(NB Headings are not part of original, but are added for clarity)
World Tomorrow
Different Worlds
by Herbert W Armstrong
(PLAY FROM START)
I had just turned on television, the NBC Tonight Show was on and Johnny Carson was interviewing a movie star. And suddenly I thought, well who else, pray tell, but a show biz personality could Johnny Carson interview anyway? Who else was of any importance, or would be considered of importance to the viewing public, or of interest to the viewing public?
That started a train of thought. I began to think how many different worlds there are in this world. Show biz is a world all unto itself. And then I thought, well we talk about the free world - we are all in the free world, aren't we, over here? – as opposed to the Communist world. And then we talk now, about the third world.
As a young man I was in the advertising profession, and there is an advertising world. And you know I felt that every other world and anyone in any other profession was completely beneath us. We were above every other – we were more important than any other kind of profession or any other kind of occupation that anyone could be in.
I began to think of other worlds and how the same thing is true of most of them. Well, I thought of the Arab world. I've spent a good deal of time in the Arab world and just recently I had an interview in Amman with King Hussein, who is prominent in the Arab world. Now in the Arab world they don't know very much about any other world, outside of the Arab world. They don't know much about us in America here - or in Britain, or over in China, or Japan. They just know what's going on in the Arab world.
And I thought how these different worlds had their own journals, their own newspapers. They speak their own language. Of course, the Arabs speak Arabic - and they have their language. And you know there's different languages or shop talk, or what ever you want to call it in almost every world of these different worlds that you can think of.
Then I thought of the higher education world – the world of higher education. And they have a language all their own. They call it the language of scholarship. I don't like that language. To me it is a language of vanity. It's a language that says, "I is better than you is" - to just put it in the opposite kind of language for a second. I think you get the point. And incidentally, in the educational world the whole idea is to inculcate vanity within the student. Especially in the world of higher education.
Well, then I thought of the sports world. And how that is divided into so many sub-worlds inside of the sports world. For example, baseball is a world all of its own. And there are baseball publications. And then I thought of the football world, and the soccer world. That, that's the most important world everywhere in the world, except the United States, I guess. And then the basketball world, the tennis world, the golf world. They all have their own publications, their own journals, their own talk, their own kind of language.
Then I thought of the labor world. And of course, the labor world is above all worlds. And they look with disdain on others. Then the business world, and they certainly look with disdain on labor – the white collar man is, of course, better than the blue collar man. What ever world you are in, you're superior to all of the others.
Then the political world. Those in politics are a world unto themselves. A separate world altogether. Then the professional world – doctors, dentists, architects and so on. And of course, they are superior too, to everybody else, in their own estimation.
Then the military world – that is the professionals in the military world – that are making the army, the navy, or some branch of the military service a life profession. And then the the world of science. Ah, if there is any world that is more lofty and above other worlds than the world of science, tell me what it is. That, of course, is a very superior world.
And then we have the religious world and think of all of the religions all over this world. Of course, the biggest religion is called Christianity - and even that is subdivided. The religious world is subdivided into many different worlds. Christianity subdivided into the Roman Catholic world, the various protestant worlds and there are hundreds of protestant denominations. And each one, of course, is the only true church. The only right one, if you're in one, you know you're in the right church and everyone else is wrong – all subdivided.
Religious World And Competion (PLAY FROM 05:33)
And all are part of this world. Even the religious worlds are part of this world. Now I'd like to have you take a little look for a few moments at this world and its many subdivisions. There are some things that are typical in this world. All of us are part of it and there is something in common in all parts of the world, although it is in competition against itself. And there is competition in every walk of life.
I suppose that most people just take it for granted that this is God's world. You've heard of the doctrine – the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. Well the Bible won't back that up. That's contrary to God Himself, who is speaking through the Bible and God's message to man. It simply is not true. But there is a god of this world and there are - perhaps are more right than I might have said just a second ago. When you stop to think about it, there is a god of this world – and most of them are in his world.
Let me read it to you – it's in second Corinthians the fourth chapter and verses three and four, II Corinthians 4:3-4:
"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid from them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ [who is the image of God], should shine unto them." (II Corinthians 4:3-4)
You ever stop to think that if you're in a dark room, and a bright light suddenly shines, it'll just blind you and it hurts your eyes? It really hurts your eyes for awhile. And the bright light of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ – now that's a gospel that has not been proclaimed to the world for eighteen and a half centuries – until it began to be proclaimed on this particular program.
"The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not - the real gospel of Christ – lest the gospel of Christ..." Well they're not blinded, because the gospel of Christ hasn't been preached to them. And perhaps it would blind them. Now just what was the gospel of Christ?
You've been hearing a gospel, but it is the gospel of men about the person of Christ. Now the gospel of Christ is the gospel Christ Himself proclaimed. The gospel He brought from God Almighty. God the Father sent a message to men. Jesus Christ was a messenger bringing a message. And the message is the gospel, not the man who brought it – not the messenger. Men are preaching about the messenger, not His message.
It's in Mark the first chapter – the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what it says here:
"The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ [not about Christ, but of Christ], the Son of God;" (Mark 1:1)
Then it talks about John the Baptist preparing the way before His coming and His gospel and then coming to verse 14:
"Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel [now what gospel? Not just telling people about Himself – that's what they're doing today, telling people about Christ. He didn't come just telling them about Himself and saying, "I want you to know all about me." No, he came;] preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel." (Mark 1:14-15)
Now the time was fulfilled. It had not been fulfilled until that time, and just two verses ahead of that it tells how He had conquered Satan the devil - who had tempted Him in the most titanic battle that has ever been fought in the history of all mankind. And Jesus had won that battle and He wound up by telling Satan to leave and get out of there. And Satan slunk away and did obey.
And Christ – Satan was sitting on the throne of this earth. He is the god of this world that has deceived people. He was the god of this world! Now Christ had conquered him and qualified to become the God of this world.
The first Adam, who had been created, failed in that assignment. But Jesus Christ came, the second Adam, and succeeded. And He proclaimed the gospel. The word gospel means good news. Now it's news, it is not olds, it's not something that happened yesterday or day before, or a thousand years ago that's old and isn't new any longer. It was news, because it was advanced news. It was a prophecy for the future – the Kingdom of God. It had not come yet. He came to proclaim that it would come.
The Kingdom of God. What do we mean the Kingdom of God? Anyway notice He said do two things. Repent, that means turn around from the way you're living and go the other way. Turn around from the way you've been believing and what you've believed and come to the truth and believe that. Turn around from the way you've been living and go the way that you see is the truth of the way of God. God's way of life.
What Is A Kingdom (PLAY FROM 11:44)
Now what is a kingdom? Jesus came preaching the good news of the coming Kingdom of God – this will be God's kingdom, but what is a kingdom? The prophet Daniel was explaining this to the first emperor of all this world. We have different nations in the world and the first time that different nations had been assembled into one single empire – including a number of nations - was the Chaldean Empire. And King Nebuchadnezzar sat on the throne of that empire - he had gotten it together. And we read of him back in the second chapter of the book of Daniel. And I want you to notice now in verse twenty-eight, where Daniel was called before the king. He had dreamed a dream and he couldn't remember what it was - and he demanded to know and no one could tell him. But Daniel had prayed and God revealed it to him. And Daniel came before the king and Daniel said, verse 28 here, Daniel the second chapter:
"But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what SHALL be in the latter days..." (Daniel 2:28)
Long, long into the future - what was going to happen. Actually he was talking about our time now: we're in the latter days today.
Now, he came to the explanation, finally in the forty-fourth verse. He had – the king had seen a great vision, or a dream of a great image. And the king himself was the head of gold and there was a succession of time element in it. After him was to come the breast and arms of silver: that was to be the Persian Empire. And after that the belly and thigh of brass that was to be the Greco-Macedonian Empire. And then a fourth great empire, the Roman Empire: the legs of iron. And finally the feet and the toes: resurrections of the Roman Empire getting down into our time now and we're waiting right now for a resurrection of what was known as the Holy Roman Empire, of the Middle Ages, after the original Roman Empire had fallen. Now in verse 44 Daniel said:
"And in the days of these kings [that is kings that are coming into being right now, and have not yet appeared, but are coming in our time. You'll be reading of it in your newspapers very very soon. In fact the common market of Europe is working into it, but is not that kingdom yet. And in the days of these kings] shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left for [to] other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." (Daniel 2:44)
In other words, he's talking about the governments of this world. And he's talking, specifically there, about governments that would occur in Europe and Eastern Europe. Western and Eastern Europe in our time now today.
And the God of heaven is going to set up a kingdom. And that kingdom is going to take over all the kingdoms, or nations, or governments on this earth. That includes the United States, that includes Britain, that includes France and Germany, that includes Japan, China, Russia, all the nations of this world: every last one of them.
You read of it again back in Revelation the eleventh chapter. I'm just hitting a few high spots right now. Revelation eleven and in verse fifteen:
"The kingdoms of this world are become [this is a prophecy that hasn't happened yet, it will, when the kingdoms of this world shall have(are) become] the kingdoms of our Lord, and [of] his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 11:15)
A kingdom, a government that will rule all the nations of the earth. How many people know that Jesus Christ was born to be a king? That the prophecies of the Old Testament said He would come as king, He would be born as a baby, He would grow up, He would be rejected of men. And yet He would come to be a king. And when He was crucified, they nailed over His cross – this is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.
But He was not just king of the Jews. He is coming to be king over all nations of the earth. And they misunderstood. He didn't come to be king the first time. He is coming again for that purpose. Another time later.
How This World Began (PLAY FROM 16:47)
Now this world, to understand it you need to know how this world began. What was the foundation of this world? I want you to notice something about it. It began back in Genesis the first chapter. And it starts here with creation and the beginning:
God or Elohim, which is more than one person, but one God. Just like a family name. A family, more than one person, but one family, church more than one person, lot of people in a church, but one church.
"God created the heaven(s) and the earth." (Genesis 1:1)
And then finally, God said in verse twenty-six, after He had created animals, each after its own kind. Cattle after the cattle kind, dog after the dog kind, and elephants after the elephant kind - God said, verse 26:
"Let us [not me, but let us – more than one person] make man in our image, after our likeness..." (Genesis 1:26)
After the God kind. Man was made after the God kind. And God's purpose was to reproduce Himself. And God is supreme perfect righteous character - spiritual character. And that's what He intends to make out of mankind. But, the way God created man, you'll read in the second chapter and verse seven of Genesis:
"And [the LORD] God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man [made of the dust of the ground] became a living soul." (Genesis 2:7)
The dust of the ground became a soul. A soul is not spiritual and a soul is not immortal.{1} But there is a spirit in the soul, or in man. And that spirit {2} is in the brain and in the mind and imparts the power of intellect to a physical human brain. A human brain is no better than an animal brain – no better than a cow's brain, an elephant's brain. And not anywhere near as large as an elephant's brain.
Human Brain (PLAY FROM 19:11)
Yet a human brain can think. A human brain can have knowledge that an elephant can't have. And a human can design things and plan things and make decisions - can have a love for art and music and things of that sort. And has the power of will and things that are never given to any animal. And that all comes from the spirit in man.
Now God put a human spirit in man, but man was made incomplete. God made just one man first. And that man was incomplete, because God intended man to reproduce himself. And God is reproducing Himself. And He's reproducing many people, so that God can reproduce many of them into His children. And to become His children. Oh how the world has been deceived from these basic truths, that is in your Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
So, man was made with animal existence, but he is made with a mind something like God's. And yet it is not like God's, because it was only half there. Now the man was incomplete: he couldn't reproduce himself. I never saw a man who could reproduce and have children all by himself yet. So God made a wife for him. He made the man first, He made the wife afterward. Then the man was humanly complete. But he was not mentally complete. He only had half a mind. He had a human spirit, but he needed another spirit with it. Just like he as a male needed a female with him.
Now he needed the God spirit to mix with his spirit so he could be begotten of God and later born of God. Now God didn't make the first Adam like that. But He freely offered Adam that in the Tree of Life that was in the garden of Eden. You've heard of the incident of the forbidden fruit; well there were two trees in the garden of Eden. One was the tree of life, the other was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God said, "You will surely die." (Genesis 2:17)
So that was the tree of death! That was the tree of death, the other was the tree of life. Well, one was the tree of knowledge. The other was a tree of knowledge also. But it was God-REVEALED knowledge. And also the mind of man, through the human spirit in man imparts to man more than just a thinking process, or a process of acquiring knowledge: material knowledge. Man can acquire material knowledge. He was MADE to have the ability to do that all by himself.
But there is something else. He was made also to acquire an attitude. That is, either an attitude of love and co-operation, and that type of attitude. Or an attitude of rebellion, an attitude of hostility, of competition. Either one of humility, or one of vanity.
And it is the attitude in people, through this human spirit that accounts for all of the troubles in the world. That's why people don't get along together. That's why one person doesn't get along with another. His spirit clashes with the spirit, or attitude in the other person. It could be an attitude of jealousy, of envy, of competition, of some kind of rebellion, of hate, of anger, or it can be an attitude of love and co-operation.
Now God is the supreme God and the great giver of all – the giver of life. And God's attitude is that of love. God is the great God of love and He loves everybody.
"...God so loved [all] the world [everybody, including you and me], that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on [in] him should not [what? should not] PERISH." (John 3:16)
It doesn't say should not go to hell and burn forever, it said, "should not PERISH."
When you perish, you're just as if you'd never been in the first place. The Bible talks about those that finally perish as being ashes under the soles of the feet of the others (Malachi 4:3). If you'd read your Bible, instead of believing a lot of fairy tales that have been taught around for too many thousands of years.
And so we find that Adam made the wrong choice. And he chose to go it all by himself. And depend on his own spirit and acquire his own attitude. But there was this god of this world – Satan the devil. And he got to Adam through his wife Eve. And they rejected the way of God, they rejected the love of God. They rejected the law of God and sin is the transgression of the law of God. You read that in I John 3:4 in your Bible. I John 3:4:
"...sin is the transgression of the law." (I John 3:4)
They transgressed that law and that law did exist in Adam's time, or he couldn't have sinned. But as in Adam, ALL SIN. And in Adam all die, so in Christ shall the same all be made alive, even yet.
Now then, God closed up the tree of life. And the tree of life - the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of God, that would come and dwell with man and impart to man immortal life, God-life - has been denied to mankind until Christ came, the second Adam. And it was denied to man until Christ {3} paid the penalty of human sin on Calvary's cross.
And fifty days after that the Holy Spirit came and the Church was born. And to the Church God said to His people in the Church regarding this world:
"...come out from among them [of this world] and be ye separate, says (saith) the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." (II Corinthians 6:17)
That's what Christ said as quoted by the apostle Paul.
Christ Didn't Call For Volunteers (PLAY FROM 25:51)
And so Christ said, "I will build my church." (Matthew 16:18). Now, He didn't call for volunteers. He didn't say "Whosoever will may come." If you find that in your Bible, it is at a time long after Satan will be deposed and gone in the last chapter of your Bible. But it doesn't apply now and is not in any prophecy or any part or any part of the Bible that applies to this time now.
But, this world was founded by this man Adam. And so it became appointed for men once to die and after this the judgement. (Hebrews 9:27 paraphrase) And:
"...as in Adam all die...so in Christ shall all be made alive." (I Corinthians 15:22)
Jesus came and founded His church with twelve disciples that He taught. A disciple is a student, He taught them for three and a half years. Then He commissioned them to go out and to teach others, baptizing them, but as many as God should call. On the day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter said, for those who were there, when they wanted to know what to do. They had, they were repentant. He said:
"...Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ... and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is unto you, and your children, and them [to all] that are afar off, even as many as [what?] as many as the Lord our God shall call." (Acts 2:38-39)
Jesus Christ said, "No man can come to me, except ....the Father which sent me draws him." (John 6:44 paraphrased)
And so Christ came to teach some of the right way of life that Adam had turned down. And they go out to teach others in the church. And the day will come when those who have been in the church are going to teach everybody, until finally God is going to save the world. I don't mean everybody in it, because that is not true.
The Bible says there will be some that will be ashes under the soles of our feet. They will be as though they had not been. That is true. But the time is coming. A judgment day is coming and the Second Coming of Christ is now very very near. I don't have time to go into all of that, but I want to tell you that there is so much of this in the Bible. The Bible has not been understood.
IT IS THE REVELATION FROM GOD TO MAN. It reveals things that are a mystery to man, but they are plain enough in the Bible, if you'll only read the Bible. But people have been hearing things just exactly contrary to the Bible, and yet supposed to come from the Bible – but they don't. If you'll open the Bible and read it for yourself, you'll find out.
I'd like to send you a booklet that I wrote not too long ago.'Never Before Understood.' What this world has not understood. It is not understood in the churches. It is not understood by science. It is not understood in any college or university. Why humanity cannot solve its problems and its evils.
I talk with heads of state all over the world. They have problems way beyond their ability to solve. They cannot solve their problems, because the problems are too great. And humanity can't solve them. Why can't we? The reason has never been understood. This is a beautiful booklet, it is well illustrated. And there is no charge and I'd just like to send it to you. 'Never Before Understood.'
So until next time, Herbert W. Armstrong, good bye friends.