Herbert W Armstrong

   The best of the big news you can hear is that humankind will survive, that wars will be outlawed, that there will be a system of controls and inspection, and that war, the material for war, will be abolished from the surface of this earth. Vast agrarian reforms, linguistic reforms, education for the entirety of the human race. Watering of the desert places, the creation of the good life for everyone, all nations giving up individual sovereignty, all nations beginning to learn to speak the same language, all nations united under one common goal, one common purpose. The best news that this world could ever hear.

   What really does the world need most of all? More Harvard graduates? Just more, uh, money so we can solve our problems? What I just said to you sounds so unreal, so fantastic. I imagine everybody went, "OK, so what's the pitch now? What's coming? What kind of a gobby goku is this, saying that all these things can happen?" We're convinced it can't happen. We're so thwarted, in futility and frustration, we're convinced there's no need to worry; nothing's going to turn out all right. Well, let me tell you, a message came to this earth nearly 2000 years ago that has been perverted, stepped upon, cast aside, maligned, blue-penciled, edited, ignored, ridiculed, and otherwise abjectly mistreated by most of humankind. And that message was brought by Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

   And to this day, people say, "Who was Jesus Christ?" People wonder, "Who was Christ? What was He all about?" They disagree on so many things about Jesus Christ. Well, I'm here to tell you that Jesus Christ of Nazareth came as a newscaster, looking on beyond His day into ours, that He foretold global world conditions. Look at it just simply as a black-and-white, yea-or-nay, truth-or-error situation where you take your choice. It doesn't make a bit of sense for you or anybody else to believe in what they call a Christian religion if you're believing in and following a well-intentioned, good man who spoke a whole lot of lies, whose miracles were fraudulent, as many critics claim. And the critics themselves are up for criticism as far as Christ is concerned.

   If you believe the Bible should be blue-penciled and is not true, then why even bother having a religion? Why not join the skeptics, the atheists, and agnostics? Why not just say, "Hooray, we're ignorant. We don't know." But if you do believe Jesus Christ was what He said He was, then why not believe what He said? Why not go all the way with Christ, to believe His birth, the circumstances surrounding it, why He came, what His message was, and what we ought to do about it?

   And why should the goals of human peace, prosperity, brotherhood, all the lofty slogans of all the years that have gone by sound so absolutely unattainable to human beings? We're all alike, really. Underneath, we all laugh alike. You tickle us as little kids, whether we're Japanese or come from Rhodesia, whether we're of the Ibo tribesmen in Africa, or whether we're Mediterranean-type or Norwegian or Swede or Dane, or whether we're American or Canadian. We laugh alike. We cry alike. We make the same sounds. We speak different languages, but those sounds that come out of us are the same. We sneeze alike. Some people have funny sneezes, some have funny laughs. I do. But we're not all that different. We bleed alike too. We hurt alike. We taste alike and smell alike, even though our languages are different.

   The Bible says that we're all of one blood, that in Him we live and move and have our being, that God has made all of humankind of one blood on the face of this earth. And your Bible foretells a time when all of humankind will be living as brothers under one government and world peace will be on this earth at that time. And the message Jesus brought also included the fact, which I want to repeat to you endlessly, that it doesn't matter whether you believe it, it doesn't matter whether you reject it or accept it. Christ doesn't need anything from you. He doesn't want anything from you. He's not after you. Then, when He was on the earth or now today, He leaves it up to you entirely.

   We're not really embarrassed when people tell us that they don't know anything about the Bible. We don't know anything about the Bible. We're very ready to admit that, although we might feel very badly if we were found to be short in some other areas in conversation. People do not know about Jesus' birth. They don't know when He was born. He was not born on or anywhere near December 25th. And you can see that proved if you want to write for a book on the subject about the truth about Christmas. It's a shocker, but it's true. It's not my fault that it's in the Bible, and you can prove it.

   They don't know how He was born in the sense that people don't look at the practical fact of what the Bible says: that it was an absolute miracle from God, the Father in heaven above, and Jesus Christ of Nazareth as He was born of the human flesh. That here one member of the God family was changed into, literally became, human flesh. The Bible says this, and people are not willing to believe it. They seem to think that Jesus came along like a giant weightlifter who could casually toss off a hundred-pound weight with consummate ease, that He breathed through life with no problems and overcame sin just real easily. Of course, we struggle, we have our terrible trials, but He virtually had none. People see Him as having had certain trials, but I wonder if they're willing to believe it the way it really is in the Bible—the suffering, the struggle, the powerful battle that Jesus Christ of Nazareth underwent.

   Reading in the book of Hebrews just for a moment, in verse 14 of chapter four, it says this (Hebrews 4:14): "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." He was tempted just like we are, yet without sin. So, God's word says, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

   Now, a little later, it says in verse seven of chapter five, the very same book of Hebrews (Hebrews 5:7), and I quote: "Who in the days of his flesh," he was flesh, it wasn't different flesh from yours or mine, he was just as susceptible to death, and he was surrounded with all sorts of temptations and trials in every conceivable way, just as we are—not a different kind of temptation, the same kind—"when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared; though He were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect." How can that be if He was perfect at birth? It's simple. A one-year-old is perfect if he is not sinning, if he is absolutely perfect in the sense of physical flesh and with God being with him. And it says that Jesus had the spirit of God without measure from the time of His birth. But perfection is a process, and if you ever fail one time, that's imperfection. Perfection today does not guarantee perfection tomorrow. Perfection must be achieved tomorrow. So perfecting is a process that lasts all the life long. And Jesus Christ, it says in your Bible, was made perfect. Being made perfect—not that there was imperfection that had to be overcome, but perfection is a continual day-to-day process. He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.

   I challenge you to read that scripture and then equate your belief or disbelief, your skepticism, or your faith with what you read in that scripture. It says in chapter five and verse nine of the book of Hebrews (Hebrews 5:9), He is the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him. Do you obey Him? He said, "If you love me, keep my commandments." Do you obey that command? He said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law." Do you obey that command? You don't think that He came to destroy the law? He said, "Think not that I am come to bring peace on earth; I did not come to bring peace but a sword. Yea, I tell you rather," He said, "division." Do you believe that? Are you obedient to that command of Christ?

   If we love Him, we ought to walk as He walked, live as He lives, says John, the closest apostle to Jesus. Do you believe that? Here is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous. Do you believe that? It says that He is the captain, the author, the beginner, the finisher of our salvation unto all those that obey Him. Do you obey Him or do you just believe on Him? There is a vast difference.

   Did you know that Benjamin Franklin was the father of the public school system in the United States? His proposals resulted in the creation of the University of Pennsylvania. Or did you know that Davy Crockett, hero of the Alamo, was well-educated? He wrote a lengthy poem in the Nashville Banner decrying his political defeat. Or that Sequoyah, a self-educated Cherokee leader, created the first American Indian alphabet, but for a time, his people thought that the so-called "talking leaves" were a product of insanity instead of intelligence.

   And did you know that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was a well-educated, tax-paying, property-owning, and prosperous businessman? Many other revealing facts about the education of this great personage are explained in the booklet entitled "The Real Jesus." Request your own copy of this free publication and find out about The Real Jesus. Dial this toll-free number: 800-423-4444. That's 800-423-4444.

   The enigma of Jesus Christ: Who was Christ? What was Christ? What was He prior to His human birth? Why did He come? When was He born? How did He die? How long was He in the tomb? People don't know. The mainstream of Christian thought does not know. It disagrees. There is every conceivable disagreement. There are enough disagreements to make up the more than 400 different, differing, conflicting, disagreeing denominations, organizations, churches, sects, schisms, and everything else that there might be that can be called religion. They do not agree on how Jesus died, the method of His death, whether He was dead. Even the Apostles' Creed, as it's called, which you wonder whether the apostles ever even heard of because of the date that is on it, that is repeated even by Protestant churches. It includes the words "Holy Catholic Church" that is repeated time and time again. You may practically have it memorized if you're a church-going person. But even in that Apostles' Creed, it talks about how Jesus descended into hell. But the thief wasn't with Him. And haven't you always heard the story about the thief on the cross? "I say to you today, you're going to be with me in paradise." How do you square that? It's in the Bible. But of course, the original Greek didn't have commas, so a man decided that it ought to be, "I tell you that you will be with me in paradise," instead of, "I'm telling you today, you shall be with me in paradise." "I'm telling you now, right now, at this time, you're going to be with me in paradise." Not in heaven. Paradise. Where is paradise? I'll tell you a few places I can think of as paradise. If we could get rid of some of the problems that bother us, some of the islands in maybe New Zealand, places in Switzerland, places in the American Rockies, some of the Pacific Northwest seacoast at the right time of the year, places up in Ontario, Canada, where I have been, the Rockies around Banff, and up in some of the places in the Canadian Rockies that are so fabulous. You know, there are places where if you could get rid of all the mosquitoes and the things that plague us and bad weather and it could just be beauty forever, you'd almost think you were in paradise. Well, you know, Jesus Christ talked about making this earth a perpetual paradise. People don't believe that. They think He talked about going to heaven. He said nothing of the kind.

   So, people disagree on Jesus—who and what He was, what He looked like, when He was born, and why—the purpose for which He came into the world. Now, people do not know when He was born, but the Bible reveals it had to be sometime in autumn, way prior to any Christmas time. They don't know the method of His birth. But we read about that, that the birth of Jesus was on this wise: Mary, the wife of Joseph, was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit. And that gave us a little difficulty if you caught that one about this business of the Trinity, because if the Father is the Father, which Jesus said He was and came to reveal Him, and He was the Father in heaven to whom Jesus prayed, yet Mary was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit, then if the Holy Spirit is a person, Jesus prayed to the wrong person. But the word Trinity isn't in your Bible, and Jesus nowhere revealed a separate person. People have done that because of the misunderstanding of a Greek word, "Ikeinos," which can mean "that one," "that thing," "it," or "he," and it does not necessarily mean a person, an individual. It's God's power, God's mind, the very power, the force, the energy by which and through which God rules from His heaven.

   The Bible reveals the engender of the Holy Spirit that can come into a human mind, that can unite with a spirit that is in man. Man has a spiritual essence in that sense of the word, but it isn't conscious of itself and for itself and by itself. It is not an immortal soul, but there's something in the brain and the mind of man that is not just physical, mechanical, and earthy, that is far different and far superior to and above an animal. And just as much as it takes one cell, living cell with another living cell, and the uniting of the two to create a human physical being, so it takes the uniting of God's Holy Spirit with a spirit essence that is in the brain, the mind of man, to create a separate spirit being that is actually engendered at that time.

   Now, that sounds like a difficult subject. I don't know why. We have analogies all the way through the Bible. Physical birth. When Jesus told Nicodemus, "You must be born again," Nicodemus knew He was using a term that meant to be born. He didn't think it meant an experience. He said, "How is that possible?" It's John the third chapter. "How can a man when he is old go back into his mother's womb?" And Jesus said, "Don't marvel that I told you, you must be born again, because it's like the wind. You can hear it, but you can't see where it came from or where it goes. So shall everyone be who is born of the Spirit." He said, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." That's true today, it always was. Dogs are dogs, and cows are cows, and you are you, and I am me, and we were born of the flesh, and we are flesh. We can demonstrate that. We can prove it. He says, "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Are you spirit? No, you're flesh. Have you been born of the Spirit? I told you about the little old lady who said, "Yes, praise God, I have been," because her mind was so made up that it had to be a spiritual experience instead of what Christ says it has to be, that she wasn't willing to believe Jesus. She had to believe the tradition and what she'd been told endlessly, what she had repeated to her time and time again.

   Did Jesus come to save the world? Did He come to try to save the world? The answer: No. No, He did not. Christ is no failure. You know, Christianity is gradually getting smaller every single year because the big population explosions are in nations where—well, the nations of India, Asia, China, and so on, Indonesia, and the area of Central and South America where some people believe there's a lot of Christianity, but there's a lot of other religions mixed in. And even the Christianity, you sometimes wonder about. So, Christianity is gradually kind of retreating even though there has been a newfound wave of, uh, consciousness of Jesus. But Christ Himself predicted that. He said in Matthew 24, one of the very first things He warned about was (Matthew 24:5), "Many shall come in my name, saying I am the Christ." That's their message: Jesus is the Christ. And that's about where it stops. After that, it gets a little vague, a little confusing. They don't say you need to obey Him. They don't say you need to live as He lived, do as He did, keep the same day He kept, follow the same laws that He revealed, commemorate the anniversary of His death in exactly and precisely the way that He told His disciples to do and said, "This do in memory of me." People say, "Well, I know you said that, Jesus, but I'm willing to overlook that. We can get along and worship you in any way we see fit." If there is no God, that's beautiful reasoning. But since there is a God, and God tells us how, He tells us choose not how but whether. Will you obey? Not in what fashion or which manner.

   Well, Jesus did not come to save the world then. Here's the proof, and I'll give you some more. Matthew 10, verse 34 (Matthew 10:34), and I'm reading from your own Bible. It's just bright, exactly the same in yours. It says, quote, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father." Jesus Christ said, "I'm come to create difficulties in members of the same family." On one occasion, when He turned to His own disciples and He said, "I am the bread of life that came down from heaven, and except you partake of my very flesh, except you drink of my blood," and He was talking about the symbolic Passover observance where He changed the symbols from the Passover lamb and the unleavened bread and so on, the bitter herbs which originally were eaten as they went out of Egypt so many centuries before. And He said, "Take, eat, this is my body which is given for you," and passed the cup among them and said, "Take and drink of this. This is my blood which is shed for you." When He originally told the disciples that, Peter said and others, "This is a hard saying, and who can receive it?" And many, it said, went back and simply quit following Him right at that moment. Even out of the original 120 that were all students or disciples, there were 120 of them, not 12. There were 12 leading ones, but there were 120 in all. There's another occasion where He sent out 70 of them on, on a kind of a, you might say, short evangelistic tour where they were telling people about Jesus and what He was saying. His message, not just about His personality alone. His personality comes through, yes, but the message that He brought is very important. He did not come to try to save the world then. If He had, He would have saved it whether the world liked it or not.

   And you know, that's what God is going to do. He shows in the Bible that Jesus Christ is going to make you happy whether you want to be happy or not. He's going to bring to the world compulsory joy. It's kind of like a joke I heard—about, what was it? The German waiter in the German restaurant that said, "Here is your Apfelstrudel you will eat it." You will like it, you know. Uh, that isn't the way it went, I think, but it was kind of humorous because they, it showed the, the German tendency, the way they are, the way they used to be. Excuse me, I'm sure that they're not that way anymore. So anyhow, uh, the compulsory joy thing is just a way of saying it. But the Kingdom of God is going to come to this earth. It doesn't depend on you joining it. I'm not asking you, you know, let's all unite together. Let's get all the churches united, and all you people gather around, and let's get on the bandwagon and go happily all kaboom, beating the drum and saying, we're going to set up the Kingdom of God on this earth. I'm telling you that God Almighty and His Son Jesus Christ of Nazareth are going to set up the Kingdom of God on this earth no matter what you do, one way or the other. And no matter what I do. I can die in a paroxysm of strangulation before the end of the program, and please don't wish that I will, and it still wouldn't change what God's going to do for the sake of this world. Whether I tell the story or not doesn't change it. Whether I come on and tell you the truth or whether I come on and tell you a pack of lies isn't going to change it. Whether you get on the bandwagon and try to join something or not isn't going to change it. The message of Christ remains inviolable. Let God be true though every man be found a liar. Yea, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none good, no, not one. That's what the Bible says. It says all nations have been deceived. Not a few people are snake handlers down in the Okefenokee Swamp, get bitten once in a while. It doesn't show that little tiny, narrow-minded sects over here called Satanism or something are deceived, but everybody else is going in the right direction. Oh no, the Bible says broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be that go in there at, and narrow, straight, and difficult is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it. And your Bible says, "If the righteous scarcely be saved, barely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" Does that say God's trying to fry everybody? No. He said He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to salvation. Yea, He said, "And all Israel shall be saved."

   No, Jesus did not come to try to save the world then. He said, "Don't think it. Don't even think that I tried to do that." In a moment, I want to show you that He deliberately spoke in sort of double talk, clouded the meaning, because He didn't want people to understand.

   Good News is a magazine with answers for today's world from the Bible—answers for those with a need to know. Because of conflicting religious doctrine today, Good News helps point out what the Bible says for those who want to understand. Many times, our misunderstanding comes from confusion that this world causes, misinterpretation, or direct twisting of scripture to conform to the world's own doctrines. Good News not only examines the words of the Bible but allows the Bible to interpret itself, comparing clear passages with obscure ones. This helps the reader grasp an overview on each subject and obtain vital keys for today's living. It will assist your focus on the Bible in the privacy of your own home. Request a prepaid subscription. This free monthly magazine is Good News. Dial this toll-free number: 800-423-4444. That's 800-423-4444.

   Jesus continually talked about the Kingdom of God, and so people forget what He talked about and concentrate on what He was like. And even that is all perverted today. They don't seem to know what He looked like or what race He came, the length of His hair, the kind of clothing He wore. Now, the Bible reveals that Jesus wore a very expensive kind of garb. Why people can't tumble to this by just simply reading what the Bible says, I don't know. That's not my fault. I'm just saying that when Roman soldiers have to get down and gamble for His garments, plural, undergarments that were worn as well as an exterior cloak, which is described as being seamless and of very fine quality, clothes that last for years, not like our two months built-in obsolescence on suits or something, or two-year built-in obsolescence on automobiles. And when they were gambling for His clothing, when you see the Bible shows that He, going through their midst, escaped many occasions where they tried to kill Him and He escaped. When you see that Judas had to betray Him with a kiss, well, as I say, you ought to read the book because the book is accurate. You see, it tells the truth. The Bible means what it says and says what it means.

   Jesus spoke deliberately and continually about the Kingdom of God, but He did so in parables. He says, "The Kingdom of God is like leaven, it was hidden in measures of meal." He said, "The Kingdom of God is like a pearl. It's like a treasure in a field. The Kingdom of God is like grains that were sown. The Kingdom of God is like this, it's like that." And then the disciples asked Him, this is in Matthew 13 and verse 10 (Matthew 13:10), "Why do you talk to them in parables?" And He answered and said, "Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not given." Was He trying to save anybody when He was deliberately clouding His meaning so they couldn't understand? He said, "In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says, 'By hearing you shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing you shall see and shall not perceive. For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart and should be converted, and I should heal them.'" Lest I should heal them. No, He did not come to convert the world then. He never even made an effort at it. He came to seal and to educate and to commission His disciples. And He said, "I will build my church." And He said, "Go ye therefore into all the world." He commissioned them to do a big job. He didn't try to save the world then. I can't help it. That's just what the Bible says.

   Now, if you want to write for this booklet on "Just What Do You Mean the Kingdom of God?" as well as the one entitled "The Real Jesus," you'll get the shock of your life because this comes right out of your Bible. I've done some programs where I have exposed the false Jesus of society, the traditional historic hoax of the long-haired effeminate Jesus, who I say, and the Bible says, never lived and never walked this earth. The real Jesus Christ did. What was He like? What did He look like? What were His personal habits? Did He always sleep out of doors? Was He a vagabond? A hippie? Did He have long hair? Was He easily recognizable in a crowd? Did He wear a halo? Did He have a long white robe? Did He always go about on a tiny donkey? What about this Jesus of the Bible? Not tradition, not philosophy, not just historical assumption, not personal opinions of ours, but straight-from-the-shoulder Bible answers to the question, "Who was, who is the real Jesus?"

   This booklet entitled "The Real Jesus" is free of charge. And don't forget to request also the Plain Truth magazine if you've never seen it. You know, every now and then somebody writes in a letter, and I see a copy. A lot of them are marked personal, but even those that aren't, I get the chance to read some of them. And they will say, "You know, I used to hear you talk about that Plain Truth back in 1950." And I think about that incredible stack of magazines that have been published ever since that time—hundreds of magazines with thousands of articles, very gripping, interesting articles, articles that have kept the Plain Truth readership ahead of world events. We were talking about some of these events happening as much as 10, 15, and 20 years before they developed in world news. And then somebody comes along like a Johnny-come-lately and says, "Well, I knew that you had this magazine, but I think now I'd like a copy." And I think, what a shame of all those beautiful issues of the past that they did not receive. But at least, even if you've been putting it off, don't delay another month, another minute. It's free of charge. At no price. There will be articles on current world conditions, articles you can use around the house, articles that will help you economically, articles about your personal health, about diet, about exercise, articles to help you with your children, and articles on biblically oriented subjects and doctrine. And we talk in the Plain Truth plainly, even about Bible prophecy. It is plain truth, straight-from-the-shoulder, plain talk.

   I hope you'll write for it. We'll send it to you by return mail as soon as you dial that toll-free number: 800-423-4444. Or you can write to me, Garner Ted Armstrong, Pasadena, California. Until next time, this is Garner Ted Armstrong saying goodbye, friends.

   You have heard The World Tomorrow with Garner Ted Armstrong, sponsored by the Worldwide Church of God. For literature offered on this program, send your requests along with the call letters of this station to Garner Ted Armstrong, Pasadena, California 91123. Or you may dial this toll-free number: 800-423-4444.