It is the most popular book in the world and the top bestseller of all time. In the last 200 years, well over 2.5 billion copies have been sold. The whole Bible has been translated into over 300 languages and parts of it have been translated into more than 2,000 languages. It is the most-printed, most-purchased and most freely distributed book in the world! Yet the Bible, for most people, is shrouded in mystery. What a paradox!
This book of books unveils the secrets of human life—how we got here, why we were born and where we are headed. It reveals and describes some of the details of creation, the Creator’s purpose for man and His master plan for accomplishing that purpose! What lies ahead for mankind? Will we be decimated in the current free fall toward oblivion, or will there be a brighter tomorrow? The Bible answers plainly (Matthew 24:21-22; Isaiah 11:6-9), but for doubters the good news is no more reliable than the happy ending of a fairy tale.
This greatest of all books is full of revealed knowledge that man cannot come to know using his five senses. Herbert W. Armstrong called it the Maker’s “instruction manual” because it provides instructions on how the human creation is to operate. It teaches man how to live to achieve real peace, true happiness and lasting success! Yet for the most part, that instruction is foolishly disregarded or spurned.
This holy book exposes the cause of this world’s evils—it lays bare the raw corruption of the human heart (Jeremiah 17:9) and reveals who corrupts it! (Ephesians 2:2; Revelation 12:9). It shines a bright light on the significance of man’s bloody history. Why does evil exist? What is sin? What is righteous and good? The answers are profound, yet simple (1 John 3:4; Psalm 119:172).
We must recognize that the Holy Bible is radically different from all other so-called sacred literature. It asserts that it is the divinely inspired writings of a supreme Deity. No other sacred literature makes such a claim as this: “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isaiah 46:9-10). Can we really know whether Almighty God, Himself, delivered this book to man?
The Bible is an astonishing book. Over 40 different writers from many different walks of life—some were kings, shepherds, military leaders, philosophers, farmers and fishermen—over a period of 1,600 years, were used to pen its contents! Yet the Bible stands alone in its harmony and agreement. There are no contradictions (John 10:35) in the original text, in spite of what ignorant critics might counter.
The Holy Bible is a truly remarkable and extraordinary book! “All scripture is given by inspiration of God …” (2 Timothy 3:16). The word inspiration in the Greek means God-breathed. In other words, God personally coordinated the Bible’s development and directly inspired its writing. The Bible is the authoritative Word of God in print. It is a supernatural feat, and worthy of careful study!
7 Keys to Understanding the Bible
By Herbert W. Armstrong
Reprinted from the Good News, December 1984
Do you realize that God has purposely closed much of the Holy Bible from human understanding, until now?
Look at the pitiful spectacle—hundreds of different sects and denominations, all confused and mixed up, each with its own different ideas, beliefs and practices—all disagreeing as to what the Bible says—none understanding its full, true message!
Why?
Because none of them possesses the keys needed to open the doors to understanding, and therefore this spiritual treasure house is closed to them.
Locked Up Until Now!
Even the prophets inspired in writing the Word of God did not understand much of what they wrote. Daniel records in his last chapter, “I heard this, but I did not understand it” (Moffatt translation). When he asked the meaning of what he was inspired to write, he was told, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end”—or, as Moffatt translates it, “till the crisis at the close” (Daniel 12:8-9).
The whole world is now in chaos—we have now entered the world crisis at the close of this age! But even now, Daniel was told, “the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand” (verse 10).
Since this very Word of God reveals that “sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4), those who encourage the breaking of God’s law, teaching that it is done away—as nearly all sects and denominations do—are, in Bible terminology, “the wicked.” And who are “the wise,” who shall now understand?
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments” (Psalm 111:10).
Again God’s angel caused Daniel to record: “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase” (Daniel 12:4).
Yes, much of the Word of God, especially the prophecies, were shut up and sealed until now. Today people run to and fro, all over the world, in automobiles, trains and planes. Today knowledge has been increased. We have reached the world crisis at the close of this age! The wise—those who fear God and keep His commandments—can now understand!
Even 50 years ago this true understanding was still closed and sealed! None of the established church denominations has been willing, in these 50 years, to admit error, correct false teachings or accept new light now suddenly revealed! No wonder they all disagree! They are in Babylon—confusion!
In the first place, none can understand by himself. The carnal mind cannot see spiritual things.
These truths are revealed through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit—and God gives His Spirit only to those who obey Him and keep His commandments! Only the truly converted can even begin to understand the marvelous truths of God.
But even having that beginning, there are seven keys needed to unlock these closed doors of truth!
And just as one key alone will not unlock your safety deposit box at the bank, so no one, no two or even six of these keys will open the scriptural doors to full understanding. It requires all seven keys.
Seven Vital Keys Thrown Away
Jesus Christ gave His apostles the keys of true understanding, which unlock the door to the Kingdom of God.
To Peter and the others, He said, “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 16:19).
But He prophesied apostasy. “Many false prophets will rise up,” He said, “and deceive many” (Matthew 24:11). Paul foretold the great “falling away” from God’s truth and Jesus Christ’s gospel, turning unto fables (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12; 2 Timothy 4:1-4).
It had even begun in Paul’s day (2 Thessalonians 2:7). Church leaders only used the keys to lock up the door of the Kingdom, and then threw the keys away, even as the Pharisees and rulers did before them: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” said Jesus to them. “For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in” (Matthew 23:13).
And so naturally, today no denomination of traditional Christianity, sect or church possesses these seven keys!
Here they are: God’s true Church has all of them!
1. The True Gospel
Almost no one has this first key, believe it or not! The gospel of Jesus Christ is the gospel that Jesus Christ preached—a message sent from God by Jesus Christ as messenger. The gospel of Christ is Christ’s own gospel—not a story about His Person!
Today people are led to believe that the gospel is telling the story about Jesus. Telling people about a Savior, they believe it is “the gospel of salvation,” not understanding the true way of salvation themselves! No wonder there is no power in what is falsely preached as the “gospel” today!
The gospel of Christ “is the power of God to salvation” (Romans 1:16). Today most popular denominations do away with all that is vital in Christ’s gospel, saying He was preaching only to Jews under the Old Covenant! What ignorance!
What is Jesus Christ’s gospel? What is the message God sent to mankind by Jesus Christ? It is the good news of the Kingdom of God! Kingdom means government! It is the message of divine government—government by God’s laws! It is the prophetic proclamation of the coming world government to rule all nations and bring today’s confused, chaotic, war-weary Earth peace and joy! It is the vital, dynamic, powerful, living message of God’s government, first in individual hearts in God’s true Church, now in this world, later all nations internationally in the World Tomorrow!
Of course that message includes the knowledge about the Savior, High Priest and coming King! Of course, it includes the true way of salvation, which the churches have lost! And it includes also knowledge of the location of the territory to be ruled over by the King of the coming Kingdom—the fact it is this Earth and not heaven!
But there can be no government without laws, and so the true gospel also must proclaim the law of God, which alone can bring peace to the world and success, happiness and joy to the individual! The true gospel has to do with the nations of today’s world, world conditions today and Jesus Christ’s reign over all nations in the World Tomorrow! It is a full, complete, dynamic and powerful gospel, which has been kept by the powers of darkness from the world for 1,900 years!
This knowledge is the first key!
2. Salvation IS Creation
The usual idea preached in this dark and confused world is that salvation is God’s plan for repairing the damage caused by Satan in “the fall of man” in the garden of Eden.
God, so the world has been taught by church leaders, had completed His work of creation—man was a finished creation, spiritual, immortal, perfect in character. Then along came Satan, and by cunning he wrecked God’s handiwork, thwarted God’s purpose, caused man to fall to the low plane of sinful human nature, ruined God’s perfect creation! Then God is supposed to have looked down upon this colossal smashup, and to have thereupon thought out the plan of redemption as a means of repairing the damage.
Salvation, then, is presented merely as God’s effort to restore man to a condition as good as Adam was in the first place. The picture is that God has been doing His very best for 6,000 long years, but Satan has resisted Him!
God has found Himself unable to avoid a contest with Satan—a “great controversy,” as one writer phrased it—in which God has done His best, but Satan has continued to outsmart Him and now today, with time about up, the vast majority of people on Earth are still unsaved—still on Satan’s side! The contest is almost over, and the best God can now do is take revenge and send Jesus Christ to destroy all the wicked whom Satan has kept on his side!
Can you see that picture could only have come from the deceiving false god of this world, Satan himself? It presents Satan at every turn as more powerful than God—as succeeding in his rivalry! This entire concept is a damnable LIE!
The truth is the second important key—and it explains God’s purpose in placing humanity on this Earth!
Salvation is not a repairing of the damage done by Satan in the garden of Eden. Satan never did alter or change God’s purpose or plan. The devil has never thwarted God’s will. All has gone always, and always will, exactly according to God’s purpose!
Salvation is merely the completing of creation! Creation was not completed 6,000 years ago, at the time described in Genesis 1! That was merely the first or material phase of a creation now still going on! The spiritual creation is a process, continuing, according to God’s plan, today!
Man was created physical, not spiritual—mortal, not immortal—of the dust of the ground—the clay model that God the master potter is now fashioning and shaping, spiritually, into the final image! Man was created purposely, in the mere physical image of God, a free moral agent, with possibility revealed to him of receiving as God’s gift the very spiritual nature of God, so that he may by God’s power be made into a perfect, righteous, spiritual character, then given immortality as God’s gift!
There is no contest! Satan does nothing except what God permits! And God permits it for a purpose.
Character is created by experience, and experience requires time, and therefore it is a process! As Jesus Christ our example learned by suffering, so do we!
The fact that salvation is the completing of creation—the spiritual phase of creation—that God’s purpose is to create in us, as free moral agents who make our own decisions, the supreme masterpiece of all His creative acts—holy, righteous, spiritual, immortal character—resisting the down pull of Satan and self-desire, building character by living God’s law—that knowledge of God’s purpose is the second vital key!
3. God’s Dual Method
A duality runs all through every phase of God’s plan. First, the material creation of Genesis 1, completed; second, the spiritual creation still in process pictured finally complete in the prophecy of Revelation 21 and 22.
There was the first Adam, material, of the Earth; and there is the second Adam, Christ Jesus, spiritual, from heaven.
There was the first covenant with Israel, material and national, devoid of salvation, based upon the birthright promise; and there is the New Covenant, spiritual and individual, with a spiritually begotten Israel, based upon the scepter promise. God made man mortal, of the dust, in order to convert him into immortality, composed of spirit.
In this very salvation process is the dual method—the very word salvation means, first, rescuing from the penalty of eternal death, and second, the act of preserving or imparting eternal life as God’s gift.
And so, in being saved, we first are now begotten of God by the indwelling of His Spirit in our mortal bodies as the temple or house of the Spirit—and are now merely the heirs of salvation, and second, we shall finally be fully born of God at the resurrection of the just, when we shall inherit the Kingdom.
This same dual principle runs all through prophecy! First, a former or preliminary fulfillment that is merely the type or forerunner of a second, the final climactic fulfillment occurring, usually, during this crisis at the close we already have entered!
And positively none can understand the Bible prophecies unless this duality of prophetic fulfillment is understood. It is a vital key!
4. God’s Holy Days
These were given to God’s people to picture and to keep them in the understanding of God’s plan for bringing about His purpose—His reign over all the Earth whose people shall have been converted to righteous immortality!
Every sect, organization or denomination that does not observe God’s holy days and has fastened its eyes upon the pagan Romish holidays instead has never understood God’s plan!
God’s holy days picture:
First, Passover, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Second, Days of Unleavened Bread, putting sin out of our lives, or keeping God’s commandments—and during this festival was the wavesheaf, picturing the resurrected Jesus Christ accepted of God as our High Priest.
Third, Feast of Firstfruits or Pentecost, picturing the coming of the Holy Spirit and the completing of this, the merely first and preliminary harvest of souls.
Fourth, Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the seventh month, picturing the Second Coming of Christ at the beginning of the seventh millennium.
Fifth, Day of Atonement, picturing justice done by laying Satan’s guilt in our sins upon his own head, removing him and chaining him in the symbolic bottomless pit, making us finally at one with God. Atonement means at-one-ment.
Sixth, Feast of Tabernacles, for seven days, picturing the Kingdom of God during the seventh millennium, the great fall harvest of souls.
And seventh, the Last Great Day, immediately following the Feast of Tabernacles, picturing the final Great White Throne Judgment, which almost nobody understands, and the final completing of God’s plan!
5. The Truth About Israel
The fact that the nation Israel became divided into two nations, the 10-tribed kingdom, retaining the name the kingdom of Israel, possessing the birthright promises, and the kingdom of Judah, composed of Judah and Benjamin and a large portion of Levi, possessing the scepter; and, secondly, the fact revealed during this time of the end that the Jewish people today are merely a portion of the descendants of the kingdom of Judah; and the Americans, British and democracies of northwestern Europe are the so-called “lost 10 tribes” or descended from the house of Israel—and that Britain is Ephraim, and the United States is Manasseh, co-holders of the birthright, which is the true explanation of our sudden rise to the greatest national power and wealth ever possessed.
Prophecies cannot be understood without having this vital key.
6. Bible Interpretation of Symbols
God has concealed until now His prophecies of these colossal end-time world events now occurring by means of symbols used to describe these events—as well as by the fact of His dual principle and that our Israelitish identity has been hidden from men.
Symbols, like parables, were used not to make meaning clearer, but to hide and conceal God’s true meaning until the time came for Him to reveal the interpretation. Just as Jesus’s parables were not understood until Jesus Himself explained them in plain language, so with symbols.
For generations men have been putting human interpretations upon God’s symbols. An important key, therefore, is that these symbols are interpreted in plain language in the Bible itself, if not in the context, then elsewhere, and we must search for God’s own interpretation, never apply our own.
7. God’s Sabbath
Since this is the test commandment—the one that most professing Christians utterly refuse to obey—the one that requires the greatest reliance on God to keep—it stands as the final basic key, for “a good understanding have all those who do His commandments”! Also it is the basic key to the identity of Israel. The house of Israel threw away this key to its identity and thereby became the “lost 10 tribes!” The great majority of the house of Judah likewise threw it away and lost their identity—not known even today! The Jews who returned to Palestine under Ezra and Nehemiah became strict Sabbatarians and have remained so to this day—and therefore the world looks upon them as Israel (because they carry Israel’s identifying sign) although they are not Israel, but only a small portion of Judah!
This completes the vital keys to understanding the Bible—the keys to the Kingdom of God!
The churches have lost these keys! No wonder they are all mixed up, in confusion, each claiming the Bible says something different, none understanding its true message!
Why This Gap in the Bible
By Herbert W. Armstrong
Reprinted from the Good News, December 1980
The Holy Bible covers three main categories: history, prophecy and instruction from God.
Through history and prophecy, the Bible covers all God intended to cover of Earth and world events from the creation on into the future and the eternity beyond. But, in a sense, this Book of God—His revealed knowledge for His people—leaves a most conspicuous gap in the progress of world events.
Why?
For example, in its history, the Bible gives no history of anything concerning such populous nations as China, India and Japan. None regarding Russia except in yet future prophecy. History is concerned to the one nation Israel, and the few other nations only as they were involved in contact with Israel.
Why?
Now consider the Church. There are four whole books, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, devoted to the biographical sketch of the human life of Jesus, and a history of the first early years of the Church. That’s all—except the symbolic prophecy of Jesus in Revelation 2 and 3 of the seven eras of the Church. But even here, many shout and scream that these two chapters are not a history of successive eras of the Church, but an account of the seven phases of the Church as a whole, without regard to the time sequence of periods or eras. Actually, these two chapters are depicting both: For all eras have had in them the characteristics of these seven churches, with the Ephesian condition dominating at first, the Laodicean last.
But otherwise, there is nothing in the Bible revealing conditions in the Church from the first century to now.
Why?
One simply cannot understand this—nor the Bible message—unless one knows the great purpose of God and His master plan for its accomplishment. We must remember that the government of God was once set on the Earth. That was before the creation of man! God set His government on Earth over angels who first inhabited the Earth! Few indeed know that. God set a super archangel, the great cherub Lucifer, on Earth’s throne! But Lucifer rebelled, and led his angels into rebellion—rejecting the government of God! That is extremely important to know—and keep firmly in mind—yet so-called Christianity does not know, and refuses to know!
After this, God decided to reproduce Himself—to create physical human man from the dust of the earth, and to convert mankind into the Godkind!
God’s great purpose was dual: 1) to reproduce Himself into billions of God beings, and 2) through these converted God beings, restore the government of God to the Earth. Then, after that, to finish the creation, in perfected finished form, of the entire, vast, endless universe! And, through man converted into God!
But we must remember, overall, God Himself is supreme, holy, righteous, perfect spiritual character!
The angels were put here to develop that character. That is the most important thing God can create. That is something even God cannot all by Himself alone create by fiat. It requires the decision and the will of the created entity—whether angel or man—to want and seek that character, which can be imparted only from God and through His Holy Spirit. Angels (Lucifer’s third of them) were not willing! So God rejected them. They became demons. Lucifer became Satan the devil.
Then God created the first humans—Adam and Eve. God revealed to them His government, founded on His spiritual law. All government is based on a foundational law or constitution. God told them the penalty for transgression would be certain death. But God also made available to them His Holy Spirit—and through it His holy, righteous character and the gift of eternal life, through which they might be born again as very God Beings—born children of God.
Yet Lucifer, now become Satan, was still on that throne—and by God’s decree must remain there until Satan’s Successor sits on that throne, having restored the government of God (Acts 3:19-21).
But Adam and Eve made the decision for all mankind—since they were the progenitors of the human race—all humans are their children. They rejected the government of God, the law and way of life of God, and made the decision to follow the way of “get” that Satan had chosen.
God’s law, the foundation of godly character, of the government of God, is outflowing love. It is a way of life! It is the way of love to God first of all, then love to fellow man by serving, helping, giving, sharing, cooperating.
Adam and Eve chose to decide for themselves instead of believing God’s law. And they chose the opposite way of life—that of self-love, vanity, coveting, envy and jealousy, hostile competition, strife, violence, war—rebellion against authority.
I simplify these two ways—God’s law and its transgression—by the terms “give” and “get.”
When Adam chose, for all his children who compose the world, the way of “get”—rejecting God and the government of God, he cut all his family of humanity off from God!
And God made his decision binding until the government of God is restored to Earth—except the infinitesimally few God purposed to specially call into His service prior to that time.
Therefore the world as a whole has been cut off from any contact with—or even knowledge of—God for the past 6,000 years! Bear that carefully in mind!
Now God designed a master plan for working out His purpose here on Earth.
As Adam was wholly physical, God started the physical creation of man through Adam. But God purposes to convert mankind into God beings with the perfect spiritual character of God! So this spiritual creation of man began with the second Adam—Jesus Christ!
Meanwhile God’s master plan called for a very few—the prophets of the Old Testament, and the Church of the New Testament—to be called to receive His Holy Spirit, and to be judged for eternal life or death in this present life.
God also called and chose the ancient nation Israel, descended from Abraham, to be His nation. To them, He made Himself known—He gave His spiritual law—also temporary sacrificial and ceremonial religious laws, as well as national civil statutes and judgments for their nation. But God did not give the nation Israel His Holy Spirit. He proved, through them, that even with the knowledge of God and of His basic spiritual law, humans without the addition of God’s Holy Spirit would not live according to God’s spiritual law of “give.” God made His Holy Spirit, and eternal life, available only to Israel’s prophets. They and they only, of all on Earth in those years, were being then judged as to final salvation or final death!
For all others—the nation Israel, and all other people on Earth—God’s master plan called for their judgment to come in a later life—after the thousand-year soon-coming reign with Christ in a peaceful and happy World Tomorrow. In that thousand years, Christ will rule all nations. Those truly converted and “saved” of the Church will be kings and priests, ruling with and under Christ, serving in the work of converting with salvation to eternal life all others then still living on Earth.
As for all others—ancient Israel, those of ancient nations such as China, India, Japan, Indonesia, Russia, Africa—they have not been judged during their earthly life. Remember, it is appointed to man “once to die, and after that the judgment.” All who ever lived will be resurrected—those already judged righteous through repentance, belief, Christ’s sacrifice and having lived God’s way as led by the Holy Spirit, to eternal life as spirit-composed God beings—all the unjudged to mortal, flesh-and-blood life again.
Now why?
Why did God call Old Testament prophets and His Church? Why may they receive salvation—that is, be judged as righteous now—and why are all the billions of others uncalled and unjudged now? That is what a so-called Christianity simply does not understand!
It is because Satan is still on that throne. Adam rejected God for all his family—for mankind! Adam failed to qualify to restore the government of God! That left Satan on the throne of the whole Earth! Satan is the most powerful being next to God. He is the “prince of the power of the air.” He has been able to completely sway, influence, cause humanity to live his satanic way of “get”—to transgress God’s holy spiritual law—to live in sin!
If Adam could not resist him—if Satan was able to overthrow the first created man—created as a perfect physical and mental specimen of mankind—most assuredly none of Adam’s children or descendants, inheriting Adam’s moral, mental and physical weaknesses, could have overcome the superpowerful, wily, cunning Satan!
This is a basic truth traditional Christian teaching is in total ignorance of! So God’s perfect master plan for His wonderful purpose provided for leaving all mankind—except those specially called—unjudged now. It provided for their resurrection at a later time when the government of God shall have been restored, and Satan shall have been removed from that throne and from the whole Earth.
Since no ordinary human son of Adam, with Adamic heredity, could overpower Satan—could qualify to restore the government of God—God provided to send, in due time, His own Son Jesus Christ to conquer Satan and to qualify to sit on that throne, ruling all nations—with the government of God!
Jesus was born a son of Adam through His virgin mother, Mary. But Jesus was begotten not by a son of Adam, but by God the Father Himself! Jesus was God as well as man. Jesus actually was Lucifer’s Creator—for God created all things by Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:9).
Jesus, and He alone, was able to live, being human as well as God, in perfect righteousness. Jesus had the supreme, high, spiritual character of God from birth! No other human ever did! Jesus resisted and conquered Satan! Jesus qualified to restore the government of God. By His perfect life, always tempted even as we—but never once sinning as we—He lived without ever bringing on Himself the penalty of sin, which is death!
Get this thoroughly in mind! Jesus did not have to die for His own sins—for there were none! He did not have to die—period! Yet He did submit to legal action by false human government of the Roman empire. He did submit to false punishment through false allegations of His own people who betrayed Him! Why? Never would He have done this under normal circumstances, just as His Church did not submit to government persecution by false allegations from our own false brethren! But one thing was different in Jesus’s case—He submitted in order to take your sins and mine on Himself and pay our penalty in our stead! He did it only for us!
I have shown you why God left the world unjudged until after the government of God is restored to Earth and Satan is banished from the Earth.
But why, then, did He give His Holy Spirit to the prophets, and why did He call the Church and give those of us called out of the world His Holy Spirit and opportunity for eternal salvation now?
Because when Christ returns to sit on Earth’s throne and restore the government of God, Christ will need an organized government with many in many positions of government responsibility under Him to administer that government to the millions and billions of people over which it shall rule.
We of the Church were not called for special favors. Not just to “get” salvation before the others. But in order to sit with Christ on His throne right here in Jerusalem (where this is being written), we need 1) to turn from Satan’s way of “get”—to qualify to sit on that throne—and 2) to develop in this human life the spiritual character of God—for to rule in the Kingdom of God we must have acquired the spiritual character of God and become immortal God beings.
God is calling us now—why? For the sake of the billions not yet called—so we may by overcoming Satan’s way and growing in grace and developing God’s character, become God beings in order to help those other now unjudged humans to find the righteous way of life, and themselves to be given eternal salvation and eternal life in peace, happiness and joy!
How perfect! How wonderful!—are God’s ways—His grand purpose and master plan!
So finally, why does the Bible not record the history of all the Gentile pagan nations? Why this gap in the Bible?
The Bible is the revealed knowledge of God. Its purpose is to reveal God’s purpose, His master plan and its working out.
And that has involved Adam, the Flood, ancient Abraham and his family, national Israel and Israel’s prophets and His Church.
For this purpose, Church history, except what is revealed, was not necessary for God’s purpose in His revealed knowledge. God has revealed all that is pertinent to His purpose and His master plan!
Most biblical prophecies relate to our time now, on through the next very few years to the Second Coming of Christ. Church history from mid-first century until now is a gap—unmentioned—and it was not pertinent to the purpose of the Bible!
Should We Use the Old Testament?
By Herbert W. Armstrong
Reprinted from the Good News, March 1958
Jesus commanded: “Man shall live by every Word of God.” How can we prove that He included the Old Testament in that command?—that He meant all the Bible?
Did you ever observe people going to Sunday school or Church on a Sunday morning? And did you ever notice what a large portion of them—if they carry any Scriptures with them at all—have merely a New Testament?
A young man who had been a student in a Bible college for a couple years once came to me and confessed: “I’m all mixed up—frustrated! After all my Bible study, I suddenly woke up to realize that I’m not sure that the Jesus of Nazareth, who lived 1,900 years ago, really was the Christ!
“I’ve heard you say over the air that we must prove all things—even what we have thought that we believed. Suddenly I woke up,” he confessed, “to realize that I never actually proved that Jesus was the promised Messiah! That realization floors me. I’m totally frustrated.
“Tell me,” he said earnestly, “how can I prove it?—how can I know? How can I be sure?”
Was This YOUR Experience, Too?
That young man had never studied the Old Testament of his Bible very much. I opened his Bible to certain Old Testament Scriptures, and out of them he found positive, satisfying proof that Jesus was the Messiah—the Savior of the world! I’m going to show you brethren, now, a part of what I opened up to him in His Bible.
Many have gained the idea that Christians should never read the Old Testament at all! Many seem to believe that part of the Bible was done away—that it was only for the Jewish people of long ago—that its message is dead today!
So Let’s EXAMINE This Question!
Certainly our Church—the true Church of God—is a New Testament Church! It certainly is under the New, not the Old Testament or Covenant. But there’s a great difference between the Old Covenant that set Israel up as a nation and those Scriptures we call by the name “Old Testament.”
The Old Covenant—meaning the agreement between God and Israel, made at Mt. Sinai—is replaced by the preaching of the New! But most certainly the New Testament Scriptures show very plainly that those Scriptures we call “the Old Testament” are NOT done away, for we read in 1 Peter 1:25, “The word of the Lord endureth forever!”
Do you know, brethren, that for approximately six years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the founding of the New Testament Church, that this New Testament Church had and used only the Old Testament Scriptures?
Christ preached the gospel of the Kingdom—the same gospel He commanded every minister to preach under the New Testament dispensation, yet do you know He preached altogether out of the Old Testament Scriptures?
Church Built on Old Testament Scriptures
I wonder if you fully realize that the Church was built upon the writings of the Old Testament prophets, as well as on the apostles? Notice Ephesians 2:19-20: “Now therefore ye … are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.”
Notice Jesus’s own example: While Jesus was sent from God as the Messenger of the New Covenant, yet He preached that message out of the Old Testament Scriptures. He said, as recorded in John 5:39: “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me.”
Yes, they testify of Christ. And do you also know that you could not prove Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God—your Savior and mine—without the Old Testament Scriptures?
If we are definitely to establish and prove, beyond doubt, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior, we must prove it by bringing Him through the door of the Old Testament Scriptures—the prophecies proving Him to be the divine Son of the living God! For, as He said, they testify of Him!
Notice further what Jesus preached during His earthly ministry. John 5:46-47: “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?”
Moses wrote the first five books of the Old Testament—the part which has often been referred to as “the law.” And Jesus said, “[I]if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?”
And if we today cannot know and believe the things Moses wrote to be true, how can we believe Christ’s words? They are as much a part of Holy Scripture as those New Testament books quoting the Lord!
We Must Believe ALL the Prophets
Another time, after His resurrection, we find this example of Jesus’s preaching recorded in Luke 24:25-27: “Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.”
How did Philip of Bethsaida know that Jesus was the Christ? Read John 1:45: “Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, we have found Him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
What are some of these Old Testament prophecies which prove that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, the Messiah?
First, Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
Now notice, a virgin was to bear a son. The son was to be of a human virgin, to have a human mother, but not a human father. And the name of this son, to be born as a baby, to grow up to manhood, was to be “Immanuel,” which, when translated, means, “God with us.” And the fulfillment of that prophecy is recorded in the New Testament, in Matthew 1:20-23: “But while he thought on these things behold the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”
And now, let’s read right on. Matthew 2:1-4: “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.”
Now why?—how would the chief priests and the scribes know where Christ should be born? Because it was written in a prophecy of their Scriptures! Continue, verses 5-6: “And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.” Notice! This prophecy was quoted from Micah 5:2: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”
So the Old Testament Scriptures added another detail: the Messiah who was to be the future Ruler of Israel not only was to be born of a virgin—He was to be born and first appear in the little city of Bethlehem of Judea.
But now let us see how the wonderful 53rd chapter of Isaiah foretold His first coming.
Foretold in Old Testament
Here is what Isaiah 53:1-5, 8, 12 reads: “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed … He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
“Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Here we see it foretold that the Messiah was to be born, and to grow up from a child—that He was to be despised and rejected, not hailed as a mighty King and Deliverer! If the Jews of 1,900 years ago had only known and understood the Scriptures—and had their hearts been honest and their minds open—they would have recognized and accepted their Messiah and the Savior! But they were then following the religious traditions of their time, just as nearly all the other churches are doing today. The Jews did not understand their Scriptures, just as Christendom does not understand the Bible today!
This wonderful 53rd chapter of Isaiah tells us the Messiah was to come in human flesh, to grow up, to bear our afflictions and our sicknesses. Yes, He was to be wounded and to suffer for our physical, as well as spiritual transgressions, so that by His stripes—His body broken for us—we are to be healed when sick! Many of us do not fully grasp that truth, even today!
And did you know, brethren, that every one of the original evangelists who preached Christ and the gospel of Christ—which is the gospel Christ preached, the New Testament gospel of the Kingdom—every one of them whose preaching is recorded in the New Testament, preached Christ and the gospel out of the Old Testament Scriptures?
Yes, that is the way the true faith once delivered was originally preached, in all its purity and truth! And that is what we do today!
New Testament PROOF!
Notice how Peter used the Old Testament in preaching the gospel of Christ, when delivering the first inspired sermon the day the New Testament Church was really established: “But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said, unto them, Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2:14-17).
After concluding Joel’s prophecy of the coming of the other Comforter, the Holy Spirit, Peter continues in verse 25: “For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.”
Through the remainder of his sermon on that day of Pentecost, Peter continued to preach Christ from the Old Testament—and 3,000 precious souls were converted through Old Testament preaching that day!
Later, Philip was sent by the angel of the Lord to preach to the eunuch from Ethiopia, returning home in his chariot from Jerusalem. When Philip met him, the eunuch was reading this in the Old Testament book of Isaiah: “And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.”
And yet, some people today still say, “You can’t do that—you can’t preach Christ out of the Old Testament.” But the Spirit-led Philip did it—Jesus Himself did it—Peter did it—yes, all the first-century evangelists of the true, original pure Church of God did it! And we in God’s true Church do it today!
Now consider Paul. How did he preach? In the very last chapter of Acts, we read of Paul, after he had gone to Rome: “And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening” (Acts 28:23).
A very large portion of the New Testament is simply the Old Testament quoted. The New is based on the Old. The New Testament gospel is based on the promises God made to Abraham—for if we are Christ’s, then we are Abraham’s children and heirs according to the promises (Galatians 3:29). Without the book of Genesis, how could you establish the promises you hope to inherit through Christ?
Yes, brethren, your hope of eternal life rests upon the book of Genesis!
Notice, too, the writings of Peter: “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:19-21).
And Paul’s instruction to the New Testament Church in Romans 15:4: “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”
And how shall we have understanding of salvation? Paul wrote Timothy: “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:15-17).
And so, brethren, let us say with David: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105).