The Kingdom Is Not Here
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Let’s understand more. Since the churches of the world generally believe the kingdom of God is present now in the Person of Christ at work in individual lives, therefore, wherever “Jesus” is spread, in other words wherever people are “led to Jesus Christ,” the kingdom has been advanced. Their strategy then is designed to be inseparable from spreading the popular “social gospel,” which includes addressing problems of every kind around the world to get a foot in the door in order to present—spread—their “Jesus” to the afflicted masses. Of course, both Catholics and Protestants (including every type of modern evangelical Protestant) have been doing this for centuries. The only difference is that the Catholics believe their church is God’s kingdom on Earth. Therefore, they put more emphasis on spreading the church!—with “Jesus” as the vehicle to get people intotheir church, and thus into the “kingdom.”
The Church of God does not preach a kingdom already here. It ANNOUNCES one yet to come. We pray, “Thy kingdom come.” The job of God’s Church is also to WARN about and explain why the punishment coming upon modern Israel—and to do this in the spirit of Isaiah 58:1! Few any longer will address CAUSE and EFFECT—lawand sin—and explain that “love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10), that it is “keeping the commandments” (I John 5:3). While the world wants to address the bad effects through relief organizations and helping disaster victims in order to spread—to “witness”—their “Jesus,” God’s Church is to explain the CAUSE of the world’s evils, ills and troubles—BROKEN SPIRITUAL LAWS!
In addition, recognize that God does not want what are His tithes and offerings, which are designated solely for preaching the true gospel, for warning modern Israel and for feeding Christ’s flock, to be spent directly FIGHTING HIS PURPOSE!
Sloppy Reading
If only God’s people would more carefully read—actually reread from the past—the oft-used by the world, but badly butchered and misunderstood, scriptures supposedly telling people to give to relief efforts for what these passages truly say instead of for what professing Christians of this world, led by Satan, think they mean—and what the apostates told the Church and convinced the splinter and sliver leaders that they mean! I am speaking of scriptures such as Matthew 25:31-46, about helping “brethren,” and Luke 10:25-37, about the good Samaritan. Any number of others are cited and equally misunderstood.
And so few seem to notice.
For instance, look at I John 3:17. It warns against “shutting up one’s bowels of compassion” toward the needs of others. But the whole verse reads, “But whoso has this world’s good, and sees his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him?”
The entire passage turns on the words “brother” and “him.” If one does not understand who is his “brother” and who is not his “brother,” he has no hope of understanding how to apply this verse (and many others). One must first read Romans 8 ALL, starting with Romans 8:9, followed by Romans 8:14, followed, in turn, by Romans 8:29. Then he must turn to and carefully read Hebrews 2:9-12 to remove ALL doubt about who a Christian’s “brethren” are—the exact same people who are brethren TO CHRIST!—or he will never exit the confusing maze of bad theology long trapping the world’s ministers, and now the majority of the splinters. Put another way, if one does not know who and what a Christian is—one led by the Holy Spirit, making him a son of God (Rom. 8:9, 14)—he will not be able to identify his brethren or understand passages such as I John 3:17 or Matthew 25:31-46.
It is these kinds of verses that are so badly mangled and used to assert that Christians should aid disaster victims and support relief organizations.
The Human Perspective
Starting with the assumption that God’s teachings have been ignored or forgotten, and that one is going to merely take the human perspective, it is not difficult to understand how God’s people could so naturally fall back into thinking that they should practice giving after the pattern of the world and its churches, described earlier.
Think of this. Some in the splinters simply cannot stand the pain in their hearts at what they see in the aftermath of a tragedy, calamity or national disaster. Forgetting how the overall plan of God is to play out, the images on television of “innocent suffering” literally become too much for them. Then, like the local or national citizenry around them, going strictly by feelings or impulses that may be terribly troubling them, they feel the need to “do something,” they feel that they have to “help people” in some way so that they are “doing their part.” In short, they fall into the trap of following “a way that seems [feels] right unto a man…” (Prov. 14:12; 16:25). Instead of seeing disasters and calamities as a loving God spanking His disobedient children, and keeping their focus on all that is occurring from God’s point of view, many of God’s people now cave to the world’s approach—completely forgetting what they once believed!
A related category, this one primarily of leaders, but clearly including brethren, consists of those who areembarrassed to not be accepted by the world’s churches or even other splinters because they are not seen to be “doing their part”—or in a church that is doing its part. Surrounded by an environment of millions in the world rallying to help their own—“the dead burying the dead”—it is easy to feel guilt, even tremendous guilt, if one does not also “get involved.” This build-up of pressure to “give” or to “contribute generously” is also fueled by the nonstop reports and media coverage in today’s “24/7” news environment. Weak-kneed splinter leaders are caving to the pressure of the worldly pseudo-love that is bombarding them. Of course, “witnessing,” or even appearing to witness, “Jesus,” as do their evangelical Protestant counterparts, serves to further improve acceptance by Satan’s churches. This can even be done at an unconscious level in leaders who have unknowingly lost the zeal and urgency Mr. Armstrong taught the Church to maintain regarding God’s Work.
A similar problem occurs for the same reason. No longer firmly anchored in God’s view of what is happening, so many just permit basic HUMAN REASONING to take over—and they copy those of the world around them. Similar to getting caught up in “the spirit of Christmas,” the result is many get seduced by the ever-present pull to “help the suffering masses.”
Gone from the thinking are verses in which Christ described that the greatest way to help the needy—“the poor”—is to take the gospel of the kingdom of God (of a coming better world under the God Family) to them. Gone and forgotten are Christ stating that “the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Matt. 11:5) and His reference to “[the Father] has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor” (Luke 4:18) and “to the poor the gospel is preached” (Luke 7:22)—all of these passages replaced with the human feeling that we must “do something”—we must “show love.” Nowhere did Christ instruct the apostles to feed or clothe or build homes for the poor. They were to follow His example by giving to the poor the most important thing they could—the precious knowledge of the KINGDOM OF GOD!
End All Confusion
If you are still confused, I urge you to read our booklet Which Is the True Gospel? Written for those being called now, and who are only familiar with the “Jesus is the gospel” idea, it reflects Mr. Armstrong’s booklet, but expands on usually overlooked passages. Further, I came to see the confusion over what the gospel is had become so great it was necessary to give an extensive series that could bring God’s people back to the truth of this subject of colossal importance. Titled “The Gospel—Kingdom and Christ?”, this is the strongest and clearest series you have heard—or will ever hear—on the subject of the true gospel of the Bible! There may never have been a series so thorough.
In addition, an extensive extra document about the gospel has been prepared for those in LCG. It is available on the “Understanding the WCG Apostasy & ‘Splinters’” page of our website. It carefully details the multiple errors in what that organization labels as the gospel. But certain of its key elements and quotes have been included in Chapters Four and Five here.
Both the booklet and sermons cover a great many New Testament passages further explaining and proving how the apostles preached the role of Christ only in conjunction with the kingdom of God. Both of these will make plain how they taught the role of the true Jesus Christ alongside the gospel of the KINGDOM—not as something part of it.
You should not be in confusion about what the Bible makes so plain. If you are uncertain when you start the booklet and series, and possibly the special document referenced, you will not be when you finish! You will also better understand the tragedy of how so many have forgotten so much. And you will see that with very salvation at stake, God would never—and could never—permit the smallest doubt to remain regarding exactlywhat gospel His people must believe!
But human beings naturally forget…
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