Sermon (October 1983)

by Herbert W Armstrong

Greetings once again, brethren! It’s been three–let’s see, one, two–three weeks since I spoke to you here and two weeks ago I spoke to about one thousand brethren in England, and two weeks ago I spoke to quite a group of our own people who are working over in Jordan. They all gathered together in my apartment in the hotel and we had a wonderful Sabbath together. While we were in Copenhagen the thought came up, in a discussion with Mr. Hogberg and Aaron–for the minute I can’t think of his last name–I tell you some day the census-taker’s going to come wanting to know what my name is and I’ll tell him “I can’t remember!” Aaron Dean–I don’t know why names won’t come to me. Something just stops it just before it comes out!

Anyway, we were discussing a question that came to my mind: “What is the only real value of a human life?” The only real value. Now, when you stop to think about it, there can be no more important subject than that. What is the only real value of any human life? And a discussion came, and I want to speak on that subject this afternoon because there is no subject more important.

Why is a human life of more value than an animal life? A horse, a cow, a dog, an elephant; a human life has so much more value. Jesus even spoke about that and of how much more value is a human. God takes care of even little sparrows, but of how much more value are we? Do we ever think about the value, the real worth, of a human life?

You know when someone is very elderly, and for some reason the mind is no longer active, and they’re just like a vegetable–they are totally unconscious. Not many years ago a neighbor right across the avenue over here on South Orange Grove, Mrs. Wrigley, in the Wrigley mansion, was lying there as a vegetable. She never regained consciousness. They knew she never would. But they tried desperately to keep her heart beating and to keep that vegetable just going on living. And they think that this life is the only life.

Now Mr. Hogberg mentioned to you the Princess coming up that evening; and we were talking about these crippled children, and it did touch us. You talk about things touching your heart. Well, we saw dozens of crippled children all on wheelchairs. Now just dozens of wheelchairs and children having to go back and probably will have to spend the rest of their lives on a wheelchair. Can’t walk, can’t get up and run and play like other children. It’s a pitiful thing.

So there was that school, and then there’s the other school of the mentally handicapped. And I was so glad to see the progress that has been taken in the last two years, since we’ve been concerned with that school of the mentally handicapped. Their minds are actually improving, and one has come along and come to the place where he actually now is employed and has a job. And we’ve sent our own people over there to institute for them and aid with them in instituting another school in connection with it–a more advanced school, an occupational school, of teaching them occupations. That is, they take children from about 3 years old (We saw one or two new children only about 3 years old that had just come in.) up to about 12 or 13. Well, then what do they do? Now, our own people have seen that, and presented that to them and we are working with them to produce, now, an occupational school, so that from age 13 they are being taught how to be useful and earn their own living. But those things do touch you.

And I was speaking to the Princess that night about the value of a human life; and she made this remark: “Well, after all, we have to do what we can for them because, you know, there’s only the one life and that’s all and then it’ll be all over.” And, you know, I had to correct her. I said, “Every one of those children is going to be alive and walking and living again.” She looked so strange at me. I explained a little bit; but I don’t know whether the Truth actually soaked in, or not.

It is so STRANGE to the world, the real Truth! The world is in darkness and it DOES NOT UNDERSTAND THE TRUTH. THE WORLD DOES NOT UNDERSTAND THE VALUE OF A HUMAN LIFE. It doesn’t understand WHAT a human life IS! THE WORLD KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT THE GOD WHO PRODUCED A HUMAN LIFE. NOT ONE RELIGION KNOWS WHO AND WHAT GOD IS! THEY DON’T KNOW, except God’s own Church. And God has sent us to bring a light into the world–a world that is in darkness, intense, deep, black darkness.

It doesn’t know what and why a human being is! How do we come to be here on the earth? WHY do human beings inhabit the earth? Why are we of more value than an animal? People just don’t know. They know what their eyes see in front of them. They know today they have an automobile; a hundred years ago they didn’t have anything like that. Today their minds are on things like that. Their minds are on what they see on the television screen. Their minds are mostly on being amused and entertained today. Of the Creator who thought it all out and who planned and designed them and produced them and gave us what life we have, which is only a temporary existence: they don’t even know that. You’re living in a world of darkness.

Now humanists and certain psychologists will talk about developing the hidden powers and resources within you– the “god” that is in you. And the only god they know is the god that’s supposed to be your own self, within you. “Develop your latent powers within” and that is the psychology of this world; and it’s all vanity: “Develop yourself; exalt the self; think of how great you are.” Now human life, let me say, is infinitesimally less valuable of itself, just of itself, and at the same time is INCREDIBLY of greater value than the most highly-educated people in this world have any conception or understanding. A HUMAN LIFE, SO FAR AS THEY KNOW, AND THE PART THEY KNOW ABOUT IT, is of infinitesimally LESS VALUE THAN THEY THINK.

Now think that over a while. You probably never thought of that before. Think that statement over. On the other hand, a HUMAN LIFE (if you understand it) POTENTIALLY IS OF INCREDIBLY GREATER VALUE than anything they ever remotely dreamed. Because they don’t know what it is, or what it is IN or about a human life that makes it different, that makes it of VALUE.

Now GOD has REVEALED IT! Real Truth is revealed. You know, Jesus Christ said: ”I thank thee, Father in heaven, [speaking to God: the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob] these things are hidden from the wise and prudent [they don’t understand] and yet they are revealed to babes” if they will be babes in understanding and come to God and let God reveal the Truth. Truth is revealed. You never can think it out yourself. Real Truth you can’t see with your eyes; real Truth you can’t hear with your ears. Now how does knowledge get into your mind? Only through those two senses and the sense of feel and touch or of smelling, and of tasting. There’s no other way that knowledge comes into your mind.

To really understand, Truth has to be revealed. And it’s been revealed ever since God had Moses start writing that book we call the Holy Bible. It’s all there. Of course, it wasn’t all written by Moses. That was the start. It was written by many different writers over a period of many centuries and many hundreds of years. And yet there is not one contradiction anywhere and every Truth shows it came from the same mind; all the way through it all came from the same mind.

There’s a great MISSING DIMENSION in knowledge today. We have our great universities, our schools of learning, and one of the greatest university presidents of our time, who was president here in 1960s up at the University of California at Berkeley, said that the university (the modern university today) is actually a factory. You know, that was rather new: A university, a factory? We think of a factory as the place that, well, perhaps makes automobiles.

Or like Mr. Hogberg was explaining to you, we were down at the factory producing the new Gulf Stream III airplane. Now that’s quite a large factory. I just wondered if you got one idea, while he was describing that–these different parts scattered around; they weren’t all just scattered right around within two or three steps of one another: it was quite a large factory and one part was in one part of the factory, another part way over in another part of the factory, a good many steps away. It’s quite a large factory, and I was amazed at how many parts go into an airplane! It’s absolutely amazing! Most of it, you just see the outside. You don’t realize what goes inside to make that plane (like a great big house). And it goes up in the air, and travels so swiftly–over 600 miles an hour–getting us from one part of this earth to another.

So Truth is revealed. There’s a missing dimension in knowledge, and it’s missing from ALL education in the universities. The REAL knowledge, they know not. They simply do not know. They know materialism. They know about things of matter, things that can be seen, tasted, smelled, or heard. But you don’t see spirit, and you can’t hear spirit; you can’t taste it or smell it. And so they know nothing about spirit; and they deny that there is any such thing. The most important Truth has been restored to this Church, and God has used me to restore a great deal of it to you.

He was speaking in the sermonette, Mr. Hogberg was, about light and how even Mayor Teddy Kollek (Was it Mayor Kollek, or was it Mr. Moshe Kohl?) who said that I had brought light to the world. Well, if God has brought light through me and, of course, it was God who did it if it was light. I was just thinking: someone said that most important thing that God had brought to me was what I’m going to explain to you this afternoon. Well, I’m not so sure, because other very important bits of knowledge have come, that the world doesn’t understand.

First is the spirit in man. That is not understood at all in any university in all of the knowledge being disseminated. Now what is a school or a university? We start in little first grade schools teaching people to read and write when they’re about six years old; and we go all the way up to the great universities. And I pictured it, as I’ve said many times before, as a lot of pupils sitting at their desks in a classroom and a funnel stuck in each head; and a teacher goes around just pouring ready-made, so-called knowledge into their heads.

Now in the sermonette last night I think you heard there is a way that seems right. No, I guess that was in a sermonette this morning. “T here is a way that seems right to a man, the end thereof are the ways of death.” What seems right to a man is not always right, or true; and the knowledge being disseminated is far from the real Truth. But people know and believe just what’s BEEN STUFFED IN THEIR MINDS by other people. AND WHERE DID THE OTHER PEOPLE GET IT? Well, they sort of thought it out; and there’s every CRACKPOT RELIGION AND EVERY CRAZY IDEA IN THE WORLD about what man is, why we’re here, what life is, about any kind of knowledge. And this world knows almost nothing.

Now there is a spirit in man. I’m going to say more about that later. But is that more important than the fact that the True Gospel has been restored? JESUS CHRIST CAME WITH A GOSPEL. WHAT DOES “GOSPEL” MEAN? It means “Good News.” And Jesus Christ came as a newscaster. He brought news. Now, we think of news as something that already happened. That isn’t “news.” That’s “olds!” You should call that “olds.” It’s already old, it’s already happened. He brought NEWS that hadn’t happened yet. It was an announcement for the future: the Kingdom of God. It hasn’t come yet, but it’s on the way. And we, brethren, are part of that Kingdom of God in embryo. We’re only the embryo. We haven’t hardly become a fetus yet; let alone being born as a human from that point of view, if you understand how I’m speaking.

Then another bit of very important knowledge is the fact that God is reproducing Himself. The World doesn’t know that! NO RELIGION KNOWS THAT. JUDAISM DOESN’T KNOW THAT! MOSES KNEW IT. IT’S IN THE BIBLE–AND THEY HAVE THE BIBLE BUT THEY DON’T SEE IT THERE. THEIR EYES ARE BLINDED AND THEY CAN’T SEE IT. IT’S IN THEIR OWN BIBLE AND THEY DON’T SEE IT. PROTESTANTS have the Old Testament and the New Testament. There’s a lot of knowledge there. And they’re blind. They read right over it. They don’t see it. It’s plain. It’s simple. It’s not difficult. They try to make something complicated and difficult out of it. They just don’t understand, because their minds are not willing to understand. That’s why. They close their minds up like a clam. “Don’t disturb me; I’m asleep; I don’t want to know; don’t wake me up; I just want to go on like I am.” (Like you’re in a dream, and you don’t want to wake up.)

Restoring the Gospel was one thing; the fact that God is reproducing Himself; and then the Government of God has been restored. People don’t know anything about God’s government, and that has to do with the coming Kingdom of God: a government that will rule the whole world and bring us peace at last–and there will be world peace and in our time. And I tell people that; they think I’m a little bit off in the upper story. They think I don’t know what I’m talking about because they’re living in darkness, and they simply don’t understand.

I’m having to write very large things; and still I can hardly read it, my eyesight is getting so bad. Oh yes, one other thing that the world doesn’t understand, that has been restored; and that’s the subject I’m writing a book on now: This world is held captive. A WORLD HELD CAPTIVE! You know, we’ve been reading a great deal about hijacking of airplanes lately; and the passengers are hostages. They’re held captive. Do you know that this whole world has been kidnapped and that this whole world is held CAPTIVE? And the world doesn’t understand that.

The world assumes this is God’s world, and it isn’t God’s world at all. Moses wrote it: the first chapter of Genesis and the second chapter and the third chapter of Genesis, especially in the third chapter. It’s held captive by a great former super-archangel, or a cherub, called–his original name was Lucifer–and he became known as Satan the Devil. And he kidnapped the one that God put on this earth in the first place, and we are all just his children. We’re his family. He was a human being. We’re the human family, and we’re all the children of our original parent. He was our original human father, Adam. And it’s all right there; it’s in the Bible. It’s plain. It’s simple. They read it. But the preachers, the priests, the rabbis have never explained it. And so the PEOPLE DON’T UNDERSTAND IT BECAUSE THEIR MINDS ARE CLOSED LIKE CLAMS, AND THEY WON’T OPEN THEIR MINDS TO UNDERSTAND.

Yes, it’s a world held captive; and it’s SATAN’S WORLD, NOT GOD’S WORLD. AND IT COULD ONLY BE HELD THAT WAY IF GOD DIDN’T ALLOW IT. And it’s not going to be held captive much longer. So we can get back to that song that’s been composed by Ross Jutsum, “It Won’t Be Long Now.” It won’t be long now until the world will be held captive no longer–until the great Messiah will come and will rule all the world and will set the captives free, and we’ll come to a different way of living.

Why has the Truth been revealed to us? Well, perhaps I should say, “I don’t entirely know.” I know God dealt with me first, because He did use me to start it off; and He’s used all of you then, too. But He started at least this modern era of God’s Church through me. And somehow He took away all the prosperity that I’d had financially and economically after I’d had real prosperity. I’d been quite successful. He took that all away, and He beat me down, and He made me willing. And then He challenged me. And it was the hardest thing I ever had to admit: how wrong I had been. But my eyes came to be opened. He made me willing. I can’t take credit for that! I would never have been willing of myself. It’s not from any goodness of mine that I became willing to let Him reveal the Truth to me. It’s all His doing. But He did make me willing.

And I was challenged. First I was challenged on the doctrine of evolution. That has become, in a sense, the god of the world. Of course, in another way, Satan is the god of the world. But Satan’s used this doctrine of evolution to deceive the world–the intellectual and the educated world. As I studied evolution I began to wonder “Does God exist?” because if you believe evolution, you can’t believe in a real, personal God–because it is the atheist’s explanation of the presence of the creation without any Creator. No Creator thought it out, designed it, planned it, produced it, brought it into being. The watch I have here: no one thought it out, no one planned it, no one made it, it just made itself. The metals came out of the earth; and they put themselves together, and put themselves in this form and shape, and started themselves running. I guess they just put themselves on my wrist! According to that theory–it’s just as nonsensical to believe it that way!

So why was the Truth revealed now–to us, and to this Church? I began to realize I’d never proved whether there was a God; and I said, “Now I’ve gotta know! I’m not even going to believe in the existence of God unless I find it PROVED!” I had to DIS-prove evolution first, and I had to prove how false that theory is. Not just believe it is, not just think in my own mind “Oh, well, I believe it’s going to be.” Making my mind to believe it’s false. I proved it absolutely. There is no evidence whatsoever that is real evidence. And then I had to prove that God does exist. The next thing I had to prove is that God has communicated and revealed Truth to us.

And I had to prove whether the Bible was the book by which He does that revealing. And I PROVED it. I came to know that it is ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY. And the Bible speaks with authority if people would only believe it. It’s not complicated; it’s not difficult to believe. But people have been taught something else. And I tell people what the Bible says and say, “See…” “That isn’t what I’ve been taught. No, I can’t accept that!” “No? Well, there it is in the Bible. Read it for yourself!” And they’re “Yeah, I know. I read it. But I can’t accept that. That’s not what I’ve been taught!”

YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE WHAT SOME OTHER PERSON TAUGHT YOU? SOME OTHER RELIGION? SOME OTHER ORGANIZATION? WHAT ABOUT THESE religious organizations in the world? What are all these religions? WHAT ABOUT ALL THESE NATIONS, all the other kinds of organizations in the human society–where did they COME FROM? The world doesn’t know. You were born in such a world, and you just take it all for granted. That’s what has been going on.

I had to prove that the Bible was the Word of God. But I discovered as I went on that the Bible is coded. It’s a coded book. I’ve explained so many times how one government sends a message to their own ambassador in another country, but the message is coded. Now if we send a message through the State Department at Washington to the United States ambassador in Moscow, we know that the Russians are going to get that message; and they’re going to read it. But it’s coded so the Russians won’t understand a word of what it says when they do read it! But it’s coded in such a way that the United States ambassador is going to be able to un-code it and read it and understand it.

You know, the Bible is like that. And there’s ONE THING that un-codes it so you can understand it, and that is surrender to God, which results in God giving you His Spirit to unite with your spirit in your mind. And then you can begin to understand the Bible because the Bible is concerned with spiritual knowledge, and spirit is not something that occupies space and has weight. We define matter, and in the universities they will tell you that matter is something that occupies space and has weight. Look in a dictionary, and you’ll find that definition. Spirit does not have weight, and spirit cannot be seen. Gravity has no effect on it. You can’t hear it, and you can’t smell it, and you can’t taste it. And so the average person can’t do anything about it–except by revelation from God. And I found that God would reveal it and would give His Holy Spirit to whom? Who? The Holy Spirit, the Bible says, ”which God has given to them that obey Him.” Only to those that obey God, and most people don’t want to obey God. They don’t want to do it.

I had to come to the place where I was willing to admit how wrong I had been. I had to come to the place I had to admit how wrong I WAS–and everything about me. I had to get all the vanity out of my head. I thought I was a pretty important cock-of-the-walk as a young man, because I’d been successful in my twenties–when I was a young man.

Well, now the answer to the question: What is the one, sole, real value of a human life? Why is it more valuable than a sparrow for example, or a horse, or a cow, or an elephant? The SOLE VALUE OF A HUMAN LIFE LIES IN THE HUMAN SPIRIT COMBINED with the human brain. Now think that over. No scientist understands that because he doesn’t believe there is any such thing.

All right, let’s go back to see what Moses wrote:

Genesis 1:1In the beginning God created the heavens [It should be plural, and is in the Hebrew.] and the earth.

But the word for God that Moses wrote was not “God.” That’s an English word. It’s been translated into English. Moses wrote it in the Hebrew, “Elohim.” And Elohim means “more than one”. The ”-im” pluralizes it–Gods, more than one. And it is more than one because in verse 26 this “Gods” said:

Genesis 1:26 Let US make man in our image after our likeness.

Didn’t say, “Let Me.” Not one person. “Let Us.” WHY? Ask the Hebrew scholars, who study Hebrew, “WHY IS IT PLURAL? WHY DOES IT SAY ‘US’?” And they can’t answer you because they don’t know who and what God is!

Now, we look to the second chapter of Genesis and verse 7; and it says that:

Genesis 2:7God formed man [Now He designed man and planned him first. And then He had to form him.] of the dust of the ground.

Now man was formed out of what? Spirit? No! He didn’t form man out of spirit. He formed man of the dust of the ground. That’s plain matter that occupies space and has weight. Just that simple!

Genesis 2:7 And man [Now that’s the dust of the ground, remember.] became a soul.

Then the dust of the ground is a soul, and a soul came from the dust of the ground, and a soul is NOT SPIRIT. But the devil came along. You see God had said, “If you eat that forbidden fruit you will, surely will die!” In other words, “You don’t have everlasting life. You have a limited existence. And, if you take the wrong fruit, you will die. If you take the Tree of Life (which was offered to him in the garden of Eden), you shall live and have everlasting life.”

“If you take the other tree…” Adam had to make a choice. And God said he would die–that he was not immortal. He was not an immortal soul, but a plain mortal soul. And the soul you see in the first chapter of Genesis. Let’s see. Is it three or four times? Animals are referred to as “nephesh” the same way. The Hebrew word is “nephesh.” But when it came to man the translators translating into the English language translated it “soul.” When the same Hebrew word “nephesh” was used to describe animals (cattle, for example), they translated it “creature.” And we think of them as creatures, and not human. Well, then man became a living creature same as animals, or animals became a living soul the same as man–whichever English word you want to translate it in.

Man then–the soul–is made from the dust of the ground. Now the Bible reveals there is a spirit in man, in Job, for example, the thirty-second chapter and verse 8: “There is a spirit in man.” And then you go on over to verse 18 in the same chapter, and it says that ”the spirit in me constrains me” (impels me, moves me). There’s a spirit, then, in the soul; and the soul is made of matter, material. Spirit is not material.

Now let me explain something right here. I don’t know that I’ve ever explained this to you before, brethren. So listen. Matter… I may have explained this, and you should know this anyway. Matter can be present in three states. It can be in the solid state–like this table, this magnifying glass, a microphone, a solid chunk of ice. Now you take a solid chunk of ice and at a certain degree of heat, you get above 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and it becomes liquid; and we call it water. That’s into a different state now. It’s the same thing, but it’s in a different form and state. It’s in the state of water. It’s liquid, and it will pour. Ice won’t pour. Now you put it in a still higher heat, above 212 Fahrenheit; and it begins to become a gas. In other words, steam. It goes up in the air, and that is a gaseous form. Air is a gas. From that point of view, it’s one of the gasses. Matter can be present in those states.

Now spirit can be present in two different states. I don’t think I’ve ever explained this before, so listen carefully. Spirit can be present in the, let’s say, the, what’s the word I usually use? Like an essence: like water, or like air. Air is an essence. Water is an essence. You can pour water. Air you can push and funnel and one thing and another, or you can go through it. Now spirit can be like that. God spoke about “pouring out” His Spirit. Jesus talked of the Spirit of God as living waters–that are living waters–flowing. That’s essence. That’s not something solid. Now spirit can also be present in a form of an actual personal being. God made spirits, or angels; and angels are composed of spirit. And each angel is an individual personality–an individual being, and not just some essence.

Now the spirit in man is more of an essence. It is not a ghost. It is not another person inside of you at all. The spirit in you does not have a mind of its own at all. The spirit in you can’t think. It’s your brain that does the thinking. The spirit merely empowers it to do the thinking. But it’s the brain that does the thinking. The spirit can’t know anything: the brain does the knowing. The spirit can’t see: it’s your brain that sees through the eye. It’s the brain that hears through the ear. The spirit can’t hear; it can’t see; it can’t think; it can’t know–because it’s an ESSENCE, like air or like water. And the word for “spirit” in Hebrew is the same word that is the same word for “air”. And in the Greek language “ruach…” No, “ruach” is the Hebrew word, isn’t it? It’s the same word for air or for spirit; and it’s the same in the Greek. It’s the same Greek word for spirit is the same word for air. Now an angel, though, has a separate mind of his own–is a separate being and personality. And spirit can be present in those two forms.

The spirit in man is just spirit that uses the human brain or–no, it doesn’t use the human brain really. (Maybe it’s the human brain uses it? I don’t know.) But the spirit constrains the brain. It empowers the brain with that faculty we call intellect: to think, to reason, and the many things that a human brain has that an animal brain doesn’t have–an appreciation of music, art and literature; the different moods and the different attitudes–of resentment and bitterness, hatred; or of love and affection; of cooperation and out-flowing love for the good of others. Or, on the other hand, of contention, of hatred, of competition, of strife, and wanting to harm or hurt. And that is all from the human brain, but the spirit gives you that and that type of attitude. Animals don’t have that. They have brains, but the physical brain doesn’t have all of that. It’s in the spirit that is connected with the human brain.

Now the human spirit, then, does not supply us with the life we have. And the life we have is only an existence. And what gives us this life that we call human life, which is only existence? Well, it’s the blood of life. And Moses wrote, “The blood… is for the life thereof.” And also Moses wrote, “God breathed into us the breath of life.” Now, notice, God breathed it into man. I’m going to come to that later too.

Now the spirit empowers the brain with intellect and also something else. THE SPIRIT EMPOWERS THE BRAIN TO HAVE A CONTACT WITH, AND A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD, or a union with God. Now a cow and a dog can’t have any relationship with God or any union with God. They have a brain just like you and I. And a cow’s brain is just as good as a human brain. Did you know that? The modern science that the universities are discovering of brain research has shown us that human brain is no better than animal brain. And they search IN VAIN to find WHERE’S THAT DIFFERENT SOMETHING IN THE HUMAN BRAIN that they can’t find in an animal brain. Why do we have these different attitudes and different senses of things like art, music and literature that animals can’t have? What’s the difference? They look, and they can’t see anything different.

No, you can’t see it, because you can’t see spirit. But it’s the spirit in man that makes all that difference. It’s the spirit of man that can be united with God, who IS a Spirit; and God’s Spirit can come, like essence, into US and unite with our spirit. And you read, in the eighth chapter of Romans in the New Testament, that His Spirit witnesses with our spirit; once His Spirit comes to us, witnesses with our spirit that we are the sons of God. And people see that we are to be begotten first, and then later born as sons of God. Now, if I say that my son was born of me, and as my son, he’s human like I am; and a lot of people can’t believe that, huh? Oh, yes they do! They can believe that all right! But when you say you’re a son of God, they think “Well, you’re just something God made”. NO, He means literally we become sons of God. But we are not yet at this time. The Bible reveals we are only begotten, not yet born. A fetus in the mother’s womb is not a born human yet. It’s only a begotten human. It’s not yet born. So the spirit of man can unite us with God; and we were made to have a contact with–a union with–God. But the world has cut itself off from God.

Now, who and what is God? The world doesn’t understand. Is God one person? Just one great person? They speak of God as “Him” or “He”–one person. But Roman Catholics and most Protestants say that God is a Trinity–Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Judaism rejects the Trinity and says that there never was a Son; that Jesus was a bastard, not the Son of God. They don’t understand their own Hebrew scriptures. But children are born, and they’ve got to believe what it says. I can show them that the Bible says, the very Bible that you have says, this. “Well, I can’t believe that! You see, I’ve been taught something else.” What are you going to believe? What you’ve been taught by people that are IGNORANT? Or believe what God says in plain language.

DO YOU KNOW WHY WE CAN BE A LIGHT TO THE WORLD? YOU KNOW WHY LIGHT HAS COME AND I CAN GIVE YOU LIGHT? IF I’M A LIGHT TO THE WORLD, WHY? BECAUSE I BELIEVE GOD. THIS IS GOD SPEAKING IN THE BIBLE, AND I BELIEVE IT. People say, “Well, I believe in God.” Yeah, but that’s something different. Believing in God is something altogether different. There were a lot of Jews that believed in Christ. And Jesus turned to them and said, “You are the children of your father the devil” because they didn’t believe Him. They didn’t believe God. They only believed on Him. They believed that He exists, and that’s all–that there was such a Being. That’s, that’s easy! But to believe Him is to believe what He says, and that’s what people won’t do–is to believe what He says.

Now what is God? God is supreme mind; and God is supreme spiritual, perfect character. And what is character? Character is of an individual entity or being who has a mind, and has been able with the mind to come see light from darkness, or truth from error, and to see what is right and the right way; and who has willed to go that way and to actually put it to action and DO it and to DO THE RIGHT even if he wants to do the wrong. Did you ever see something that you sort of knew was wrong, but yet you wanted to do it? Well, I have, and so have you. Be honest! You’ve seen things that you knew you shouldn’t do.

The other night after dinner there were some chocolates put on the table at the end of the dinner, about the time the coffee came or after, in a restaurant. Now I knew I shouldn’t take a chocolate. I said, “Oh, I think I won’t do it.” And someone else said, “Well, I’m going to take one.” So I said, “Well I guess I will too!” [Laughter.] I didn’t do that willfully, but I certainly did it willingly! I yielded to it. How many times have you yielded to do something? You sort of knew you shouldn’t do it. But perfect, supreme character is the ability to enforce yourself to do what your mind sees and you know and has been proved is right. And to resist the wrong, no matter how hard it is. And it gets down to doing, and not just thinking or believing. It’s not wishy-washy. It’s doing.

Now God is supreme mind, and God is supreme perfect character. That’s what God is. Now we find in Genesis 1:1 God is called “Elohim”: E-L, “El” in Hebrew is God. But Elohim, the ”-im”… Eloah is God [singular], but the Eloah-im means more than one. And that’s described in the New Testament, in John 1 verses 1 to 4. Now in the New Testament many so-called scholars say that the book of John should have been put first in the New Testament. Now by that they don’t mean it was written first. It might have been written last. But, in time order, that it should be at the first; and that would be the very first word then. If it were put first, the first word in the New Testament would start out the same as the first word in the Old Testament.

In the Old Testament, it starts out:

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

In the New Testament, then, it would begin:

John 1:1In the beginning was the Word …

Now who was the Word? What do you mean Word? Well, Word is just simply Spokesman. But the fourteenth verse of the same chapter explains it. You don’t have to turn to somewhere else to have it explained what it means. Right there in the same chapter it says, in verse 14:

John 1:14 ”Th e Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us [became Jesus Christ].

Jesus Christ was the Word. And He became, finally, born of the virgin Mary just as Isaiah prophesied; but the rabbis won’t believe that. Their Bible says so, in plain language: “A virgin shall conceive and bear a son.” But they won’t believe it. “A child is born unto us [and He will grow up] … THE GOVERNMENT WILL BE ON HIS SHOULDER.” He was to be born as a child. BUT THEY’RE BLIND. THEY’VE REFUSED, BITTERLY REFUSED TO BELIEVE what their own Bible says and what Moses taught them. It’s time that the whole world wakes up! Jews are wrong; Christians are wrong; Catholics are wrong; Buddhists are wrong; the whole world has gone wrong. And the world is in darkness, and the world is suffering, and the world is in trouble. And there’s a reason, there’s a cause for all of that. I’m trying to bring light to the world.

So the Word was the one who later was made into a human baby, who grew up and became Jesus Christ.

John 1:1 …and the Word was with God.

Now the Word was a Personage, and God is a Personage. Now you’ve got two Personages there. And then it says:

John 1:3All things were made by [the Word] and without Him was not anything made that was made.

And the next verse says:

John 1:4 In Him was life…

And in God was life. They LIVED. If there was life in Them, They had to live. And if They lived, They had to be thinking, doing something, because They had supreme mind. How did They live? What did They do in living? So now you go back to Genesis. In the beginning:

Genesis 1:26 God [Elohim, more than one] said, Let us make man in our image.

W hy, the “Us” was God and the Word!

John 1:14And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.

And they said to Jesus Christ while He was on earth, they said “Well, show us God the Father. What is God the Father like?” Jesus said, “Well, have you seen Me? If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father.” In other words, He looked just like Jesus. And what did Jesus look like? Like any other Jew of His day! And God said, in Genesis, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” In other words: look the same form and shape. And humans look the same form and shape as God.

If you could see God, you’d see someone in the same form and shape as we are. He would have arms and hands and fingers. He would have legs and feet and toes. He would have a head. And in His head would be two eyes and a nose and a mouth; and he’d have ears. SAME FORM AND SHAPE exactly–only man was made out of the DUST OF THE GROUND, AND GOD IS COMPOSED OF SPIRIT. BUT GOD IS THE KIND OF SPIRIT THAT IS A PERSON, not essence. Now remember, I said spirit can be in the form of essence or in the form of a person.

God is the Creator. How then? It says that the Word did the creating. How about it? Well, in Ephesians 3 and verse 9 it says, “GOD created all things by Jesus Christ”, or by the Word. Now when Jesus was on earth He was the Word. Now He’s made human; and when He was human on earth He said, “I speak, but I have only spoken what God the Father told me to speak.” And He said, “I have obeyed my Father. I have kept my Father’s commandments.” And He believed in keeping the Father’s commandments. “Christians,” who believe in Christ and call themselves after His name, don’t believe in keeping God’s commandments like Jesus did. So they’re wrong. Judaism is wrong. Christianity is wrong. God is right; and God has revealed Himself in His Word, the Holy Bible. It’s about time we open up our minds, instead of just trusting people; and begin to trust God.

Now how does God create? That’s another thing that God has restored through His Church. He creates in the system of duality: first one, then another. First Adam was made in the form and image of God. He was a male. God wanted him to have children and reproduce. I’ve said time and again, “The poor man couldn’t do that!” And so God performed an operation: took out one of his ribs made a woman out of it.

Women today want to rule over men. So we’ve had women at the head of governments, and don’t be surprised if you get a woman president of the United States. Could be the very next one. Don’t be surprised if the Democrats come up with a woman vice-president candidate; and don’t be surprised if they win the election; and don’t be surprised if the next president is a Democrat and he dies in office and the woman then becomes president. And, let me tell you, that can happen within two or three years from now. Just don’t be surprised if that happens. I’m not saying it will happen at all. I’m just saying it could and don’t be surprised if it does.

But God creates in a system of duality. Now first there was one being; but he wasn’t complete, and he couldn’t reproduce. So God had to make another, a female. And He joined the male and the female together; and they, joined together, became one family. Not one person, but two persons make one family. And God and the Word were two Persons, but they were one God FAMILY. AND GOD IS A FAMILY! AND GOD IS NOT A PERSON–GOD IS A FAMILY! No religion on earth believes that. NO RELIGION. BUT GOD SAYS IT, AND GOD REVEALS IT. GOD IS A FAMILY! AND GOD IS REPRODUCING HIMSELF!

Now how is He going to reproduce Himself? That’s what I’m coming to. Adam was physical. He was physically incomplete. So God created a woman; and, joined together, and they become one human family. Joined by the Holy Spirit–man is incomplete of himself–God created man with a spirit in him. But that spirit in man is all alone by itself, and it needs another spirit to go with it: just like the male man needed a female woman to go with him. And a man needs a wife. And many young men by the time they become 23, 24, 25 years old, or even more, begin to realize how much they need a wife; and a girl growing to that age begins to realize how much she needs a husband. Yes, a man needs a wife; and a young woman needs a husband. And our spirit needs the spirit of God in the same way.

Now God made man and offered him life through the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. Man didn’t take it. If he had taken it, he would have received the Spirit of God to go with his spirit. Man was only half there spiritually; he was only half there mentally. The spirit is what gave him mind power with his brain. But he couldn’t understand spiritual knowledge, only material knowledge. So he was only half there. He needed the Holy Spirit. Adam had to make a choice. Adam made the wrong choice, as you know. And there’s a whole lot about how Satan tempted Eve. And then that comes in another in the book I’m writing; and that’ll be in the Plain Truth in the, let’s see, either the February or the March number. I’m writing it now.

Now the only human superiority over an animal, then, resides in the spirit in man and the form and shape. Man has two things that make him more important than an animal: he’s in the form and shape of God, and he has a spirit that can be united with the Spirit of God. And he can become one with God, and no animal can. That is the ONLY way a man is superior to an animal. So the SPIRIT IN MAN united with the human brain is the only thing that makes human life of real value, and you probably never thought of that before. You know God has been progressively revealing new knowledge lately? Do you notice that almost every time I speak to you lately, I’ve had some new knowledge to reveal to you? God keeps giving, just pouring it in! And I want to continue receiving it as fast as He gives it!

Now the first stage in spiritual reproduction, God is reproducing Himself. Now that’s spiritual reproduction. God has created matter out of spirit, and then of the matter He has said that He will take and make a human being and He will turn that human being into a God-being. Now He turned spirit into matter; and He’s going to turn that matter, that is a human being, back into a God-being.

By the way, let me just sidetrack here for a second. We had the most wonderful Bible study last night about Heaven and the three heavens and all of that, which of course has been taught to the Church for a long, long time; but never gone into so much detail as Mr. Neff went into last night. And he quoted many, many scriptures –all of which mean what they say–that the heavens will dissolve and will melt with fervent heat; and the earth and the material things of the universe. Let me remind you of this: we also learn in physics and in chemistry, we learn about the law of the preservation of matter and that, oh, what is the law I’m trying to think that–matter can change form, but it never ceases to exist.

And to say that God is going to convert everything back to spirit again–the Bible nowhere says that–so don’t jump to that conclusion. That the Bible did not say, and does not say. The heavens declare the glory of God–is God then going to destroy all of that which declares His glory? Oh, no, not at all, brethren. So let’s not just add something that the Bible didn’t say by adding something the Bible didn’t say, and saying He’s going to convert all matter back to spirit, the Bible does not say that. Now if you can show me where it does, then I’ll begin to believe it.

Now the first stage in spiritual reproduction, because God is reproducing Himself, is in the mind for character development. So God had to have mind in man to develop character. He can’t be reproduced as God until he has the character of God. And that character has to be built into us and started in this human life, and that means we have to receive the Spirit of God with our spirit to begin to develop that character. That’s where conversion comes in.

Now an animal dies and reverts back to dirt, or dust, again. The human dies and his body reverts back to dust just the same as an animal, but the spirit returns to the God who gave it. You read that in Ecclesiastes, in the Bible. But the human body returns to dust the same as an animal. Yet both human and animal have the same existence, the same breath. They have the same kind of blood running in their veins. Well, maybe it’s not the same kind. But it runs and the blood is the life. And it’s the breath of life in both of them, and they live the same existence. They die the same death.

But man is a special, made to have a special, relationship with God and to be JOINED TO and WITH GOD until he becomes begotten of God and becomes, finally, born as a son of God. And then he will be a member of the God-family and not a human family any longer. Then HE WON’T BE HUMAN ANY LONGER. HE’LL BE GOD! AND GOD IS GOING TO HAVE BILLIONS OF CHILDREN SOME DAY that will all be God. God-children, not human children. Oh, brethren, nobody knows that but this Church. In all this world, little as we are, God has entrusted us with that tremendous knowledge.

So we’re in the same form as God, and we have the Spirit of God; and that’s what differentiates us from animals, and that’s all. And contact with God comes only through the human spirit that is in us. That is, with God’s Spirit added to it. But man’s creation was not complete in Adam–either physically, nor was it mentally and spiritually–because the one spirit in him needed another spirit, just like the male needed a female. So there is the one-two punch again, the duality.

Now, there was a spirit created in Adam. And the only reason that there was a spirit also in Cain and Abel and Seth, and then in their children, and that there is a spirit in you today, is because it was in Adam. And the only reason there is a spirit in us… Now get this! This is something new again. You never thought of this before. Here’s new light, new knowledge. Open your mind. It had TO BE TRANSMITTED FROM ADAM.

Did you hear what I said? The spirit in you, the spirit in Cain and Abel and Seth, was transmitted from their father, Adam. When you become a God-being, the spirit in you would have been transmitted, put in you, from God the Father. It comes from the Father, and you can’t get around that. I’ve wondered time and again: when does the spirit enter a human being? Does it enter at the first breath? I have never said it does. Now because I’ve said it could, and it sounded like, seemed like perhaps it did, someone’s going to say, “Well, Mr. Armstrong said the spirit enters at the first breath.” I didn’t say that, brethren. I said it could. And I’ve often wondered.

But now I see something more–that has been revealed, just during this trip. THE SPIRIT HAD TO BE, SOMEHOW OR OTHER, CONVEYED THROUGH THE HUMAN MALE SPERM CELL FROM ADAM. NOW WHETHER IT WAS ACTUAL SPIRIT, and that spirit was present in the embryo and in the fetus prior to birth, God doesn’t say; and I don’t know. It may be something that just caused spirit to enter with the first breath. But, if so, it was something that came from Adam, and came from conception.

Now that means some other thing: if it came from conception, then abortion is a murder. And that’s the thing that the Supreme Court of the United States has been considering. That’s the thing the lawyers are considering. And what do they know about the things of God? ABORTION IS MURDER. Now you can put that down as absolutely definite.

The only reason there is a spirit, and was in Cain and Abel and Seth, is because it was transmitted from Adam. And that spirit had to be transmitted from Adam right on through all humanity; also to the daughters and the women, because they have a spirit the same as men. Now in Genesis 2 and verse 7 it says God breathed:

Genesis 2:7God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath…

Now there it just says “breath,” but that’s the same Hebrew word that means “spirit”. I’ve always taken it to mean “breath,” but also it could mean the spirit came with that same breath. Also though, if it does , it is because there was something that came from the sperm cell of the male at conception; at the time that the human ovum, smaller than the dot after a period at the end of the sentence in your newspaper–small as a pin-point–and the sperm cell was in that ovum. Small as it was, somehow it transmitted either that which drew the spirit or that which was the spirit; and God doesn’t reveal which. I don’t know. But it had to come from Adam.

We’ve always wondered about some of those things. It could only be transmitted. If it’s transmitted from Adam, the only way it could be transmitted was through the human sperm cell. Now, if the spirit enters at the first breath–if it does–then something was transmitted from the human sperm cell that caused the first breath to draw it, otherwise the first breath of a cow would bring a spirit into it, and it doesn’t. Why does a spirit enter man? If it does enter at the first breath, why does it enter a human and doesn’t enter a cow, or a dog, or an elephant or any other kind of an animal? They draw a first breath too, when they’re born. It came, somehow or other, through the sperm cell of the father; and it all came from the human, Adam.

Now, take a parallel. Man himself becomes an ovum. God is reproducing Himself. Each one of you is an ovum. You have a nucleus; and that’s your brain, your mind, with a spirit in it. The human ovum, small as a pinpoint, has inside of it a nucleus. And a human sperm is only one-fiftieth as large as the ovum, and it’s so tiny you can just barely see it. And the sperm cell is so small you can’t see it with a naked eye, takes a microscope to see it.

(Now let me see. I’ve written this down. I don’t know that I can carry it in my head.) You take this parallel: Man is an ovum. The Holy Spirit is the sperm cell from the divine God. So when the Holy Spirit enters you, it transmits God-life into you and God-mind into you; and you can begin to understand the things of God, which your mind couldn’t understand before. Still you are not God. You are still human. And the young fetus that is already impregnated is not a human. It’s a fetus. It’s not born yet, and we don’t call it human until it’s born. Still you’re not God; and you don’t have God-life until the time of the resurrection, or the birth when you are changed from mortal to immortal. Then you will become God.

Now then, I want to explain a few things if I have time. I don’t know whether I have the time or not. I don’t have much time. I’ll just explain part of it. I see time is about up. I’d like to begin with the first chapter, but there won’t be time for that. First Corinthians the second chapter, so let’s begin here with about verse 9. Paul had been explaining that none of the wise men and the leaders of this world understand spiritual knowledge and the things that Paul had been explaining to them–the apostle. And in verse 9 he says:

I Corinthians 2:9But as it written, eye hath not seen, ear has not heard neither have entered into the mind of man the things which God has PREPARED for them that love Him.

Now God has prepared things for us. And people don’t know what that IS, and what God has prepared. It hasn’t entered their mind, the things that God has prepared. Why? They can’t see it. Now the next verse explains why:

I Corinthians 2:10But God has revealed them unto US…

Who’s the us? “Us” is Christians. That is, “us” are those who have received the Spirit of God with their spirit to un-code the Bible and open it up for your understanding.

I Corinthians 2:10-11 God has revealed them unto us BY HIS SPIRIT [That’s the Spirit of God coming in with our spirit–opens your mind to understand spiritual knowledge which you couldn’t understand until you had the Holy Spirit.]: for the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. (11) For what man knows even the things of a man, save the SPIRIT OF MAN which is in him?

You couldn’t have HUMAN KNOWLEDGE except for the spirit that is in you. A cow has a brain like you do, but a cow can’t understand the things that you can. He can’t understand things about chemistry and physics and astrology, astronomy I mean. I didn’t mean astrology! I don’t think any body understands that either, because that’s just a whacky thing! But, anyway…

I Corinthians 2:11What man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man that is in him? [In the same way] the things of God knoweth no man [no man can know the things of God] save by the SPIRIT OF GOD in him.

You have to receive that. And how many people on the face of this earth have received the Spirit of God? Almost none! It’s so few; it’s infinitesimal. They just don’t understand. They haven’t been willing. God gives His Spirit to them that obey Him. And people have not been willing to obey God. They just think they do.

I Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that [And spirit sometimes means attitude, too, and intention of mind.] that we might know [That is, come to the knowledge of.] the things that are freely given to us by God.”

The knowledge of these things I’ve been giving you today that the world does not have and does not know. Now, to verse 13 and 14:

I Corinthians 2:13-14 W hich things also we speak … [Well, I want verse 14.] (14) But the natural man [Just the ordinary man without the Spirit of God.] receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him.

And he can’t understand them. And that’s the truth. They are just foolishness to the people in this world.

So, brethren, I hope we’ve contributed a little more to the light, the knowledge, that God is disseminating in a world of darkness. And I hope your minds have been open to receive it; and, if you obey God, I think they have. And if you don’t quite understand what I’ve said, maybe you haven’t obeyed God as much as you should; and you might think that over too. Thank you.