Herbert Armstrong Tribute “God Sent him To Proclaim The Gospel”, Worldwide! By Pastor

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udyd7N-8gfE

Dear brethren of God worldwide, we, like many of you, are baffled by the loss of so many of the teachings God restored to us via His apostle in the 20th century, Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong. As such we have seen many in the churches moving away from the trunk of the tree & solid foundational teachings, from which we all cut our teeth. Also the tremendous worldwide work Jesus Christ did through him. As he said, I am not doing this work, I have my part in it, but it is Jesus Christ doing the work, He is the Head of this church! (Or words to that effect) We have been criticized by some who appeared to worship Mr. Armstrong for not preaching him. We honour him as a faithful servant of God, and in deep appreciation of the truth God led us to understand. But I say, as I did to these; I preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified, (I Cor.1:23) not men! God’s servants are not to worship each other! For even the angel did tell this to the last surviving apostle of the 1st century. (Rev.19:10) “And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus; worship God: …  Even the mighty angel made it clear to this wonderful apostle toward the end of his life as a faithful apostle of Jesus Christ. We know it is Only God that ought to be worshiped! Herbert Armstrong castigated those who worshipped other men, and quoted the verses below, we have recorded on C.d, still, they continue on blindly worshipping him, while saying they aren’t worshipping him! In fact there are entire churches who have halted in their learning as a direct result of this “man-worship”. He stated, that he expected to go on learning until the day he died, and any who did not do this were in dire trouble. 

To prove their “man-worship” is in error, they they will never admit it; The apostle Paul encountered this same problem, and said “who is Paul, or who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that plants anything, neither he that waters; but God that gives the increase. (I Cor.3:5-7-My emphasis) The fact that there were divisions in the early churches of God, and that the ministry were having to counter this, shows nothing has changed as far as human nature is concerned. Today, some of the brethren, still want to worship men.

Another sad indictment on many of the people of God is that they do not understand that Jesus Christ said “I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH“; (Mt.16:18) But, it is the Father that doeth the works, via Jesus Christ, not any man! (John.14:10)

Mr. Armstrong  did his part faithfully, and as a result, we all love him, though he is dead. Many are slandering his name, his work, even accusing of heinous, yet unproveable crimes. Yes, he made his mistakes, he was after all, a man.

At this junction, I want to emphasize, that God did open the Gospel to his called people on a world wide basis, not done for 1900 years! (19 time cycles) Mr. Armstrong stated to his successor that he had preached the gospel, his successors job, was to to get the church ready! Even this well known statement has been rejected by the deniers, saying, they knew first hand that he did want the gospel to continue to be preached. Even though they all knew HE-had preached the gospel on a WORLDWIDE basis, that no man had done since the time of Jesus Christ. Did they realize Jesus Christ was opening the doors to him, and no other man? No, and they still will not realize this fact, so simple a child could work it out.

That “marvelous-work” WAS-DONE! (Hab.1:5) Does that mean as some “think”, that everything is finished? As one put it, the time of prophecy is over? And does that mean that there’s nothing else we can do? That we should should just wait? Perhaps we have nothing further to be doing? Maybe God is not even doing anything else, because Mr Armstrong is now dead? That “thinking” would mean all prophecy has been fulfilled. And that is impossible. 

This has largely come about as a result of those who wrongly worshipped him, with many STILL in error about this. Only God can be worshipped!

Herbert Armstrong was used to fulfill a great commission, not least as a type of Zerubbabel, (Zech.4:9) logically it follows that Jesus Christ will finish the temple, for we are the temple. (2 Cor.6:16; I Cor.3:16; i Cor.12:12-20

But If we remember, he, Jesus Christ is greater than the temple! (Mt.12:6)  And he, Christ, is the author and FINISHER of our faith, (Heb.12:2) who is returning to, as God said in Mal.3:1; the temple! 

BRETHREN of God, you & I, WE, from every generation since the garden, are the real work of God, everyone who has been predestined, called & sanctified in Christ. Remember, HE is the Potter, & WE the clay! Isa.64:8-10.

What was revealed, relative to our calling, as part of God’s purpose for the preaching of the gospel, was to proclaim the gospel, gospel means good news, unto all the world for a witness unto all nations, while calling God’s church out of the world as the 1st-fruits of his future harvest!

The fact that the churches of God appear to be in awe of Mr. Armstrong, but not the principal reason, which is that the people of God are being trained to enter the glory of Jesus Christ as future sons & daughters, ruling & reigning with, and under him, and that man-kinds misery of 6,000 years will finally be over, that the very great power that has held sway over mankind from the beginning, will also be removed, and peace shall once & for all be ushered in by the Gov’t of God on a totally transformed world! That no more corruption, no more evil, no more violence & wars, no more of man’s corrupted forms of gov’ts will ever be in existence again, no more suffering, death, starvation, disease epidemics, horrific weather events, no more twisted human “thinking”, homosexuality, lesbianism, drug fuelled anarchy, alcoholism, fellow human beings lying on the streets without a roof over their heads, or gov’ts murdering their own people such as Syria, Iraq, Sth Africa, Vietnam, China. And astonishingly, we will have the primary part under Jesus Christ to bring about peace such as this planet has not sen since the garden of God, in Eden. 

With respect to Mr. H.W.A, we further admonish as many as God called during the days of Herbert Armstrong, to understand that no man should ever walk away from the teachings we all received.

However, and this is a big however, since the death of the apostle, certain new truth has come to light concerning the sacred calendar we were all taught as truth. This has turned out to be false! The church were following traditions of men, in fact the traditions of the religion of Judaism!

Not that Mr. Armstrong taught it, on the contrary, men under him persuaded him that we should follow the Jews, because they were given the oracles. (Rom.3:1-2) This is absolutely true, they were given the oracles, but were they given them to preserve and record, or to alter??

If you find, as we, that the Jews were given the oracles to record, and not to alter, and that because of hundreds of years of rebellion by O.T Israel, & the priesthood which had become corrupt & paganized, their temple system & false priesthood was done away. Then, 40-years after Christ’s ascension to the Throne of the Father, the temple was destroyed, just as Christ prophesied in Matt.24:1-2; Then we are on the same path, initially at least. That physical temple was removed by God, just as Solomon’s glorious temple was for many of the same reasons. Rom.3:1-4;

What this latter section means in relation to the gospel message many did not, or could not grasp, because they were either worshipping H.W.A instead of God, & various other reasons, is that the one-TRUE church of God in this final 7th candle-stick church era, is that, we under our Great High Priest Jesus Christ are the N.T builders, the oracles have been committed to us as part of the N.T temple. One temple must replace another, the O.T temple is gone, they are not recognized by God at this time, we are, we are the builders of the temple.  I Pet.2:5,7-9;  Isa.66:1-2; Rom.12:1-2;

Here is an excerpt from our booklet; “God’s Calendar  Challenge” (Request free of charge)

During Judah’s captivity, the Babylonians were de-feated by the Persians (in 538 BC). You will remember the Persians allowed some 42,000 Jews to return to Palestine to re-build Jerusalem, its walls,  and the second temple Persian rule ended in  333 BC  with  their  defeat by Alexander the Great. What happened between then and the time of Christ’s first coming is most important.

Alexander began to impose Greco-Macedonian cul-ture on the lands he conquered, including Palestine. That is the key to the religious situation as it was among the Jews  in  Palestine after Ezra, Nehemiah  and the Soph-erim, and long before Jesus Christ’s first coming.

Though Alexander died within 10 years, (323 BC), and his empire was divided among his Generals, pagan Greek culture still dominated many areas for a very long time. To the south, the Ptolomies reigned in Egypt, while the Seleucids, centred on Antioch, reigned to the north of Palestine.

Both were rivals who battled fiercely for control of land at the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Therefore, from the defeat of the Persians, until the Jews came under Roman control, (in the first century BC), they were dominated by either Antioch, or Egypt. Regardless of which of those two powers was in control of Pales-tine, during this period of history, the cultural influence was still that of Greek paganism. To some extent the same was still true, even after pagan Rome became the dominant power in the area, (around 60 BC).

     Judaism  =  Religious “Anarchy”

           The net result was that for some 330 years prior to Jesus’ birth, the Jews in Palestine were under pagan Hellenistic influence. It was in this cultural climate that (what is called) the period of Jewish religious “anarchy” developed. It resulted in what we know today as the religion of Judaism — a blend of Greek paganism, and the Torah.

Here is one respected source confirming the powerful influence of Hellenism: “One solid fact in this con-nection is the translation of the Jewish Laws into Greek in the 3rd century BC, implying a Jewish Diaspora at Alexandria, so far  Hellenized  as  to  have  forgotten  the speech of Palestine. Early in the 2nd century BC we see that the priestly aristocracy of Jerusalem had, like the well-to-do classes everywhere in Syria, been carried away by the Hellenistic current….The large number of Greek words in the Mishnah and the Talmud is a significant phenomenon” (Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 11th Ed., Vol.13 p.244).

Before the time of Christ, the dominant Pharisees had introduced many of their own teachings in place of Bible truth. Under Hellenistic influence, they invented and introduced what they called the Mishnah Form . It was a method they developed to explain away their ‘changes‘ in relation to the Law of Moses. Scripture shows that the Sadducces didn’t believe in resurrection, so what did they believe? Let the Jews themselves answer that question:

Judaism & Pagan Immortality Doctrine

           “The belief in the immortality of the soul, came to the Jews from contact with Greek thought, and chiefly through the philosophy of Plato, its principle exponent, who was led to it through Orphic and Elusinian Mys-teries, in which Babylonian and Egyptian views were strangely blended” (see Immortal Soul, Jewish Encyclopaedia ).

Plato’s time was 427-337 BC. The homosexual Socrates (470-399 BC) was his teacher, and it is said he brought this false idea from Egypt to his pupil. Aristotle (384-322) perpetuated the theory. Notice how these dates lead right into the time of Alexander the Great, and the beginning of Hellenistic cultural influence in Pales-tine. (One of the so-called earlier ‘benefits’ of  multicul-turalism, no doubt)!

At the time of Christ, the contemporary crop of supposed religious experts, steeped in Judaism (their blend of Greek paganism and the Torah), twisted the Old Testament scriptures to suit themselves, and (as Christ said),  taught  for  doctrine  the  commandments  of  men.

This is only one aspect that has arisen  since the death of  H.W.A and which is most certainly not a deviation from anything Herbert Armstrong taught, because he always taught us to “Prove all things”!  Please see our calendar tab to PROVE this truth for your self! We MUST fulfill our commission, as called members and ministers!

This means living by every word of God, Matt.4:4 and we are to speak the truth in love, and grow up into him in all things, which is the head even Christ. In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the spirit. (Eph.4:15; 2:21)

Likewise this church invites all you faithful in Christ to return to the bishop of your souls, and watch that we may be accounted worthy to escape the coming destruction, as we are also watching! (Lk.21:36)

Finally, it is important again to strongly emphasize that we DO HOLD-FAST to  that which is good! How is it defined as good? To the provable teachings of Jesus Christ as taught by Mr. Armstrong, When it is OF God! Herbert Armstrong was OF God, and spoke God’s truth as he was led to proclaim it. Yes, he made mistakes, men do that from time to time. Unfortunately today, many “think” they should do the work God set forth for the 20th century apostle to carry out as HIS COMMISSION! It was H.W.A’S commission, not any others!

Of course we are to proclaim the truth of God to as many as God will call (Jn.6:44; Rom.8:28-30), in these final days leading to the long prophesied time of Jacobs trouble (Jer.30:7; Mt.24:21-22) This marvelous work was a precursor to the coming of the LORD, and the end, which the preaching of the gospel is to usher in. (Mt.24:14)

The next phase as we see in scripture, is the great tribulation!

Again let us re-emphasize, that work was DONE! We are now getting the church ready!!! VIEW THE ABOVE VIDEO LINK & BE SHOCKED!

God is NOT now doing a “WORLD-WIDE work, in the sense of PROCLAIMING the Gospel, and warning the world, as it was in the days of Herbert W. Armstrong! God gave that work to his servant, and he fulfilled his commission. God is now working to perfect those whom He called, both then, and since, who repent, who are to admit ERROR, who grow, and who obey God.

The called, chosen and faithful ARE building that temple through Jesus Christ, and those who are ready, will go into the wedding. Those who are not will be on the outside, saying Lord, Lord, have we not  prophesied in your name? and in thy name cast out demons? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity. (Mt.7:21-23) These are they which have become lukewarm to the truth, saying they are “DOING A WORK”, and not realizing that they are doing iniquity. See also (Rev.3:14-20) They will be standing on the wrong side of the door!!

As the apostle John said; They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God: he that knows God hears us, he that is not of God, hears not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. (IJn.4:5-6)

The church has definitely been scattered, no one can deny that, regardless of their understanding of the prophesied “falling away”. No one can deny that a scattered church is not all standing on the foundation Stone-Christ. Let us take this opportunity to believe and accept the truth! FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT US VIA OUR EMAIL ADDRESS, OR WRITE TO US VIA OUR POSTAL ADDRESS.