Herbert W Armstrong

   Are there any left in the world today to whom the world attributes greatness? Perhaps the last of the so-called great of the world was Winston Churchill. And he said during World War II, in a visit to the United States before the United States Congress in Washington, "There is a purpose being worked out here below." Now, it's doubtful whether he really understood that purpose, but there is a purpose being worked out here below. And that certainly implies a higher power above doing the working out.

   I am commissioned to carry the message of that purpose to the world and before the leaders of the world and the message of coming world peace. Now, my commission for today is found in Matthew 24 and verse 14 (Matthew 24:14). And this is in a prophecy of Jesus, and this Gospel of the Kingdom. That's a gospel. You don't hear very much.

   The Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. That's why I go to all nations with it. And then shall the end, the end of this world come? That is the end of this age and the beginning of the world tomorrow. Another world right here on this same earth, and that was the gospel. Doors have been opened before me to appear and to have private conferences with many of the leaders of nations, all over the world, in all continents, in all parts of the world, I mean Emperors and there have been two of them. One of them is now dead. Kings, Presidents, Prime Ministers in many different parts of the world.

   And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come? Now, people ask me, "Well, what do we talk about when I have a private conference with the head of state? Do I talk about politics? Do I try to convert them?" No, neither. We talk about their problems and about world troubles and about the chances for world peace and how it will come. We are living in a creation. There has to be a creator, and in the Christian world, we call the creator God, and in the Hebrew world or the world of Judaism, and they call Him God, and you call him Allah, the same God.

   And, God is going to bring us peace. But there is a reason why He is using these three nations now. And if we don't bring peace now at least, it is going to come, Allah will bring us peace. And not only to these three nations but to the whole world, it is going to come to the whole world. And, uh, I'm not in politics, I'm an observer. I just look on. I represent God, Allah, and all people. Not any one nation, not any one religion, not any one government, but I'm a friend of all. And I work for peace among all nations. We are not going to be able to bring peace ourselves. It'll be brought to us.

   What did Jesus talk about? He appeared before the great of his time. He dined with the wealthy and with the prominent men. One of the prominent Pharisees came to see him, the Pharisee Nicodemus, and Jesus talked to him. But to him, Jesus said, "If I have told you of earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things or that is spiritual things?" He had told him about things of materialistic knowledge, but he couldn't understand; he couldn't comprehend even that. And so he said, "How will you believe if I tell you spiritual things?"

   And so he didn't, what was the message that Jesus came to bring? Very few people know what is the Gospel of Jesus Christ? It isn't the gospel that you've heard, preached something entirely different. You have heard a gospel about the person of Christ.

   Now, Jesus Christ is the messenger who brought the message, who brought the gospel. The gospel came from God, the Father. God the Father sent Jesus with that gospel. And the gospel is the message that God sent Jesus to bring. What is that message? It's in Mark, the first chapter, verses one, verses 14 and 15, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

   And then in verse 14 (Mark 14:14-15), "Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel." What gospel of the Kingdom of God, "the gospel of the Kingdom of God and saying the time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand." He was preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God. And that is not a gospel of today. It's a gospel of tomorrow; it's a prophecy. The Kingdom of God is not here. And He made that very, very plain. Some of His parables about the Kingdom of God were simply, well, in the 19th chapter of Luke, He was telling His disciples because they thought the Kingdom of God would immediately appear.

   And He gave the illustration of himself as a young man going to a far country, that is heaven, to receive for himself, a kingdom and then to return as the King with the kingdom here on the earth. And that's what He explained. And that's what I tell heads of government. When I discuss their problems, I explained to them that they're all going to be settled very soon in our generation, all over this world.

   The final solution is Jesus Christ himself coming as the King of kings and the Lord of Lords to rule over all the nations of this earth. And that's what I tell heads of government. I might tell you of some of the conversations I've had with a few heads of state. Now, for example, I have known and talked personally and privately with every Prime Minister of Japan since the year of 1970. Prime Minister Sato, who was one of the greatest prime ministers of Japan since the end of the World War, Prime Minister Sato warned me in 1970 of the possibility of a coming trade war between Japan and the United States. He told me that he and the Japanese appreciated very much what the United States has been doing since the World War, how we have helped them and how they have prospered and they have not had to spend money for armaments. They've relied on the United States for military protection.

   And so they've been freed from spending money for armaments, and that takes a very big slice out of any nation's money and any nation's income. But he warned me of the danger of a trade war. Not very long ago, I wrote a full page for the Wall Street Journal about that World War and what it's done to Detroit in the automobile industry here in the United States; that war is on now, believe it or not.

   Now, there was the president of Bangladesh. I talked to him in his office in Dhaka. He asked me what I thought of his country, and I told him that it really did seem to me it was a country in the most distressing position of any country that I had seen. There was more illiteracy, there was more poverty there than any country that I had visited.

   Well, he says, Mr. Armstrong, what can we do? Can you give me an idea? What can I do to help my country? I said, all you can do is to try to comfort your people until the coming of the One who is going to bring us world peace and going to solve these problems for us because we are helpless to solve our own troubles. And mankind has not learned that lesson in 6000 years.

   You know, God told that very thing to the first man that He created, Adam in the Garden of Eden. 6000 years ago, God gave him the chance to have the help. If he had taken of the tree of life, he would have had the knowledge revealed from God, but he took the knowledge of good and evil to himself. He took to himself the knowledge of good and evil, and he took of the forbidden fruit. And man has been doing that ever since, deciding for himself what is right and wrong, deciding all of the knowledge of how to get along and how to deal with people. Man was created with knowledge to deal with the things out of the earth, to deal with the earth, but he was not, he has to acquire even that knowledge, but he was not given the knowledge to deal with other people or to have a right relationship with God, his own maker and creator. He needed the tree of life, which would have given him the Holy Spirit of God, which would have opened his mind to spiritual comprehension and understanding. And the first man created was not given that by creation, and he could have had it, but he made the wrong decision, and men have been making the same decision ever since.

   Now, I was speaking to the President of Kenya down in Nairobi, President Kenyatta. He had started a self-help hospital. We were discussing the thing of what do you do for someone that needs help. How do you help people? Do you help people just by supplying their need where they don't have anything to do, and you just do it for them? If people are hungry, you just feed them and keep on feeding them and do it all for them. No, I said I've always believed in the pump-priming system, that is, you pour a little water into the old cistern, and that sort of primes it, and then you can pump, and then the whole water, the whole system comes up finally. Well, he said that was his idea. Exactly.

   And then told me that he had started a self-help hospital for people to give them a chance to help themselves. And I went out of town with him some distance, about 30 miles, and he took me through the hospital that he had, a self-help hospital. We worked out a plan that we have put through since in Kenya of self-help education because his people needed education. If they don't get any more than reading, writing, and arithmetic, they do need that much. And otherwise, they're getting a materialistic education in this world anyway. But I did want to help him get that kind of education so they can begin to understand about the Kingdom of God and about coming world peace and about the coming world tomorrow, which is my commission, and we've been working that out.

   President Kenyatta is now dead. Then there is a King Bhumibol of Thailand. I've spent more than three hours in private talks with King Bhumibol. He said to me one time, there were two others with me. He said, Mr. Armstrong, I need your help. I appeal to you for help. He said, no, he pointed to one of the men said, he can't help me, this other man. He can't help me, only you can help me, Mr. Armstrong.

   Well, I said, "What is it, Your Majesty?" We found out that what he needed was help with his hill people. And his real problem was dealing with the opium traffic. His hill people, or mountain farmers, whatever you want to call them, had given up the farming of produce and had gone to raising poppies for the opium traffic. And the King was very disturbed about that. He wanted me to help him get rid of the opium traffic in his country. So, we have done it. We have helped him. Now we have men from Ambassador College in Pasadena over there right now, working with the refugees that are pouring into that country. We're still helping any way that we can.

   Now, I had a meeting with Golda Meir when she was Prime Minister, and she had the quality of greatness. She had an ability that few men have, and yet she was every bit a woman. It was right after the war when I talked to her, and all of the soldiers in the war of, she called them her children, her own sons, and she had a motherly sort of affection for them, and she was concerned. But she was also concerned about her enemy. She said, "Mr. Armstrong, my heart just yearns to have the leaders of our Arab neighbors to come and sit down just across the table from me. She said we could help them so much, we could do so much for them. Our engineers, our technicians, our scientists could help them, and they could produce so much more and have so much more for their own peoples, for the peoples of these Arab nations." She had that concern, and I attribute that kind of thing to greatness.

   Then I had less than a year ago, but before his assassination, the meeting with President Sadat in Cairo. President Sadat had a program to have a monument for world peace down at Mount Sinai. And I was quite interested in that. And he showed me the architect's drawing of it and he invited my participation, which I was glad to give and the help for world peace. All the world peace is only going to come from God Almighty in working out His purpose here below.

   Now, of course, the Holy Day War was really started by President Sadat, but later he changed his mind, and he went over to Jerusalem to declare peace later and to appear before the Knesset in Jerusalem, which is their Congress, their parliament, their legislative body, and to declare peace. And that led, of course, to the Camp David talks and the Camp David program.

   So, you keep your eye on the Middle East because things are going to, things are going to the troubles of the world are going to center there and finally end there in the Middle East and especially in the city of Jerusalem. There is going to be another war there but not just right away. I hope anyway, none can solve these problems. I've talked to the world leaders, and their problems are greater than they can solve. They are much, much greater than they can solve. I think many of them are honest men trying to solve their problems. I think they would like to have world peace. But they and their people do have the spirit of competition. It's in the world, it's in human nature, and this whole world is a competitive world. Husband and wife can't seem to get along together. Parents and children are not getting along like they should together. Capital and labor can't get along, family can't get along with the next-door neighbor. Nation can't get along with the nation. Competition is the very custom today all over this world. The whole world. Ever since Adam made the wrong choice, it has been going that way. They have rejected revealed knowledge from God that would have given them the spirit of God that would have revealed to them, through the spirit of God, the way of love instead of the way of get and of competition.

   Now, the way that the world should have lived, and it's all a matter of how we live. We talk about in religion, we talk about the sin question, but many of them don't know what sin is. I hear so much preaching; they say just receive Christ, just accept Christ, and you're forgiven all your sins and you go on to heaven. Now, the Bible doesn't say any such thing, my friends; it just does not say that. So, I deplore that kind of thing being preached to deceive people. It is not true. The whole trouble is we've been living the wrong way in the first place. And sin is the transgression of the law. Sin is the transgression of the spiritual law of God. Sin is the transgression of the law. I John 3:4 in your Bible; that's what sin is, and the wages of sin is death. But eternal life, you don't have, you only have a temporary existence. Eternal life is the gift of God. Romans 6:23. That's what I read about 55 years ago, and I was so shocked to read that and that I was not an immortal soul after all, but I can have immortal life and it is offered, and I expect to have it, and I have the down payment of it already in the Holy Spirit of God. And I hope some of you have.

   But none can solve the problems in this world. Now, they're clear beyond us. Jesus Christ was born to be a King. He came preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God, of which He will be the King. And He came preaching a different way of life, and He did say repent and believe the gospel, the good news, which is the good news of the coming Kingdom of God. And He is going to bring us world peace. All these problems and future world peace are prophesied in the Bible. It's all prophesied. And about one-third of the Bible is prophecy.

   Now, the chief book of prophecy in the Bible, I've been going through it in some of these programs recently. The Chief book of Prophecy in the New Testament is the Book of Revelation. The theme of the whole Book of Revelation, I've shown you time and again, the first chapter in the 10th verse is the day of the Lord. That is the time when God will begin to take power and control to rule the whole earth. Now, we've been in what we may call the day of man for 6,000 years. Actually, it's the day of Satan because Satan has been deceiving man and misleading man and putting his attitude, his spirit in man, the spirit of get, the spirit of vanity, the spirit of competition and strife, the spirit of rebellion against authority, the spirit of envy and jealousy, and all of these things that actuate human beings and our living in the way that we live that's causing us all of our troubles.

   The world for 6,000 years has been living that way we have in the world today. This great paradox. Why? On the one hand, we have awesome progress in the 20th century, at least in our world, awesome progress. On the other hand, it's accompanied by just the opposite, appalling troubles, appalling evils. Never has the world been in so much trouble. Never has there been so much unhappiness, so much suffering as there is today. Now, the prophecies of all of this are given in the Book of Revelation, if you understand it, but it is the revelation of Jesus Christ, and Jesus does not really explain all of it in the Book of Revelation. You have to look to other places for it. I've been going through that Book of Revelation.

   Now, the first 6000 years of this world's history are all covered in the sixth chapter of the Book of Revelation. The seventh chapter, which I covered in a recent program, deals with the sealing of a final generation of the church just before the coming of Christ to rule the earth as the King of kings and Lord of lords.

   The 8th and 9th chapters deal with the plagues, and I haven't dealt with that yet. I'm just going to cover right over that because they deal with plagues that are to come in the future on the earth, on vegetation, on the seas, on the rivers, and on humans - plagues that are going to come to realize that man's way has not done anything for him and that only God can help us, and that God is all-powerful.

   Now, I would like to begin in the 10th chapter of Revelation with verse seven (Revelation 10:7-11): "But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel", that is, the last of these trumpet plagues that I have not covered yet, "when he shall begin to sound". This is speaking of a time when it had not happened yet, and the coming of Christ will be at that precise time, "the mystery of God should be finished", and the mystery, of course, is the truth about conversion, about salvation, and the purpose being worked out here below, "as hath been declared to His servants, the prophets".

   "And the voice which I heard from heaven spoke unto me again and said, Go and take the little book out of the right hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth, one foot on the sea and one on the earth", right at the seashore. "And I went under the angel and said unto him, Give me the book, and he said unto me, Take it and eat it up, and it shall be in thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey."

   "And I took the book out of the angel's hand, and I ate it up, and it was in my mouth sweet as honey. But as soon as I had eaten it in my belly, it was bitter. And he said unto me, thou must prophesy", or preach, or proclaim this message "again before many peoples and nations and tongues" speaking different languages, "and kings." And that may explain one reason why I have been sent to Kings and Prime Ministers and Emperors all over the world with this message in these last days and it is before the final coming of Christ.

   Now, other events are going to happen too yet many of them. But you should want to know what is going to happen on this earth in the very near time that is coming between now and the coming of Christ, which will still be in this generation.

   Now, I once again, I want to mention a book that I mentioned before on this program, "The Book of Revelation Unveiled at Last." It opens up to you the meaning of the Book of Revelation, which has not been understood. I repeat, it has not been understood. People look at it as it is. And if you don't let Jesus interpret it because He's the revealer, He's the one who opens it to understanding, you can't understand it. In the middle are two charts. One showing the story flow of the revelation, and the other, the chapter outline of the book that will give you an insight into the Book of Revelation that you have never had before.

   Now, there's no charge. I'd just like to send you this booklet. But also, we would like to send you a sample copy if you're not already a subscriber to the most important magazine published in this world today. It is a mass circulation magazine of over 4 million copies. There is no subscription price, but you have to subscribe for it yourself. We won't give it to you unless you subscribe for it. But there is no charge, no subscription price whatsoever. And we will send you, with our compliments, a sample copy of The Plain Truth, a magazine of understanding, many articles that are very important, discussing world conditions.

   We send men to all parts of the world to observe the world condition, to analyze it in the light of biblical prophecy. And we would like you to have it. Millions of people are reading it. It's a full magazine and full color, a beautiful magazine. There is no subscription price. You don't have enough money to buy it.

   We'd like to give it to you and all you do is just send your request for that booklet on the "Book of Revelation" and "The Plain Truth" magazine to me, Herbert W Armstrong Pasadena, California 91123, just Herbert W Armstrong Pasadena, California 91123. Or you can just go to the telephone instead of writing a letter and you dial toll-free, no charge for the telephone call. Dial 800-423-4444. That is 800-423 and then just four fours 4444. And if the lines are busy, we ask you to please try again. Now in California or Alaska or Hawaii, you call collect area code 213-577-5555. You call collect area code 213 in California, Alaska and Hawaii 577-5555. Until next time, this is Herbert W Armstrong, goodbye friends.

   For the free literature offered on this program, write Herbert W Armstrong Pasadena, California 91123, in Canada Box 44. Vancouver BC or in the Continental United States. You may call this toll-free number 800-423-4444 in California, Alaska and Hawaii call collect 213-577-5555. If the lines are busy, please try again. The preceding program and all literature were produced by the Worldwide Church of God.