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CHURCH
(Continuedfrom page 3)
However, before sending forth
the apostles witb this message, He
ascended to heaven to be seated at
the rigbt hand of God, on His
Father's throne over the entire UNI–
VERSE.
Christ, in His resurrected state,
had spent sorne 40 days on earth
with His apostles. On the annual
day of Pentecost, sorne ten days af–
ter His ascension, He sent from
heaven His Holy Spirit to enter into
the 120 disciples (Acts 1: 15) who
had followed Him and believed–
thus founding the CHURCH OF ÜOD
(Acts 2). That same day about 3,000
were baptized and added to the 120
(Acts2:41).
True Gospel Suppressed
Almost immediately a great per–
secution was aroused against the
Church and the gospel message
(Acts 8: 1). The apostle Paul was
converted and made the chief
apostle to the Gentiles.
The Church had been founded on
the day of Pentecost, June A.D. 31.
But by A.D. 59 or 60 the opposition
already had suppressed Christ's true
gospel of the Kingdom. People had
been turned to another gospel (Gal.
1:6).
It is difficult to believe, I know.
But what the world
supposes,
fa lsely,
is the "gospel of Jesus Christ" is not
the gospel OF Christ-not the mes–
sage He taught-but the message of
uncalled and deceived men ABOUT
Christ- about the PERSON or the
Messenger. But the message God
sent
BY
Christ as the divine Messen–
ger tbey have not heard.
But, though Christ's gospel mes–
sage was after a few years sup–
pressed, the apostles went forth with
that message-infused with dynamic
POWER by the Holy Spirit. They,
with the Church backing them with
their prayers, encouragement and
tithes, started out imbued with vital–
ity and strength.
God's Church Endures Persecution
But it must be realized that the
fierce persecution had a discour-
42
aging effect. One example of this–
and of the primary function of the
Church-is found in Acts, chapters 3
and 4. For healing a cripple and
preaching to the crowd the miracle
attracted, the apostles Peter and
John were thrown overnight in
prison and severely threatened.
But these apostles went immedi–
ately to tbe Church brethren for
encouragement. They prayed fer–
vently, asking God to grant divine
power that the gospel might con–
tinue to go out. Result? "And when
they had prayed, the place was
shaken where they were assembled
together; and they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit, and they [the
apostles] spake the word of God
with boldness" (Acts 4:31).
However, as the persecution in–
tensified- and as the true gospel
message was suppressed by the
power of the Roman government
and the false church started in A.D.
33 by Simon the sorcerer (Acts 8:9-
24)-the work of proclaiming the
true gospel had to go underground.
It was no longer proclaimed to the
world. The work of the Church had
ebbed through the centuries to a
mere trickle.
But Christ had said the gates ofthe
grave would not prevail against His
Church. lt continued, often an under–
ground Church meeting in secret,
through every generation. By the be–
ginning ofthe twentieth century that
vital power which had worked dy–
namically in Christ and the original
apostles had waned, until, in Christ's
prophecy of Revelation 3: 1-6, they
had "a name that they lived"-the
Church of God-"but were dead"
spiritually, and they lacked the vital–
ity to go forth with Christ's message!
A number ofsmall isolated groups in
Chile, Argentina, Mexico, and Cen–
tral America, as well as in the United
States, were still kept in the NAME
Church ofGod.
New Leadershlp and
Vltallty lnfused
In 1927 the United States members
consisted of very small local groups
of from five to one hundred.
At that time Christ raised up a
new leader imbued with God's
Spirit, vitality , inspired UNDER-
STANDING and perseverance- Herb–
ert W. Armstrong.
He had been a successful busi–
nessman in the advertising, newspa–
per and magazine field.
In the fall of 1926 he was shaken
by two emotion-stirring challenges–
one on the validity of God's spiri–
tual law, the Ten Commandments;
the second on the theory of evolu–
tion-then rapidly gaining complete
acceptance by higher education.
Mr. Armstrong was somewhat fa–
miliar with the evolutionary doc–
trine, but he had not pursued an
intensive in-depth study and re–
search into the question. He delved
immediately into the writings of
Darwin, Haeckel, Huxley, Spencer,
Vogt and other advocates of the hy–
pothesis. He PROVEO, to bis own sat–
isfaction, the falsity of the theory.
He had believed, in common with
the Protestant teaching in which he
had been reared, that God's spiri–
tual law had been abrogated by
Christ and the early apostles.
"All these churches," he had ar–
gued with his wife, "can't be
wrong- and tbey teach the abroga–
tion of God's law." But to his utter
amazement and chagrín, Herbert
Armstrong began to learn that "all
these churches" indeed
were
in er–
ror! "Why," he exclaimed on his
first real examination of the Bible,
"the churches of organized tradi–
tional Christianity are teaching the
diametric opposite of what I see
plainly in the Bible!"
His intensive almost night-and–
day study, although frustrating at
the time, swept his mind clean of
teachings from his Sunday school
and church upbringing! God caused
him to now seriously and earnestly
study the Bible AFRESH- as if he had
never allowed previous teachings to
have a place in his mind. No world
religious leader, in all probability,
has ever been brought to revealed
TRUTH in this unprejudiced manner.
The experience of the apostle
Paul seemed to parallel his own. Mr.
Armstrong later wrote: "But I cer–
tify to you, brethren, that the gospel
preached of me is not after man.
For 1 neither received it of man, nor
was 1 taught it, but by the revelation
of Jesus Christ. ... But when it
The
PLAIN TRUTH
January
1979