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

The World Tomorrow

Mr Armstrong's Genealogy

by Herbert W Armstrong

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

Now as we’ve been going through the New Testament to see what Jesus Christ did preach, and why it is we haven’t heard it today, and why we’ve been taught to believe exactly the opposite of His message, and how it came about that men rejected His message – they crucified Him. And then they began to accept His name – they went forth in the power of the authority of His name, with the prestige of His name. But they rejected His message. The message of Jesus Christ was the message of the Kingdom of God – the Good News of the World Tomorrow.

And so it is that they deceived the world by proclaiming the name of Christ, and by teaching people to worship Him while they rejected the commands of God, while they rejected and spurned the way to world peace, to prosperity, and to everything good.

Cause and Effect (PLAY FROM 01:08)

My friends, there’s a reason why we have wars, and unhappiness, and poverty, and sickness, and everything bad in the world today. There’s a reason for it. There is a way to peace. And there is a way that leads to just what we have; and we follow that way; and that’s the reason we have it.

Jesus Christ came with the way that would have brought this world peace – that would have brought us universal prosperity. There wouldn’t have been any poverty. There wouldn’t have been any slum districts in the cities, or blighted areas. There wouldn’t have been sickness and disease. We would have had happy, full, abundant lives just filled with all the good things of life – just happiness running over into joy. That’s what we could have had. That’s what we should have had. Jesus proclaimed that way.

We were seeing how Jesus said, even to the people in that day, that they honored Him with their lips, just as people have continued to do down to now. But their heart was far from Him. And He said, "In vain do they worship me, teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men." (Matthew 15:9; Mark 7:7 American Standard Version).

That’s exactly what they’ve continued to do. And my friends you’ve been brought up in such a world. Most of you believe exactly the opposite of what the Bible says, but you believe that you believe the Bible. But you don’t read the Bible to find out!

You assume the Bible teaches, for instance, a lot of things it doesn’t. You assume that the Bible teaches you the immortality of the soul. Well it doesn’t. You assume that the Bible teaches you that man is a spiritual being inside of a body of flesh. You assume that the Bible tells you that if you’re saved when you die you go to heaven. You assume that the Bible tells you that you ought to observe Christmas and New Year’s and Easter.

You assume that the Bible tells a lot of these things that you do, and that you believe, when the Bible teaches exactly the opposite! And you’re believing the ideas of men and the ways of men – you are following and not knowing what you do.

On this program you’ll hear the same message that the people heard at the lips of Jesus Christ, because those words were recorded in writing. They’re in your Bible. You can find them right there in your own home and in your Bible, if you would read it.

Jesus said, "In vain do they worship me [today they teach you, you couldn’t worship Him in vain. How do they do it?] teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men" (Matthew 15:9 ASV). That’s exactly what they’re doing today.

The reason we have world war, the reason that we’re having so much unhappiness on the earth is because men rejected the way of God. They said the commandments are nailed to the cross. They hated the law of God!

Jesus said that such people worship Him in vain. Yes my friends they have taken His name; they have stolen His Name; they have appropriated it, and misappropriated it, and gone out in the power and with the prestige of that name while they said there are no works. "There is no such thing as obedience. Just do what your own conscience tells you; just follow men, and our precepts of men, and worship Christ." And today the millions are doing that – and doing it in vain. Well that’s what Jesus told them.

Carnal Mind Hostile to God (PLAY FROM 04:20)

Now we were both in the fifteenth chapter of Matthew and in the seventh chapter of Mark. And continuing in Matthew’s account of it now – in Matthew 15 and coming to verse 12.

"Then came the disciples and said to Jesus, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?" (Matthew 15:12 ASV) They came to Him and said, "Well now don’t you know You offended these people?"

Sometimes people come to me and they say, "Don’t you know that you offended those people by these things that you’ve said?" Of course I do. And Jesus offended them, too. And I preach the same words He did. So it’s going to cause some offense.

Jesus said, "Think not I come to bring peace [you know why? He brought us the WAY of peace, but He didn’t bring peace. You know the difference? He came and proclaimed the way of peace. But the reason He didn’t bring peace was because people wouldn’t accept that way and follow it. So He said that He didn’t bring peace, He brought] ...a sword, and a man’s foes and enemies will be they of his own household." (Matthew 10:34, 36)

Do you know why? It’s because the message He brought seems to put a spirit of self-condemnation on people, and they feel guilty when they hear it, because they know they don’t obey it. And so in order to rise up above that spiritual feeling of inferiority that it brings on them, a sort of a self-condemnation, and in order to rise up above it and to get around it, instead of confessing their guilt, and changing their way, they try to accuse those that believe the way of Jesus.

Now if I preach the words of Jesus, people don’t like it. And they begin to accuse me and begin to refute it. It is not I that they are accusing or refuting – it is Jesus Christ, because I speak His Word.

"But [Jesus] answered [these disciples] and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father planted not, shall be rooted up." (Matthew 15:13 ASV)

You know, that’s true, my friends. You know that every institution in this world today that Jesus Christ, or the heavenly Father, has not planted, and did not design, and that was not put there by God’s will, and by the fact of men merely being the instrumentality, or the tool, that God used in doing it – it’s going to be rooted up.

Now just look at our great institutions, great, massive buildings: among other things – the Pentagon – one of the biggest buildings on earth. In actual ground area it probably is the largest building on earth, I’m not sure, I believe perhaps it is – immense buildings for the government of the United States.

My friends that is not the Government of God; it is the government of, well the people of the United States – as the people have trusted that government into the hands of some of their politicians – that’s actually what it is.

Perhaps a lot of you think God planted it. But let me tell you something: the government of God has been rejected of men and men have their own ideas of government. And the government of God is the government of God! There isn’t any Congress in it whatsoever. God gives the laws. And here we have men trying to make laws.

Now that day I was in Washington, I went into the both the House and the Senate – and they were in full session. And I want to tell you how your government is being run. This is not the government of God. And don’t take this as any disloyalty, because I’m just as loyal to the United States – and in this world to the government of the United States – as any of you can be. That does not prohibit me from seeing the truth and telling you the plain truth about it.

I represent the government of God, not any government of men, on earth. If we’re going to have human government on the earth, then I say that the more people that have their finger in the pie, the better it’s going to be. But in men you don’t find much wisdom. You won’t find much help in men. It only comes from God. And our laws are not made by God. Our laws down there are made by men.

And so we went, first, into the House. And there we saw the Speaker of the House – he was there alright. And we saw one or two men up on the platform. We saw a representative from some state back in the Middle West somewhere introducing a bill to help "the dear farmers back home." Oh he was reading off his bill there and making a great proposal that the Congress would opt this bill for the good of the farmers back home.

And what do you think we saw out there? Well there were a number of visitors up in the gallery. Oh it wasn’t even a fourth filled, but still there are seats for a lot of visitors in the gallery. And there might have been, oh, seventy-five or a hundred visitors looking on. But down on the floor of the House, I saw three or four people, that’s about all, just three or four representatives. And they were pretty well asleep; they didn’t have much to do. They weren’t paying much attention to the speaker. But he was giving off that speech to be printed in the Congressional Record to send back to the farmers at home and to tell them how he’s fighting for the 'dear people' to get something through for them.

And the people back home will think, "Boy, isn’t he doing wonders down there in Washington for us? Well, we’ll go and vote for him again!"

Then we went over across the Capitol to the other side – to the most august body, the most august, deliberating body in the world, as it has been repeatedly called – the very dignified United States Senate. And there we repeated the spectacle. There we saw a senator speaking and introducing a bill. And we saw three, four, five senators down there – and that’s about all – and a few people in the gallery. And there was the man introducing his bill and nobody paying any real attention – the most august deliberative body in the whole United States.

Well, of course, if we’d have another Pearl Harbor, they’d all be there in Congress assembled over in the House. And the President of the United States would be there – and they’d all be there – you can be sure of that.

But most of these bills, and one thing and another, get very little attention. And these bills will be pigeon-holed, they’ll die a natural death and pretty soon the voters at home will forget about it after they’ve gotten all the literature and it’s been published at government expense and in the Congressional Record and a great furor and great pretense is made of trying to do something for the 'dear people' back home – and so the people will vote for the politician.

Well that’s pretty plain and I don’t like to say things like that, my friends, but it’s about time some of us went down to Washington as an onlooker to see what goes on – and I’m merely an onlooker, that’s all.

Herbert W Armstrong’s Genealogy (PLAY FROM 11:09)

Let me say to you that I’m as red-blooded an American as anybody I know. I was not only born here, but my parents were born here. And my four grandparents were born here; and my eight great grandparents were born here. And my family goes back to 100 years before the time of George Washington. My family and my ancestors have lived here in the United States a 100 years before there was a United States – when it was only a British colony. And I think that makes me about as much an American as anybody can be.

And I have my ancestry, and I can trace it back from that time, back to England. And one of my ancestors came over here with William Penn about a 100 years before the United States became a nation.

And then my ancestors back in that time lived in England. And I traced my ancestry clear back to Edward I of England of whom I am a direct descendant. And I can trace my ancestry from Edward I clear back to Zedekiah, the king of Judah, mentioned in the Bible. And from the Bible genealogy, I trace my ancestry clear back to King David, of the house of David of the kingdom of Judah, and of the house, or the kingdom, of Israel. And from there, in the Bible, I trace it back to Adam. Can you do that? I don’t think there are very many. But I have my ancestry, every generation, from myself back to Adam, believe it or not.

And we’ve been, and my family’s been, in these United States for 100 years longer than the United States itself has been here as a government. And I’m about as loyal to this United States as anybody can be. But I want to tell you right now that it’s far from the government of God; it’s the government of man.

And what a mess we’ve made of it!

I don’t know of any better government on earth, I’ll tell you that! If there is any, it’s little Switzerland. And I don’t think it’s disloyal for anybody to mention Switzerland, because, you know, I don’t believe they have any army in Switzerland. I didn’t see any when I was over there. I spent a week in Switzerland here a few years ago and enjoyed it very much. And I enjoyed the Swiss people; they’re a fine people. They have a very good government over there. They’re a prosperous people.

Now during WWII you notice that Hitler didn’t run over them at all. You see they control some of those tunnels that run between Italy and Germany. And Hitler had to have the use of those tunnels, but they were able to blow them up on a minute’s notice any time. And they just notified Hitler if he didn’t leave them alone, or if he tried any tricks on them, they’d blow up those tunnels – and Hitler would have to climb clear over top of the Alps to get down to Italy – and Hitler left them alone. I don’t think they need an army over there in Switzerland. They’re a fine little people and we in America really respect them.

And the people that I have liked the best of any, I believe, well I guess I better not say that, I don’t want to be a respecter of persons. But I have always been very fond of the Canadians; I want to say that – our neighbors to the north. I’ve spent a good deal of time in Canada. And I really love the Canadians, and the British, and a lot of other people. And we’ve found a lot of mighty fine people in France, and in Germany, and in many other nations so far as that’s concerned.

And if the Germans just didn’t have leaders that got them into aggression and trying to conquer the world, what a wonderful people they would be. What a wonderful people they are as individuals – so methodical, so inventive, and with minds that can accomplish things that most of the rest of us haven’t accomplished.

But let me tell you something, I’m not a fascist or a Nazi. And I’m certainly not a communist. And of all the governments on earth, I say the United States is the best.

But when we get the government of God we’re going to have something better. And that’s exactly what Jesus Christ proclaimed – is the government of God. And that’s what we ought to have.

Government Institutions Rooted Up (PLAY FROM 15:12)

Well Jesus said, "Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up" (Matthew 15:13)

That means every college and university; that means every big business institution; that means our great corporations; that means our great insurance companies; that means all the great tobacco companies; that means all the great breweries, too. It means all of these institutions that men have built, that run into billion dollar corporations and multi-million dollar corporations.

Some of them are not plants such as you have out in the plant-life kingdom of trees and shrubs and plants of that sort. Some of them are manufacturing plants – and we call them plants, don’t we? It’s a different kind of a plant, however.

Well it doesn’t make any difference which kind. Every plant that has not been planted by God, and that men have not done merely as the instrumentality of God, and not in their own will and in their own power, every such plant is going to be rooted up.

You know we feel that the college that is established here in Pasadena, California – Ambassador College in Pasadena – shall never be rooted up. It started the smallest college in the United States. But we here believe that this college is going to grow to be the biggest one on earth, but not in our time, and not by our effort. And the reason is because our heavenly Father planted this college. This is of His planning and it cannot be rooted up. It will go on into the time of the Kingdom of God, when the Kingdom of God reigns over the earth. And it will grow; and it will grow.

I don’t think it will be just one great college in a machine-production-mass-education process. But it will be established in units and divisions here, there, everywhere with branches all over – multiple, smaller colleges. And I think none of them so large, but what there will be a personal relationship between the faculty and the students – where every student is somebody, and not where he has lost his entity entirely through a mass-production method where he doesn’t know whether he really counts or not.

Well Jesus said, "Let them alone: they are blind guides. And if the blind guide the blind, both will fall in the pit [or they’ll both go down in the ditch]." (Matthew 15:1 ASV)

And that’s what’s going to happen. And I tell you, my friends, most of us have been led by the blind. We’re in a deceived world. We were born in such a world; and we have been deceived. And if we don’t wake up, and if we don’t look for the truth, we’re going to fall in the ditch, or down in the pit. And that’s what it’s talking about.

"Peter answered and said unto Jesus, Declare unto us the parable. And he said, Are you also even yet without understanding? Perceive you not that whatsoever goes into the mouth passeth into the belly, and is cast out in the draught?" (Matthew 15:15-17)

Well He’s been speaking about that, too. Speaking of the spiritual things that spiritually defile a man:

"But the things which proceed out of the mouth come forth out of the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart cometh forth [now notice…spiritual things:] evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings [things that break the principles of the Ten Commandments. Jesus everywhere enforced the Ten Commandments; He magnified them!] These are the things which defile a man." (Matthew 15:18-20) That’s what Jesus said.

Now from there let’s go over to Mark’s gospel now – the seventh chapter of Mark and beginning with verse 24 – Mark’s account of it.

"From there Jesus arose and he went out into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and he entered into a house, and he would have no man know it: and he could not be hid. But straightway a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard of him, fell down at his feet: now the woman was a Greek [that is she was a Gentile; she was not Jewish], and she besought him, that he would cast forth the demon out of her daughter. And he said unto her [now let’s notice what He said; see if this is the kind of teaching that you get today. As I’ve shown you everyday as we go through here we see just exactly the opposite in the teaching of Jesus from that which is being proclaimed today]. He said to her, Let the children first be filled [in other words – the Israelites – they were the children of God. The Gentiles were not considered as the children of God. And Jesus said, Let the children first be filled]: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to the dogs." (Mark 7:24-27 paraphrased)

Jesus Himself absolutely called the Gentiles, 'dogs,' in that case. That wasn’t very complimentary. Well now don’t be offended at me. I’m only reading you what is in your Bible, and you’ll see it there if you’ll read it.

Now as Matthew’s account has it: "Jesus answered and said, I was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Matthew 15:24 ASV) He did not go to the Gentiles!

Now quite a while back, several weeks ago in this series, we came to the place where Jesus had encountered a Gentile woman, another Gentile woman, at Jacob’s well up in Samaria. And she was a Gentile. Jesus said to her, "If thou had known who it is that speaks unto you, [in other words if she had known He was the Messiah], you would have asked me for living water, [in other words, salvation - the Holy Spirit], and you would have had the waters that would have given you eternal life; and you would never thirst [Well the woman said], well, well give me that water [well He didn’t; He didn’t give it to her. He didn’t give her any salvation. He didn’t try to talk her into being converted. He said], Go and bring your husband. And she said, Well…uh…uh…I…I…I haven’t any husband [she was a little bit embarrassed]. And Jesus said, You certainly spoke the truth. He said, You’ve had seven men and the one you’re living with now is not your husband." (John 4:6-18 paraphrased)

Man's Law Hostile to God's Law (PLAY FROM 21:12)

Jesus taught that it is adultery if any one divorces and marries another. That isn’t what they teach today.

Let me see, someone was in a church service just last Sunday and reported to me that the matter came up of what they were going to decide about this matter of marrying divorced persons. And they decided it would be alright – that that’s perfectly legal.

Who decided? A pack of men. What do they know about it; what authority do they have? Who is it that makes the laws of what is adultery, and what is sin, and what is righteousness? And I say to you – Almighty God!

Men try to make the laws themselves. God made the laws. And these laws that God set in motion are moving, living things and they regulate your happiness! And the reason we’re not happy is because we spit in the face of those laws and defy them and we reject the commandments of God and we disobey God and then wonder why we’re unhappy and so miserable and why this world is in the condition it’s in today. Well that's the reason – men today don't believe what Jesus taught.

Today they believe that salvation is a Gentile religion; today they think Christianity is for Gentiles, that God rejected the Jews, and that He brought us a new kind of religion for the Gentiles. Or else they believe that Jesus' religion was all under the Old Testament and it's not for us today, and that the apostle Paul brought Christianity and it's a Gentile religion.

At least they believe it's for Gentiles. They'll say to you, "Well that law, that was for Israel, but we're not Israel, we're Gentiles." You know they're wrong both times; they're wrong on both points. Oh what colossal ignorance people live in today.

So Jesus said, "It isn't right to give this thing to you and to bring you this healing. It's for our own people – for the Israelites." "But the woman answered and said to him, Yea, Lord: even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." (Mark 7:28 paraphrased)

She admitted she was a Gentile. She admitted that salvation was of the Jews, as Jesus Himself said. Jesus said, "Salvation is of the Jews." (John 4:22) Your preachers don't tell you that today.

The apostle Paul said, "To the Jew first, and then to the Gentile" (Romans 2:10). And that's exactly what is happening right here now. She said, "Well, what if I am a dog? The dogs eat the crumbs under their master's table. Can I at least have some of the crumbs?"

"And [Jesus] said to her, For this saying, go thy way. The demon has gone out of thy daughter [because of her humility and her faith. She believed Him; and she was humble; and she didn't exalt herself] And she went away unto her house and found the child laid upon her bed, and the demon gone out [and she got the healing she asked]." (Mark 7:29-30 ASV)

Now again, you remember the centurion, the Roman officer in the Roman army? An officer over one hundred people came to Jesus to heal his son.{1}

He said, "I'm not worthy to do it... And he said, Look, I know that you have authority over disease." Now he says, "I'm a man in authority over a hundred men under me. But I'm under authority. And I have to obey what those officers, that are higher than I, command me to do. But also the men under me have to obey me. And I say to one, 'You go,' and he goes. And I say to another, 'Come,' and he comes. Now you say to this disease, 'Go,' and it will have to go. And Jesus said that, I haven't found such great faith in Israel." (Matthew 8:5-10; Luke 7:1-9 paraphrased). And He honored the man's faith and He healed him.

Now salvation has gone to the Gentiles, but a Gentile that is converted in Jesus Christ is not, from a Bible point of view, considered as a Gentile any longer, but now is a converted, or a spiritually begotten Israelite.

And Paul said to the Galatians who had been born Gentiles...

"If ye be Christ's then are you Abraham's children [that is Israelites, spiritually] and heirs according to the promise [which pertains only to the Israelites and not to the Gentiles]." (Galatians 3:29)

But a Gentile can become an Israelite through Jesus Christ; that is the truth.

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