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

The World Tomorrow

Obey God's Law - Part 1

by Herbert W Armstrong

(PLAY FROM START)

Here we are coming into the time of Lent. Pretty soon 'Good Friday' and Easter will be rolling around; now where did we get those things? Why do we observe them? Why does anyone observe Lent; where did it come from, do you know?

My friends, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was not on 'Good Friday.' 'Good Friday' is not the anniversary or the time at all in which Jesus was crucified. And, listen, this is even more staggering; the resurrection was not on Sunday. The resurrection did not occur on Sunday at all. You don’t believe that? Are you willing to open your mind to the proof? Are you going to believe people, are, would you rather believe a fable, would you rather believe what has, well, what is customary, what is fashionable? Would you rather be a dumb sheep, follow the crowd because that’s the way the crowd is going. That is an old tradition, but my friends where do all of these traditions come from?

You know it’s been commonly supposed that Jesus was crucified on Friday; and so it’s called 'Good Friday' and that the resurrection occurred at about sunrise on 'Easter Sunday' morning – or just before the rising of the sun. Now it would seem that no one, until very recently, ever thought to question or to prove this 'Good Friday,' this Easter tradition and yet your Bible tells you to prove all things if you believe in the Bible. You’re going to be literally astounded by the proof.

Now I also have a booklet on the 'The Resurrection,' proving that very thing. Get this booklet - don’t believe the booklet - believe what you see in your Bible but it will show you where it is and then open your own Bible and read it there and believe what you see there. Don’t believe me, don’t believe our booklets, but read them and listen to them with open minds and search and research and get the proof and know why you believe the things you do and why you do the things you do. Let’s have the intellectual honesty to face these things.

Your Bible prophesies that in this day all nations would be deceived! Could we be deceived on such tremendous things as Easter and Christmas and things like that? My friends, do you know that the early Church of God that Jesus Christ built; the Church He said He would build; the Church that was headed by Jesus Christ Himself and visibly on earth by His apostles? You know that they never observed any Easter? Do you know that they never observed any Christmas, any New Year’s Day like we do at all? Do you know where these things came from that we call Christian?

Your Bible says that you today would be embracing and believing fables instead of the truth of God. Would you rather go on in this dreamland? You know when anyone is snoozing away in the morning and it’s time to get up and someone awakens them they’re - oh, go away, I don’t want to get up I’d rather go on in this foolish silly dream. But my friends you’re living in reality and it’s time to wake up.

Now I have another booklet I’d like you to read; Easter 'About Easter.' I’m not going to read the rest of the title to you – it’s a little bit shocking. Yes it’s just a little bit shocking, but this will tell you where Lent came from. It will tell you where all of this came from; how did we start celebrating what we call Easter? The Resurrection was not on Sunday. Get the booklet on 'The Resurrection,' and then get the one on 'Easter,' and it will give you the very carefully and authentically documented history on Easter and where it came from. Now you can check all the biblical part in your Bible, all the historic part you can go to any public library and get the books and read them right there yourself. And where did Lent come from? You want to get the history of that. It’s going to amaze you!

What Lies Ahead (PLAY FROM 04:27)

But my friends what lies ahead now for the United States? Where are we and what is going to happen to us?

We’ve been going through the prophecies specifically now in the prophecy of Jeremiah. And now in the beginning with the fifth chapter we're coming to things that are telling what is going to happen to the United States now, or very, very soon now.

Alright, now beginning with this fifth chapter, the meaning begins to shift from the specific warning of an invasion that was coming at that time, 600 years before Christ on the Jews, in Judah, the land of Judaea. Now there is a dual meaning and the meaning finally is going to shift over entirely to us today, the United States and Great Britain today, so you'd better listen. Because while this was specifically applying to them at that time, that I just read to you, it does apply to us today and God would say this to America today, listen:

"Scour the streets of America, [let's say of Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Houston Texas, of Seattle, Washington, scour the streets of these cities in America] search the squares and see if you can find a man of honest mind and true integrity [is there any such thing today? There may be a few, but it’s mighty few, and you know that]. They may swear, 'As the Eternal lives!' But the oath is a perjury." (Jeremiah 5:1-2 Moffatt Translation paraphrased) says God.

Oh we make mention of God, we have churches on our street corners. I don’t know whether we have millions of churches in the United States or just a few hundred thousand, a lot of them. "Oh thou Eternal, what thou lookest for is honesty, not falsehood. Thou hast struck them, but they smarted not, they would not learn;" (Jeremiah 5:3 Moffatt translation paraphrased,)

In other words we’ve been punished but we don’t learn the lesson by it. Listen, we’ve been punished on this earth for 6,000 years. Mankind is reaping what he has been sowing but he doesn’t see the lesson. He’s been writing the lesson in human blood and anguish, torture, fear, hunger, disease, sickness, insanity, almost every wrong thing and war, every terrible horrible thing - we’ve been writing the lesson. But we haven’t learned it. We want anything except to turn to God and God’s laws; anything else. The preachers preach to you a way of salvation without any obedience to God.

Why my friends, what is sin? It is disobedience of God and of these laws of God: that’s what sin is (1John 3:4 KJV). Why don’t they preach that to you? Why don’t they tell you that salvation is only for those that turn away from that disobedience? You turning away doesn’t save you; but it is a condition and God will only save those who do turn away. You’re saved by grace, God’s free grace. But God gives that grace only to those who have turned away from their sins, from their own wickedness and their own evil and who surrender to Him, to His laws, to His government, His great spiritual laws. I’m not talking about laws of animal sacrifices, and meat and drink offerings and the kind of carnal fleshly material laws that were the rituals in the Old Testament. I’m not talking about that at all.

But the trouble is today they try to give you the idea that the great spiritual law, that is summed up in the one word, love, in the two great commandments; thou shalt love the Eternal thy God and your neighbor. And then the Ten Commandments; the first four tell you how to love God and the last six how to love your neighbor. They try to say that’s all one law.

My friends if you can do away with that you can do away with all goodness, all righteousness, all character, everything worthwhile. Now if we all kept the Ten Commandments properly there wouldn’t be any war; there wouldn’t be any of these evils that we suffer today. Now notice:

"They harden themselves like a flint, they would not turn." (Jeremiah 5:3) Even though they have suffered all of these things, and that’s true of us today, this is just true of the United States and of you people today.

"'But these are poor folk I said' [Jeremiah is writing here, and Jeremiah said to God], But these I’ve seen they’re just the poor, mere ignorant folk, who never learned the rules of the Eternal or the kingdom [religion] of their God." (Jeremiah 5: 3-4 paraphrased, Moffatt translation)

Now many of you today, you’ve never learned the rules; that is the laws of God because you’ve heard they’re done away. And you’ve listened to that kind of talk. You’ve never heard, many of you, the true religion of God; you’ve heard a religion of man about Christ. They exalt Christ, they come in the name of Christ just as He said they would, they come in the name of Christ, they say that He is the Christ, that Jesus was the Messiah. They exalt Him, they deify Him, they say just receive Him, just accept Him, but they don’t say give yourself to Him! They don’t tell you, you must surrender and obey Him. Or they’ll say, well obey Christ but don’t obey God the Father, as if there is a difference and a war on between Christ and God the Father. Oh my friends, when will we wake up?

Well, Jeremiah thought these were just poor ignorant folk and someone might think that’s the way it is today.

So Jeremiah said: "I’ll turn to the upper classes, I’ll talk with them; for they have learned the rules [that is the laws about the government] of the Eternal and the religion of their God. But they had flung off all restraints and, and broken every bond." (Jeremiah 5:5)

It’s the same way in the United States today. It isn’t a matter of ignorance, it isn’t only the ignorant and the illiterate and the poor, it’s also the rich and the educated. It's all of us my friends, no matter what class you’re in.

We’ve been writing the lesson but we haven’t learned it. We want anything except to turn to God and God’s laws, anything else. The preachers preach to you a way of salvation without any obedience to God.

Prophecy For Us (PLAY FROM 10:49)

Alright, now we have been going through a specific prophecy, we’ve been going through the book of Jeremiah. And I’ve turned back to a prophecy written even by Moses that applies to us; getting now into a specific prophecy pertaining to us.

Now you read back here in the twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy you would certainly think that this applies to Israel of long ago; but my friends it applies to what is going to yet happen to us - our American people right here in the United States today.

Now I want to go back into the twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy a little bit because here is a prophecy. When you have the keys that unlock these prophesies, one of them is the principle of duality and how so much of these prophesies applies specifically to a time back there, perhaps 600 years, perhaps in some cases 168 years before Christ; in some cases they happened two or three hundred years after Christ. But that was merely a type, a forerunner of the great antitypical event - the real event that is to happen in the next five, ten, twenty years from now.

So, this is a prophecy like that. I’m going to show you how I know because I’m not just guessing. I can’t just read a prophecy that was already fulfilled and say well that was a forerunner for something that’s going to happen to us just because I want to, perhaps, have it come out that way; I can’t do that. No there’s a reason why I know that this is a prophecy for us today. Alright, let’s get into it and I’ll show you how I know, and why.

Now,"...it shall come to pass [God said], if thou shalt harken diligently unto the voice of the [Eternal] thy God, to observe and to do all of his commandments which I command thee this day, that the [Eternal] thy God will set thee high above all [the] nations of the earth:" (Deuteronomy 28:1 KJV)

Now that, of course, was a message that Moses gave to Israel, way back there in the time of Moses even before they had come into the land of Palestine. But I want to show you how important that is and how it contains, before we get through, a prophecy that you’re going to see fulfilled today.

Now verse seven: "The [Eternal] shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways." (Deuteronomy 28:7)

Now that’s been happening to us today; that prophecy has been fulfilled because Abraham kept God’s commandments and obeyed God. And God had given Abraham an all-inclusive unconditional promise that He would never break. That, that promise would be fulfilled. Now we’d read back here in Leviticus 26 where God had said to the people of Israel in Moses’ day, through Moses, that if they would obey Him then they of that time - Israel in that generation, and the one or two or three generations following from the time of Moses - that they would be the chief of the nations of the earth. In other words they would then inherit the promise that God had made to Abraham, the birthright promise that has nothing to do with salvation itself directly. It is a promise of race, a promise that we inherit by physical birth not a promise of grace.

But He’d said to them at that time: “...if ye will not hearken unto me, to do all these commandments" (Leviticus 26): Then He was going to punish them seven times for their sins. In other words they would be captive and be driven out and all that sort of thing, but there would be seven times pass over them before these promises could be fulfilled.

Now God had made the promise unconditionally to Abraham. God was bound to keep the promise, but, He did it this way: He promised that the descendants of Abraham in the days of Moses, 400 years after Abraham, could have had the promise at that time if they had, at that time, obeyed God.

Because He was their ruler, He set them up as His nation, He was their king, but it wasn’t very long till they rejected Him from being king; they wanted a man to be king (1 Kings 8:4-5), so they got Saul, and later David and David’s dynasty and so on.

Recipiants Of The Promises (PLAY FROM 15:01)

Well, they refused to obey God then and so God took away this promise from them for 2520 years which carried from about 720 BC on down to 1800, or the very beginning of the nineteenth century AD. And we, my friends are the recipients of those very promises. We have been the head nation and not the tail; we have had every promise God ever made to Abraham fulfilled in our American people and the British Commonwealth, our British cousins, the British Commonwealth of Nations.

Now then, God had said here that, "The LORD will command blessings upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand to do; he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God shall give thee" (Deuteronomy 28:8 paraphrased). Well specifically it applied then at that time to Palestine but it applies to our land here today, for us. Now then, I am going to show you why in just a moment.

"That God will make thee plenteous in goods [that’s in verse eleven, and in verse twelve]. The [Eternal] shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give thee rain unto thy land and in his season." (Deuteronomy 28:11-12 paraphrased)

So you see, rain and having good crops is part of the blessing my friends, and it comes because of the obedience of Abraham; but God has given us that ever since about 1800 and He is not bound to keep it up any longer. Now the promise of God that He will remove these things from us applies because He has already kept the promise. Now if we have not obeyed Him then it’s going to be taken away from us again and we’re going to be punished.

Now, now He said here "...thou shalt lend unto many nations and thou shalt not borrow"(Deuteronomy 28:12 last part). Now that did not happen to ancient Israel but that has happened to us. That has happened to us, we have had lend lease, we have had our Marshall Plan, we have given money and lended money to many nations, money that most of them never pay back. Remember how little Finland was the one nation that began to pay back some of this money. Some of the nations have paid some of it back. Don’t believe the Russians have ever paid any of it back, have they? Doesn’t seem to be I recall that they have.

"And the [Eternal] shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if, if thou hearken [to do] unto the commandments of the [Eternal] thy God." (Deuteronomy 28:13)

Now much of that my friends has been fulfilled in us and never was fulfilled in Israel because - of old I mean - because they did not obey God. But, now beginning with verse 15 - now here comes the penalty for disobedience.

Penalty For Disobedience (PLAY FROM 17:46)

"But it shall come to pass, if thou will not hearken unto the voice of the [Eternal] thy God, to observe to do all his commandments...that all of these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee [listen]: Cursed shall thou be in the city, and cursed shall thou be in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store [in other words our produce and so on and the things that we manufacture]. The [Eternal] shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me." (Deuteronomy 28:15-17,20 paraphrased)

God says here and I want to tell you my friends there are other prophecies that show that this applies to us today; that we are to be destroyed if we don’t turn from our ways, right now. We have had every one of these blessings! Why here it said remember that I read to you in the seventh verse: "The [Eternal] shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face;" (Deuteronomy 28:7)

That’s happened in every war up until Korea. But now my friends we are at the time of the end. And now that we’ve come to the time of the end, that no longer applies. Now if we don’t obey we’re not going to have that blessing, in other words, because of Abraham’s obedience any longer, we’ve had it; we have had it. And from now on if we don’t obey God the blessing goes and the curse will come. Now I want you to notice, and the curse is already coming, the pendulum is swinging the other direction and it’s going to swing to the extreme if we don’t wake up. I’m telling you and I don’t know, God have mercy on us, I don’t know why, I don’t hear any other voice warning you of these things.

Listen, verse 22: "The [Eternal] shall smite thee with the consumption, and with fever, and with an inflammation, and with extreme burning, and with the [it says sword but the margin is drought] with a drought and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish." (Deuteronomy 28:22)

Now we’re already beginning to get a taste of that, all these diseases; we have more modern diseases now than I believe any nation ever had. Our land is just riddled with diseases now; diseases that our forefathers of three or four generations ago have never heard of. Do you realize how many of our people heart failure is taking today? Do you know why that heart failure is coming? Do you know how many of our people are dying by cancer? And do you know why cancer is coming upon us? Do you know how much, how many of our people have diabetes? And do you know how many of our people have arthritis? Do you know how many of our people have all of the, oh a whole myriad of modern diseases doctors don’t know much about?

So we raise millions of dollars to try to get rid of it by doctors. God is sending this thing on us as a penalty. And we’re raising millions of dollars and creating a heart fund and a cancer fund of millions of dollars for doctors to try to do something about it and they’re not succeeding very fast are they? Yeah, they lead you to think that pretty soon the doctors are going to have all these things under control.

God Almighty says I’ll send these diseases on you because of the way you’re acting; why? Why does God send pain? To let you know there’s something wrong so you’ll change and do something about it that’s why. And here we’ve done wrong and God is sending the pain, but no, we’re going to go on doing wrong, we’re going to have a lot of physicians and doctors. You know we’ve been just hoodwinked and following custom and anything that the people want to put over, anything the people have decided to believe like a lot of dumb sheep about long enough. I want to tell you now it’s time for us to begin to look into these things! You’ve got a mind, you have eyes to see these things with and to read with! You have ears to listen with. God help you to open them; God help you to use your mind and to quit being deceived.

This is a challenge to you scientists listening and some of you are listening too. You'd better quit your scoffing and you'd better wake up a little bit because we’re facing reality and I want to tell you we’re riding into the most dangerous times for this nation that you could possibly imagine. Well, time is fleeting, let’s run along here.

In the beginning of verse 24 now, listen: "The [Eternal] shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust:" (Deuteronomy 28:24) That is drought. I’m telling you my friends this whole earth is shaking with convulsions right now. Even all nature is enraged and aroused because of the way we’ve been living. Yes, the weather is the biggest news a good deal of the time right now and God says that "The [Eternal] will make the rain of thy land [that’s speaking of American, Britain and Canada] of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed. The [Eternal] shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies" (Deuteronomy 28:24-25 paraphrased): That hasn’t happened yet; there’s still time to stop that from happening if we'll wake up because there’s an 'if' before all of this; remember this: "But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the [Eternal] thy God." (Deuteronomy 28:15)

Oh we want to listen to the siren song there’s no works to salvation - just believe; just profess, just accept Christ; make your decision for Christ. That’s pretty easy isn’t it? And then go on doing the wrong way that’s bringing suffering and unhappiness and chaos and retribution on us. But let’s just raise million dollar funds and what we call 'human science,' try to raise it to a dignity above God Almighty and we think we can escape.

Warned by God's Inspired Word (PLAY FROM 23:36)

Well I’m warning you my friends; and I’m warning you in the name of Jesus Christ and on the authority of the Holy Word of God. And I’m offering you the proof that it is the inspired Word of the Divine Creator. And you can get that proof. And you are absolutely excuseless if you don’t do it.

Now, a little later here He says: "The [Eternal] will smite thee with the botch [or it, the margin is tumors; all these tumors and cancer that we have, that] the botch of Egypt [that’s the tumors and those things that have come right out of Egypt], with the [well, emerods in the King James, that it really is...no that’s the tumors the others was boils, boils and tumors] with the scab, with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed." (Deuteronomy 28:27)

But, oh we’re going to raise all kinds of funds and think we can be healed. My friends you shake your fist at God Almighty and see where you’ll get off finally.

"The [Eternal] shall smite thee with madness,[with madness ... my friends we have more mental cases in our hospitals right now than any other time]. The [Eternal] will smite thee with madness [it’s creeping up upon us, it’s time for us to be alarmed. People say: "Well, ‘oh that Mr Armstrong, he’s alarming people." You bet I’m trying to alarm you because this thing is serious and there’s no kidding about it] with madness, with blindness, with astonishment of heart: And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in the darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways:" (Deuteronomy 28:28-29 paraphrased)

And here we are rich with the resources that God promised Abraham and we have them; and yet every one of us, practically everybody in the United States almost, is just filled with fear and worry trying to make ends meet financially. And the nation is head over heels in debt more than any nation that ever lived in the midst of the greatest prosperity that God has given us, that any nation ever had.

Verse 30: "Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her [how much is that happening today? A man marries a wife pretty soon she divorces him, runs off with another. You tune in on the movies and about all you see is married women falling in love with other married men. Someone falling in love with somebody else’s husband or wife]: thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard; thou shalt not gather the grapes thereof [and that time is coming too when that’s going to happen]. Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof [and so on]." (Deuteronomy 28:30-31 paraphrased)

Now let’s see: "The fruit of thy land, and all thy labors shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up [because now this is prophesying an invasion] and thou shalt be oppressed and crushed." (Deuteronomy 28:33 paraphrased) Now when is that?

Turn back here to Jeremiah the fifth chapter and the fifteenth verse, and here’s the same thing and here you’ll see when it’s going to happen.

"I will bring a nation on you {1} from afar, O house of Israel, says the Eternal; a nation that endures, an ancient nation." (Jeremiah 5:15 Moffatt Translation paraphrased)

It’s speaking of the same thing and here, it’s in the future, I will bring, and the only invasion that ever did come on Israel had already happened and occurred a 130 years before those words were written. That proves my friends it’s speaking of a future time yet. It’s never happened yet; it’s going to happen in this time. And there are many other prophecies that set the date, I don’t mean the precise year, but the time is immediately ahead of us.

Well, I have to break off there my friends. Remember I have asked you to get the Plain Truth; the booklet on 'Easter,' and the booklet on 'The Resurrection.' Now there’s no charge, no subscription price for the magazine.

Until tomorrow then, "Goodbye friends."

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