What Mr. Armstrong Taught
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Many today may not know that Mr. Armstrong spoke often in the early years about the purpose—the COMMISSION—of the Church, and therefore whether it was to participate in and contribute to relief organizations and efforts to aid disaster victims, whether it was to be part of programs to fix or assist this world or to announce a better world to come, and whether it was a “charity,” per se.
Here are just two statements. The first one identifies exactly what the Church IS—and is NOT. (All emphasis Mr. Armstrong’s):
“I reply, first of all, the WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD is NOT a ‘charitable trust.’ It is NOT a public CHARITY! It is a CHURCH!”
“WHAT IS a CHARITY—in the public sense? Webster’s dictionary defines it: ‘Charity: an institution engaged in relief of the poor; public provision for the relief of the needy.’
“WHAT IS a CHURCH? Jesus Christ said, ‘I will build my Church.’ The CHURCH was built by JESUS CHRIST—not by the public! The first place the word ‘church’ appears in the Bible is quoted above from Matthew 16:18. In Acts 2:47, ‘The Lord added to the church daily.’ It is that Body of believers to which THE LORD adds members! The Church is the spiritual organism (NOT a secular or political or public ORGANIZATION). The CHURCH is subject to Christ—not to the political attorney general of California!”
“Jesus Christ built His CHURCH on the FOUNDATION of the apostles and prophets, JESUS CHRIST Himself being the chief corner stone (Eph. 2:20).
“What is the function, PURPOSE, great commission of the Church? Jesus said, ‘Go ye into ALL THE WORLD and preach the Gospel’ (Mark 16:15).
“The CHURCH is NOT a public CHARITY or a ‘CHARITABLE TRUST.’”
Co-Worker and Brethren Letter, July 28, 1980
It is impossible to miss the intent of Mr. Armstrong’s statement. Of course, churches in America and other western nations do generally enjoy “charity” status, thus permitting their members a tax deduction for tithes, offerings and donations. But this is different from strictly being a charity.
The next quote is one of the longest I have included in any of the splinter literature. This is because there is no way to break the context without losing some vital parts of its message. It is very comprehensive, and powerfully addresses the BIG PICTURE in explaining what men and governments try to do in calamities—with churches and charitable foundations often connected to churches almost invariably the spearhead—but why they have no hope of success. Mr. Armstrong leaves no ambiguity about the responsibility of Christ’s Church—and precisely where he understood that responsibility STOPPED! As you read, notice how many elements of what has been explained in this section that Mr. Armstrong addresses:
“We saw native Chinese living natively as the Chinese masses have for centuries. We saw degenerated wretchedness, squalor, filth, ignorance and poverty beyond description. Words can’t fill your nostrils with the smells. We saw hundreds upon hundreds of the rickety wretched sampans—small sailboats—on which whole families live. Many have been born, lived a lifetime and then died on one of these dirty filthy sampans without ever having stepped on land. We saw dingy, dilapidated, old six- and eight-story apartment buildings, without elevators, where large families live in one or two small bare rooms—thousands of dirty, decrepit, decaying shacks.
“Leaving Hong Kong, we flew over Vietnam. But we made stops at Bangkok, Thailand (Siam); Bombay, India; and Tehran, Iran (Persia). The pitiful, poverty-stricken, diseased, starving people in these populous areas of the world beggar description. One sees people begging food, starving, dying, right in the streets. Starving mothers trying to nurse emaciated babies which have little chance of living. IT MADE US SICK AT HEART!
“What could we do to help these pitiful, miserable people?”
“Of course, in all these countries, there are the upper classes—but they are the small minority. I want to tell you that it was driven forcibly into my consciousness how most of you, here in prosperous America—as well as our readers in Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Europe—have NO CONCEPTION of how more than HALF of all the people on earth are living—in half-starved and starving squalor, filth, stench, and degenerated ignorance. Did I say living? No, not really living—eking out a miserable, degenerated, and probably disease ridden existence!
“WHAT could we do to help them?
“Authorities in Hong Kong have a program for improving conditions. The United States is sending wheat, food, clothing, and hundreds of millions of dollars in relief to India and other such countries. Yet this is hardly a drop in a bucket. It isn’t going to solve the problem of human degeneration, ignorance and misery. All the nauseating filth and degradation remains.
“But honestly—wouldn’t you like to help CHANGE all this? I WOULD!
“When you are right there—when you are SEEING it with your own eyes—yes, and smelling the stench, it becomes REAL! You are filled with mingled disgust and compassion. You want to DO something about it—but you can’t.
“And yet WE CAN! And WE WILL! But not in our own power.
“With all of man’s efforts, this problem can’t be solved…No matter what we try to do for them, in our human strength and wisdom, they are going to remain illiterate, diseased, filthy, indolent, poverty-stricken, degenerate. WE can’t change their status, NOW. But it will be changed—and SOON:
“The Almighty GOD—and He ONLY—has the solution. He has sent me and those associates who with me are Co-Workers with the living Jesus Christ to proclaim to the whole world the GOOD NEWS that the TIME is just ahead—now, just a VERY FEW years: That GOOD NEWS is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the GOOD NEWS of divine INTERVENTION, of restoring the GOVERNMENT OF GOD—of the coming again to earth of Jesus Christ, this time in all the SUPREME POWER and the GLORY of the living GOD: He is coming to RULE! He is coming to RESTORE what has been taken away—PEACE, HEALTH, HAPPINESS, UNIVERSAL PROSPERITY.
“But NOW?
“A famous evangelist was asked if there was any solution to this world’s mounting tragic ills. He answered, ‘Yes! JESUS CHRIST!’ But if one interprets that to mean by your ‘receiving Christ’ by merely professing Him as Saviour—well, that is NOT the way the world’s wars, crime, diseases, poverty and unhappiness are going to be abolished. It will take more than just your professing Christ…”
“But the Gospel OF Jesus Christ is not merely man’s preaching ABOUT Christ—about the babe in a manger—about a dead Christ hanging on a cross. The Gospel OF Christ is the dynamic Message Christ BROUGHT and TAUGHT His chosen disciples. It is the GOOD NEWS of the KINGDOM OF GOD! And the KINGDOM of God is the GOVERNMENT—the RULE by divine force and power over all the nations of the earth.
“And when I saw all that indescribable human wreckage, degeneration, filth and wretchedness—and thought of the present efforts of human governments that are making no noticeable change—I was simultaneously OVERJOYED at the realization that the living Jesus Christ IS very soon going to return in ALMIGHTY POWER and DYNAMICALLY CHANGE this world!
“HOW?…There is a CAUSE for every effect.
“This world, in ignorance of right CAUSES, travels THE WAY to war, strife, violence, sickness and disease, unhappiness, frustrations, emptiness, and death. Then it TREATS WITH THE RESULT, vainly attempting to remove the PENALTIES of inexorable physical and spiritual LAWS.
“In THE WORLD TOMORROW, first of all, blinded minds will be OPENED to a KNOWLEDGE of God’s PURPOSE in placing human life on this earth. They will be led to REPENT. They will be governed—forced to turn around, and begin pursuing THE WAY into peace, prosperity, health, and the full, abundant, enjoyable, interesting, HAPPY life.
“Secondly, by divine power, Jesus Christ will CHANGE human nature! Human nature, blinded to the true values and ways, deceived into following the ways of strife, war, jealousy, envy, greed, hatred—the ways of vanity and self-centeredness—is the root CAUSE of the world’s ills.
“In a word, the living Christ will cure the CONDITION by dealing with the CAUSE, instead of foolishly and vainly striving to prevent the natural and spiritual LAWS from inflicting their inexorable penalties.
“The very knowledge that this is coming very soon is the greatest GOOD NEWS in the world today!
“And so, in the midst of the degradation, stench and human wretchedness, I was simply OVERJOYED by the absolute ASSURANCE that this pitiful state of affairs will not last much longer—a VERY FEW years at most!
“And I was DOUBLY overjoyed at the realization that my Co-Workers and I have been DRAFTED to become Co-Workers with the living CHRIST who is the DIRECTING HEAD of the very Work of God, in which we are privileged to be His human instruments!
“This world’s tragic and supposedly unsolvable problems WILL BE solved—and SOON! Not by man—but in spite of man’s rebellion! There IS hope—hope that is a CERTAINTY! The living God IS working out HIS PURPOSE here below! There IS design—so tremendous that the actual potentiality of man is transcendentally beyond anything the natural mind can comprehend! Soon blinded minds will be opened to that REALITY!
“This very soon-coming WORLD TOMORROW is going to drastically affect YOUR life! And very happily so!
“Who are we—who proclaim the BIG NEWS of the WORLD TOMORROW on the most powerful radio program on earth, worldwide? Who are we who publish The PLAIN TRUTH, read by two and a half million all around the world? Who are we that operate the three beautiful, cultural campuses of AMBASSADOR COLLEGE in California, Texas and England—where students scintillate, radiate happiness, enjoy a foretaste of the World Tomorrow? We are a voice in the wilderness of ignorance, deception, frustrations and lost hopes, preparing the way for the coming of Christ and the Kingdom of God. We are a light in the darkness, realizing fully that men, as in Jesus’ day, still love darkness rather than the light—but proclaiming the TRUTH as a witness, none-the-less, in spite of opposition, persecution and false accusation.
“WHAT A PRIVILEGE! Yes, we are painfully aware of the pitiful conditions of so much of suffering humanity—we are heartsick and moved with sorrow and deep compassion. Yet we are PRIVILEGED to herald, in the power of the living GOD, the GOOD NEWS of the deliverance and healing of these wretched peoples, thus helping SPEED that day—helping in the only way humans may help, now. And so we REJOICE and are OVERJOYED also!
“Many times, in these Semi-Annual letters, I have answered the questions we are always being asked: WHO is back of us?—WHO sponsors us?—What denomination are we?—‘What’s the catch?’—etc., etc. There is no ‘catch.’ We are not denominational, even as Jesus Christ was not. This great worldwide Work of God is sponsored only by the LIVING GOD, who some mixed-up, deceived and ignorant people seem to think is dead. It is conducted HIS WAY. There is nothing else on earth like it—and that’s why we do have some persecutors—but we never persecute in return!
“We have been blessed with TRUTH and UNDERSTANDING that is bringing undreamed-of happiness and well-being to uncounted thousands. We want to SHARE the blessed TRUTH and all these blessings from God with as many as desire it. We rely solely on the living GOD for guidance, direction and support. We never solicit the public for financial help. We have nothing to sell. Incredible? Yes, but that’s the way it is!
Plain Truth subscriber letter, June 2, 1966
Mr. Armstrong recognized that God’s Church offers the most important assistance!—aid!—relief!—of all, that of RIGHT KNOWLEDGE and TRUE UNDERSTANDING—the TRUTH!—of why the world’s problems, troubles, evils and ills. He knew of the three passages in which Christ said that the poor of the world were to be given the gospel. (One verse is repeated from Isaiah.) He never considered for a moment that the Worldwide Church of God should involve itself in the world’s “social gospel,” which, again, essentially seeks to fix this world, in addition to bringing what we have seen is “another Jesus.” (We will revisit a little later, in this chapter and the next, more of what Mr. Armstrong taught about the social gospel.)
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