The World Tomorrow

False Gospel

by Herbert W Armstrong

(PLAY FROM START)

And greetings friends. This is Herbert W Armstrong with the Good News of the World Tomorrow.

Now once again – how, when did the world lose knowledge of the very Gospel that Jesus preached? Why has that Gospel not been known by the world until now; that is, for many years, hundreds of years? Or, was that Gospel ever lost at all?

Now first let me give you the prophecy, let me show you what Bible prophecy said would happen and after that I'm going to give you the authentic history - very carefully documented. You can check it at any public library.

Now I've been telling you that the world has lost the Gospel that Jesus Christ brought. I've been telling you that you've been born into a world that hadn't been hearing that Gospel, that it has been hid from the world until now. Now let's check up and see if I have been telling you the truth. Do you have your Bible open? Let's look into your own Bible first, let's see what the Bible foretold. Let's see what the very Word of God said - if it is the Word of God and if you can believe the Word of God. Then - well, let's just see what it says and see whether or not we do believe it. Or whether we think maybe the Word of God is false and maybe we have had the truth after all.

Now first of all, once again, I want you to notice in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, if you'll turn to that, Matthew 24. Jesus Christ is speaking Himself, they had asked Him about the end of the world and His second coming and what would be the sign of these things. And of course He meant by the end of the world, the end of this pattern of society and this time, this age.

Now, the first thing that Jesus said, He: "...answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you." (Matthew 24:4)

The very first thing He said to His disciples was to warn them against deception. Now, there must have been some kind of deception coming and that Jesus foresaw and foreknew; otherwise why was He warning His own disciples? Now the next thing He said, verse five, Matthew 24:

"For many [He didn't say few, I want you to notice that word 'many' it isn't a few. For 'many'] shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ [or, I am Christ]; and shall deceive many". (Matthew 24:5)

How could people come and profess the name of Christ and say that Jesus was the Christ and still deceive the many? Now we have been going into that and I've explained to you, and I think I referred you in the preceding program, to the seventh chapter of Mark, there are many, many other scriptures in the Bible, but that's enough; where people can accept the name of Jesus Christ, they can accept Christ as personal Saviour, and I tell you, my friends, there are thousands of you that have done it. You believe on Christ but have not believed Christ because you have not known what He said. Now that may not be your fault. We have been born into a world that hasn't known it. And I'm going to show you my friends that isn't just a few, it isn't just some fanatical denomination; it is the world, it is the nations that have been deceived. You've been born into that world, you have been born and you have grown up in one of those nations. And your Bible says it has been deceived.

Now let's read on a little further; you not only can accept Christ as personal Saviour, you not only can believe on Him, you can actually worship Him. And that is about as far as you can go along that line, and still you can do it all in vain, have no salvation whatsoever because Jesus said in Mark 7 and in verse 7:

"Howbeit in vain do they worship me [yes, you can worship Him in vain, He said so, that's what He said, it's in your Bible Mark 7:7, just two sevens but it's in Mark's Gospel; in vain do they worship me], teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." (Mark 7:7)

That is following men's traditions and the things that men say. Now verse 9 speaks of the traditions:

"And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep [what?] your own tradition." (Mark 7:9)

Oh I tell you, my friends, you don't realize how much we are actuated by tradition. We accept tradition, we believe it, we never seem to think to look into it, and to prove whether it's true or not. And then again, verse 13:

"Making the word of God [that's the Bible] of none effect through your tradition, which [you] have delivered: and many such like things [you do]." (Mark 7:13)

Now, in one of the other Gospels where this is mentioned it said; "...making the law of God of no effect by your tradition." (Matthew 15:6 paraphrased). And actually in many, many scriptures the Word of God and the Law of God are synonymously used because the entire Bible, the entire Word of God is merely the elaboration, the magnification of the Law of God. It's about time we begin to wake up to some of these things, my friends. It's about time we begin to banish prejudice because prejudice is a barrier to the entrance of any truth in our minds.

Prove All Things (PLAY FROM 05:31)

Now let me tell you something, my friends; you don't know everything there is to know – only God Almighty knows that. You didn't know a thing when you were born, and neither did I, and neither did any of us. And what you know is merely what has come into your mind since the day you were born. And how did you come to believe what you do? How did things get into your mind? The most prevalent method by which things have come into your mind is simply this; you have accepted, and memorized, and believed, whatever you have heard, whatever you find other people believing, whatever you have read, whatever you have been taught. We find a thing is generally believed, that our crowd, our nation, our people, our church, our club, whatever it may be; whatever they accept, whatever they believe. Well, we just accept it, we go along with it, we suppose it must be true.

Now for instance, you were born into a world that believes a lot of things that are not true. One of the things that the world believes is that Easter is the chief of the Christian holidays and, or at least one of the two chief Christian holidays certainly, and that Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You have been born into a world that has a tradition and that tradition says that the resurrection of Christ occurred on a Sunday morning; and so they named that Sunday in the year Easter. Now haven't you come to believe that? Haven't you just accepted that without a question? Of course you have.

Well my friends, did you ever stop to prove it? Now how do you know that, that is true? It would seem that almost no one until recently ever thought to question or to prove this Good Friday Easter tradition, now there's another one. You have accepted the idea that Christ was crucified on that annual day that they call Good Friday, haven't you? And yet your Bible tells you to prove all things and if you ever stopped to really prove that my friends, you are going to be literally astounded by the proof you'll find.

Now for proof, there's only one dependable authority, there's only one history book you can go to. There is only one book that can tell you the truth about that and that is the Bible; because there were no eyewitnesses to the resurrection. That is no human eye witnesses; the only eye witnesses there were angels.

And so even the so-called apostolic fathers had no source of information about the resurrection or what hour or what day it occurred except the record which is today available to us. The record that was inspired by God Almighty; can you believe it? Do you believe what God says? Do you believe the Bible is His revelation to us? Do you believe that God is thereby transmitting knowledge to us that is true and are you going to accept traditions and make the Word of God of no effect by this tradition, my friends?

Here is a test for you. I just read to you that Jesus said if you do that your acceptance of Him as personal Saviour, your worship of Him is all in vain; if you do that vey thing; this is a challenge to you. What are you going to do about it? Neglect it? Did you ever read in your New Testament what's going to happen "...if we neglect so great salvation..." (Hebrews 2:3). You know my friends, we need to be careful:

"Lest he that thinketh he standeth shall fall." (I Corinthians 10:12 paraphrased)

You need to check up on some of these things, maybe your whole eternity depends upon it. Well listen, I can make this thing very simple for you. Now, if you're not afraid of being shocked, if you're willing to be un-deceived, if you are capable – now a lot of people are not capable of this, strange as it may seem, it's the most difficult thing in human nature – but if you're capable of admitting it when you are wrong. If you are capable of unlearning and to unlearn errors that have some how found lodgment in your mind; it is at least ten times as difficult as to just study into something and acquire some new knowledge and accept it and memorize it. It is ten times as difficult to get something out of your mind that is false that you have come to believe and has lodged in your mind as it is to plant some new fact or new bit of knowledge in your mind that you never knew before. Now are you able to do it? That's a challenge.

The Way to Happiness (PLAY FROM 10:18)

Well I want to tell you something, my friends. Years ago God began to show me the way to really enjoy life. Now I know a lot of you think this might be pretty unpleasant to find out that what you believe isn't true, maybe you're afraid of the truth. Jesus said:

"...[you] shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32)

It is going to make you free from your fears and worries, it's going to make you free from your emptiness, from your unhappiness, your boredom, and from a lot of your troubles, and your worries. And your problems, and well - you'll still always have problems; but I mean from the fear and the worry of them, and the unhappiness, that might be attendant with them.

God Almighty showed me the way to happiness years ago and that way begins with forsaking your way and being willing to admit it when you are wrong. Very few people are willing to admit that. Now I don't believe that I was really willing to admit it either but God had knocked me down. Not in the way He blinded the apostle Paul, and whose name was then Saul, and literally blinded him and knocked him down. In an all together different way, He used circumstances to do it.

You know, God can manipulate circumstances and sometimes they are providential. Not necessarily miraculous but providential. And God certainly did manipulate certain providential factors and circumstances to bring me to a place where I was made willing to admit I was wrong. I had taken some pretty severe lickings shall we say. I had been punished and I was really suffering by circumstances and conditions. In other words; I'd been softened up for the final knockout blow. And what was knocked out was the old carnal Herbert W Armstrong. He'd been the most cocky conceited young ass I think that I have ever seen or known of. I thought I was the most brilliant young man in the whole United States. Why I was going to be the biggest advertising man and the biggest publisher someday in the whole world. I was going to live in a castle or something of the kind I guess, I don't know, I don't think I'd gotten that far, I was too busy trying to plan to make all the money. But the only thing I had an ambition for was; well, two things I think; to accumulate a lot of money, to make big money, and to be thought of as important among men in the world. That's rather normal for a man I think, every man would like to feel important anyway. Every girl would like to feel pretty and beautiful.

But human beings are given minds to reason and to think with and we are required to make decisions. Well, God showed me that the way to happiness and the way to peace and the way to everything good and worthwhile is to begin to prove whether what I have is right and to acknowledge when it's wrong and to be able to unlearn as much as to learn.

Now I know it seems very difficult. It's like being lashed and whipped. You know the Word of God is said to be like a sharp two-edged sword and if you are going to really study it, it you are going to eat it, and digest it, and live it; because it is living food, it is spiritual food. Jesus said:

"...Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word...of God." (Matthew 4:4)

And if you are going to do that - you know, that food at first it, it's going to really cut. It is like swallowing a lot of glass I guess; and it is really going to cut you up from the inside and from without. Because it's very difficult to be corrected:

"And every scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for correction, and for reproof, and for instruction in righteousness." (II Timothy 3:16 paraphrased)

Now the correction and reproof comes first, you have to unlearn first, then you can have the instruction in righteousness after you have unlearned the errors because those errors in your mind, those false beliefs and false premises that you have assumed and that you have just taken for granted; they are a prejudicial barrier to the entrance of truth. Get rid of them first, clean out your mind from all the filth and the poison of the error and then you're ready to receive the purity of truth.

And I want to tell you it's a happy thing; of course the more understanding you have the more you are going to be a little bit disillusioned about people and about human nature. But also you will learn the great truth that we weren't supposed to put our trust in men anyway. And so when you have to lose faith in some of your fellow men – and you will if you come to real understanding. If you are really coming to understanding you will also realize that we are expected to have charity for our fellow human beings and have love for them and your heart will be filled with so much love for those in whom you may be somewhat disappointed; that you won't be so unhappy after all. Now there is the mind of Christ. That's the only kind of mind that's ever going to give you any eternal life, it's the only kind of mind that will give you any happiness.

A Living Faith (PLAY FROM 18:11)

Alright, now Jesus had said:

"...many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many." (Matthew 24:5)

How are they going to do that? How can they come in His name and say He is Christ and yet deceive people? Well I have explained; you can preach Christ, you tell people to believe on Christ, you can say that all you have to do is believe on Christ and you can deceive a lot of people. Because, my friends, there are two kinds of believing, there are two kinds of faith; and if you don't go on to explain, a lot of people are going to think you mean a dead faith.

Now; "...faith without works is dead..." (James 2:17 paraphrased). That's in your Bible, turn back to the Book of James and you will find that the Book of James is literally full of that, just turn to the second chapter of the Book of James. You'll find in the first chapter too that if you are not a doer of the Word of God, and not just a hearer only that you have to be a doer. In other words; you have to put the works of obedience along with it. And you are deceiving yourself if you are not a doer.

And that you look into the perfect law of liberty - it is God's looking glass and there it tells you the dirt on your own heart. But that looking glass won't wash the dirt away, only the Blood of Christ will do it. Now you can't be justified by keeping the Law, not at all. Neither can you wash your face with a looking glass, it merely shows you the dirt on your face. And ... "by the law is the knowledge of sin." (Romans 3:20). The apostle Paul said so.

"...sin is the transgression of the law." (I John 3:4). It is the Law of God. Sin is not transgressing your conscience – sin transgresses what God set in motion as a Law and these Laws are living things, God set them in motion. Now, II Corinthians the eleventh chapter. And here is the apostle Paul writing to the Gentile converts over at Corinth, over in Greece in Corinth, that great ancient commercial city of Greece. He said:

"Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." (II Corinthians 11:1-2)

Now the Church is everywhere considered symbolically as a woman. And it is to be the wife, the bride of Christ, and Christ is the husband, and God is the Father, and the Kingdom of God is presented as a family relationship. It is a family into which we can first be begotten and then born into that family. And you have to be born again. You are born of the flesh now, you are flesh, when you are born of the Spirit, God is that Spirit, you will be Spirit, so said Jesus to Nicodemus, the third chapter of John. Now verse three, II Corinthians 11, Paul said:

"But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty [and Eve was deceived and now, my friends, the whole world is deceived today; and lest we be deceived, the Church, be deceived like Eve was], so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." (II Corinthians 11:3)

It's very simple my friends, the thing is – obey God. You have to surrender your way, you have to give up the traditions of the people and of the time and turn to God and the ways of God. That's quite simple. And Jesus came and died for us because we have transgressed His ways and to pay the penalty of that transgression in our stead. Otherwise you wouldn't need a Saviour; you need a Saviour because of your disobedience. Jesus died to take away your past sin, and your guilt – to reconcile you to God so you can receive God's Holy Spirit, the love that will fulfill His law, to make it possible for you to keep the law of God.

Satan the Deceiver (PLAY FROM 21:43)

Haven't heard much of that Gospel, no, that's the Gospel they tried to bury my friends. And it isn't just men, no, it's a great supernatural invisible devil that's been doing it. I'm going to show you right here, listen:

"For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus..." (II Corinthians 11:4)

Now they take Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, they preach He is the Christ, that's true; but yet they don't represent the same Jesus. You know, a lot of people today believe in a Jesus that isn't the same Jesus you read of in the New Testament. A lot of people believe in a kind of Jesus, and they call Him by that name – who is a sort of a Smart Alec young man, who knew more than His Father; and who came to do away with His Father's Laws and set us free so we can disobey God all we please and still have some kind of a freak grace without any obedience. Now you don't find that kind of a Jesus in the Bible. Jesus said: "...I have kept my Father's commandments..." (John 15:10)

He said: "...I have [spoken nothing] of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say..." (John 12:49)

"And he said...if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." (Matthew 19:17)

That's what Jesus preached, that's what He taught; that's the Jesus of your Bible:

"But if some come and preach another Jesus [which you have heard today], whom we have not preached [Paul didn't preach that kind of a Jesus, that is, the kind that was supposed to have done away with His Father's commandments and the principle of obedience], or if you receive another spirit, which ye have not received [and there are lots of false spirits gone out into the world, your Bible says so, my friends], or another gospel [now notice; another gospel], which ye have not accepted... (II Corinthians 11:4 paraphrased)

And Paul said in the first chapter of Galatians that if a man preach any other Gospel than that he had preached let him be accursed and it's a double curse - he pronounces it a second time. And I want to tell you my friends there are plenty of false gospels going around today. Oh, they sound so wonderful, and they use the name of Christ, listen:

"And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works." (II Corinthians 11:14-15)

They have works but they are evil works. Now, Satan the devil has ministers:

"...such are false apostles [verse 13], deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ." (II Corinthians 11:13)

They say; "I'm a minister of Jesus Christ." You know your Bible warns you, my friends, that many false prophets would go out and deceive the many. Now, they are the ministers of the devil, the devil has made himself the god of this world. He masquerades as God, he has people believing in him, he has them believing a false gospel, he has them believing in a different Jesus and a different gospel. Now I've been telling you the world has lost the Gospel that Jesus Christ brought. I've been telling you that you've been born into a world that hadn't been hearing that Gospel.

Now then you read over here in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation about Satan the devil that deceiveth the whole world (Revelation 12:9). He was cast out into the earth and his angels cast out with him. There it says he has deceived the whole world. It doesn't say he's deceived a few people, it didn't say one or two fanatical sects or small denominations, or someone that you think is fanatical, it didn't say that; it said the whole world. Revelation 20 verse 3, at the second coming of Christ the angel with the key to the bottomless pit will lay hold on the devil and cast him into the symbolic bottomless pit here; and bind him a thousand years, cast him into the bottomless pit, shut him up, and set a seal upon him. Verse 3:

"...that he [Satan, the devil], should deceive the nations [it didn't say deceive a few people, it didn't say some wild eyed long haired fanatics, it didn't say some soap box orators down on skid row, it didn't say some fanatical church sects that you don't believe in – it said; deceive the nations] no more, till the thousand years [are finished]..." (Revelatipon 20:3)

But he will deceive them up until that time. That's very plain. Now there are many other prophecies and in the next broadcast I'm going to open up the actual historic record of what happened when the churches, and the people that is, the western world, got away from the truth that Jesus had brought. When they did away with His Gospel and accepted His person and began to proclaim the name of Christ, deceiving the world. You've been born into such a world.

(NB Headings are not part of original, but are added for clarity)