Good News 1955 (Vol V No 02) Feb-Mar.pdf

8/10/2019 Good News 1955 (Vol V No 02) Feb-Mar.pdf

1/8

T h e

N a t i o n a l

M a g a z i n e o f

T H E C H U R C H O F G O D

S i x More Ministers

Now

Ordained

Noiu f o r the

f ; r s t

time i t1

750

years

Gods

complete gotw.rifrseiit

is restored in

H is Church.

by Herber t

W .

Armstrong

A N U A K Y 2 t n d

w n s

;I

Sabbath that

will g o d o w n in the eternd history

J

of Gods Church and His Kingdom

O n

that day, for the first time in 750

years, the government of

Gd

was fully

restored in

His

Church.

z

istrative office which Christ set in His

Church is functioning once again.

On that day,

;it

the hendquarters

ChurcII i l l P:isadenn, six additional God-

called, consecrated, Ambassador-Col-

lege-trained ministers were ordained

with fasting and prayer, by the laying on

o f

hands of the ministers previously

or-

ci

:i ned.

Not

Since 1200 A.D.

Hisrorical

research

revenls that the

List

remains of Gods

coniplc c

govern-

ment

in

the

~ r z t e

Church

of God

existed

;iround

1 2 0 0

A .D . ,

anicing

tlir

Wal-

denses (a s the Church of God was then

called

by

the world

)

while the apostle

Peter Waldo was still alive.

S o m e of

the sdministrative offices

which Christ set in His Chiirch have

continued to the present time. But since

the days of Peter

Waldo

the C i i t i i v f o r m

of Gods government.

n s

H E set

i t

in

His Church, h:is not been perpetuated.

You

find the seven

eras,

o r stages

of

:ictivity, in

the

tr./~//c hurch o f God dc-

scribed by Jesus prophecy in the

second

.ind rhircl

chapters

o f

Revel;ition. Her-

mtn Hoehs article in the July, 1953,

issue

of

The

G oO D

NEWS traced

the

history

of these seven churches-r sev-

en successive stages of the one t rae

Church of God-a Church that was al-

ways

small

in number, persecuted, de-

spised by

the world.

The Sardis Church

Yet even this tri te Church

has

been

composed of hzmaus .

And

by the time

of

the latter, dying days of the Sardis

chiirch-the 1860s on through the 1930s

-government had degenerated to a

form of worldly politics. The church

wiis headed by a General Conference,

and leaders

clectcd by v o t e

of delegates.

It was government

of

MEN-not

of

God.

It was during those days,

in

1927,

that God brought me to complete sur-

render and conversion.

I

was brought

into contact with the Sranberry church,

and into fellowship with the Oregon

members.

In

December, 1910, at their

urging, my first evangelist ic campaign

was held, under their auspices, in Har-

risburg, Oregon. I

was

ordained by the

Oregon

Conference, and brought

full

time

into the ministry,

in

the simmer

o f 1931.

I

realized they were Gods Church.

Yet 1 was

exrremely troubled and

per-

plcxed nbout t w o things. Their form of

organization,

obviotisly,

was not

GODS

form. Secondly, it began to

be

clelir

that their leaders refuscd

to correct

doc-

trinal errors, which they admitted in

writing were false teachings. And rhey

also

refused

to

publish

o r

teach their

members truths which they admitted,

in writing,

were lvuths,,

and new light

to rhern.

In

i

word, they refused to accept cor-

rection from the Word

of

God, and they

refused to

GROW

in knowledge

or

in

grace.

As

a body rhey were not over-

camers.

They

preached what t h e y had

of the true Message with a weak whis-

per heard

by

the few, not with the

loud shout, thundered around the

world.

As ail

iiisrrument of God, carry-

ing on GODS WORK,

the Sardis church

was now DEAD

Those of us

in

Oregon who were

obedienc in

keep ing

Gods

Word (Rev

? : & l o ) ,

permitting the Bible to

cor

rect

us,

joyfully accepting new light

were separated from perseniring

Sar

dis jurisdiction late in 1914. The sep

aration came

during

rhe meetings that

resulted in the raising

tip

of the Eugene

Church, but bcfore ic was estallihccl

Yet, while

we

threw

off

their huinan

government over us, and began froin

there

to

follow the principles of

GODS

government, we still made every at

tempt to fellowship with them for some

years. W e

Lvere

rewxrded o n ly w i t h op


2/8

Iehruary-IMarch,

1955

posirion,

:inl evcry effort

by their min-

istry t o destroy the work God was then

beginning thru those

HE

could govern

a n d use.

Philadeiphia Church-and

T h e OPEN DOOR

Tiltis the P hiladelphia era of the

Lhurch had its most humble beginning.

I t

started

l ike

the grain of mustard

seed. Soon the Church of God at Eu-

gene

was

raised LIP.

GODOPENED A DOOR A very

snzall

door, a t

first.

The

door

of

one small

100-watt radio station,

KORE,

in

ELI-

Sene, the first Sunday in

1914.

Then

A N O T H E R

tiny door. February lst, the

door of the prin tin g press. Or could we,

:IS

yet, even call it that? Volume

I,

Number

1 o f The P L A I N R RUTH

came

out

February lst, 1914. But it wasnt

priiz/ed-in the usuaI sense of that

term. Not for two or three years yet It

W:IS

mimeographed, o n a borrowed m im-

eograph, from stencils cut on a bor

rowed typewriter. There

was

no scope,

q the

headlines

were carefully

hand-

lettered by holding the stencil up to a

window-pane About 350 copies were

printed of t hat first issue.

Thc yucsrions

of

church organization,

and church government, seem clouded

in most minds. W hy ? GOD s Supreme

Ruler. GOD s Sovereign

of

the universe.

WHY

cannot men see tha t GOD should

instruct us in the structure of church

organization-that the church should be

governed

by G O D )

In the beginning

God decreed that inan Inust

CHOOSE-

right or wrong-life

or

death-Gods

rule

or

inans. God

forced

Adam to

choose.

A d a m chosc LO reject Gods

government.

Ever since, the sons

of

Adam have re-

belled against being governed by GOD

-they have chosen

to rule

themselves,

o r

be ruled by vzeiz-not by God To -

day we have been born into a world

filled wi th churches-all organ ized ac-

cording to

bzmznn

ideas-all governed

by MEN. W e have been

so

close

to

these

various forms of church organization

:ind human church government that

GODS

fo rm h m seemed obscure. The

question

h:is

been perplexing, even

to

those who honestly were seeking to find

the truth.

Yet

i t

is

so

clear and simple in the

Bible.

H o w

God

Governs Church

In I Corinthians 1 2 :

28,

God tells us

in plain lanbwage:

And GOD hath set some in thc

Church. first dpostlcs, secondarily proph -

cts.

thirdly teachers, after that miracles,

then gif ts of hea lings, helps, gover n-

I I I C I I ~ S ,

diversirics

of

tongues.

Notice, it is

G O D

who sets these of-

ficers

a n d

powers in the Church. The

people do

not elect

officers

by

vocc.

GODrules His Church. The people do

not rule it. Here three offices are men-

tioned, apostles, prophets, teachers, then

come powers which GOD supplies in

the Church. God is a miracle-working

God. His Church is His instrument for

manifesting His POWER, carrying out

Hi s COMMISSION.

The true Church of God is that

Church which preaches to the world the

true G O S P E L 4 f the GOVERNMENT

of

God, and

of

being born into the

FAMILY

of God. It preaches and publishes it in

POW ER, ot in weakness-with

a

LOUD

SHOUT, uot

a

weak whisper-like

THU ND ER, ot soothing and sleep-in-

ducing. God s Church is

a

Church where

God works M IRAC LES, here the s ick

are really

HEALED,

even

as

Jesus set the

example.

We

find G ods governnient more

fully described in Eph.

4.1 1 - 17 :

And H e gave some, APOSTLES; nd

some, PROPH ETS; nd some,

evangelists;

and

some, pastors

and

te~zchers;

for

the

pcrfecting of the saints, for the woik

o f

the ministry, for the edifying

of

rhe

Body

of

Christ.

W e f in d prophe t s mentioned in the

historic portions

of the

New Testament ,

but they did not possess administrative

powers, and carried no authority. The

New Testament Scriptures were not yet

written. God used these prophets to

convey messages direct from H im

to

the

apostles . W e find no prophe ts in the

church today. Th e written Scriptures are

now complete. There seems no need

for prophets today. Furthermore, it is

GOD

who

sets

them

in His Church, and

if rhere are none, it is because G O D has

not seen

fit

to set them in His Church.

That is GODS responsibility, not ours.

So, then, that leaves us with the ex-

ecutive and administrative spiritual of-

fices in the Church. These offices of au-

thority, then, are first,

apostle;

second,

at~angrl is t ;

hird,

@stor;

fourth,

tencher.

Chris t

the

L i v i n g Hea d

Christ is the

l i v ing H E A D

of the

Church

HE

sets

t h e

apostle in office. But we

do find historic example in the New

Testament

of

the apostle setting in of-

ilce the evangelists, pastors and teachers,

and even delegating to the evangelists

the responsibility

of

ordaining pastors

and other elders, and deacons.

By

a

study

of

other New Testament

passages, we learn that there were, be-

sides pastors, both preaching and non-

preaching cldcrs in local churches.

All

elders were

terlchers

but

not

all were

preachers.

Also

we learn by various Scriptures

that

all

these officers are called ELDERS.

A non-preaching elder, who must be a

leader and apt to teach, is, of course, an

cldcr. So is thc preaching-cldcr, also

the pastor, and also the evangelist. And

even Peter, the Lipostle, was also an

elder. In the New Testament the terms

bishop

and overseer are synonymous

with

elder.

Now in addition to these

s p i r i t z d of-

fices of a dm inistra tion and authority.

T H R U

WHICH

Christ

govevizs

H i s

Church, we find also the helping offices

of deacon and deaconess ( I Timothy

3-:8-13).

The proper translation of

Romans

16:l

should be Phoebe,

a

deaconess of the church at Cenchreae.

These were called

to be helpers,

in

physical and material duties. Yet they

had

to

be people filled with the Holy

Spirit, and measuring u p to Scriptural

qualifications.

so

there are the COMPLETE offices in

Gods Church-Chr i s t the

H E A D ,

then

apostles, evangelists, pustors, minister-

elders, non-preachiq7g elders, dencons

deaconesses.

These Offices

7 5 0

Ye a r s Ag o

The last historic record of this com-

ple te

government of God in the t rue

Church

is

found around

1200

A.D.

Because Peter Waldo was the man Cod

raised up as His instrument for His

work

at

that time, the world called the

Church by

the

nick-name Waldenses.

But they themselves recognized only

the name T he Church of God.

Peter Waldo occupied the office

of

APOSTLE. Apparently he, himself, did

not claim the title. There is no record

of the Church

of

that time directly us-

ing the title. But the historic facts do

show

that

Peter Waldo occupied that

office, and through him God exercised

that authority. The actual title of

A p o s -

t l e was used by the Catholics against

Peter Waldo. That he carried out the

apostolic office in Gods Church at the

time is clear from the following:

I .

he (Peter Wa ldo)

. . .

dared to usurp

the office of the apostles, preaching the

Gospel and the things he had commit-

ted to memory.

.

H e

sent m e n .

to preach.

( F r o m

page 55

of A

His

t o r y of t h e V a d o i s

Chzuch, by Antoine

Monastier. )

Peter Waldo founded a college for

training pastors. EVANGELIST

s

the

title of office often used to designate

the young men trained in the Walden-

sian College

of

Pastors. The evangelists

preached

f rom

country

to

country in

Europe and the Middle East. (From

page 45

of

Emilio Combas History of

the WaLdenses in Italy.)

PASTORS:Over every local congre-

gation were barbes-that is,

pastors

as we say in English today. These also

were trained

at

College. (From page

92

of Monastiers work.)

( P l e m e cont inue on page 7 )


3/8

The MARK of the BEAST

m a y soon

be enforced

U w e p o r t e d on the frouzt

pages

o y o u r daily newspapers is

a

startlitzg

CALENDAR

REVlSION-a

change

that

will

abolish

the weekly cycle

nrtd

t h e

seventh-day Sabbath

by Hernzaii L. H o e h

HE M A R K of the

BEAST

is here

now Though i t has not been

e?z-

T orced in

our

generation by the

power of the Church or the State, IT

It may cost you your job-perhaps

your life

Almost no one seems to realize what

rapid developments are taking shape in

revising the calendar W ell on the way

io being adopted is the cleverest plan

yet devised

t o

destroy

Gods

Sabbath.

This dinbolicitl plot to CHANGE the

weekly cycle, which has continued un-

broken

from

creation,

is

being pro-

posed un der the sub tle guise of a sci-

eiztific, uniform, stable and p e r p e t i d

World Calendar.

Bur rhere

is

another, more sinister,

reason

for

changing the calendar

SOON MAY

BE

Des t roying Gods O ldes t Memor ia l

G o d

con t roh

TIME. Man can o d y

m e a s w e it-it is b e y o n d his reuch to

control i t . Yet in his haughtiness, man

has

prcwmzed to

co ntr ol it-to alter it

as he pleases.

Man has altered the divinely appoint-

ed YEAR-he w an ts to begin i t in the

dead o f winrer, in January. Man has

altered the divinely appointed

MONTH

and also the DAY. Only the WEEK re-

mains-and now maiz proposes to

change it , too

Cod set the Sabbath

as

the oldest

memorial

of

creation week. To al ter the

week, man must destroy the 7th-day

Sabbath-that is what the world calen-

dar will do

Lets understand bow i t would be

.iccrmiplidiecl.

The civil calendar commonly in use

today is outmoded-in need

of

revision

-say the pro pon ents of the world cal-

endar. T he only reason for revision,

of

course, is

that

i t was devised by nian-

not God The re

is

always need for al-

terbzg w h a t

inan docs

True, instead of mo nths of irregular

l engths -compare J anuary wi th

31

days

and February with 28-the proposed

world calendar

\roulcl have ;1

regular

pnttern of months.

True, the year would be divided into

four equal quarters of three months

each. The three months of each quarter

would have a regular pattern

of 31,

30,

and 30 days each. No longer would

months vary from 2 8 to 31. ( S e e the

iccompanying chart of the world calen-

dar on the next page.)

True, the proposed world calendar

would always have 26 business days

each month, and the dates for the

hoh-

days such as Easter and Thanksgiving

would never be altered. Holidays would

not only fall on the same days of the

week, as they presently do,

but

they

would

also

fall

on

the

same

calcndar

dates of the year-year afte r year. A n-

other point is that January 1 would al-

ways fall on a Sunday.

t h i

calendw

would

break t h e weekl y

L J C I L T he world calendar would con-

tain only 52 complete weeks

or 364

days

Each year at the end

of

December

there would

be

inserted AN EXTRA

DAY,

presently labeled December

31

that

would be labeled

December W-for

W orld Day-a world holiday in the new

calendar. This would

be

a special day

ozdtszde of the

w e e k l y c y d e . T h e n t h e

next day-January 1-would be called

Sunday, though it would izot actually be

Sunday.

AG AI N, n leap years-in 19 56 for

example-there wou ld be another world

holiday oatszde of t he w eek l y cyc l e .

June 3 0 would be a Sabbath, which you

can notice fr om the accompanying chart.

But be tween Sabbath and Sunday, July

1, there would be an entire day not

counred

at

all

It would replace the

present February 29. The next Sabbath

would then fall on a Friday

Do you now see what this would do

to your job? If it is difficult to find jobs

which require no Sabbath work-how

much more difficult would it be to find

jobs requir ing no Friday work

Throughout the remainder of the

yea r 19 5G sup po s in g tha t t he cal endar

would be adopted then-the true Sab-

L,l th

would continue to occur

on

the

day called Friday-the supposed 6th

day of

the

week. After December 30

B U T MORE IMPORTANT THAN ALL-

another world day would intervene.

January I-in 1957-would the n be

Tuesday, although it would be labeled

S ud ay . And the Sabbaths would fa ll

on the day the world would call Thurs-

day.

Imagine what would happen to yozc

i f you insisted that you could not work

on Thursday because it would be the

Sabbath Thin k what would happen to

porir

job, to your family

There can be no doubt about the

satanic origin of this world calendar-

a calendar to bind the nations together

in

a

BaLylun of confusion Here , for the

first time, we can plainly see how easy

i t would be for the civil power to

ew

f o r c e

the mark of the beast

R e f o r m i n g t h e Roman Calendar

Th e present calendar began w ith the

reforms of Julius Caesar

about

45 B.C.

By the time of Pope Gregory, in

1582,

the Julian calendar was so far off that

10

days were lopped from October to

bring the beginiiirig of spring back to

the traditional date of March 21. This

alteration did NOT change the weekly

cycle, as

Mr.

Armstrong explained in

the booklet H as Time Been Lost?

Now consider an important point :

W7ho origilzated calendar

reform?

It was Julius Caesar-the p o w i f o x

maximus

of t he Roman Empi re . Pofzt i -

f e x muxinzzLs means supreme pontiff.

According to Roman tradition it is the

suprcm c pontiff who bud

charge

of the

calendar, f ixed dates of the public festi-

vals, and announced each month what

days were open and what were closed

to

PUBLIC BUSINESS.

It was in the capacity

of

supreme

pontiff that Julius Caesar exercised the

authority to initiate cxlendar reform.

The t i t l e of p o n t i f e x W M X ~ T J ~ Z Uassed

from the Caesars to the

POPES

in the

four th century-and

as

suprem e pontiff

Pope Gregory dccreed a reforiii

of

the

calendar in 1582.

I

ask

you: is izot

t6i.r

f a t

sipzifi-

cant?

During the French Revolution, just

prior to Napoleon, and during the Com-

munist Revolution in Russia, attempts


4/8

Page

4

JANUARY FEBRUARY

February-March, 1 9 5 5

MARCt

The national niagazine

of

THE

CHURCH

OF GOD

mitiistering to its members

scattered abroad atid

r e p o r h g

ot i

campi i s hnppe ziiigs

t r f Ambnssrrdor

C o l l e g e

~~ ~~

NLTRIBI-K

2

~~

\ 0 1

\

~

1

Ierhert W. Arnistronx

Piihli \hei

z r i ~ d di io i

Herman L. Hoeh

E.recuiiile Editor

Roderick C. hferedith

Associote

Editor

A d d r e t r communications t o the Fditor,

t o \ 111, Pasadena, California.

C o p \ right, F c h r u a r ) ,

1955

3,

the Radio Church

of

God

~~~

~

I

I

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 1 2 ,

8 9 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 ~ 6 7 8 9 l O l l I 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

were made to alter the calendx and the

weekly cycle. Both ntteinpts met with

4 iwi:i f:i i it rr--thiJ Y P ~ C I T I J / . T t f i d

T ~ O I

LOIIIC

f t om

the Si tprcme

Pont i f

It is

be who wo~ild think to CHANGE the

t i n m nnd the hw (Daniel 7 : 2 5 ) .

Wc

n ~ i y o t

havc long LO wail

bc-

fore we

learn

what he t h i i h about

.ibolishing the weekly cycle and reform-

ing the calendnr

Educating People for Calendar

Change

Increasingly, articles

are

being pub-

lished in leading inaga,zines and periodi-

cals extolling the merits of calendar re-

form and urging the people to support

tile

adoption

o f

the world calcndar in

1956.

Over 30 years :igo tlie agitation for a

revision of the cnlendar developed to

such proportions that the International

Chamber of Commerce passed a resolu-

tion urging the League of Nations to

give the in:itter comprehensive study.

I n

I 7 2 2

tlie International Astronomical

Union, presided over by Cirdinal Mer-

cier, a C;itholic, decided that

some

plan

of revision

woiil l

h r

drsir;ible.

The

re-

s u l t

was th:it in

1923

the Leagie

of

Na-

tions appointed a special committee to

study c:ilendar reform. It brought in an

clnboratc

rcport i n

1926. Nearly

500

different systems f o r preserving time

were proposed-but only o m of them

has survived to the present day-the

World

Calendnr.

Through the years support for the

world calendar has skyrocketed. In

1949

the United States :ind Great Britain

were able to block

a

move by Panami

to introduce the subject of calendar re-

15 16 17 18 19

20

21

22 23 24 25

26

27 28

29 30 31

T h e G001) NEWS

The

World Calendar

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 10

11

12 13 14 15 15

19 20 21 22 23 24

25

17 18 19

20 21 22

23

24

25 26

27 29 21 306 27

28 29

30

W

S M T W T F S

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

9 10 11 12 13 14

S M T W T F S S M T W T F S

1 2 4 1 1 2

5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

15 16 i7 i 8 19

20

21

12

13 14 15 16 17 18 10 11

12 13 14

15 i5

24 25 26 27 28 29 30

22 23 24

25 26

27 2a 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 17 i a 19 20

21 22

23

29 30 31

I

26 27 28 29 30

15 16

i7

ia is 20 21

22 23 24 25 76 77 8

29

30

31

SECOND QUARTER

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 10 12 13 14 15 16

w t

19 7fl 71 22 23 24

25

17

18 19

20

71

77 73

26 27 28 29 30 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

J U N E

S M T W T F S

1 2

S

M T

L

8

9

10

11

12 13 14 5 6 7

8

9 1 0 1 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

THIRD QUARTER

JULY I AUGUST

I

SEPTEMBER

I

I

FOURTH QUARTER

OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER

S M T W l F S l S M T W T F S l S M T W l F S

~~ ~

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 1 2

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 1 5 7 8 9 1 0 1 1 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Th e Leap-Year World Holiday, W or June

3

1 (an extra day) , ollows June 3 0 in leap years only

+The Year-End World Holiday, W or December 31 (365 th day) ,follows December 3 0 every year

form into the agenda

of

the United Na-

tions.

But

in the

autumn of

1953 India

proposed that the U N adopt the world

calendar. Russia has finally given her

cautious support to the scheme. The

RADIO

LOG

T h e

WORLD

TOMORROW

Herbert

W.

Armstrong

analyzes

to-

days news, with the prophecies of

The WORLD TOMORROW

TO ALL OF E U R O P E :

RADIO I.UXEMBOURG

3:30

Mondays, Greenwich tiine.

TO ASIA A N D AFRICA: RADIO

CEYLON

AHC NETWORK, TRANSCONTI-

NENTAL-Every Sunday. Consult

loco1 ncwspapcr radio schcdulcs

f o r

time and station.

TO THE N A T I O N 8i CANADA:

XFG-1050

o n

dial,

every

night,

8 : 30 P.M. Central Std . time.

Other stations at iisual time.

\LLS-Chicagtr890

o n

dial-1o:oo

P.M. , Mon. thru Fri., 1 1 : 3 0

A . M . and 8 : W

P . M .

Sunday.

United Nations Economic and Socia

Council, backed by the

Linnnimous con

sent of 18 nations, has requested th

governments to study calendar reform

and to present the matter to the UN in

May 1955-nly a few months away

The General Assembly of the UN

can draw up an international conventio

to be submitted for ratification by th

governments of the member nation

So far, the American and British foreig

departments have been

izegutioe

in thei

view of the proposed calendar changes

I t is the Gentiles-under th e influenc

of the government

of

Satan-who ar

primarily behind the movement. It mus

be remembered that the English-speak

ing world waited

175

years befor

switching from the Julian to the Gre

gorian calendar. Nevertheless, th

U S A . and the British Cominoiiwealt

cannot afford to lag far behind the pres

ent reform movement-the world

tied too closely together economicall

and politically.

Dethroning God as the Lord

of

TIME

Consider the type

of

propaganda be

ing disseminated by tlie U N regardin

(Please continzbe o n pnge 6 )


5/8

I I

Documents

Good News 1955 (Vol V No 02) Feb-Mar.pdf