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   The World Tomorrow, Ambassador College presents Garner Ted Armstrong, bringing you the plain truth about today's world news and the prophecies of the World Tomorrow.

   And greeting friends around the world. This is Garner Ted Armstrong speaking to you from Ambassador College in Big Sandy, Texas, and bringing you once again the good news of the World Tomorrow. But today's news is not good. But bad, what do you hear on most news broadcasts today? Whether you realize it or not, my friends, you are hearing the fulfillment of Bible prophecy as shocking as that might sound.

   You need to turn to that 24th chapter of the book of Matthew in your own Bible and find with your own eyes that your news broadcasts and your newspapers are telling you the happenings that were predicted in your Bible centuries ago.

   Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whose name is taken in the so-called Western world of Christianity, prophesized of specific step-by-step events which are occurring every single day in every part of this earth right now. Literally and specifically, he prophesized, notice in the 24th chapter of the book of Matthew in your own Bible.

   Jesus was asked that would be the sign of his coming and at the end of the world or the time, at the close of the age as the margin has it, the confirmation of the age. Now, it sounds very religious to look into the Bible. It sounds like a lot of theological doctrines to look into what Jesus said. But my friends, how much of your background, how much of your life, how much of your personal history and how many of the things you believe and practice right now today go right back to a so-called Christian society?

   Here we are in a society that is called by the very name of Jesus Christ. It calls itself Christian and yet the extensive surveys into our society prove that the average person knows virtually nothing about Jesus Christ about what he said about the Bible. Can't even name any of the books in the Bible. As a matter of fact, more than half of all those who were surveyed in American Protestantism recently failed to name the first four books of the New Testament in order.

   So is it any wonder that it sounds rather surprising that Jesus Christ of Nazareth talked about our day about these times about your newspaper headlines, but he did, his disciples said, tell us what will happen when you are about to come back to this earth. What will be the step-by-step specific event to which we can watch? Although those run down through succeeding generations, his disciples even now today that we can look for that we would know your return is near.

   And Jesus gave them a definite series of answers and found in your own Bible in the Olivet Prophecy in Matthew 24. He said, first of all, in verse four (Matthew 24:4), take heed that no man deceives you for many shall come in my name saying I am the Christ and shall deceive many. Now as that happens, there are multiple thousands who will tell you Jesus is the Christ? Is that right? Yes, it is. Are they deceiving many? Well, you could argue the point, I suppose, maybe you would say, maybe you would say no to that. But I don't think you would. If you reflect just for the moment, people sometimes ask when they hear something shocking or something new or something different on the World Tomorrow program, they say, but surely all these people can't be wrong.

   But you know, my friends, you can turn that right around and you could say, surely all these people can't be right because if any one of them is right, then of course, all the others which radically differ, you'll have to admit from that one which you may feel is right, all those others then which radically differ must then be wrong. So, it makes just as much sense to say, surely all these different approaches, these different ideas can be right.

   So, this prophecy has come true. If anything is truer, I don't know what it is, then the statement of Jesus Christ that many would come in his name. They certainly do and they certainly are saying I am the Christ, not that they are the Christ, but that he Jesus is the Christ and yet he said, shall deceive many.

   Now, the last program I showed you, that it seems the biggest disagreement of all is just about why Jesus came. Now, he shows himself in the word of God. And you can prove whether or not it's the word of God by writing for our booklet, Does God Exist? and Proof of the Bible.

   He shows himself, but the only time he ever gave was going to be that of the length of time in the tomb that the three days and three nights of his length of time as a dead man in that tomb, he showed he came to prove he was the Messiah that he performed miracles to prove it, that he came to preach the Gospel.

   And what does gospel mean? It means good news of the Kingdom of God, or the good advanced news about the world, the way it is going to be tomorrow. He came to teach his own disciples to train them privately and then he commissioned them to go into all the world and preach that same message to all the world as a witness, not to convert the world. But as a witness, as a warning against the world, Jesus came to die for the sins of the world.

   He came to qualify for future world rulership. He came to disqualify the present world ruler who is revealed in your Bible in II Corinthians 4:4, as being a great fallen archangel who is now called Satan the devil. But whose former name was Lucifer, he came to live a perfect life to set us an example as Peter said, that we should follow in his steps.

   He came to fulfill prophecy, many prophecies about him personally. And he also came to prophesy of the future. He came to call his disciples to make them apostles and to build his church on the prophets, on those apostles and on himself. And then he commissioned them to go into all the world and to preach all of that truth to the rest of the world.

   Now notice what he didn't come for, and yet when we start talking about why he didn't come, he came. But I mean, the purposes for which he certainly didn't come. It seems to be most people believe it. They believe the exact opposite from what the Bible says.

   Now, for example, Jesus said very plainly, think not, I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. So everyone thinks exactly what Jesus said, think not, they think he did come to destroy the law, Jesus did not come to save the world then, he didn't come to save it now.

   Is the world saved now? You'd have to say no, sure isn't. Was the world saved then? No. Has it been saved at any time from then to now the people living those generations? How about the medieval era? How about the dark ages? How about the renaissance of the industrial revolution? How about 10 years ago? And what about today?

   People tell us that due to the population explosion and due to the rapid rise in population around the world, that actually Christianity, which is already about only the third largest among the world's religion is going to be destined to become one of the minor religions on the face of this earth. As surprising as that may sound. And it's true.

   So, the world isn't saved the way the average Christian professing person might look at it, now is it? So, if Jesus came to save it, my friends, if you think he did. And he said he didn't. I know you've seen it painted on barns. I know you've seen it painted on rocks and on the side of the road. I've even seen it written on people's automobiles. I've had it handed to me by a tracked pather on the street somewhere that Christ came to save the world.

   But if he did, then he must have failed because the world didn't get saved. And it's pretty tough to try to get it saved today. The average person says, save, save, save from what, uh, what do you want to save me for? I'm, I'm having a good time. I'm making a fairly good salary. I've got a nice home and so on. They don't see what they need to be saved from.

   Of course, if we could just realize where true happiness is, maybe we can see what saved means. But let's understand Jesus Christ of Nazareth did not come to save the world then because if he did, he certainly failed, he came for the reasons he himself revealed in his own word. And one of them was certainly not to save the world then. Now, he did not come believe it or not to bring peace.

   And yet people think he did. He said, think not, I am come to bring peace. Matthew 10:34. So people think he came to bring peace. Why is it we insist it seems in the Western world which takes the name of Christ and appropriates his very name and his title? Why is it we want to insist upon believing the diametric antithesis of everything Jesus said.

   He said, don't think this. And so we think it, he said, think and believe the others. And so we don't think it or we don't need it. Fantastic. Yes, but so true. So it's certainly true the first step of prophecy he said was going to be fulfilled during this time the people are all in confusion.

   Now, he said in verse six going on about your headlines and your news broadcasts (Matthew 24:6). He said, you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars see that you be not troubled for all these things must come to pass. But the end is not yet. What have you been hearing about lately? You wherever you live in South Africa or in Australia, Great Britain or around this world have been hearing of wars and rumors of wars. You're hearing of anywhere from overthrows of government in Central and South America to terrible fighting over in Vietnam. You're hearing about tension over in the Pescadores Islands all the time and of course, the problem perennial a of Cuba only 90 miles from American shores. You're hearing about the tension over the divided city of Berlin, about the Jew Arab crisis. You're hearing of hot wars here and there and the Cold War constantly of all types of political intrigue, of rumors of the possibility of a future war. How true are the statements of Jesus Christ in Matthew 24?

   But he said all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet and that also is true, isn't it? The end is not yet. How accurate are these prophecies? And he said nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places. And there are, now in a recent program and I was going through Matthew 24 briefly just to remind us again of the times in which we are living.

   Right while I was on the air talking about earthquakes, the program was interrupted and the announcer said we interrupt this broadcast to tell you that a great earthquake has occurred in the southern reaches of the Atlantic Ocean. It's all about the scale, the Richter scale, the intensity of this tremendous earth tremor down beneath the sea. And it was certainly a remarkable thing that right, as I was on the air showing the words of Jesus Christ, that he was prophesying famine, pestilences, these natural so-called calamities and displays of nature and of weather and of earthquakes in different places.

   That program was interrupted to tell about another earthquake and what have you heard of in just the past decade while you have heard of some of the greatest cataclysms, some of the greatest catastrophes. Speaking of earthquakes and of natural disasters in all the recorded history of mankind, this is absolutely accurate. It is absolutely true. Jesus Christ of Nazareth meant exactly what he said and it is happening just as he said, it would.

   But he went on to say in verse eight of Matthew 24 (Matthew 24:8), all these are the beginning of sorrows. He said, then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. He said modern religious martyrdom is yet going to occur. And he said, then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another.

   Are we living in the era of betrayal? Are we living in the era of hatred? Are we living in the time of people hating one another? Of racial confusion and conflict and tension? Are we living in a time of mob violence and of mere anarchy? Oh, yes, we certainly are.

   You know, people will get, it seems more angry over religion than almost anything, perhapes race first and religion right behind it. It's amazing how people are about religion. You know, I think that some of the friendliest people in all of the world dwell in East Texas, but there is one little habit that a lot of these Texas people have, they ought to repent of, and maybe you've got that same habit, maybe you ought to hear about it.

   You know, people will walk right up to you in a, in a restaurant or across the store counter or at a service station. And they'll say, well, where do you work? And that's fine. You like to discuss the time of day, the weather where you work, who you are, where you're from and all this. And people are naturally curious.

   But about the third question, a lot of people will ask is, where do you go to church? What is your religion? And you might immediately say, well, I go to this church or the other person might answer and then you might say, well, what do you believe about, so, and so it's an amazing thing.

   And instead of saying, well, now look, uh uh I'm sorry, but my religion is between me and God and I'm afraid that's just my own private business. I just discussed that privately among those who are of the same faith and so on. The average person feels a little bit trapped. Isn't it amazing? Isn't it remarkable how people want to argue? And they just enjoy almost like a delicious dessert after a fine meal. They all rally a terrific religious argument to sort of argue about the Bible.

   My friend, I wouldn't argue the Bible with any living human being. I just won't do it. I wouldn't give anyone that time of day if you want to argue about religion. I simply won't argue the Bible, your religion, whether you are a husband and you don't believe the same as your wife or whether you're a wife and don't believe the same thing your children do. Your religion is between you and God. It is a private, a personal and should be, if you have the truth God, a sacred thing to you yourself, between you and your Father in heaven, it isn't something to go out and argue over. And yet religion has divided home. It's broken up families. It's caused relatives and friends to just hate one another. And isn't it amazing? Jesus said we would be living in a time when many, because he meant of him because of religion would be offended, would betray one another and shall hate one another. Never, never make a mistake. The persecutor is the one who is always wrong. Just never kid yourself. The one who is the aggressor, the one who is trying to cram religion down someone else's throat. The one who is trying to get all angry about religion and to argue the Bible and to fight about a religious point, he is inevitably going contrary to the expressed will of God and he's wrong.

   Now, you know the good thing about this program is you can just believe it because you look it up in the Bible and you check it and find out whether or not it's true and you can prove it to yourself or you can go your own way and forget about it and it's up to you. It's your personal private life, it's your own private decision. No one is forcing his program upon you. You know, every human being is a free moral agent and you have the free moral agency or the free decision of your own volition, whether you want to listen and to check and I certainly hope you will continue to listen. I hope you will check and look, but only because I say do the same thing to anybody else. Look, listen, think about it. Research into it, check up and try to prove it to yourself out of the Bible. Don't believe me just because I say something, it might sound different from what you've always heard. Look it up in your own Bible and find out. Is it true? And if it is, then believe it because you see it in the Bible.

   Now, any minister ought to be able to say the same thing and actually wants you to do it, not just say it to make it sound good, but wants you to check out in your own Bible. So, this statement that Jesus said that we would be living in the era of hatred of people, betraying one another is certainly coming to pass. It's a, it's a factor in your daily way of life.

   Now, he said in verse 11 (Matthew 24:11) and many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. And because in equity, that lawlessness, as the original has it, shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold, but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And is eventually, you know, you're not saved just because you say all right, I'm going to endure under the end. Therefore, I'm now saved. No, you don't, you haven't endured until you finally have endured. And then finally, after you have lived, you have struggled you with the power of God's spirit and you have overcome human nature and your environment, the world around you and Satan the devil with all of his temptations. Then finally, if you have endured, Jesus said, you shall be saved.

   You know, Jesus didn't believe in once saved, always saved. As a matter of fact, neither did the Apostle Paul. You may remember the last program. He said, I consent under the law that it is good. Now, then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. When he broke God's law. He said unintentionally, he said, actually, that is was the pull of the flesh inside of him. He said, I know that in me that is in my flesh, there is no good thing that lives there or dwells there for it's a will that is to desire to want to obey God is present with me, but how to perform that, which is good. I find not. And he said there was a natural law that he called the law of sin and death, which is just carnal human nature that pulled in the wrong way and wanted to make the wrong decision to do the wrong thing to go contrary to God's law. And he said the good that I want to do, I seem to find it so difficult. I can hardly do it. And he said, the evil that I read with my mind don't want, I don't want to do that. Nevertheless, I find myself doing it. He said in verse 20.

   Now, if I do that, I would not. This is chapter seven, the book of Romans (Romans 7:20). I'm going back to for a moment in verse 20. If I do that, I would not. It is no more. I that do it. But sin that dwells in me. So, the Apostle Paul thought that it was probably possible for him to sin. He wasn't awfully careful and wasn't awfully close to God in prayer and in Bible study. He said in the last few verses, the I Corinthians nine (I Corinthians 9:27) that even after preaching to others, he might possibly be found a castaway if he didn't keep himself in line with the power of God's spirit.

   So, you know, the Bible says that you've got to endure to the end, to him that overcometh not to him who is gradually overcoming, not to him who figures he's already made a pretty good side in the right direction and he's already saved and he can sing and thankful. It was all settled long ago. No, but to him that overcometh, finally, at the end, after he has endured, him that does overcome shall sit with Jesus Christ in his throne, even as he overcame and is sat down with the Father in his throne. You can read that over in Revelation 3:21 and Revelation 2:26 for yourself.

   So, let's notice again then, he said many false prophets would rise. Now how do you know, I'm not one? The only way you can know is by taking Isaiah at his word. When he said to the law and the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. And the Apostle Paul said, prove all things. So, my friends, you are reading and you are hearing in your news broadcast and looking in your newspapers of the very headlines, Jesus Christ of Nazareth predicted you would be reading during this precise time. What could be clearer, what could be more applicable, more accurate to this time right now than the 24th chapter of Matthew? It's Olivet Prophecy, gives you a step-by-step sequence of the actual happenings that you're going to be reading of and hearing and they are going to affect the very course of your life and that of your loved ones, your children. It's going to affect your personal private economy. It's going to affect the country where you live in the next few years as shocking as that might sound. But it is absolutely true.

   The place to begin is to find out. Is there a God? And can you prove it? And is the Bible his word? And can you prove it? And these booklets I announcing certainly will clear it up for you. If you write in for them, they're free of charge, no price, Does God Exist? and The Proof of the Bible.

   Now, Jesus went on to say in verse 14 (Matthew 24:14) and this gospel, he didn't say a gospel. He said this Gospel of the Kingdom. Now, you know, people get real bug-eyed apparently about the Bible and divide it all up into 100 different ideas. I've heard some people say that there is the gospel of Grace, there's the gospel of love. There's the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. There is Paul's Gospel and there's the gospel of John and on and on it goes and you know, Jesus said that he came with the gospel.

   Now, gospel is a word that has meaning my friends. It's not a little colloquialism. It belongs just to the narrowest part of one particular section of the United States such as gospel music and gospel hymns and gospel names and gospel singers. You know, people have gospel meetings and all types of gospel this and that. And I wonder, does the average person if you were just to give a simple sort of an examination, a survey, a test and ask them to put down on a piece of paper. What does the word gospel mean? Well, what would be the answer? Now, let's say, what would be your answer if I ask you, what does gospel mean? If you're a long-time listener to the World Tomorrow, you know, immediately and you know, automatically, but maybe you haven't heard it very much. What would you say Gospel means? Does it just mean religion? Does it mean? Well, what Christ said? Does it mean the Bible? To a lot of people, gospel does mean, well, sort of Bible. If it's gospel, it's, it's Bible and that's all they sort of get by that meaning. No, all the Bible is not the gospel. Now, does that sound shocking? Well, there's history in the Bible, there is prophecy in the Bible. There are books like the Song of Psalms and the Book of Rules and the Book of Genesis. You know, that's not a part of the Gospel.

   Now, portions and parts of the meaning of the gospel so far as elucidating and making it clear may be found in some of these books. But that's only because Jesus referred to them in principle. The Gospel is that particular message about the Kingdom of God that Jesus Christ brought from God, the Father, and the word Gospel means good news. That's the identical synonym of the English language. It means good news.

   Jesus came with the good news that God is a kingdom. You hear the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom, and so on. Man is not an animal. There is the human kingdom above and beyond any animal kingdom. But we talk about the mineral kingdom and the plant kingdom. God is a kingdom, meaning a family. Every kingdom, every nation, nation means and comes from the NAT root which you find the word nativity and song, which has to do with birth. It is a word which means family. Nation just means family, its synonym for family. Every nation is a family or a kingdom, a clan growing great into a nation of people. And the Kingdom of God is also the family of God. There is God, the Father and every family has a father and there is Christ, the Son. Jerusalem above is called the mother of us all in the Bible similar analogies just for the Bible help us to understand it. It refers to a family relationship.

   You see people call each other brothers and sisters. Well, the Bible does, it speaks of people who are converted, who are living according to God's law and following the teachings of Jesus Christ as being brethren of Jesus Christ and brothers and sisters, one with another, just like a family, a relationship.

   So the gospel is that message Jesus brought about the great family of God, that great world-ruling family of God of how God is a family of how you must be born into that family, become a member of that family, just as Jesus is called the first born of many brethren. Do you know Jesus was born of God?

   Now that could introduce a lot of problems, especially if to you as to so many people born of God means repent of sin. You know, to a lot of people being born of God means to become emotionally involved in remorse over your past life to perhaps walk down the proverbial old sawdust trail shake the preacher's hand, get, get religion, so to speak, begin to live for God, so to speak. Give your heart to the Lord the way a lot of people say it. Now, maybe a lot of people think that's being born again. It's not really, that's what a lot of people begin to think. What the actual truth of it is is what Jesus said in the third chapter. John, which is so plain, it's like the nose on our faces. And you don't need anybody to interpret it to you, just read it. It says that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that means what it says. That's true, isn't it? Your flesh, I'm flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. That little two-letter English word is means exactly what it says. It doesn't mean something short of that. Something more than that. It means exactly what it says. Are you born of the spirit? Not unless you are spirit. I don't mean spiritual. I don't mean emotional. If you're composed of spirit. If you are not a flesh and blood human being, if you are a spirit being, then of course, maybe you could lay claim to being born of the spirit. But of course, since you know, you're not a spirit being, you know that if you took the proverbial old hat pin test and sort of stuck yourself somewhere and found out it hurt and you got a drop of blood. You could prove quite quickly that you have not been born of God.

   Now, Jesus was born of God by a resurrection, and we are to be born of God just as he was by a resurrection from the dead. He is called the firstborn of many brethren. That is the symbolization in a sense of the gospel is that Jesus came to show that God is a family, but he is a ruling family of persons into which we must be born. And that ruling family of person, that kingdom of God is going to reign and rule on this earth for 1000 years and then for all into eternity. And Jesus came with that message showing what is God, that he is a family. He is a kingdom, that we must be born into that family. That in a sense is the summarization of the Gospel. But there's a great deal more to it. It tells what God is, what man is, how God is going to change human nature, what you've got to do to get in harmony with the laws of God so you can be accepted into his kingdom later on. And there's a great deal to it.

   Well, I haven't had time to get back to the book of Romans in this program and I see I've got the break off here real quickly for lack of time, but keep listening to every broadcast, we're going to continue right along in the latter part of Romans seven. Then in this eighth chapter of the book of Romans and on into some of these most interesting portions of all of the Bible in the ninth, 10th, 11th chapters of the book of Romans.

   And there is a large number of real surprises ahead for us in what the Bible says, as opposed to what so many people have always thought it said. So, keep listening to every single program. In the meantime, write for these books that I've announced and some I haven't mentioned yet. Does God Exist? and The Proof of the Bible, then write for this booklet it's vitally important, Just what do you mean... Born Again? It's really essential for you to understand.Just what do you mean... Born Again? and also the booklet on, Just what you mean... Salvation? What does it mean? What does it stand for? It's free of charge now, there is no price whatsoever and write also for the booklet, Why were you BORN? And the current number of the Plain Truth magazine, there is no request for money, no follow-up whatsoever, no obligation and no one is going to call on you.

   All you need to do is send your request to Herbert W Armstrong Post Office Box 111 Pasadena, California. That's Herbert W Armstrong Post Office Box 111 Pasadena, California. Be sure to list the call letters at your station, do that first of all, then write to the address that you will hear again in just a moment until next time in the series. This is Garner Ted Armstrong saying, goodbye friends.

   You have heard the World Tomorrow with Garner Ted Armstrong, for literature offered on this program, send your request along with the call letters of this station to Herbert W Armstrong Post Office Box 111 Pasadena, California 91123, or you may dial this toll-free number 800-423-4444.

Please Note: The FREE literature offered on this program are no longer available through the Address and Phone Number given, please visit www.hwalibrary.com for all FREE literature offered on this program.

Broadcast Date: 1964