Beyond ANY Reasonable Doubt!

Certain splinter leaders have made their shift to another gospel by asserting that Mr. Armstrong taught what they teach. We will see that this is a patently false claim.

First, Roderick Meredith, the man leading LCG, is a prime case in point. By “cherry-picking” a single statement that, after carefully ellipsing crucial portions, makes Mr. Armstrong appear to include Christ in the gospel, thousands can be fooled. Doing this requires that gross deceit be employed. The mass of contrary facts must be covered up, ignored and denied.

But you need to see PROOF of this. That comes now!

Mr. Armstrong spoke about the gospel of the KINGDOM OF GOD literally hundreds of times in books, booklets, articles, co-worker letters and sermons. He considered this one of the two most vital truths restored to the Church during his ministry—with the GOVERNMENT OF GOD— and said this many times, including more than once in MYSTERY OF THE AGES. But the reader needs to see this constant theme and emphasis for himself. More important, the reader must see Mr. Armstrong did not—EVER!—place Christ within the gospel. You will also notice that he never spoke of witnessing for or professing Jesus, discussed in detail in Chapter Five.

Any subheads from this point forward are Mr. Armstrong’s, as is all emphasis. My comments generally appear in parentheses as author’s notes. Any bold is mine. The early quotes establish two vital points: (1) What Mr. Armstrong said constituted “Christ’s whole gospel” and (2) Christ is never included in his or the Bible’s definition.

Do not speed read. Read everything carefully. You will see there has been no “cherry-picking” quotes. Mr. Armstrong taught that one of the greatest rules of Bible study is to always start with the clearest scriptures on a subject to establish the truth of a doctrine, and to only then look at less clear scriptures. The same should be done with his statements on a doctrine. We should start with the clearest ones, and only then move on to others. We begin with two very short paragraphs five pages apart in MYSTERY OF THE AGES, and two others:

“His gospel is the good news of the now soon-coming KINGDOM OF GOD—the only hope of this world and its mixed-up mankind!”

“His gospel is the MESSAGE he brought mankind from God the Father, the good news of the coming KINGDOM OF GOD! That is the ONE thing above all Satan wants to defeat.”

pp. 51, 56

“Now what Gospel did Jesus preach? He proclaimed the Gospel of THE KINGDOM OF GOD (Mark 1:1, 14-15). Paul preached only the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to gentiles (Acts 28:30-31).”

Co-Worker Letter, January 22, 1982

“Jesus preached a definite Gospel. That and that alone is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a Gospel message about the Kingdom of God—the begotten and finally to be born family of God—a family of divine persons, begotten and finally to be born of God.”

WWN, Recent History of the Philadelphia Era,

June 24, 1985

Let’s pause to make a point. None of these quotes have said that the kingdom of God is “part of” or “most of” or the “key component of” the gospel, but rather always that it IS the gospel. Keep this understanding in mind as you continue to read. In fact, before returning to more statements from Mr. Armstrong, let him make plain himself this point (again, the bold is mine):

“In other words, not one of them knows what spiritual salvation really is, what the KINGDOM OF GOD (Christ’s whole Gospel) really is, WHY God put humanity here on earth: WHAT is our real ultimate human POTENTIAL, or HOW we shall reach it. They know not God’s PURPOSE, nor His MASTER PLAN for working it out. They do not know why we are here, where we are going, or THE WAY. Those are the BIG, MAIN branches of the tree of knowledge. They are the MISSING DIMENSION in knowledge.”

Co-Worker Letter, November 19, 1976

The Story From History

Let’s return to a longer sequence of statements, and allow Mr. Armstrong to complete the big picture. At this point, he adds more to how Satan replaced the truth and injected his COUNTERFEIT gospel:

“I realize that when ministers and evangelists of this world and its organized denominations claiming to have the ‘CHRISTIAN religion’ preach ABOUT CHRIST, urge people to accept Christ, to believe on Christ, to ‘make their decision for Christ,’ etc., that they are ‘preaching the Gospel.’ BUT THAT IS NOT THE GOSPEL! Christ is NOT the Gospel—He was the Messenger who BROUGHT the Gospel! The GOSPEL was the MESSAGE He brought from God, as the MOST IMPORTANT AND SENSATIONAL ANNOUNCEMENT ever made to mankind.”

Co-Worker Letter, July 30, 1973

“What did Jesus say? That many would come in His name, claiming to be His ministers, saying that Jesus was the Christ, and deceiving the MANY. This is what happened. They preached CHRIST, but they DENIED HIS MESSAGE—His GOSPEL! Even the ministry was deceived. The GOSPEL is the MESSAGE God sent for mankind by His Messenger who was Christ.”

“It is THE GOSPEL—Christ’s own Gospel—which points THE WAY to world peace. The Kingdom of God is the GOVERNMENT of God, which soon will replace ALL the governments of ALL nations and bring us world PEACE.”

“But what the world has been deceived into accepting as the Gospel has been preaching a Christ WITHOUT ANY LAW—a different Christ who is supposed to have done away with His Father’s Law. Those who have ‘preached CHRIST’ to the world have said ‘the Law is done away.’ The missionaries have not taught anything in these big Gentile nations about GOD’S LAW. And yet God’s Law is THE WAY that will CAUSE world PEACE!”

“And THAT MESSAGE IS THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD! It is CHRIST’S Gospel, that has NOT been proclaimed before in those nations.”

Co-Worker Letter, October 25, 1973

“The MESSAGE God sent by Christ was the GOSPEL—and that Gospel was the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. It was the Message of the Covenant, which Covenant, as I said, shall establish the KINGDOM OF GOD on earth. The KINGDOM OF GOD is the GOVERNMENT of God which shall rule all nations. But also it is the FAMILY OF GOD into which we may be BORN—the DIVINE FAMILY which becomes a SPIRIT-NATION, ruling all nations on earth—a WORLD-RULING GOVERNMENT!

“Jesus was sent to ANNOUNCE that message—not to force men to accept it, believe it, and act on it. NEVER DID JESUS PLEAD WITH A SINGLE ONE TO BE CONVERTED. He merely announced the GOOD NEWS of the Kingdom of God, and He left it to people to decide whether to believe it and whether to act on it. He did not come THEN to CONVERT the world! He did not start a ‘soul-saving’ crusade—the Protestants did! He came to ANNOUNCE the GOSPEL—the GOOD NEWS of His coming KINGDOM! [Author’s note: No witnessing for or professing Jesus, as only the true eyewitness apostles could—and needed—to do.]

“But people hated His message. Many BELIEVED on Him—realized and BELIEVED He was the Messiah. But they did not believe His message—His Gospel!”

“When the curtain lifts on that ‘LOST CENTURY’ of Church history, the Gospel of the Kingdom of God was no longer preached to the world. Jesus and His apostles had carried on a dual ministry—proclaiming the Kingdom of God and healing the sick. But after that ‘Lost Century’ neither the Gospel of God’s Kingdom nor healing was going out to the world.” [Author’s note: The gospel and healing are listed as separate subjects by Mr. Armstrong.]

“That happened. They claimed to be the ministers of Jesus Christ. They said Jesus was the Christ. They preached CHRIST (the Messenger) to the world, but NOT His message—His Gospel—the Kingdom of God. And they indeed have deceived the MANY—the MILLIONS and hundreds of millions!”

Co-Worker Letter, February 21, 1974

“The Gospel was GOING OUT! These thousands of brethren coming in were either carrying out the Gospel, or backing those who did. And WHAT GOSPEL? The Gospel GOD SENT BY JESUS—the Gospel of the Kingdom of God—which is both the FAMILY of God and the GOVERNMENT of God. (Mark 1:1, 14-15, Acts 1:3, etc., etc.) Philip went to Samaria proclaiming the KINGDOM OF GOD. (Acts 8:5, 12.) Paul proclaimed the KINGDOM OF GOD. (Acts 20:25, 28:23, 31.)”

Co-Worker Letter, March 18, 1974

“Jesus’ prophecy for NOW—our very time now—says, ‘This gospel OF THE KINGDOM shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the END [of the world] come’ (Matt. 24:14). The Church of God was founded in A.D. 31. About A.D. 53 the apostle Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia that they had already turned to ANOTHER Gospel! At that time a fierce controversy arose over whether the gospel to be preached was the gospel OF Christ, or ABOUT Christ. [Author’s note: History is repeating itself. This chapter is proof.] The Gospel OF Christ—that is, the Gospel he proclaimed, was the good news of the Kingdom of God (Mark 1:1, 14-15). That Gospel (or ‘good news’ announcement) was not preached from about A.D. 53 until 1953—a century of 19-year time cycles—when God opened up the most powerful radio station on earth, Radio Luxembourg in Europe, to me.”

Co-Worker Letter, January 15, 1984

“This Work is the direct and one and only fulfillment of the prophecy of Jesus in Matthew 24:14 for this very time: ‘This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the END [of this world] come.’ [Author’s note: Again, the Living Church of God specifically adds witnessing Jesus to Matthew 24:14.] The Gospel of the Kingdom of God is the ONLY true Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the first 20 years of the founding of the true Church in A.D. 31, a fierce controversy arose as to whether the gospel to be preached was the Gospel OF Christ or a gospel ABOUT Christ. A false church rose up, teaching a gospel of false prophets, ABOUT Christ. See II Corinthians 11:3 and 13-15. Also both Jude and John, writing in the 90s A.D., warned of false prophets already changing the truth of the Gospel, and warning brethren to turn back to the true faith once delivered to the saints. Also, Paul wrote the churches in Galatia, about A.D. 53, that they already had turned to ANOTHER gospel.”

“From that time on, a false gospel ABOUT Christ was preached in the name of traditional Christianity, by which (Rev. 12:9) Satan deceived the whole world.”
Co-Worker Letter, April 18, 1984

“But what is the gospel of the kingdom? It is the gospel OF JESUS CHRIST. In Mark 1:1, ‘the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ’ and in Mark 1:14-15, it is ‘the gospel of the KINGDOM OF GOD.’”

“Traditional ‘Christianity’ has been deceived and has deceived the world with a false gospel ABOUT Christ, instead of the gospel OF Christ, which Jesus preached. He was a messenger sent from God with a message, and that message is the GOSPEL. The word gospel means ‘GOOD NEWS.’ It was an ANNOUNCEMENT about the coming kingdom of God—that we can be born into that kingdom, and that kingdom IS the divine FAMILY of God.”

Co-Worker Letter, August 23, 1984

New Testament Kingdom Passages

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