Why Did Mr. Armstrong Not Know?
Back to The Work of God
By now you realize Mr. Armstrong did not teach the things of the second half of this chapter. Why? If, as the Elijah, he ;restored all things to God’s Church, if he laid the foundation, built and plumbed the Church, why was he not shown the meaning of such an all-important prophecy?
By now you also recognize that many today worship Mr. Armstrong, and that these will probably never accept anything as truth unless it came from his lips first. While no leader alive today, me included, has the authority to overturn anything that he taught—things that God’s people should have proven long ago to be true doctrine—God has made it necessary, on a few occasions, to ADD to what Mr. Armstrong taught. I repeat, this is because ;subsequent events opened the path to vital, necessary new knowledge or understanding. In every case, this has been in areas that did not apply to Christ’s command to ;Go…and teach all nations, baptizing them…teaching them to observe all things (Matt. 28:19-20), which is, in turn, connected to the ;all things that were ;restored under Mr. Armstrong (Matthew 17:11). Rather, the occasional new knowledge or understanding that has come involves truths that the final generation of God’s people would need to know before Christ’s Return, to correctly render the biggest personal decisions of their lives! Finally, Mr. Armstrong could not restore what the original apostles never knew or taught about measure the Temple because the book of Revelation had not been recorded.
Consider several points.
First, you must make yourself come to grips with the fact that Mr. Armstrong simply never taught the meaning of Revelation 11:1-2. He just never did. It either was not on his mind, or if it was, he saw no need to address it. If God had wanted him to explain it, that would have happened. If you can accept this much, you can learn the reason this prophecy has only now been revealed and explained.
Next, recognize that until the prophecy had become imminent, there was no need to understand it. Recall that Christ said the things revealed in Revelation would ;shortly come to pass because ;the time is at hand. Twenty, thirty or fifty years before certain events occur is in some cases simply too early. In the case of this prophecy, during those preceding years, the Temple of God was being ;founded, ;built and ;plumbed, notMEASURED. Only as the years grew closer to this time, would the need arise to understand Revelation 11:1-2!
Also, knowing too early would have made the difficult decisions facing God’s people at the end much too easy. There would have been no need to seek, reprove and fight to retain the truth, no need to pass the continuing test of false leaders—both the apostates and the splinter leaders who followed them—and no need in the same way for faith, patience, diligent study or careful examination of fruits to determine where Christ is leading His government today—and connected to this, no need to discern where His Work is being done and where He is actively building God’s Temple. God knew that all of these points His people could—and should!—have remembered on their own, with no need at any earlier point to understand measuring the Temple to make that possible!
Similarly, God did not reveal from Mr. Armstrong’s lips who the final, true leader of His Church would be after the apostasy because there would have been no test if He did. (When in the New Testament era did God ever reveal in advance who His next leader would be?) Again, everything would have been too easy. No searching and proving would have been required. Similar to the mindset of the thousands in PCG who believe they follow ;That Prophet, the thinking would have been ;just follow this (designated) man and protection is secured. This would have turned God’s people into so many robots—mere Catholics—who believe that they must only follow their pope to be saved, without much concern for correct beliefs or anything else.
Your Concern
Finally, realize that God would have to send a man at the right moment, after Mr. Armstrong’s time, but before the age ended, to explain this crucially important prophecy—and a few others!
He did this!
Just as someone had to explain the identity of the 144,000, the meaning and time of the ;short work, the actual fulfillment of ;prophesy again, how the Great Multitude and Israelite Remnant mesh, how to anoint the eyes to escape Laodicea, exactly what happens at the moment God’s people are ;taken to the Place of Safety, among a few related points of knowledge, make yourself recognize and ACCEPT that someone had to be sent(the literal meaning of the highest New Testament office) to correctly teach ;measure the temple of God!
This happened! A messenger was sent to explain critical matters!
You are counseled to concern yourself with the meaning of the prophecy, not why Mr. Armstrong did not teach it! You are also counseled to not let smugness defeat you—to be willing to deeply examine your condition. And you are further counseled to focus on GOD’S MASTER PLAN—strategic and operational—for finishing His Work, and whether you will support it…
Back to The Work of God