Sermon – Big Sandy TX, USA (August 22, 1981)

by Herbert W Armstrong

…the largest group that has ever assembled in Big Sandy. We had quite a large number when I was here (Was it February or March?) some months ago. But I think it is even larger today, and this is the first Sabbath of the re-opening of Ambassador College and the new students all here. I don’t need to give a welcome to the new students (I’ve already done that.), and the college is already started. Classes will begin this week. I believe enrollment is pretty well completed by now, and once again Big Sandy is operating in the College.

We are off to a wonderful start here, and I’m sure we’re going to have a wonderful year. This is God’s College. It’s different from any other college, except in Pasadena. Of course, that’s Ambassador too. It’s all the same College in two different campuses. But it is a wonderful time. I’m glad so many are here, and I understand they are completely packed in the dining hall and even in several other rooms.

Well, brethren, we are now very close to the end of this world. I wonder if that means anything to you. We are living in a world that has been going on for about 6,000 years now. It is a troubled world. It’s a very unhappy world. It’s a world that has been making AWESOME progress, especially during this century. This world went along on a pretty even keel for, oh, the first 5,700 years at least – until a while after the invention of the printing press. Then the dissemination of knowledge began to increase, and since then we have had the rise of what we call “modern science.”

And the new idea of science has come called evolution, the theory of man’s origins. It is the theory that there is no God. There is no supreme mind who designed and planned the creation. It is an attempt to explain the presence of a creation without the design and planning and creation of a Creator. There was no mind. No one thought it out. You plant an oak seed. It will produce an oak tree, and it’s different; and the leaf of an oak tree is different from that of a maple tree or some other kind of tree. So no one thought that out. No one planned it.

Here we are on an earth with just the amount of gravity, just the right amount of weight to keep us close to the earth; just the right amount of air to breathe; just the right temperature for people to live in; the right amount of water; the right amount of soil. Everything is just what we need for human existence. But there was no planning. It just happened!

Like a wristwatch: Most of you have one. I have one. But, you know, no one designed that wristwatch. No one thought out how to make one! But now some of us have gold on it, and some have other metals. Anyway, the metals just came out of the earth; and they just simply formed themselves without any thought, without any planning: And the glass for the crystal, whatever. All these things just came out; and all the little tiny cogs and wheels; and they just put themselves together; and they started themselves keeping perfect time, according to the earth’s revolution on its axis every day. And no one thought or designed. It just happened that way. Isn’t that wonderful? Can you believe it? Does it make sense?

I’m going to tell you something this afternoon. I wish you would think as I go along, does what I say make sense? Is it rational? Is it reasonable? Modern science came along and said (Oh, I think it was over 100 years ago.): “We can now safely throw away the crutch of religion. We don’t need it any more. Modern science is the new messiah. Modern science has come to rescue mankind. Modern science will solve ALL of our problems; cure ALL of our troubles and evils. We don’t need the superstitious crutch of religion to hobble along on any longer.”

Now under modern science – and under modern education, and with science and the theory of evolution – is the very foundation and the hypothesis through which they see everything and discern all knowledge: The eyeglasses through which they view everything and try to explain everything, the premise on which every bit of knowledge seems to be based. And man has become less and less happy, more and more discontented.

You know, there’s one woman I’ve known a good many years. I first met her right here in Big Sandy many years ago. I haven’t seen much of her now for the last 14 years. But I noticed every time I see her she seems to be happy. She is just filled with happiness, smiles, and joy; and she seems to be really enjoying life. She must. She couldn’t be so happy if she didn’t. I don’t see many people like that any more. I wonder why?

I remember when I was a boy back in Iowa. (“Up in Iowa” I would say over here.) I would go down in the country to visit my country cousin on the farm. I lived in the city, great big city of only about 100,000 though – Des Moines, Iowa. But driving along the little country roads, mud roads you know, with a horse and buggy, there would be farmers behind a team of horses (or one horse), plowing or working on the farm, singing at the top of their lungs, whistling a tune, just happy. Try to find that today. You can’t find it. That kind of happiness has left us!

The world is full of discontent. It’s full of frustration. Now, we are in a world of AWESOME progress. You can go to the moon and back. Men have done it. They cavort around, leap on the moon. The gravity is less there. You take a leap, and you go up in the air; and you don’t come down quite so quick. Look, I’ve seen it on television. Now we have the invention of modern television so we can watch it live, while it’s going on, right here on the earth. It must be a lot of fun to cavort around up there. I don’t care for the experience of going through the earth’s atmosphere to get there; and trying to hope I’ll get through the earth’s atmosphere to come back, without burning up.

But we are in a world of AWESOME PROGRESS – many modern inventions, modern conveniences, everything! Think what a woman has in her kitchen today women didn’t have when I was a boy, but they do have today. And yet here we are in more trouble than humanity has ever been! We have more problems, and they seem to be utterly unsolvable. Humanity can’t solve its problems. We’re frustrated. We’re in trouble, and we don’t know the way out. And modern science, combined with technology and with government, has finally produced its crowning achievement: the weapons of mass destruction that can erase all humanity from off the face of the earth until there won’t be a human being left alive.

And I want to tell you something: Not one of you will be alive some 20 years or so from now (I’m trying to make enough years to be safe. I don’t think it will be that long.) unless there is a God, that they try to explain away, who will intervene. Otherwise there will be no one left on earth, because science is going to prove to be the Frankenstein that will destroy its own producing.

Now, in the world today, religion is in utmost confusion. There are many, many religions. In the one religion of the western world – Christianity – there are many, many different denominations and sects, each one believing differently (each one teaching different things); and most of them altogether wrong. There are other religions. You can take, for example, the religion of Islam: many different sects (just like in Christianity), each one of them believing different; and yet they call it Islam.

Of ALL the religions in the world, of all of the sects of Islam and all of the sects of Christianity, NOT ONE KNOWS WHO AND WHAT IS GOD! NOT ONE. That ought to astound you. I just made a very important statement. Tell me one who knows who and what is God. Is God one person? Is God a Trinity? Christianity believes God is a Trinity. NOT ONE KNOWS WHAT AND WHY IS HUMANITY (a human man or woman, a boy or a girl). WHO AND WHAT ARE WE, AND WHY ARE WE? How did we come to be on the earth? Did we just happen by evolution? Or did some supreme Mind think out and plan and put us here, and for a purpose? And if so, what is that purpose? Where are we going?

Why the paradox of such accomplishment, of such achievement, as we have in a world that is filled with so much despair, so much frustration, so much suffering and unhappiness and discontent everywhere. No joy, no real happiness. They just want excitement. We get excitement on television. It takes excitement: A football game, some kind of violence. Of course, a prizefight will bring a lot of listeners, a lot of viewers. Or we want to see illicit sex, something evil. We want our emotions stirred. We want something exciting. We just want to be thrilled and excited by the passing moment.

Well now, Christianity teaches that God is a Trinity. It teaches that God is in three persons – Father, Son and that the Holy Spirit as a ghost (a person). Jesus talked about the Spirit being something that can be poured. He said at one time if any person “come unto Me, and drink and out of his innermost being will flow RIVERS OF LIVING WATERS, but this said He of the Spirit” (the Holy Spirit). The Holy Spirit can flow like rivers of water. Can a ghost flow? Can a person flow?

I’m going to read you a scripture where the day would come when God would pour out His Spirit. Can you pour a person? They say, “Well, but why does the Bible then speak of the Holy Spirit as ‘he’ and never as ‘it’?” Well, the Bible doesn’t. Did you ever read on the day the Church was founded, when the Holy Spirit came audibly, visibly, came with the sound of a rushing mighty wind? Have you ever been in a whirlwind, or a tornado, or where the wind was blowing so terribly hard? I have. That was the sound they could hear. And they could SEE the Spirit coming in the form of tongues, but like flames of fire sitting on the heads of each one of them.

And the account in the Bible says ‘it’ for the Holy Spirit, not ‘he.’ When they say the Bible always uses the pronoun ‘he,’ they are wrong. It doesn’t. It says ‘it.’ It also says ‘he.’ But other languages will use the pronoun ‘he’ (or ‘she’) in speaking of things where we use ‘it’ in the English language; and a lot of people don’t seem to know that.

Now the Christian religion teaches that God is a Trinity. Coming to man, the Christian religion teaches that we are an immortal soul; that when we die we will go to either heaven or hell (depending on how good we were); that we ourselves determine what is right and what is wrong; that, if we do what we think is right, we will go to heaven. If we don’t, we’ll go to hell; and we’ll burn, and burn, and burn, and burn forever but never burn up. Christianity also teaches, and most of the sects and denominations (although they differ themselves in minor points, but some of these major points most of them teach), that you have to get the password to be saved.

Now they teach that salvation is open to everybody, and everybody could have salvation; but most of them don’t seem to want it. They teach that there is a great controversy going on between God and Satan. God is trying desperately to get everybody saved. He wants EVERYBODY now to be saved. But Satan is trying to keep everybody lost, and Satan is outsmarting God. Satan’s a lot smarter than God; and he’s getting the best of God, and he is winning the battle. Satan has most of them on his side.

But all you have to do to be saved … It is so easy. It’s funny that Satan can win, because all you have to do to be saved is to get the password; and that’ll get you into heaven. In other words, you’re on a railroad journey. (We don’t use railroads so much anymore, but we did for a long time.) You are on a railroad journey. It’s a fairly long journey, that’s your whole life. And at the end of the journey, the track is set so that automatically the switch will turn you down. Now if, sometimes (because of Adam’s sin, you are born lost you see) you’re going to be lost if you don’t get the password and get saved. If somewhere along, on the journey, you get this password and you say, “I accept, I receive, I get; I appropriate Christ.” (You don’t give anything, you just get.) Then that throws the switch at the end of the line; and, when you get there at the end of your ride, you’ll find the switch was already thrown and it shoots you right up to heaven.

And all you have to do is get that password, and the rest of the time go on and do just whatever you think is all right. Just live your life any old way, you’ll go to heaven now. Does that make sense? Or does what I am going to tell you later make more sense? They think that salvation is open to all; that it’s a matter of getting Christ. The great evangelists will say, “Come forward and receive Christ:” Receive, get.

You know there are two ways of life and only two, broadly speaking, two philosophies of life; and one is the way of getting; taking away from others; receiving; accumulating; getting. A man’s success in this world is gauged by what he has been able to get, what he has accumulated and what he has. How much money does he have? How much property? What did he get? The wealthy are the successful. The one who served the most and gave the most is a nothing and a nobody. That’s the world’s standard.

Now there is the other standard of giving instead of getting. That is the way of out flowing LOVE. That happens to be the law of God, and the law of God is love to God and love toward neighbor. That’s the way of GIVING, not getting. That’s love going away from self, not lust coming into self. It’s an altogether different way of life, an exactly opposite way.

Now why all of this confusion? Why don’t the churches and Christianity agree? Why do all of the religions disagree? Why the paradox in the world of government, of science, of technology, of whatever. We have such awesome progress and yet such failure and so much unhappiness, so much frustration. One half of the world is absolutely illiterate (can’t read or write, no education). One half of the world is living in abject poverty, many starving to death, living in filth and squalor.

I was just thinking as I woke up in the guesthouse on this campus this morning: the beautiful trees, the lake just down below, what a beautiful scenery, a patio just outside overlooking the lake; other houses nestling under the trees. And here are God’s people. I thought of ancient Israel camping in tents in the desert. And here are we in this beautiful spot, God’s people in beautiful homes, peace, happiness; everything. But the world is not like that now, as a whole. The world is filled with unhappiness, with wretchedness, with poverty – at a time when we can fly to the moon and back, at a time when we can invent the marvelous computers, when we have television, we have radio, we have airplanes, we have communication; we have things they didn’t even have when I was a boy.

Now here we are in the Church. What is the difference between us and the other churches? Are we just another one of these churches that believe all this sort of thing? How do you explain a world with this Christianity as a religion in the western world, and even the religions in other parts of the world, it doesn’t make much difference. Part of the Christian world is very prosperous, just a part. Part of it is very wretched. But almost all of it is unhappy.

I have known many, many millionaires. I’ve never known a real joyous, happy one. Money doesn’t make them happy some way. I’ve known men that had lots of money, but somehow or other their money didn’t make them happy. That’s not the source of happiness.

What about the Church? The word church (and the Church merely means “called out ones”) – it comes from the Greek “ecclesia.” It really means people called out. What are we called out from? We’re called out from this world of confusion; and we are called out of, what I call, a Babylonian religion. In other words, Babylon means a mixture – all mixed up, everybody in confusion. It means confusion. I would like to read to you from the 18th chapter of the book of Revelation where John is seeing things in vision, looking down into our day and what is going to happen in our day. This is a message for us today; and in his vision he saw this, and he recorded this in writing.

Revelation 18:1-4 … after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. (2) And he cried mightily with a strong {1} voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils [or demons] and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. (3) For ALL NATIONS have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication [It has invaded and inoculated all religions and all nations.] and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. (4) And I heard another voice from heaven saying, COME OUT OF HER my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Because the time of plagues that God is going to visit are soon to come, and that is for us right now. That was NOT for the time when I was a little boy, going back about 80 years ago (80 some years ago). That is for today, just before the end of this world. What did he mean, “Babylon the great is fallen?” What is this Babylon? You find it in the 17th chapter{2}. That’s across the page here in my Bible.

Revelation 17:5 And upon her forehead [Babylon] was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT …

It was the Babylonian Mystery RELIGION, now become great, ruling over the kings of the earth who committed fornication with her. She is called a great whore, and her daughters are called harlots. Notice:

Revelation 17:5-6 MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. (6) … drunken with the blood of the saints [having persecuted the true people of God] …

And that is a great church. That is a church that believes that when you get to the end of the line that a switch has been thrown one way or the other that shoots you to heaven or to hell. That is a church that believes you are an immortal soul. That is a church that believes God is a Trinity. That is a church that believes that the law of God is done away and you don’t need to observe it or keep it. You can go the way of “get,” not of “give” (because God’s law of love, out flowing love is the way of GIVE, the way of cooperation. of helping and loving others; not the way of getting and taking from others and fighting others and harming others). This world is geared to the way of “get.”

Well the daughters that are called “harlots” are the Protestants who came out of her in protest, calling themselves “Protestants.” It comes from the word “protest.” How much of that teaching (Protestant teaching, so-called “Christianity”) have we inherited? How much of it do we still hold that is false? I want to go into some of that this afternoon, and I wonder if you will give any of it up that you do have that is false.

WHY ARE WE CALLED OUT FROM IT? We’re called to COME OUT of this religious world, the Christian world. That’s what it is. That’s speaking of so-called Christianity – that is simply the old Babylonian Mystery Religion that took the name of Christ, and pasted it on their false religion, and called themselves Christianity. They are just as “Christian” as their god, Satan (and no more). That’s what they are.

Why then are we called out? Well now, take a look at the world today – because even the nations have been deceived in a way of life, and they are living the way of “get” and not “give.” That goes even into the nations, and the kings of the earth, and the governments of the world. All right. The world today is the product of its leaders, is it not? The world is what its leaders have made it. The leaders are the product of education. They are what the world’s system of education has made it.

Now in speaking from this same platform yesterday to the students, in a message to the new students, I went into this matter of education. I want to treat it today from a different category. I’m going to use a lot of the same scriptures; but treat it from a Church point-of-view today, and not from a university or a college point-of-view (from a religious, not an educational point of view).

The leaders of the world are what education has made them, and I want to show you how much religion has had to do with that. ALL result from an ancient incidence that happened 6,000 years ago, the incidence of the forbidden fruit. Now before I go to that incidence, let’s go clear back to the very beginning. That’s the beginning of humanity, but where did humanity come from? Was humanity the product of millions and millions of years of the survival of the fittest and the process of evolution?

The Bible says (Now, maybe the Bible is untrue? Just think about that as we go along.) the real beginning of all things, from a time sequence point-of-view, is not Genesis 1:1; but is, in the New Testament, John chapter 1 and verse 1. I won’t read it. I’ll just explain it for a minute. You should be familiar with it already.

John 1:1 In the beginning [now that’s the very beginning] was the Word [but the Word was not alone] … the Word was with God …

Now the Word is the person. That was originally written in the Greek language. The Word is only an English word translated from the word “Logos.” But it means just what we have in the English language – the Spokesman, the Word, the One who spoke. And the one who spoke was a person, and that person (the one who spoke) was with another person whose name was God. But the Word also was God.

Now you could say that here was John, and John is a man; but John was with Smith (another man), and they are two different men. But John also is Smith because, you see, John is the son of Smith. Now the Word was not at the time this was speaking the Son of God; but the Word later did become the Son of God, because verse 14 says “The Word … ”(later, and that was 1,950 some years ago):

John 1:14 … the Word was made {3} flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth [which was Jesus Christ].

Now it goes on to say ”all things were made by Him,” but you read in Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 9 that:

Ephesians 3:9 … GOD [who] created all things BY Jesus Christ: [The one who later became His Son, Jesus Christ; by the Word.]

And we read in the Psalms that the Word spoke: ”He spake and it was DONE.” And we also read that ”the Spirit moved upon the waters.” He spoke; and the SPIRIT acted, and brought about what He said. God created all things through Jesus Christ but by the POWER of the Spirit of God, which emanates from God and from Christ – which can flow, which is like air, which is like water. Often it is compared to air. As a matter of fact, the Hebrew word “ruach”, the Greek word{4}… (Ah, wait a minute, I should know that in a minute.) They all mean air as well as spirit. The same word means both.

Now we go back to Genesis 1:1, and what do we find?

Well first, before I leave that, this Word: ”In Him was life.” [John 1:4] L-I-F-E. He had self-containing Life. Another thing about this Word, we find later in the book of Hebrews that He was ”without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life” but having ALWAYS existed, and always will. In Him is Life! It will never stop. It is not temporary existence. It is Life – L-I-F-E, self-containing Life.

Now we go back to Genesis 1:1, and we find:

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning [Elohim] created the heavens and the earth.

Now Moses wrote this in the Hebrew language, and he used the word Elohim. Elohim is uniplural; it means more than one person. More than one person, but Elohim is one God. So that is God and the Word, the same one that you read of in John 1:1 exactly. The Word later became the Son of God. So it was Christ and God, having always existed. And God created the heavens and the earth.

Now we come down to verse 26. We find that God did a lot of … actually it was a re-creating (or a renewing) of the face of the earth. We won’t go into that this afternoon. But, in the 24th and 25th verses, God made the animals of the earth (the beasts), cattle after the cattle kind and so on. He made dogs after the dog kind, elephants after the elephant kind. Then in the next verse, 26:

Genesis 1:26 … God said let US …

He didn’t say “Me.” You see, Elohim is more than one person. This was the Word and God, Elohim (more than one person, but only one God). It is like the word “family” – one family, but you can have two people (a husband and a wife) in a family. Or you can have 12 people (with 10 children, a father and a mother). A number of people! Or it is like the word “church.” We’re one Church, only one. We are only one group here this afternoon; but many people, more than one person. That is the way with God.

Genesis 1:26 … God said let us make man in our image after our likeness …

Now He made cattle after the cattle kind, elephants after the elephant kind; but now He says, “Let Us make MAN after OUR kind” – after the God kind! Man was made after the God kind, not like an animal. There is quite a difference between man and animal, and right there is where you find that difference. Now you have to put that together with many other things in many other parts of the Bible. But let me show you. There is one difference between men and God. In John 4:24 ”God is a spirit,” composed of spirit; without father, without mother, without beginning of days, without descent; always having existed. But here we read that God (in verse 7 of the 2nd chapter):

Genesis 2:7 [And] the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground [not out of spirit. God was made of spirit. Man was made differently. Man was made of the dust of the ground.] and [God]breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man [the dust of the ground] became a living soul.

A living soul, then, came from the ground! What came from the ground became a soul. Not an immortal soul – a living. Now that doesn’t mean having immortal Life. That kind of living is a different kind of living; it’s only a temporary living. In other words, it’s a temporary existence, a physio-chemical existence. That’s all. And that existence is kept going by the breath of air (”breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” temporary life, temporary existence. It is not real Life.) and by the circulation of blood (and the Bible says ”the blood thereof is the life thereof”).

You don’t say that the blood of God is the Life of God. God’s Life is spirit, not blood. God’s Life is spirit – not just air, breathing. But He did not form man out of spirit. He did not give man ETERNAL LIFE. That’s the point I want you to get. We do not have eternal Life.

Now God took the man that He had created; and He found he wasn’t complete however, and he needed more, because God wanted him to reproduce. Actually what God was doing: He was starting to reproduce Himself; but He had to reproduce man in order that, through man, He could reproduce Himself. And in order to reproduce man, man had to have a mate. Man wasn’t complete; and so God took one of his ribs and out of that rib He made a woman, a wife for him. Man alone is not complete. Man needs woman before he is complete.

Now, He made man of the dust of the ground. So was woman. But there is a difference between man and animals. They were made from the dust of the ground, and they had the breath of life; but they were not made after the God kind. They were made after the animal kind. There is a great difference now. Let’s get the difference, and let’s also get the similarity while we are at it. For example: God has hands and feet. Animals don’t. God wrote the Ten Commandments with His own finger. He’s got fingers. Animals don’t have fingers. They don’t have hands. They have paws. They have hoofs. Birds have claws.

You have a wristwatch. I mentioned that a while ago. You have to keep that wristwatch wound up some way or another. I have one that just the motion of the hand keeps it wound. But it has to be kept wound, or it will run down and stop. Animal life runs down and stops. So does human life. It’s only a temporary existence. God has eternal Life that will never end. He doesn’t have to draw the breath of life. Man has to keep refueling by food and water out of the ground (out of the earth). God doesn’t. God doesn’t need sleep. God doesn’t need food. It doesn’t take anything to keep God living. He just automatically keeps living.

But man was made in His image, and man was made to have a relationship with God. Animals were not. So we were made in the form and shape of God, and we have hands like God. We have feet. We don’t have claws, hoofs. We are different, and yet we breathe air like animals. We die the same death as animals. We have the same temporary existence, but there is a difference in the mind. Man has a mind, and animals have a brain. But the funny thing is that the human brain is PRECISELY like the animal brain, and the scientists can find no difference.

They take an animal brain out and look at it. The brain of an elephant is larger than the brain of a man and just as good qualitatively. They take the brain of a man out after he dies and look at it. It’s no better. But a man has an intelligence. A man has a mind. A man has an intellect. A man can think. A man can reason. A man can come to conclusions, make decisions; and a man’s mind has to guide everything he does. An animal does not (an animal brain). There is a very great difference, a very great difference!

Now, I mentioned quite a little about education yesterday; and I mentioned to the students: Here was a man (made as an adult man), just made instantly out of matter. He didn’t grow up. He didn’t start as a baby. We start from a little ovum, about the size of the end of a pin point that has to be fertilized by a male sperm that is only one 50th as large as that ovum; so small that the eye can’t see it without a very high powered microscope. That’s how we start.

But the first man, Adam, was started whole (as a man) in the latter half of the day we would now have called Friday, the 6th day of that week. AND THERE WAS A MAN – FULL GROWN, MATURE. I don’t know, the Bible doesn’t say what age it would compare to; but compared to what I’d say now is a 30-year-old man, I presume (20 or 30), but with a brain (a mind) unfilled with knowledge. He hadn’t studied. He hadn’t gone to school. He hadn’t learned anything. Did you ever think of that before?

But God was starting to educate him and give him knowledge. Now he NEEDED knowledge, and he needed three kinds of knowledge. God said, ”Let us make man after our image.” He was created to have contact with God, and a relationship with God that animals can know nothing about. He had to have a mind, and so God had put a spirit in man to form that mind: A spirit that is just like air, or wind, or water – that could be poured. An essence, not a person. It is not a soul. It is not a person inside him. It’s just merely spirit, just like so much air. But it’s spirit, and air is matter. It’s altogether different than air, but it is something similar to air. The Bible does compare it. But that gave man an intellect, and animal doesn’t have it.

God has a mind, and God made man to have a mind. But man’s mind (like man himself) was not complete. I said a while ago man was not complete. He needed a wife. Man was male, but he needs female to go with him. The mind had one spirit that gave him an intellect, but he needed another Spirit in order to have a contact with God. He needed the HOLY SPIRIT of God, and he was made incomplete. HE WAS MADE TO NEED THE SPIRIT OF GOD. He was made with temporary life.

Now in God is Life. In Christ was Life before He became Christ, and in Him is Life again now. Man needed Life. He didn’t have it. He had a temporary existence, but he did have a mind. He had spirit with his brain that made his brain function differently than an animal brain, even though an animal brain is precisely (materially) like and composed just like a man’s brain. They can’t tell a bit of difference. The difference is so slight that it wouldn’t account one-millionth part of the difference in intellect and in mental output of a human mind as compared to an animal brain. What a wonderful thing that God has done and wrought in man!

But now man NEEDED knowledge, and he was not complete. He NEEDED another Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God. All right, man needed three kinds of knowledge. Now before I go on and explain the need for the Holy Spirit, let me explain this: Man needed knowledge that would enable him (and the kind of mind that would enable him) to have a contact, and companionship, and an intimate relationship with God because God’s purpose was to reproduce Himself through man; and man was to be impregnated with the God Life (the very Life of God); and he had to have a mind that was in communion with God. Now ”two can’t walk together except they be agreed.” His mind had to come to agree with God and walk with God – think like God thinks; act like God acts; perform as God performs.

Now man was not made that way originally. He was made like an animal, but he had a spirit that empowered his brain with something an animal brain is not empowered with. I’ve said this over and over; and a lot of you haven’t got it yet, though you have heard me say it before. I want you to get this. A lot of people say, “Well, so what? I don’t care, I just want to enjoy the minute.” What’s going to happen when you die? “Well, don’t bother me with that. I don’t care.” Is that the way you think? Well, if you do, you had better get up and walk out of here because I am not going to entertain you with a lot of violence or a lot of illicit sex or anything. I want to try to give you some sound knowledge, and I want to stick to the spiritual side of things today.

But man needed another SPIRIT, just like man needed another person – a wife. He was only half there as a being. He had to have a wife before he was complete. And now he was only half there mentally: he needed another Spirit to go with his spirit. You see? All right, that other Spirit was offered Adam. Adam was taken and put into the Garden of Eden after he was created, and there was a beautiful garden. (We’re on a beautiful campus here, very beautiful, one of the most beautiful places in all the United States or in all the earth. It isn’t as beautiful as the Garden of Eden was. At least, I believe that.)

There were two trees. Among all the beautiful trees in the Garden of Eden, there were two special trees. Two symbolic trees that had special symbolic, special significance, special meaning. One was called the Tree of Life, the other was called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Now Adam had to make a choice between those two trees.

One had to do with knowledge. I said a while ago Adam had a mind, but he didn’t have knowledge; and he needed knowledge. He needed knowledge to get along with God. Now he needed a second kind of knowledge. He needed knowledge to get along with other people, because God told him to reproduce, replenish the earth and be fruitful. There were to be a lot of people that would come from Adam and Eve, and man had to get along with other men. He had to get along with his neighbor, and he had to deal with his neighbor; and God wanted him to do that in peace. And to do that He wanted his neighbor to contribute to this man’s happiness and peace; and He wanted this man to contribute to the other man’s happiness, and peace, and joy, and everything good.

So God had a law, a government. Now, of course, there had been a government on the earth among angels; and there had been a super archangel, Lucifer, at the head of that government. And he sat on a throne on the earth, and he had rebelled against God. He didn’t like God’s law, the way of give (the way of out flowing love) one of those angels loving another. They wanted to hate one another. But above all they didn’t want to love God. They wanted to go up and make an army of themselves and knock God off the throne and take over all the power of the whole universe. And they have been cast back down; and that super archangel, whose name had been Lucifer, had now become Satan the Devil; and his angels had now become demons, and they were there.

Adam had a chance to take over and rule the earth; but he had to rule the earth with the government of God, and the way of God, and the kind of knowledge of God, and the law of God – which is a way of life. It is the way of giving, of out flowing love. Now he needed knowledge to get along with God and have communion with God. He needed the knowledge to deal with other people, and he needed knowledge to deal with the matter of the earth.

I am speaking here from this desk. [sound of knocking] It’s made out of wood. Wood grows out of the ground. Here’s some metal [sound of knocking], some kind of iron. That came out of the ground too. Man needed to know how to get iron out of the ground and put it together. Here’s brass, it came out of the ground too. Man had to know how to deal with things. That’s one kind of knowledge. He had to have knowledge to deal with other people. That’s another kind of knowledge, without which he couldn’t be happy. And he had to have the kind of mind and the kind of knowledge that he could agree with God, and walk in harmony with God because ”two cannot walk together except they be agreed.” Simple. You get it? You understand?

Now I want you to see the difference between man and animal. Animal is equipped with instinct. He doesn’t have to have a brain to direct everything it does. An animal does what he does by instinct. A man has to learn, and he had to have three kinds of knowledge. Man had a spirit. Job 32, verse 8; I won’t read it.

Job 32: 8 There is a spirit in man.

That gave man a certain amount of intellect. That gave man enough intellect that he could ACQUIRE the knowledge to deal with matter, with things. Man could form things out of matter. Man could build a house to live in. Man could deal with matter and raise a garden, vegetables. God gave him certain animals for food; told him which to eat and which not to. Of course, man doesn’t believe God. Man wants to eat the things God condemns and told him not to eat, because man had a controversy with God just like the angels before him had. But man was only one half complete in his mind.

He had a mind that could acquire materialistic knowledge to deal with the material, to deal with things. But he needed a SPIRIT – the SPIRIT OF GOD – to have a relationship with God and to deal with his neighbor. And he needed to comprehend and understand the law of God, which is love. But to perform it is love toward God and love toward neighbor. But love is the fulfilling of that law, and to fulfill that law (to obey it) it takes that love of God ”shed abroad in our hearts by the HOLY SPIRIT.” That’s in Romans 5, verse 5.

Romans 5:5 …the love of God (is) shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit …

Man needed that in order to deal with his neighbor and get along with other people and in order to have a relationship with God. Now do I make it plain? I want you to understand. I could say this a hundred times and some of you are never going to get it. You won’t know any more than you did before, if you don’t listen.

Man needed another Spirit. His mind is only half complete. Man’s whole body was only half complete until he had a wife. Now his mind is only half complete till he got another Spirit. He needed the Spirit of God. Well, God offered him that in the Tree of Life.

Now then, what does the Tree of Life mean? We hear about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. People take that whole incidence in the Garden of Eden (It’s in the incidence of the forbidden fruit, we call it.), and they laugh it off with the joke about Adam’s apple. Now Adam didn’t take an apple. That second tree was not an apple tree at all. The Bible doesn’t tell us what kind of fruit it bore. It just says the fruit was symbolic. Whatever it was, it was symbolic of knowledge of good and evil.

Now, what if Adam had taken the Tree of Life? You’ve never heard that before. That’s never been preached in this Church. It’s never been preached in the Roman Catholic church. It’s never been preached in the Methodist, the Baptist, the Presbyterian, the Congregational, or the Lutheran church. You never heard that preached. What if Adam had taken of the Tree of Life?

All right, we have the opportunity in the Church today. God has opened the Tree of Life to us. How do we get immortal Life? IMMORTAL LIFE is the object of Christianity and of salvation. So how do we get that eternal Life? We get it through receiving the Holy Spirit of God; and God does not give you immortal Life just that quick (instantaneously). God first gives you the Holy Spirit. Now you only have the presence: well, it’s like the first part of the down payment on a piece of property if you buy it. It’s called the … (Oh, what do they call it? Well now, the thing escapes me for a second. It’s a part of the down payment.) – earnest payment; and that’s what the Holy Spirit is. It’s an earnest payment on eternal Life, but it’s not the full thing.

Now we offered this whole campus up for sale; and we got an earnest payment, but not a whole down payment. We got an earnest payment of half a million dollars; but they weren’t able to come through with the rest of it, and so they never got the campus. Here we are, we’re occupying the campus. They didn’t complete it. Now, if you don’t get the rest of it, you don’t get what is offered. The Holy Spirit is only the earnest payment, a temporary beginning toward the possession of eternal Life. That’s all. They just had the beginning towards the ultimate possession of the campus, and they didn’t go on and complete it; so they’re not here, and we’re here now. Their deal fell through: Too bad for them; too good for us. I’m glad they didn’t get it. God didn’t want it to go, I guess, so He saved it for us; and here’s Ambassador College starting all over again.

Now God has not changed. God is the same today, yesterday, and forever. You heard that in the Bible Study last night. Jesus Christ is the same. He changes not. Would Adam have received eternal Life instantaneously if he had taken of the Tree of Life? Not any more than we would today! God hasn’t changed in the way He performs. He would have given Adam Life the same way. He would have given him the Holy Spirit.

Now what is the first thing the Holy Spirit gives us? It is the immediate presence, temporarily… If we go on, we’ll be growing in Spirit until we really have eternal Life; but it is the beginning of eternal Life. But the first thing the Spirit really gives us is to open our minds to spiritual knowledge, so that we can understand spiritual knowledge. The very last words that Peter wrote in his letter, II Peter; yes I think it is 3:18 (16 or 18). It is the last verse.

II Peter 3:18 … grow in grace, and [the] knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ …

Knowledge is something we must increase and grow in. We keep getting more knowledge, and the Holy Spirit gives you spiritual knowledge. Now in I Corinthians the 2nd chapter you will find that eye cannot see and ear cannot hear spiritual knowledge. That’s verse 9, I Corinthians 2:9{5}. You cannot come to the consciousness (or knowledge) of SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE by what you see or what you hear. It can’t enter your mind through the eyes. It can’t enter your mind through the sense of smell, taste, or feel. Spirit is not matter.

You can only acquire materialistic knowledge. You can only see what is material. You can only hear what materially vibrates. You can only smell what is material, and you can only taste and feel what is material. So the natural mind of man cannot comprehend and cannot KNOW spiritual knowledge. But man needed spiritual knowledge to understand the law of God. He needed the Spirit of God to be the love of God spread abroad in his heart to fulfill that law.

Now the first thing God would have given Adam through the Holy Spirit would have been more knowledge (spiritual knowledge) so he could walk with God and understand the law of God; and the spiritual knowledge to walk with God; and the spiritual knowledge to get along with other people. The next thing God would have given him is the love of God shed abroad in his heart to fulfill that law. The next thing God would have given him is faith; the faith of Christ (the faith of God) so he could rely on God, because man was going to get in a lot of trouble regardless (even if he is righteous), because Psalm (let’s see) 34, I believe it is, and verse 19 says:

Psalm 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous[even the righteous have many troubles] but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.

And you need faith to trust God to deliver you in trouble, because you are going to get into trouble and you need something to trust God to do it.

Now, man needed the knowledge to contact God and be in a relationship with God and to deal with man. He already had the capability, as he was created, to acquire the knowledge to deal with things. But the first two – the contact with God and contact with neighbors (and getting along with them) – required spiritual knowledge; and that is the law of God, and the law of God is a spiritual law.

The Ten Commandments is the law of God. Did you ever stop to think that the Ten Commandments don’t tell you how to build an airplane? The Ten Commandments don’t tell you how to fly to the moon and back. The Ten Commandments don’t tell you how to make a television set or how to run it. The Ten Commandments only give you SPIRITUAL knowledge. It is a spiritual law. Man did not have spiritual knowledge. He had ability to acquire physical knowledge. But God’s purpose in us is to build in us (and to have us build within ourselves, with His help) the character – the spiritual perfect character – of God; and you have to have the Holy Spirit to do that.

Now, let’s go to the other tree. The other tree had something to do with knowledge too. You see, if he’d taken of the Tree of Life, he would have received knowledge. He would have received SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE, but that would have given him immortal Life. He would learn to live the right way, and God will not give us immortal Life in suffering and pain and anguish. He will only give us immortal Life if we can be happy and live it happily and joyfully. What a wonderful God!

God Himself IS love; and, He loves us so much, He wants us to be happy. He will not give us immortal Life in pain and suffering, and He isn’t going to torture us in a hell fire forever if we don’t either. He is going to let us burn up, and we’ll be so unconscious we’ll never know. It’ll be just like we have never been born. That is the kindest, most loving, thing God can do to anyone that refuses to receive such a wonderful gift as eternal Life.

Let’s go to the other tree now: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. I have something in my notes that I want to get here. When Adam took of that tree, and he rejected Life, that tree was to take to HIMSELF the knowledge of what it right and wrong; that he would go on the mind he already had (only half complete) and create his own knowledge. It was a tree of knowledge. Now it also was a tree of death because God said that, if he took of that tree, he would DIE because it resulted in death.

Now the first tree, if he took it, would result in Life; but the first tree was also of KNOWLEDGE, of SPIRITUAL knowledge. The second tree was of knowledge, but of MATERIALISTIC knowledge that would result in death; and, if he took it, would surely die. Now he made an experiment, and Adam did die. He’s not living today. He’s dead. What then did God do? Genesis 3 – I’ve turned to it, so I’ll just read that while I’m here.

Genesis 3:22-24 And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: [and] now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: [That way, with only his knowledge, he would have lived forever in unhappiness.] (23) Therefore the [Eternal] God sent him forth from the garden of Eden … (24) … and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

He SHUT UP the Tree of LIFE. He SHUT UP the HOLY SPIRIT FROM MANKIND. Adam’s children did not have access to the Holy Spirit. Adam HAD ACCESS to the Holy Spirit. Now God shut it up. Adam no longer had access to the Holy Spirit. Adam’s sons, Cain and Abel, did not have access to the Holy Spirit; and they only had a mind that was a mind of ‘get’ toward other people, a mind that was hostile against God. In Romans 8 and verse 7, they had a carnal mind. That was all he wanted. He didn’t want the spiritual mind that he would have gotten from the Tree of Life; and the natural (or the carnal) mind that Adam already had, and what you and I are born with, is ” enmity[or hostile] against God : (for it) is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”

Adam then became hostile against God. Cain was hostile against God. He was hostile against his brother. Cain got jealous of his brother, and he rose up and slew his brother. Then God came along and said, “Cain, where is your brother?” Then he began to lie, and he said: “Oh, how do I know? Am I my brother’s keeper? What are you asking me for?” And he then became a liar. And Adam’s children have been doing it and have been out to GET, only to ‘get’ from other people, ever since.

They believe in competition that leads to strife and fighting; destroying one another; tearing down (not building up); competition (not cooperation); vanity. “I’m bigger than you are.” “I’m better than you.” “I love me and I don’t love you.” There was a song in 1924 (a popular song); “Oh, I love me. I love myself. I’m wild about myself. I put my arms around myself and I give myself a squeeze. Oh, I love me. I love myself TO DEATH. I love me until I’m all out of breath! I’ll MARRY ME SOME DAY, I love me so much, but I don’t love anybody else.” Isn’t that the way we are? We thought that song was funny. It was tragically funny (tragically funny).

Well, and so it went on; and the world was cut off from the Holy Spirit. SALVATION WAS NOT OPEN TO THE WORLD. I WANT YOU TO GET THAT. Christianity believes salvation has always been open to the world. IT WAS NOT! In the time of Moses, God called a people out from Egypt and made them His nation. He gave them His law. He did not give them His Holy Spirit. He did not give them eternal Life. He did not offer them eternal Life. They had NO OPPORTUNITY to gain salvation or eternal Life.

The people over in China have not had opportunity to gain eternal Life. The children of Israel did not had opportunity to gain eternal Life. Only the prophets of God; and they were like ‘born out of season’ – a part from the Church, believe it or not! Because the Church is built on a foundation, and the prophets are part of that foundation. The Church was built on the foundation of the apostles and the PROPHETS. But that is the prophets of the Old Testament. There were no prophets in the New Testament that were part of the foundation of the Church. NO prophet in the New Testament contributed to the beliefs, the doctrine, the knowledge, the teaching of the Church or the administration of it. Not one.

But the Old Testament prophets did, and they are quoted throughout the New Testament. Paul quoted them. Peter quoted them. Jesus quoted them … part of the Church. Otherwise NOBODY HAD ACCESS TO THE HOLY SPIRIT until the second Adam, Jesus Christ, came. Now what about all the others? Did God let them live and die and go to hell? No, they died. So what about them? I’ll just quote a few scriptures in a hurry right here.

I Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, (even) so in Christ[the second Adam] shall all be made alive.

But that’s in I Corinthians 15 and verse 22 (I Corinthians 15 verse 22) and, speaking about a resurrection; they’ll be made alive after they die. Then again in Hebrews 9:27:

Hebrews 9:27 … it is appointed unto men once to die [All men die. You only have a temporary existence. You don’t have eternal Life. It’s appointed men to die and … ] AFTER this [by a resurrection] the judgment.

”Once to die, and after this the JUDGMENT.” Now people don’t understand the judgment. Everybody who ever lived and never had a chance at salvation, they’re all going to be resurrected. And they’re going to find that Christ has come and died to pay the penalty of their sins, in their stead; and they are going to be called before the Judge (who will be Christ) sitting on the judgment seat. He’ll be on the bench in a trial, and they’ll come before the judgment. And they’re going to give account of what they did in this life, and it’s going to be pretty bad. And He’s going to say, “I sentence you to DEATH. I sentence you to death, eternal death.”

But you know, some of us might be there as attorney for the defense. And we’ll say, “But Your Honor, Your Honor, can my client throw himself on the mercy of the court?” Well, Christ will say, “Yes, yes he may.” “All right. My client, Your Honor, pleads guilty; and You have sentenced him to death, but he throws himself on Your mercy.” Well, the Judge will then say, “In that case, you know, I have already paid this penalty in your stead; and you won’t have to pay it – if you admit it, and if you want to live the right way from now on.” And they will THEN GAIN ETERNAL LIFE. Isn’t that wonderful!

Now we are going to celebrate the Last Day (after the Feast of Tabernacles) of that Great White Throne Judgment. That’s when all who ever lived, who never had the Holy Spirit offered them; and it will then be offered to them. Oh, what a wonderful God we have. They are condemned, yes. They did wrong, yes. And yet Christ came and loved them so much that He died for them while they were yet sinners. And God the Father loved them so much ”He GAVE His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him” at least in the final great judgment ”may have eternal life” and not eternal death.

THE ONLY ONES who will get eternal death will be those that finally, after ALL OF THAT, are going to say, “I don’t love you, God. I don’t want any eternal Life. I just hate you and I … .” Well, God will say, “Well, if you are not going to receive Life, and you’re don’t want to live it the way to be happy and have others be happy, I’ll just let you burn up.” But you won’t keep burning very long. You burn up very quickly. That fire is going to be awful hot. It’s not going to torture them very long, I can tell you. It’ll be over very, very quickly.

Now finally, the second Adam came. Physical existence came with Adam (the first Adam). But spiritual eternal Life comes with the second Adam, Jesus Christ. Redemption and life had to come with Christ. Jesus came, and He said in Matthew 16:18:

Matthew 16:18 … I will build my church …

Now, no one had the Holy Spirit yet; and Christ came and said, ”I will build my church.” But in Joel 2:28 a prophet said this:

Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh … .

Oh, God shut up the Holy Spirit (as I read to you) in the time of Adam, and drove Adam out of the Garden of Eden. But now He’s going to POUR OUT His Spirit upon all flesh who will…all who will accept it. But Jesus decided that the time had not come, and God Almighty decided the time had not come, for all flesh – just part of “all flesh” now. So Jesus said, ”I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”(And I mean Life, not temporary existence.) But He also said, John 6:44 (John 6…) I want to read that (I want to read that). John 6:44. I want you to know I am reading this out of the Bible. Jesus said, ”No man can come to me [Aught-oh. “No man.” Is this the day of salvation? No. No man CAN come to me] except the Father who sent me draw him.”

Now God draws a lot that are “called,” but only a few are “chosen.” You know to one of the Churches (the Church up in Ephesus) you read in the 1st chapter of Ephesians{6} how the apostle Paul said, “God has chosen you.” They were called, they had accepted, and they were chosen. But He said (Jesus had said), “No one can come to Me” even now except a few God has predestinated and called.

Brethren, if you have been called, you are one of the FEW who have been called and chosen. Around you are hundreds of others (around every one of you) who have not been called. Now, are you better than they? Is God playing favorites? Not a bit. YOU HAVE TO FIGHT SATAN THE DEVIL. YOU HAVE TO LIVE IN A WORLD THAT IS GOING SATAN’S WAY. IT’S SATAN’S WORLD. YOU HAVE TO … well, you know, any old dead fish can float down stream; it takes a pretty live fish (like salmon, for example) to swim up against a swift current. We’ve got to swim up against a swift current; we’ve got to go against the world. We’ve got to be persecuted by the world. We’ve got to come out of the world and be separate.

You know, when God opens up the Holy Spirit to all flesh (and He will, beginning at Christ’s coming – to all flesh then living), there won’t be any devil around any longer; and the whole world will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the ocean beds are covered with water. You don’t live in that kind of world. You and I have it a lot harder. But WE, IF WE OVERCOME (it says in Revelation 2 verses 26 and 27, and Revelation 3 verse 21{7}) – if you overcome, you will be able to sit with Christ in His throne. If we overcome, we’ll be given power to rule the nations and help convert and save the nations in the Millennium.

Now, others coming later don’t have that promise. I don’t know whether God will decide to give it to them later, but He hasn’t yet. That promise only applies to those in the Church now. It does not apply to others that will be called later. Now finally, in the Millennium and in the Great White Throne Judgment, God will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh! But now He is just calling a few, in the Church. WE ARE THE FIRSTFRUITS. That’s what the day of Pentecost means.

Now, God gave us the Feast days. The first is the Passover, portraying Christ. That’s the beginning towards spiritual salvation through the second Adam toward eternal Life, which Adam turned down. He didn’t take the Tree of Life. The second festival of the Days of Unleavened Bread, we have to quit sinning and come out of sin.

The third festival is in the summer, the Feast of Pentecost – meaning the feast of firstfruits, that we are just the first of salvation. Just a few are offered the Holy Spirit and the Tree of Life now. Look at the world around you. Your next-door neighbors probably are not offered the Tree of Life. You have been. What a wonderful thing! Don’t let it slip. Don’t let it slip.

But Joel said the time will come when He will pour out His spirit upon all flesh. Now on the day of Pentecost, that spirit was poured on the beginning (the firstfruits) of those God was calling. They were predestinated. And in Acts the 2nd chapter and verses 15 to 17, you will find that Peter said that on that day of Pentecost that this was what Joel had prophesied the beginning of the pouring out of the Spirit of God upon all flesh. And no longer was the Spirit of God completely shut up from everybody.

But listen, brethren. The churches, who are called “Christian,” think that salvation has ALWAYS been offered to EVERYBODY. IT HAS NOT! Salvation was NOT offered to people! Well, then what? They will be resurrected in the Great White Throne Judgment, and then it will be offered to them. But it was not offered to them in this life. It is offered to you and me NOW. Does that mean something to you? What a wonderful opportunity! But we have to fight off Satan and Satan’s people (this world) – a very great thing.

All right, that’s the Church. Now, the Church had the commandments of God. The Church got its teachings from the original apostles, and the original apostles got their teaching direct from Christ (the second Adam). And the Church started off with glory and all of that, but all that glory didn’t last too long. You notice in the book of Galatians the 1st chapter, verse 6 Paul wrote … Now this was about 53AD, about 22 years later (21 or 22 years later). The Church was just of age, and Paul says:

Galatians 1:6-7 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel : (7) Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

They began right then to suppress the gospel of Christ. The gospel is the message Christ brought. It’s the good news of the Kingdom of God – that you can be born into the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is the government of God, and the family of God ruling the government of God. And every government is based on a constitution or a basic law. And the basic law (or constitution) of God’s government is the law of love, the Ten Commandments.

Now that was not preached any longer (the Kingdom of God); and instead the great false church came, Babylon the great. And later came the reformation called the Protestant Reformation. And the Bible says they are the harlots of the false religion – the old Babylonian Mystery Religion of superstition. However, the true Church did survive.

But what happened to the true Church? The original Church got its teachings from the apostles in the same generation, immediately after they got it from Jesus Christ. So where did the third generation of the Church get it? They had to get it from the people of the second generation. By that time the apostles were all dead.

Now let me tell you something: If you start a game that I used to play when I was young called the whispering game; and here’s a gentleman over here; and if he whispers to the lady next to him a sentence (about 10 words in a sentence) and she listens; and he may repeat it again. Yes, all right, she understands it; so now she whispers it to the lady next to her; and that lady hears it, and what she thinks she hears she whispers it to the lady next to her, and she whispers it to the person next to her; and so on till they get down to the end of the line.

Then the one at the end of the line says, “What was the sentence did you hear?” And he gets up and says it, and it doesn’t make any sense at all. And he says to the first gentleman here, “What did you whisper to the first woman?” And it’s altogether different; and you see one getting it from the other, it got all mixed up. You ought to try that sometime, and you’ll see that when people get from other people they get it all mixed up.

It’s just like rumors going around. You hear a rumor. You tell it, but you have to add a little something. You take away something. You have to change it a little bit. And the other person, “Oh well, we got to go tell someone else about that rumor” about somebody, or against somebody. But they change it a little bit. And finally about the 4th or 5th time, that rumor, you can’t recognize it the way it started out.

Well, that’s what happened to the true Church. When I came among the true Church back in 1926 and 1927, the Church had lost about all of the original truth, except that there is some kind of salvation through Christ. And they knew we must have the law of God, especially the Sabbath; and they were keeping the Sabbath. And they had the name “The Church of God.”

But they’d lost ALL sense of what was the gospel. They didn’t know about the Kingdom of God. They knew there would be a Millennium, and that Christ would rule, and it would be on earth. But they didn’t know what would happen in the Millennium. They didn’t know what it would be like. They didn’t know there was any government of God. They didn’t know you could be born into the family of God. They didn’t know what salvation really was (really is).

They had lost most of these things. They had lost all about the Holy Days and annual Sabbaths. They’d lost all of that. God revealed it to me, and when I preached it to them they laughed me to scorn. They wouldn’t have anything to do with it. They’d received so much information, so much knowledge, they wouldn’t receive any more. Would you receive additional knowledge? I am giving you additional knowledge to most of you today. Are you going to receive it, or won’t you receive it?

Well now, you know, let’s get back to our own time. Matthew 24. That’s the greatest prophecy in the New Testament. It’s a prophecy of Jesus. They lost the true gospel, and Jesus said … He was up on the Mount of Olives, and the disciples came to Him privately, and they asked Him:

Matthew 24:3 … Tell us when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?

What things did they mean? They’d been talking about the temple being destroyed, and that was going to happen in their lifetime. So Jesus started to tell them what would happen in their lifetime. He said:

Matthew 24:5 … many shall come in my name saying, I am[the] Christ; and shall deceive many.

Now be careful you don’t get deceived. You’re going to find many will come preaching a false gospel. The gospel was going to be suppressed. The gospel was the Kingdom of God. They began to preach the gospel about Christ and not about the message of Christ. They preached about the Messenger, but they left out the Messenger’s message. So finally it would come down to the time of the end, and finally in verse 14:

Matthew 24:14 … this gospel of the KINGDOM [That’s the gospel Jesus preached.] shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and THEN shall the end [of this church age, the end of this time – this present world] come.

Brethren, did you ever hear the gospel of the Kingdom till you heard it through this Church? And the early members of this Church never heard it except through my voice. And you either heard it through me or indirectly through me (from others who did hear it from me) – every one of you! The gospel of the Kingdom of God had not been preached before. Now it has been preached ever since 1933. I went on the air first in the fall in October 1933, but that was only one week. But the program started the first Sunday in January 1934; and it has been going on ever since. And, by the way, we are going on a lot more radio stations now once again. Anyway, we are getting down to the very time of the end now. I want you to notice something. In Ephesians 2 and verse 20, it’s talking about the Church. It says the Church is:

Ephesians 2:20-21 … built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets [Now that means the prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles of the New.] Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; (21) In whom all the building …

Now the Church is compared to a building. Not a lot of different buildings, ONE BUILDING. It’s the body of Christ. Christ is the head of it. How many bodies does Christ have? You know that the prophet Daniel … I’m going to write an article on this, and you’ll read it a little later. Daniel had a vision in which he saw a funny kind of a beast (a wild animal), but it had 4 heads. Now, it was just symbolic of the Greco-Macedonian Empire. That’s in the 7th chapter in the book of Daniel. A beast that had four different heads. I never saw one. But did you ever see four different beasts that all had just one head and had four different beasts under that one head? I never did.

There are not a lot of churches. Christ has only the one body, and the body is compared to the human body in the 12th chapter of I Corinthians. I tell you, you cut off even a part of a little finger or part of a little toe [Tape skips at 1:25:59] That person is no longer part of the body. There is only ONE BODY OF CHRIST. There is only ONE CHURCH, and it’s compared to a BUILDING . Not a lot of churches, and a lot of bodies here and there, each one in confusion speaking something different.

I know someone very well who says the Church is like a lot of electric light bulbs here and there, but they all just get the current from the same place. But one lights up one light; and another, another kind of light. So they have a lot of churches; and one speaks one thing (and another, another), and they all speak different things. Is Christ the head of them all? Oh, no. Christ is not the head of that kind of a thing.

He’s the head of one body. The Church is one body. Many members, but the ONE BODY. I think Ephesians 2nd chapter {8} – one body; and we’re compared to a building:

Ephesians 2:21 In whom all the building fitly framed together [Not all scattered apart, part of it here and part of it over in some other town, part of it in another part of the world. All together.] growth unto an holy temple in the Lord.

It is now a temple. That’s a kind of a building. WE, MY BRETHREN, ARE THE TEMPLE TO WHICH CHRIST IS COMING at the Second Coming. Everybody wonders: “What kind of a temple is He coming too?” Christ is coming to the temple of His own body – THE CHURCH. He’s coming to MARRY the Church, and the Church will have made herself ready – without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. Not different churches, speaking different things! The Church in I Corinthians the 1st chapter must all speak the same thing! Not one speaking this, and someone else speaking a different thing and saying, “Well, we’re all hanging on to Christ some way or other.” You can’t do that.

Christ is the vine, and we are the branches. But did you ever see grapes being produced on a branch that is cut off from the vine? He said we must bear much fruit, but you have to be on to the vine; and the vine is organized together. It’s one vine. It is not several vines scattered around. There is only the one Church, and it is the temple to which Christ is coming. Oh, what a different spirit is here now in this Church. (What a different spirit in Pasadena. What a different spirit here in Big Sandy.) It’s like it once was, years ago! And that spirit of contention, that spirit of wanting to compromise with Satan, is all gone.

Now then, we are the temple to which Christ is coming. All right, now I would like to have you turn back, if you will, to Malachi – Malachi the 3rd chapter. Here is a prophecy. You have heard it before.

Malachi 3:1-4 Behold I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple [What temple is He coming to? The Church! He is coming to the Church, at the Second Coming.], even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in; behold he shall come saith the Lord of hosts. [Now what coming is it talking about? Let’s go on and read.] (2) But who shall abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap [at this coming]: (3) And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi [Did He do that when Jesus came before – when He began preaching in 27 AD? Oh no, He didn’t do that then. He’s going to do that at His Second Coming.] and he will purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. (4) And then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasant unto the Lord …

Did that happen when He came before? Not at all! Jerusalem was in the charge of the Romans; and the Romans were using the Jewish Pharisees and the Sadducees in their government, and they were fighting Christ. They weren’t purified, not at all.

Malachi 3:4-5 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old and as in former years. (5) And I will come near unto you to judgment [Judgment is not coming until the beginning of the Millennium, when He comes the second time. “I will come near to you to judgment … ”] and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers … and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, [and] the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.

That is talking about the Second Coming, and someone coming to prepare the way before the Second Coming. And yet you will read, in Mark the 1st chapter, that John the Baptist came and prepared the way before the coming of Christ. That was His first coming. You know, some of them asked Christ “Was John the Baptist Elijah?” Or they asked John the Baptist if he was Elijah. John the Baptist said, “No, I am not.” And he was not Elijah. But they said to Christ, “We thought Elijah was to come.” Well, He said, “Elijah has come.” “Elijah has come,” and He spoke about John the Baptist. But in another place He said John the Baptist was only another man, but in the POWER AND SPIRIT of Elijah. Elijah had come in the person of John the Baptist.

Now that’s possibly talking about someone coming to prepare the way for the Second Coming and prepare the Church to be ready for Christ’s coming – to be the bride, to be caught up to meet Him in the air; and you people are that bride. WHAT IS YOUR BIBLE TALKING ABOUT, BRETHREN? It’s about time we opened our understanding, and that we get to understand who and what we are. He’s talking about someone coming to prepare the way for the Second Coming of Christ. John the Baptist was the voice crying out in the physical wilderness of the Jordan River. This is talking about someone coming – a voice crying out in the midst of a SPIRITUAL wilderness of Babylon confusion, calling people out of Babylon.

John the Baptist came to prepare the way for a physical Jesus. Someone else was going to come preparing the way for a spiritual Christ in power and great glory to come to rule. John the Baptist prepared the way for a physical Jesus to come to a physical people, His own people Judah “who received Him not.” This time someone is preparing the way for Christ to come as a great spiritual King of Kings and Lord of Lords in power and glory to meet His SPIRITUAL TEMPLE, THE CHURCH. It’ll be caught up in the air, translated from mortal to immortal, becoming very God as His bride in a marriage.

He’s coming to His SPIRITUAL temple. The first time He came to a physical temple built of stone and wood and material. The second time He is coming to a spiritual temple composed of spirit, because this Church is going to be changed from matter. You won’t be in a physical body. You won’t have a heart pumping blood. You will become spirit. You are that temple, brethren. Do you know who you are?

Now I’d like to turn to another prophecy right here in Haggai. Chapter 2 of Haggai (a prophet) he says:

Haggai 2:2 Speak now to Zerubbabel …

Now Zerubbabel, this was a governor of a colony sent down to Jerusalem 70 years after Judah had been captured. The temple of Solomon had been destroyed in Jerusalem; and 70 years later, to fulfill a prophecy by Jeremiah, a colony of Jews was sent back down there. And they were all Jews, not any of the lost tribes of the house of Israel were in that colony. Zerubbabel was the governor; and he was sent there to build the temple (the second temple) to which Christ was going to come the first time.

John the Baptist was the one who prepared the way for Christ’s first coming. Here was Zerubbabel, the one to prepare the temple to which Christ was coming the first time. I want you to get the similarity (the duality) of this whole thing. And Christ was saying, verse 3:

Haggai 2:3-4 Who is left among you that saw this house [That is, Solomon’s temple.] in her first glory? [Probably the most wonderful building ever built in the history of the world.] and how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? (4) Yet now be strong O Zerubbabel says the Lord and … Joshua the high priest … and work, for I am with you saith the Lord of hosts [and built this temple].

Now that temple was a type of the temple to which Christ is coming the second time.

Haggai 2:5-7 According to the word as I have covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not. (6) For thus saith the [Eternal] of hosts: Yet once it is a little while and I will [Now he’s going into a prophecy right into the future. Now notice this, the prophecy hasn’t even happened yet in our time. “And I will … ”] shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; (7) And I will shake all nations …

He’s just starting to do that now. Do you know that I have been visiting the heads of nations all over this world; and many of those heads of nations that I have visited in the last 10 years are now dead, and overthrown, and gone? And nations and the thrones of nations have been overthrown at the rate of about one a month part of the time, nearly every year all over this world?

Haggai 2:7-9 I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. [They were building the second temple.] (8) The silver is mine and the gold is mine saith the [Eternal] of hosts. (9) The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former[greater glory than of Solomon’s temple].

Oh, oh, the temple that Zerubbabel built was not anywhere near as glorious as Solomon’s temple. It is speaking by type of the temple that is to be built at Christ’s coming. It will be more glorious than Solomon’s temple. Brethren, you are that temple! You are not yet glorified. You are just sitting here in flesh and blood, some of you quite sickly with certain diseases. Oh, you’ll be all healed. You’ll be raised up in the sky in the clouds to meet Christ at His coming. You’ll be changed from matter into spirit. You will be glorified. That’s more glorious than Solomon’s temple to which he is referring to here.

Haggai 2:9 … and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.

That means Jerusalem, where they were. Now there has never been peace in Jerusalem from that time on. But there will be. Who was preparing the way for the second temple? Through WHOM? God works through human beings. Through whom is He building the second temple? WHERE IS THE VOICE CRYING OUT ‘PREPARE THE WAY’? The gospel was ANNULLED. The gospel was SABOTAGED. It was not preached for 100 time cycles of 1,900 years.

Through whom did God begin preaching that gospel – the gospel of the Kingdom of God – in Europe and all over the United States (to the kings of this world all over this earth)? WHO? It came out of this Church, brethren. This Church is mightier than you realize. Very much so! We are in the last days, preparing for the Second Coming of Christ; and we’d better get our house in order, because Christ wants this Church presented to Him a glorious Church not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.

Revelation 19 says His bride will have made herself ready. We’ve been getting ready now for 2 1/2-3 years. Are we yet ready? I think not quite, but we are a lot more ready than we were 3 years ago. We’ve got to pray harder. We’ve got to read our Bibles more. We’ve got to have our mind on the things of God, and get our minds off of the things of this world and its entertainment. We’ve got to get back to God. We’ve got to get prepared and be ready for the Second Coming of Christ, because we’re not quite ready yet.

“HE THAT HATH AN EAR, LET HIM HEAR” WHAT JESUS CHRIST SPOKE TO YOU TODAY through His servant and His apostle. Thank you brethren. I hope that you get the message.