there
will be any
citizens of the world
ieft
by then . The answer to that ques–
tion is the very substance of the
good news of the kingdom of God.
The
PLAIN TRUTH July 1976
The following words were spoken
by Jesus Christ well over ntneteen
hundred years ago. But they were
never truer than they are today:
"The time is fulfilled, and the
kingdom of God is at hand:
repent
ye, and bel1eve the gospel"
(Mark
1: 15). The word "gospel" s1mply
means "good news." Jesus Christ
was the newscaster who an–
nounced the good news of the
kingdom of God.
He prefaced this wonderful good
news with some stark warnings
about, first of all, a plethora of false
religion. Then he talked about the
outbreak of world wars, lamines,
epidemics and earthquakes in dif–
ferent places - look what has hap–
pened recently in Guatemala, in
ltaly and in the Soviet Union- add–
ing: "For then shall be
great tribula–
tion,
such as was not since the
beginning of the world to this time, no,
nor ever shall be" (Matthew 24:21 ).
That's the bad news. The good
news comes in the next verse: "Ex–
cept those days should be short–
ened, there should no flesh be
saved: but for the elect's sake
those
days sha/1 be shortened"
(verse 22).
While God absolutely gives usan
incontrovertible guarantee that
mankind will survive 2076, he gives
no such guarantee that the United
States of America will survive as a
national entity that long.
The answer to our national sur–
viva! depends on our spiritual status
as a nation. Right now we're run–
ning a pretty high temperatura .
lf
we don 't repent of some of our na–
tional and individual problems
pretty soon, it may be too late to
reverse many of our major national
evils.
Repentance is the key to our
national survíval!
An Old Testament prophet ic
book contains an ancient admont–
tion for America today, if we wou ld
only listen and heed! The ancient
prophet Jeremiah relayed God 's
stern warning to the Jews of his day
who were then threatened by a
mighty, heavi l y armed foreign
power. "Thus saith the Lord of
hosts . . .
Amend your ways and
your doings,
and
1
will cause you to
dwell in this place" (Jer. 7:3).
The wonderful promised land of
ancient Israel is not without parallel
to this great country of ours today.
Only a couple of lsrael's twelve
tribes were left in the land by the
time of Jeremtah. A sin-laden house
of Israel (the northern ten tribes)
had long since been driven out.
Only the house of Judah - the
southern nation - remained. Jere–
miah was tirelessly stating and re–
stating
the conditions for their
continuance
tn
the Promised Land.
Those conditions have even greater
import for the U.S. today.
As recorded in the seventh chap–
ter, Jeremiah began to spell out
some of the specifics. "For
if
ye
thoroughly amend your ways and
your doings;
if
ye thoroughly exe–
cute judgment between a man and
his neighbour;
if
ye oppress not the
stranger, the fatherless, and the
widow, a.nd shed not tnnocent
blood [murder] .... ·
then
will
1
cause you to dwell in this place, in
the land that
1
gave to your
fathers ... " (vs. 5-7).
The ancient house of Judah ig–
nored God's warning through Jere–
miah. God kept his word!
Nebuchadnezzar vanquished the
nation and brought it into capt ivity.
Can we afford to gamble on the
possibility that God will deal differ–
ently with us today? Maybe we'd
better realize that God says he's no
respecter of persons and that he
does not change!
Can 't we see that
national
repen–
tance is our only viable alternative?
We need to drop to our knees be–
fare our God and cry out to him in
heartfelt repentance for deliverance
from our awesome national prob–
lems. Our Bicentennial year
wou ldn't be abad time to begin! o
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