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COMING SOON:
TOOGOODTOBETRUE?
After today 's troubled and evil world-the wonderful world tomorrow. Here's justa
glimpse into a soon-coming day- and what
it
will be like!
S
ome time back, when 1 was in
Pasadena, the musical play
Ok/ahoma
was presented at
the Ambassador Auditorium. Of
course I had seen it before, years
ago, and also had seen the motion
picture of the same name. tv1any,
many times have I heard the musi–
cal numbers from the play.
Here I am [editor's note: this sec–
tion was written sorne months ago]
on the Ivory Coast in Africa-vir–
tually on the equator- but as 1
looked out the window of the hotel
at breakfast and beheld a beautiful
day dawning, the song of that play
kept haunting my mind:
"0 , what a beautiful morning,
O, what a beautiful day.
I've got a wonderful feeling.
Everything's goin' my way!"
Yesterday 1 was writing an article
about how Satan broadcasts-how
he is the prince of the power of the
air- how he now surcharges the air
with the moods and altitudes of dis–
content, unhappiness, vanity, lust
and greed, of jealousy and envy, the
spirit of competition, antagonism
and strife; of suspicion and resent–
ment against others, of fear and
worries, of frustrations, of rebellion
against authority- especially God's
authority. Satan literally injects this
UNHAPPY state of mind into people.
I've said it so often: He does not
broadcast in words, pictures, sounds
or music, but subtly in moods, atti–
tudes, impulses, feelings.
Then, Suddenly
...
Then, suddenly that tune from
Ok/ahoma- of
the "beautiful day"
with " everything goin' my way"–
brought to my mind this scripture of
SURE PROPHECY: "And it shall be in
that day, that LIVING WATERS shall
32
by
Herbert W. Armstrong
go out from Jerusalem.... And the
Eternal shall be king over all the
earth: in that day shall there be one
Lord, and his name one" (Zech.
14:8-9).
LIVING WATERS! Now just what
does the Bible mean by that ex–
pression? Let's take time to make
SURE-for this scripture is speaking
of an event which will drastically
alter YOUR LIFE in just a few short
years.
This terrn "living waters" is used
in a number of places in the Bible.
· One is the inciden! of Jesus meeting
the Samaritan woman at Jacob's
well in Samaria. Now in the days of
Jesus, Samaria (north of Jerusalem)
was populated by Gentile people of
the Babylonian mystery religion.
Back in 721-718 B.C. King Shal–
maneser of Assyria conquered the
northern kingdom, the KINGDOM OF
ISRAEL, in a three-year siege. He
moved the people of ten of the
tribes of Israel from their homes,
farms and cities, and carried them
as slaves to the land of Chaldea on
the southern shores of the Caspian
Sea. Then he placed people from
Babylon- people of the Babylonian
mystery religion- in the homes,
farrns and towns of that land, which
became Samaria, occupying the
northern two-thirds of the Iands
which had originally been inherited
by the twelve tribes of the children
of Israel. Much of this is territory
now occupied by the lsraelis, but
claimed by the Arabs, the subject of
bitter dispute (II Kings 17:23-24).
In the time of Christ these Sa–
maritan people were still there.
Their religious leader was Simon
the sorcerer. He tried to buy an
apostleship in the Church of God.
Peter turned him down, for his mo-
tives and his heart were evil. This
Simon was the "Peter" (or Pater,
Father, Papa, leader) of the Babylo–
nian mystery religion (see Acts 8:9-
11). This Simon deliberately
adopted Christ's doctrine of
"grace," turning it into license to
disobey God, and his religion grew,
until today it is the largest religion
on earth (Revelation 17).
I mention all this because of the
possible connection with the woman
whom Jesus met at Jacob's well in
Samaria, and because 1 thought it
would be interesting to the reader.
The incident is recorded in John
4 :2-26. Jesus was walking from
Judea to Galilee. He was tired, and
stopped at the well to rest. Along
carne a woman of Samaria to draw
water.
"Give meto drink," Jesus asked.
Now the Jews had nothing to do
with these Gentile Samaritans. They
called them "dogs." The Samaritan
woman was puzzled that a Jew
would speak to her. Notice she rec–
ognized immediately that Jesus was
a Jew.
She asked: "How is it that thou,
being a Jew, askest drink of me,
which am a woman of Samaria? for
the Jews have no dealings with the
Samaritans."
Now notice Jesus' answer: "If
thou knewest the
gift
of God
(the
Holy Spirit], and who it is that saith
to thee, G ive me to drink ; thou
wouldest have asked of him, and he
would have given thee LIVING
WATER."
The woman was confused. She
did not understand, of course, that
" the gift of God" and "living water"
are both symbolic expressions used
to designa te the HOLYSPIRIT.
Jesus said: "Whosoever drinketh
The
PLAIN TRUTH October-November 1978