The World Tomorrow

The Gospel of World Peace

by Herbert W Armstrong

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As world conditions mount closer and closer to the unthinkable world nuclear World War III, I continue to have talks with heads of State all over the world. I go as an unofficial Ambassador for world peace. And yet I am actually the Ambassador of Jesus Christ who is the coming Head of State over all nations. The coming ruler over the entire world.

As a minister of Jesus Christ, many people ask, well what do I talk about when I talk to the heads of nations? Well we talk about world conditions, about problems that they have and their solutions, the causes of events. Now that's precisely what Jesus Christ Himself talked about when He came over 1950 years ago. He came into a world that was full of troubles, only those troubles have mounted in the past 1950 years. But that was the message that God Almighty sent by Him; the causes of these troubles, the way out of these troubles, and the final solution and the bringing in of world peace. And that's what I go talking about.

The True Gospel Was Suppressed (PLAY FROM 01:38)

Now when Jesus came with that message, that gospel, people were astonished, as you read in Mark the first chapter, beginning with verse 21:

"And they went into Capernaum [Jesus and His disciples]; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught. And they were astonished at his doctrine..." (Mark 1:21-22)

They were astonished at Christ preaching His doctrine. My friends, they are just as astonished today when they hear it, because you are not hearing that gospel, and it had not been preached for over 1900 years in all the world. That gospel is mentioned in this same first chapter of Mark beginning with verse one.

"The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;" (Mark 1:1)

Then it talks about John the Baptist coming to prepare the way before Him, about Christ's baptism. And His overcoming of Satan, and qualifying for the ministry. And then coming to verse fourteen:

"Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel..." (Mark 1:14)

And I say once again as I say time and again; What gospel? What gospel did He preach? It's not the gospel that's been preached in the world, and is being preached primarily in the world today.

"...preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God [and that is the government of God all over the world], And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye [repent ye], and believe the gospel." (Mark 1:14-15)

Now that gospel had something to do with the way people live. And when He called on repenting He called on them to repent of the way they were living. And the gospel had to do with the coming kingdom of God that is going to usher in world peace. And it's the only way that this world can ever have peace. We cannot have peace now because of the way we are all living. The way the world is living is causing all of our troubles.

We're living in a world, as I've said time and time again, and I continue to say; we're living in a world of awesome twentieth century progress, but it's all material progress. Awesome progress, but with appalling evils and troubles, appalling troubles. We have violence all over the world today and people simply do not understand it. The gospel of Jesus Christ was the message about the cause of these troubles, and how we're going to finally be delivered out of them by changing our ways, by repenting, and the coming of the Kingdom of God. Now that was His gospel.

Now I'd like to turn to another scripture and show you that, that gospel just twenty-one or twenty-two years later was suppressed. That's in the first chapter of the book of Galatians, and I've read this time and time again, but listen once again. The apostle Paul said to the Churches up in Galatia, just twenty-one or twenty-two years after Jesus preached it:

"I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel [another gospel]: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ." (Galatians 1:6-7)

Now there were false ministers coming even then, at that time. We read of them again in II Corinthians the eleventh chapter, beginning with verse thirteen:

"For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers [Satan's ministers] ...be transformed [into] the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works." (II Corinthians 11:13-15)

Showing that the false apostles were coming even in that day. The true Gospel was suppressed and men turned to a gospel of men, not a gospel of Christ. A gospel of men about Jesus Christ. Now Christ was the Messenger who brought the gospel from God. It's the gospel of God and the gospel of the kingdom of God. That is the message. It had to do with the problems and the troubles that we are all having to suffer on earth today at this present time.

Interview with Mr Georgios Ladas (PLAY FROM 06:39)

And as I said, people at that time were astonished when they heard the Gospel of Christ. Well when I bring that same Gospel today, people are just as astonished. They are surprised, they have not heard it before. Now I want to show you one case where I was talking to a Head of State in a visit in Nicosia, Cyprus, to the Acting President of that nation, Cyprus, Mr Georgios Ladas. He was astonished when he heard this same message.

GL: "It was very kind of you to come and see me."

HWA: "Well thank you very much."

GL: "Will you please sit down."

HWA: "I see you've been having your troubles here."

GL: "Yes"

HWA: "We're having them all over the world."

GL: "Yes, we have unfortunately in many parts of the world nowadays there is trouble."

HWA: "Can we see that this whole thing goes back hundreds and thousands of years, and it all gets back to the roots of civilization. It started out, this whole civilization started out on a basis of, I call 'GET'. I like to say there are two broad philosophies of life, or ways of life, one is 'GIVE' and one is 'GET'. Or one is cooperation, or it could be expressed in love. But humanity started out rejecting that way and took the way of self-centeredness, vanity, greed, lust, competition. Whereas the other way would be the way of cooperation, helping, sharing, mutual concern for the good of each other. As it is, it's only concerned for self."

GL: "Yes."

HWA: "I love me, I don't care about you. I want to get for me, I want to have, I want to possess, I want to take away from you. Now you see it here. We see it over in the Israel/Arab strife. We see it in every other part of the world. You see it between Russia and the free world."

GL: "Yes."

HWA: "The same principle."

GL: "Yes, and I think that people should be reminded of the teachings of our religion, that they would revert to love and understanding."

HWA: "They're going to have to in the end or we're never going to have peace. The way they're going is the cause of war. There has to be a cause of the troubles, something causes it."

GL: "Certainly"

HWA: "If we're going to have any cooperation, any peace, there has to be a cause. And the cause is simply our attitude towards one another."

GL: "Yes."

HWA: "When you get down to it and that's what it is, is an attitude. Now we look at this situation, how, how are we ever going to resolve it? We're not, ourselves. God is; but we're not, because until - the only way we could solve it is if we would all give up this, I, me, vanity, I love me, I don't care about you. I want to get from you, I want to take away from you. We'd have to want to love one another, and share with one another, help one another, and that is not our human nature. And we've had these troubles coming down through the years. You look at history, first there was the Chaldean Empire, and then the Persian, and then Greece came in, the Greco-Macedonian Empire."

GL: "Yes"

HWA: "And that in turn was divided into four divisions, and it was succeeded by the Roman Empire."

GL: "Yes"

HWA: "And we're going to now have a revival very soon of that. There was a revival of it in 554 called the Holy Roman Empire. And that had a few revivals up until the time of Napoleon and ended in 1814, and I see that coming up once again. I think it's going to be a union between the nations that are Roman Catholic and the nations that are Orthodox Catholic."

GL: "Well..."

HWA: "And religion is going to play a part in that again. Religion has played such a part in wars in the past."

GL: "Yes, yes, it clearly played a part in wars in the past, but I don't believe that it will play such a role in the future. Do you believe that religion will be a cause of war really?"

HWA: "Well I don't know what I'd say it's going to be a cause of war, but it is going to be a religious union of nations. I tell you, the God of all of our religions is going to step in supernaturally by supernatural power."

GL: "Well..."

HWA: "And it is going to shake up this world, and is going to bring about such a condition that He's going to change the nature in us, until human nature will change and we'll quit doing this, and begin to cooperate a little bit with one another. And then we'll have peace. We can't - God isn't going to come and just wave a magic wand, and give us peace while we still go on living like we do.

Take the trouble in the West Bank, I know how the Israeli's look at it, because I'm a friend of the Israeli's. I'm a good friend of Mr Begin, I'm a good friend of King Hussein. I was a good friend of President Sadat and his wife Jehan, and now President Mubarak. I had a good meeting with him. And they know, those on the Arab side know, that I am friendly with those in Israel. And those in Israel know that I am friendly with the Arabs.

I'm just not going to have this kind of fighting, I'm going to have cooperation, and I'm trying to bring that about. But, but we poor humans are not going to do it by ourselves, we're just not, it's human nature. And I tell you, something that a lot of us don't like to think about; there not only is the great God above, there also is a former archangel who is now called the devil, and he's very powerful, and he is ruling this world and the world doesn't know it. He is an invisible being. He is the prince of the power of the air.

I couldn't understand that until I began to broadcast and telecast over the air. This picture here may go over there all over the United States that they are taking. In this room right now are sounds and pictures that you don't do and I don't see, unless we would have a radio or a television set and tune it into the right channel or wave length. And that would bring it in. But it's in the air."

GL: "Yes"

HWA: "And you see power can go through the air. And do you know that a little child, one, two, three months old, is influenced in attitude. And by the time that child is nine months old, nine or ten months old, he is selfish. Put a couple of little babies about nine or ten months old down on a floor together with just one toy between them and watch them fight for it."

GL: Laughs

HWA: "Do you see what I mean? This invisible one that so much of the world doesn't believe exists, but does, and is very real, Satan, is influencing little children, influenced you and me when we were children and we didn't know it. And has the whole world deceived, and deceived into self love, vanity, greed, coveting, envy and jealousy of other people, competition toward other people. And that is the way we try to live and we are having trouble. And that's the cause of all - there has to be a cause, that's the cause of all the troubles.

GL: "Perhaps you are right. But thank you very much for telling me all of these things. I knew nothing about it. This is a quite different aspect of the problems of the world. Purely religious which - as a matter of fact, I never thought about it. It is something entirely new, that aspect which you put before me today. It's something new for me, but I will have it in mind, and I will give it much thought."

HWA: "Thank you."

Causes of Troubles, Causes of Peace (PLAY FROM 17:40)

As he was astonished at what I was saying, and I had covered a great deal more than you have heard. What I said to him is covered in a booklet which I offered him. He asked for it, and I have since sent it to him. Now I would like to send it to you. There is no charge, there's no request for money, it's absolutely free, but it will be new and astonishing to you. The booklet is entitled; 'Never Before Understood, Why Humanity Cannot Solve Its Evils'

Why is the world in trouble? What's the cause of it? Why can't we solve our troubles? Why can't we have peace? Why? What is the real cause? This is something that the world has not understood, it goes back to the very foundation of modern civilization, how it got started, what has happened, why it's like it is, how it is all going to be solved, what the real answer is going to be.

Jesus Christ came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. He showed us the troubles are caused by the way we are living. We are causing all of the troubles by the way we live, and until we repent and change, there's not going to be any peace. The Second Coming of Christ is going to change that and Satan the devil is going to be removed from this earth, and removed from humanity.

And human nature is going to be changed. Actually, human nature is something that is not born within us, but something that we do imbibe as we live. For example, one scripture in the Bible says that the converted Christian; "...becomes a partaker of the divine nature..." (II Peter 2:14 paraphrased). Now we weren't born with the divine nature, we acquire it. You weren't born with what we call human nature, this selfish nature, but it has been acquired by every one of us. And as the Bible says:

"...all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" (Romans 3:23)

And so we're having troubles in the world. And this world is suffering and it's going to go on suffering until we learn to change our way of living. Jesus Christ came to proclaim that way. He's coming again and He's coming soon to govern all nations.

Now how did this civilization get started? This civilization, it has its own various religions. Look at the religions in the world in utmost confusion, all divided, all believing different things, every different kind of religion you can think of. Look at the different governments in the world, they don't get along with one another. Look how divided they are, all in confusion. Look at the educational system, entirely materialistic.

Man was created with the kind of mind that is capable of acquiring knowledge to deal with matter, to deal with things. But he needed also, a mind that could deal with other minds, to know how to deal with people. And he needed above all to have a relationship with God his Maker. Now the thing that makes a human mind different from an animal brain is the spirit in man. And other people also have spirit, so we have trouble getting along with other people because it's a spiritual thing. God is a spirit and so man is not getting along with God because - well generally man just doesn't want God to have anything to do with his life. And God doesn't have anything to do in the average life because man shuts God out. Now we're all going to have to come to a time of learning a lesson.

Man alone can work with matter, but it takes several men to make an automobile. It takes several men to make an airplane and to make the things that we use today, and that requires organization. And organization requires some kind of supervision and government, so we have governments over nations but governments are man-built, not God-built. Religions are man-originated and man-made, not God-given. The same is true of every facet of society. Of our economic system, and the world's economy is in trouble, and the economy of nations is in trouble. Our social system, everything, our business system, everything is in trouble. But men have never understood why we can't solve our evils.

Related Reading Material (PLAY FROM 22:51)

You need this booklet; 'Never Understood Before, Why Humanity Cannot Solve Its Evils.' And how God is going to solve them for us, but we're going to have to learn how to live a different way when it happens. Jesus came calling men to; "...repent...and to believe [this Kingdom of God]." (Mark 1:15), and how God is going to come and rule all nations in the Kingdom of God. So I would like to have you write for this booklet 'Never Before Understood.'

Also I want to just mention another booklet that it is very important right now. Some of the recent occurrences in the world, in the Middle East and the troubles in Poland, what is going to happen? Where are they going to lead? Are they going to lead into the hydrogen bomb nuclear World War III that can blow up all humanity? Is humanity going to commit suicide, that is, or cosmocide we might call it, the destruction of mankind off the earth? Your life and mine are at stake.

So I want to offer you another booklet, 'The United States and Britain in Prophecy,’ Where is the United States mentioned in the Bible? Where is Britain mentioned in the Bible? 'The United States and Britain in Prophecy.’ You have never read a booklet like this. Now a good deal more than a million copies of this have sent out, and it's free. It's quite a little booklet, in fact it's a small book, and it's a little larger than just a booklet. It's very well illustrated.

You have never read anything like it. Yes it's going to be a little surprising. And it's all true, and you can prove it. And it will explain not only what has happened, and where we're mentioned in the Bible, the United States and Britain, but what is going to happen, to what is prophesied to happen. You can't understand Biblical prophecy until you have this booklet and understand it. What is going to happen to the United States? What is going to happen to Britain in the very near future? Because the future of our peoples is now at stake, and events are hurling rapidly toward a final climax.

We're at the time of the end of this world. There is another booklet you might write for that I've mentioned in a broadcast, that is in this program a week or two ago; Is this the time of the end? 'Are We In The Last Days?', 'Are We In The Last Days?' write in for that booklet if you haven't already done it. Absolute evidence and proof that we're in the last days of this present civilization and that a new and a different and a better civilization of world peace is soon coming, how it will come, and all about it.

I would like to have you get it. We're not asking for money. We're not asking for members, we just want to give, and I don't know of any other program like that. What we want; to share truth with you.

I don't ask you to believe me, believe what God says, and the Bible, His Word, is God speaking. It is God speaking, read it with your own eyes. Get your Bible out, blow the dust off of it, and read it and you will have a new concept that you never had before. It will open your eyes and you will be astonished. Many are astonished, they were astonished when they heard Christ. His message was suppressed. Now when that message goes out once again, over all the nations to all the world, people once again are surprised, they are astonished. They have not heard it before in all these 1950 years and I think that's a very shocking statement, but it is true.

So send for these things, as I say, there's no follow-up, no charge, it's gratis, we just want to give. We believe in giving not getting, They are the two ways of life.

So until next time, Herbert W Armstrong, goodbye friends.