The Generation Gap-WHY? - Herbert W. Armstrong

N ove mb er, 1968
WANT comes from H im . M an has cu t
h imsel f off f rom contac t with H is
.MAKER. Therefore man has cut himself
off from SO LUTIONS to all his
trou bles !
God Alm ighty is WOR KING OUT A
PURPOSE HERE BELOW' !
This PURPOSE requires TIME. O ur
M aker has revealed that H e marked out
a duration of seven thousand years to
accom plish th is supreme PURPOSE. T he
first six thousand H e has, prima rily,
"kep t hands off," having made man a
free moral age nt. Man has been allowed
full latitude to CHOOS E which
way he will go . M an has tried to set lip
go vern ments to regulate humanity in a
manner diametrically CONTRARY to the
LAWS of G od's Govern ment. M an has
flouted, ign ored , rebelled against ,
flagrantl y DISOBEYED the LAWS of his
MAKER! And every wa il of human wac
resu lted
from viola tion of these LAWS.
God REVEALED them. They have
been accessible. But ma n has gone his
own way contrary to them .
T hese Laws of God are TJ-I E \X'AY
to peace, happiness, pro speri ty, wellbeing.
They arc the CAUSE of these
wante d good th ings. M an has gone
Th, PLAIN THUTH
THE WAY that has CAUSED all his
trou bles.
The six thousand years arc about up.
WIe may have another three, five, or
ten years to go. God Almighty has
ALLOWED man - tha t he LEARN THE
LESSON - to PROVE by human experience,
that he is incapa ble of ruling
what GOD crea ted. M an has written the
lesson - not yet learned it.
On ly GOD can RULE- sustai n, preserve,
MAI NTAIN H is creation, A nd
MAN is the focal point of all H is
creation ! For God created MAN, N OT
after any animal kind , but afte r God 's
own kind. M an is formed and shaped
like GOD. M an has a MIND like God,
only it is fallible. M an was made to
be bego tte n, and then born of God .
M an has a potential 50 tremendous his
mi nd cannot quite conceive it. M an has
stumbled along, \'(' R!T IN G lessons, never
yet learn ing them .
M an's O nly !-Iope
Over 1900 yea rs ago, Jesus Christ
came in hu man flesh - a MAN. H e
brought a MESSAGE fro m God our
Crea tor. Hi s Message was GOOD NEWS.
It was ADVANCE NEWS. H e taught
about a GOVERNM ENT, H e called it
39
"T he Kingdom of God." A Kingdom
is a GOVERNMENT!
The Scrip tures affi rm He was born
to be a KING. But He said H is K ingdom
was NOT of THIS WORLD. Also
H is inspired instructions to man say
that humans - flesh and blood - CAN­
N OT SE E, ENTER, OR INHERIT the
Kingdom of God.
But Jesus was BORN to be a KING. H e
said He had first to go to the Throne
of the Government of the UNIVERSE
( in heaven ) , to be officially crowned,
then, in God's due time (after the
6,000 year s) , He is to return in all the
Supreme Power and G lory of the
Al mighty G OD. H e is coming to set
up GOD'S GOVERNMENT over ALL
NATIONS.
That is MAN'S ONLY HOPE!
It' s time we quit kidd ing ourselves.
Our troubles WILL be solved and
ended, But on ly when, by Almighty
divine POWER, man is FORCED against
h is will to OBEY THE GOVERNM ENT
OF GOD~ living the way that will
CAUS E peace, happ iness, abundant
WELL-BEING - true )OY !
Everyth ing is a matter of CAUSE and
EFFECT. Look at tod ay's EFFECT, and
open your eyes to the CAUSE!
THE ANSWERS TO
H EREare the Bible answ ers to
questions which can be answered briefly in a short spa ce_ Send ;11 your
questio ns, W hile we cann ot promise tha t all questions wiII find space
for answer in this department, we shall try to answer all that are vital
and in the general interest of our readers.
• " Is it true th at the early Christians
practiced Co mmunism? I
have heard some ma ke this
claim."
There are two p assages in the book
of Acts which - when taken out
of context and isolated - are some-
FROM OUR READERS
times thought to condo ne Communism .
The first passage is this: "And all
that believed were together, and had
all things common; and sold their possessions
and goods, and parted th em to
all me n as every man had need" ( Acts
2 :44-45) ,
The second reads, " And the mu ltitude
of them that believed were of one
heart and of one soul: neither said any
of them that ought of the things which
he possessed was his own , but they had
all things common" (Acts 4 :32).
N otice these verses carefully. They
do not say what some have assum ed.
T he first po int is that the people spo ken
of in the Book of Acts believed in God,
that they prayed, and that they were
filled with the Holy Spirit ( Acts 4: 31) .
This fact alone is sufficient to PROVE
that these verses cannot possibly be
referr ing to Communism as we kn ow
it tod ay. Commu nists reject God , the
Bible, and anything having to do with
religion.
Let's un derstand wha t these scriptures
DO mean . Notice the theme of the first
few chapters of Acts. The accoun t involves
the coming of the H oly Spirit on
the annual Holy Day called Pentecost.
T here were mu ltiple thousands from
throughout Asia Minor, Egypt, Rome