Beginners Care Package

We have quite a few things to cover today, and it's actually going to be somewhat soul-searching as well as exposing. But we are having a phenomena occur now that is almost unreal.

Revelation 3:11—Jesus says: "Behold, I am coming quickly..." After He says that He will keep those who are faithful from 'the hour of temptation which will come upon all the earth to try them that dwell on the earth.'

He says, "...hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown" (v 11).

• How can a man take your crown?
• Lead you in the wrong way!
• How else can a person take your crown?
• Take you from Christ! To take someone who is in the Church of God and take them from Christ!
• How does that have to be done, if it can be done?
• There is a warning in Matt. 24 which says that if it's possible the very elect shall be deceived!

So, there are the possibilities.

• How is it that someone who knows the Truth can be taken away, or have their crown taken away?
• You're not doing the things you know to be right!
• What are some of the things that we know that are right that we should be doing?
• obeying Christ; 'obey My voice'
• love God
  • But what is it you should be doing?
  • What is something you should be doing?
• doing God's will
• prayer and study

Now, for those of you who don't like to hear the Worldwide Church of God talked about, you can turn this sermon off/stop reading right now and spare yourself. But if you do that, then you're just hiding in the woods from the practice that has happened before, and it isn't going to do you any good to turn this off.

There were some very serious things that are going on in the Worldwide Church of God that were unbelievable. They were threatening to take away what people believe. I'm amazed at how some things fall. I wrote a 14 page letter which was really a small booklet on Are You Complete in Christ? (cbcg.org)What was one of the dangers that Paul warned about, concerning men doing things to brethren and to ministers? We have the same warning here:
Colossians 2:4[transcriber's correction]: "Now, this I say so that no one may deceive you by persuasive speech"—clever sounding persuasive words.

Verse 6:" Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, be walking in Him." There's one thing that we need to be very careful of, because even this verse can be twisted out of shape. This is a true verse, true enough, but in order to answer this verse, understand it properly, we need to ask:

• How was it that they received Christ?
• Was it with the fullness of the teachings of the Apostle Paul? Yes!
• From him personally? No, through Epaphras!

But it was directly from Paul, even though not personally firsthand from Paul. Some people come along and say today that as you learned from Herbert W. Armstrong, don't be moved from that foundation. It doesn't mean that. Because what Herbert Armstrong had was partial. Granted, it was more than anybody had had for a long, long time. And one of the things that he had that was very important was: {former WCG booklets}: Why Were You Born and Your Ultimate Destiny by Herbert W. Armstrong. He did understand that very well, and that is why he succeeded, because God blessed him in that. That became under assault in a major way within the Worldwide Church of God starting in the late 1980s.

Verse 7: "Being rooted and built up in Him, and being confirmed in the faith, exactly as you were taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Be on guard so that no one takes you captive through philosophy..." (vs 7-8).

We're going to talk a little bit about philosophy today, in relationship to what happened in WCG.

"...and vain deceit, according to the traditions of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ" (v 8).

What does philosophy lead to? It leads to demonism! Because he says:

"…in the voluntary worship of angels..." (v 23). Read the rest of Col. 2, because we'll have something to say about philosophy.

Let's see why people in the past have been deceived. Why people in the Church of God have allowed someone to come along and take away a measure of their faith, hopefully not their crown entirely. Here is the condition that people get themselves in when:

• they don't pray
• they don't study
• they don't let the Spirit of God work in their lives

And especially when ministers come along and tell them that they don't need to study, or tell them, 'You leave the things in the Bible to us experts.' I talked to a woman who talked to her son-in-law and daughter who were in the WCG, and when Scripture came up to discuss a subject, both of them said, 'We are not experts.' Think on that statement!

Hebrews 5:12: "For truly, by this time you ought to be teachers, but instead you need to have someone teach you again what are the beginning principles of the oracles of God, and have become those in need of milk, and not of solid food. For everyone who is partaking of milk is unskilled in the Word of Righteousness because he is an infant" (vs 12-13).

Those are some pretty clear words. If you are not exercising your senses and using the Word of God so that you become skillful in it, then you're going to say, 'I'm not an expert.' But here's what Paul said:

Verse 14: "But solid food is for those who are fully grown, who through repeated practice have had their senses trained to discern between good and evil." That is:

• using the Word of God
• studying the Word of God
• thinking with the Word of God
• using the Spirit of the Word of God
• using God's Spirit in your life

"...have had their senses trained to discern between good and evil."

Why should you study? Not only to show yourself approved, but so that you understand the Word of God, the Word of righteousness! So you can understand, to discern good from evil!

You have no other way of understanding what is right. It's just not possible. Yet, there are people out there who are in Worldwide who have been put to sleep. Who, when the things come to the door, which brings all of these strange and diverse doctrines….

By the way, I didn't bring it, but someone listed 154 doctrinal changes in WCG! We're not talking about just a little misunderstanding of a Scripture or two. We're talking about wholesale apostasy! But people in WCG are so asleep that some of them do not even want to bother to take the time to prove what is right and what is wrong.

• Isn't that a shame?
• Is that not a shame?

They have been so worn out, they're so struggling with life that they can no longer take 2-Timothy 2:15: "Diligently study to show yourself approved unto God."

In our little group, we're trying to keep our noses in the Bible. And with everything that's going on, brethren, I just don't think we can keep up with it. I got an interesting letter:

Enclosed is an article we would like for you to look over and give your thoughts and opinions on it.'

We're studying your tapes on Revelation with your chart, and it is very interesting. Thank you for the chart on counting Pentecost. That was greatly appreciated. Thank you also for the 1-Peter sermon series. We're missing tape #2. We would appreciate getting it.

We're not afraid of hearing about prophecy, etc. We feel it's about time the people are taken off the milk and begin being fed the meat. We are in the end time, and the people need to be prepared. And as you have mentioned, most of your listeners are past WCG members, so it's time, past time we were off the milk. So, turn on the heat, and start serving the meat. Thank you for hearing me out.

It's amazing how God sends letters just at the right time. Turn on the heat, and start serving the meat. I'm going to do a little bit of that today.

I would suggest brethren, that whomever you know in WCG, tell them that their spiritual life may very well depend on how they're going to handle what is coming down within WCG. And if a minister says contrary to what I'm going to read here, then you know that the minister himself has compromised his conscience so much he doesn't know what he's doing.

Let's understand what Jesus said and why He said it, and the reason for it.

Matthew 16:1: "Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came to Him, tempting Him and asking Him to show them a sign from heaven. But He answered and said to them, 'When evening has come, you say, "It will be fair weather, for the sky is red." And in the morning, you say, 'Today it will storm, for the sky is red and lowering.' Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times" (vs 1-3).

The greatest manifestation of God that ever was came in the person of Jesus Christ to those people, and they couldn't understand it, though they knew it.

Verse 4: "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.' Then He left them and went away. Now, when His disciples came to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. And Jesus said to them, 'Watch out and be on guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees'" (vs 4-6).

Now you can put in there bread. Jesus is the Bread of God; 'I am the Bread, which came down from heaven' (John 6:35)—compared to "…the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

Verse 7: Then they reasoned among themselves, saying, 'It is because we did not take bread.' But when Jesus knew this, He said to them, 'O you of little faith, why are you reasoning among yourselves that it is because you did not bring bread? Do you still not understand? Do you not remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets you took up? Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets you took up? How is it that you do not understand that I was not speaking of bread when I told you to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees?' Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees" (vs 7-12).

What is doctrine? Doctrine comes from the Greek word 'didache,' which means, teaching! The teachings.

God is certainly blessing Carl Franklin with being able to find some books that are just unreal. The things we're going to bring out concerning Judaism and Egyptology mixed in with Judaism is going to be just a flabbergasting. Most people do not understand that the Pharisees and Sadducees, many of them, were philosophers and Hellenized. Most people do not understand that. One of the main doctrines of philosophy is the trinity, because philosophy is areligion.

Someone sent me, and I'm very happy they did; this is not something I'm concocting and making up in my mind, but you have the real facts before you right here:

from the Pastor General's Report of the WCG, July 27th, 1993

I gave you a copy of it so you could read the whole thing, so you yourself could see and understand that this is not something that I have an axe to grind on. But there are a lot of people who are in danger of accepting such false doctrine, which is ultimately based upon philosophy, that it is unreal. You will recall when we went through the sermon series: The Holy Spirit.
Then we saw the booklet that they put out called God Is. At that time I said the booklet God Is was never meant to solve any problems; it was meant to create problems, to bring a solution later. I said at that time that booklet was step #1; This Pastor General's Report is step #2. What they will do after this will be step #3: to fully accept the trinity. And their accepting of the trinity is going to go back to the base pagan philosophy of 'three-in-one.' Not even as well defined as the Catholics, but more base than that.

I will tell you the truth of the trinity right now. You can draw a circle if you want to, or just keep it in mind. The circle is one; that is Satan the devil. Who are the three? Nimrod, Semiramis, and Horus! or Any of the other names that any of the other nations gave them. I'm just going to read excerpts.

From Pastor General's Report, WCG, July 27th, 1993: {emphasis of the speaker throughout}

Before the God Is booklet was published, I wrote to the church explaining that the teachings we once held, that the destiny of human beings is to become gods, was not one we could support theologically....

There is the error of their doctrine right there. They are not studying their Bibles; they are studying theology. When you get to studying theology, then you are studying 'religions,' you are not studying the Bible. Now, to study other religions to see where they are in error in relationship to the Bible is fine, provided you know what you're doing. Now it's says in parentheses,

...(or biblically for that matter)...

That is not true. This is a blatant, absolute lie!

Since then I've received a great number of letters and comments expressing appreciation and excitement for the general approach of the booklet, especially the honesty that pervades the whole presentation.

What are you being honest with? The philosophies of men, or The Truth of God's Word?

The difficulty for some readers was greater...

Now you will notice how he puts down all of the brethren as ignorant, unlearned, difficult to understand. I tell you what, I don't think the brethren are ignorant. I don't think that they cannot learn. My experience has been that I could even teach you a few basic things of Greek and you comprehend it. That doesn't mean you understand how to read Greek or anything, but at least you can see differences. Listen! If we're going to reign with Christ as kings and priests, does God expect us to be simpleton oafs all our lives? If we're to be teachers, are we to know less than the students?

As our study on the nature of God has continued over the past year, the need to make certain edits in the booklet became clear.

Because they were deliberately misspoken so they could come along and do edits. Isn't that what I said? Here it is.

These edits will be reflected in the next edition of the booklet. In the meantime, it is helpful to realize that the fundamental point of the booklet was to address the very thing that was wrong in our older position. Simply put, the Bible proclaims plainly and clearly that there is one and only one God.

When the Bible says that God is one, the word 'one' does not refer to a family, but to one God.

Then why have the plural word 'Elohim'? {note sermon series: Who Was Jesus?}

Genesis 1:26: "And God [Elohim] said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness...'"

Are we made in the likeness of angels? No! Some angels appear as animals; some angels appear as men, like Gabriel, Michael, etc. One of the explanations given is that God was talking to the heavenly host when He said, "…Let Us…" That could be an explanation, but I do not feel that that is correct, simply because it says 'Elohim,' Us—plural noun, plural personal pronoun us.

• Is everything about God revealed in the Old Testament? No!
• Who was the only Elohim revealed to Israel? The One Who became Jesus Christ!

It's unreal how we have to go back to John 1:1 all the time? What they are doing, they are taking the theory of Bible study by using subtraction. What do I mean by that? They take one Scripture and fight against the other Scriptures, and then they decide which one they don't want! Rather than taking the theory of addition and putting them together and find out what they both say together.

John 1:1: "In the beginning... [Is that when man was made? Yes!] ...Was the Word..."

• Who was the One Who spoke, 'Let there be light'?
• Who was the One Who created?

"...And the Word was with God..." [How many beings do we have? Two!] ...And the Word was God" (v 1). How many Gods are there? Two! Without a doubt!
That's what the Bible teaches. It doesn't teach polytheism of many gods to be worshipped. Nor does it strictly teach monotheism. Because the Old Testament—and we have gone through laboriously every place—does allow for more than one in 'Elohim.' That's why God used the plural word instead of the singular.

Verse 2: "He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him..." (vs 2-3). What can we conclude from this?

• if the Word was with God
• if the Word was God
• if the Word created everything that there is

we have these three things, which says that God the Father did not Himself personally create man, or anything on the earth. Doesn't it say that? Yes, it does! As clear as a bell!

Verse 3: "All things came into being through Him, and not even one thing that was created came into being without Him. In Him was life..." (vs 3-4), which means He's eternal. If you have life, and you are God, and You were in the beginning, are You not eternal? Yes, indeed! I tell you what, I think the most important book for us today, we're going to find out, is going to be the book of Colossians.

Colossians 1:16, speaking of Christ. "Because by Him were all things created, the things in heaven and the things on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether they be thrones, or lordships, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him."

We won't go through all of the Scriptures that we could, but will cover some of them, because we have that extended sermon series: Who Was Jesus?

Titus 2:10: "Not misappropriating anything, but showing all good faithfulness; so that they may do credit to the doctrine of our Savior God in everything."

• How are we to hold the doctrine of God?
• This is an admonition to women, yes, but is it not also to everyone?
• Should we not hold the doctrines and teachings of God in a proper understanding and respect? Yes!

Verse 11: "For the grace of God, which brings salvation for all men, has appeared; teaching us that, having denied ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live moderately and righteously and Godly in this present world, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our Savior and great God, Jesus Christ…" (vs 11-13).

• Is Christ God? Yes!
• Is God the Father God? Yes!
• How many does the Bible reveal? Two!
• Why have a Father?
• Why have a Son?
• Why are we called the children of God, if there's no such thing as a family?
• Are we breeding swine?
• Are we creating Hitler's super-farms for breeding of the Aryan super race?
• What are you going to do with Eph. 3?

Ephesians 3:14: "For this cause... " That is the whole cause of preaching the Gospel, the mystery of Godliness, and so forth.

"...I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of Whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named" (vs 14-15).

'Oh, there is no Family of God. That's why Christ is going to marry the Church, and she is called His bride.' I say that very facetiously, because those who come out with such proclamations as that deserve that kind of facetious answer.

Inherent in the word Elohim is not the word family.

That is a true statement, but the rest of the Bible teaches that Elohim—being Christ and the Father—are building and creating Their family. So, it's just like all of these slick lawyers and slick philosophers who take a definition of a word and deny the whole Bible. The reason is because the whole Bible is not defined in one word. It's that simple!

I'll let you read about all of those who talk about one God, all that was revealed to Israel. I have no question or problem with any of those Scriptures that are listed here. The problem I have is that they don't bring to bear the rest of the Bible, to bring understanding to those Scriptures! So, we're going to see the strangest mixture of 'one-in-three' that you have ever heard of. It's going to be unreal!

The Bible does not allow for the existence of two God beings…

What did we just read? Would you ever in your most wildest imaginations of heresy ever believe that something like this would come from the WCG? Would you?

If you're currently in what was the WCG and you're sitting there, and you don't want to open your eyes, then you're going to be in deep trouble. You're going to be walking out one day and you're not going to realize it, but that spiritual quicksand is just going to suck you under, and you will have no way out. God is going to hold you individually and personally responsible. You're not going to say, The minister told me.' and 'I believe in this authority.'

God is going to say 'Did you fall for that old lie of Satan the devil, that hierarchy is more important than love and obedience to God?'

• Do you think you're going to get in the Kingdom of God if you say you're going to follow church authority, right or wrong?
• Who is going to come before the judgment seat of God? Church authority!

That's right, no individual has to come before God, just church authority, because if you believe in church authority that way, then you also have to also believe in the perverted thing I just said. Because it says that everyone shall come before the judgment seat of God and shall give an account for himself.

• you're not going to stand there and pull an Adam, or pull an Eve
• you're not going to stand there and say, 'The hierarchy...' or 'The minister...'
• the minister is not going to say, 'I was loyal'

God's answer is going to be, "So were a third of the angels that fell with Satan. They were loyal to him." The word loyalty has absolutely no relevance unless that loyalty is to God and God alone! Anyone who stands on that foundation, is in the quicksand already. The only thing that is left is to pull the plug, and the plug has been pulled!

When the young man came to Him and said, 'Good Master, what should I do that I should have eternal life?'? Why did Jesus say, 'Why call you Me good? There's none good but God!

When Jesus was on the earth, God the Father was in heaven! Since Jesus bore in His flesh the law of sin and death, in the likeness of our flesh, He could not be called good as God is good, because He was in the flesh. That's why! I'll leave it so that you can go through that, because we've built up to that very carefully as we go through the series on Who Was Jesus? There is one God; that one has to include Christ and God the Father. When he refers to one God, in many cases he is referring to the Father and not to Jesus Christ in particularly.

So, now we begin to see that the Bible gives us two facts that are apparently contradictory. But I say "apparently," because they only appear to be contradictory because our minds are finite…

Brethren, you're stupid, and can't understand anything.

• What did Paul say concerning and understanding the things of God? 1-Cor. 2! God reveals them by His Spirit!
• What did Paul say of his own mind?

1-Corinthians 2:16[transcriber's correction]: "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Who shall instruct Him?…. [obviously, God's mind is greater than ours, without a doubt] ...But we have the mind of Christ."

'Yes, brethren, you're all to remain dumb, stupid sheep so we can manipulate you all of your lives, so we can take from you and take your money and tell you what to do and where to go, because we will play God in your life. Don't you dare think!' That's what this PGR is saying! Paul didn't do that; he said:

Philippians 2:5: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."

• What is the hope of glory? Colossians 1:27: "…is Christ in you, the hope of glory."
• What did Paul pray for? That our minds would be open to understand by the Spirit of God!

Granted, our minds are limited, but not used in such a sense as to say that when God calls us we can't understand. Our mind, however, are not finite in the way that they think. It's finite in that it's encased in our brain.

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Our brain is finite, inasmuch as it is encased in our skull, too. But our thoughts are not finite. I'll prove it to you.

• Can you think of a time when you didn't exist? You can comprehend there was a time that you didn't exist, but you can't think of that time!
• Can you think of when you won't exist? No! You know you're going to die someday, but you cannot think of when you won't exist!
• Why? Because God has given the spirit of man to the mind, to the brain, to make it a mind!

He's given His Holy Spirit to us so that we can think infinite thoughts, the thoughts of God; howbeit on a very low level. Now if you want to take that and put it in your philosophical pipe and smoke it, try that on for size!

…While God our Creator is infinite and unlimited. The Bible tells us there is one God.

The Father is God, the Son is also God; He is eternally with God, and also was God.

I hope this helps you to see why we must teach there is one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."

Did you catch that?

I will discuss the Holy Spirit next time.

The reason he has to next time is because this is so heavy that no one could take it all at once.

Mr. Armstrong was never formally challenged on this point. He never had to defend his teaching in the same way that I have been forced to do…

Armstrong was forced to defend it many times! He did defend it! He was challenged on it!

I was challenged on this point when I put a personal in the Plain Truth in which I set forth the traditional arguments against the Trinity…

Wait till you get some of those that I'm going to give you today, which are greater than those traditional arguments.

In response I received a letter from a priest, who said he had respected the Plain Truth, but now realized we had no idea of what we were talking about.

This is almost unreal!

Mr. Armstrong, as I said, was simply never formally challenged on this point, or I am confident he would have changed it himself.

Wouldn't it be something? Would it not be something if Herbert Armstrong could come back to life and stand in Joseph Tkach's office today?

The Holy Spirit is not a third separate God, not according to us, and most importantly, according to the Bible. There is one God, and that one God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are distinct but not separate.

Would you ever have believed that this kind of thing would have come from WCG?

What does it say in Jude? Isn't it interesting, that the book of Jude is there, and it comes just before the book of Revelation? {not in the original order} And the book of Revelation tells us about the return of Christ. So, what is the book of Jude? The book of Jude is the last warning before the return of Christ; it's got to be!.

Jude 3: "Beloved, when personally exerting all my diligence to write to you concerning the common salvation, I was compelled to write to you, exhorting you to ferventlyfight for the faith, which once for all time has been delivered to the saints."

They weren't keeping the faith that was delivered. Are these people keeping the faith that's in the Bible? Of course not!

Verse 4: "For certain men have stealthily crept in…" Remember what I read to you in the sermon series: Satan's Ten Most Believable Lies? What I read to you about Satan's greatest weapon, are intelligent-sounding men who sit on doctrinal boards, who quietly press reasonable sounding arguments with reasonable sounding words upon reasonable people and deceives them. That's what he's talking about here.

"…those who long ago have been written about, condemning them to thisjudgment. They are ungodly men who are perverting the grace of our God, turning it into licentiousness…" (v 4):

• license to change doctrine
• license to change the Word of God
• license to do anything you please

Not just lasciviousness in the sense of sexual debauchery. What does it lead to?

"…denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ" (v 4). They're coming pretty close to doing that!

It is true that the average Protestant or Catholic cannot explain God's nature…

Of course they can't!

Many may even think that there are three God-beings in one godhead, or a three-headed being of some sort. That merely points out how ignorant some people are about the doctrines of their churches.

Again, the put-down!

But then, inability to explain a particular doctrine isn't confined to other churches, is it?

No! Not by any means!

Let me summarize, and I hope to make this crystal clear: our old literature taught us that there were two God Beings and one God family, each composed of Holy Spirit. That teaching, which implied that there are two Gods, is not biblical.

That is a lie!

The Bible teaches that there is one God, not two.

What does it say in John 4:24? "…those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and in Truth." After the resurrection, was Christ spirit? Yes! Do we have two spirit Beings Who are called God? Yes! Is it Biblical? Yes!

The Bible does not teach that God is a family, with two God Beings in that family right now, and billions to come later. The Bible teaches that the one and the same God is Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit.

Draw your little circle and put 1-2-3 in there. It is a doctrine of Satan the devil, it is not from God! The 1-2-3 can be any name you want to put in there based on all the pagan religions. What Tkach is doing, he's paving the way for a strange interpretation of the trinity, meant to please those who look at the Old Testament, and meant to please those who look at the New Testament, and denying the Truth of the Bible.

The Bible teaching is that there is one God who is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is not my idea…

Granted, I don't think that. Joseph Tkach could ever come up with this idea. It's not his. One man, not in the Church, who read this said that this is 'the ramblings of a person who does not have the sense to think with.' Granted, it's not his idea., I accept that.

…Nor is it the idea of some fourth century theologians. It is the plain Bible teaching.

I beg your pardon. If it is, I don't know which Bible he happens to be reading. If you're a church member in WCG and you can sit there and take that, and you can say that, 'I'll trust God; God is on His throne.'

• Was God on His throne when they were seeking to kill Paul? Yes!
• Was God on His throne when false prophets came around? Yes!
• Was God on His throne when people fell away before? Yes!

God being on His throne doesn't take away your responsibility from anything. You better come before that throne of grace and follow God, not sit there and point to it and say, 'That protects me from everything, and that's my excuse for accepting every heresy under the sun.'

Despite these historic attempts, mistakes on the nature of God continued to be made. What's more, mistakes will be made as long as human beings walk the face of the earth. As a result, the term 'trinity' has picked up extra baggage, so to speak, which makes it a misleading term to use without qualification.

There is the seed! That is the one to be planted, because they're going to say, 'We are not accepting the Catholic doctrine; we are not accepting the Protestant doctrine of the Trinity. But we are accepting the Bible teaching of the Trinity.'

Ten-to-one that's what they're going to say; that is going to be their qualification. Then it goes through and shows that God is not a person, doesn't have a body, and

…we don't necessarily have to rely on the fact that God is a Spirit being Who does require space.
God is Not Created

We understand that. So, because He's not created, He doesn't have a body? How then are we made in the image of God if God does not have a body? What was it that Moses saw on the backside when Jesus passed by as the God of the Old Testament? And He said, 'No man can look upon My face and live.' This is ludicrous, brethren! Anyone who would sit in the Worldwide Church of God and continue to take this, you deserved what comes upon you.

Bodies are put together or composed, and God is neither put together nor composed.

That is a stupid statement!

He is the Creator, not the created…

We know that!

Until God created, there was nothing. Only God is eternal, only God is uncreated. There is no eternal matter or spiritual substance that coexisted with God.

Were you there? Do you know?

That would mean that God did not create everything…

This is philosophical reasoning to nonsense, and this is demon gibberish! It's exactly what it is.

And such a God is not a God of the Bible. Such a God is a limited God, and less than supreme God; a God who needs something besides Himself to act as God.

Does Elohim Refer To A Family of God Beings? by K.J. Stavrinides

I'm not going to go through all of this. Some of the things that he has there are right, some of the things that he has there are not correct. Let's come to the one where it is:

Lower Than the Angels

What is happening is that you take a true statement over here and narrowly define it. Because it is true, 'Elohim' does not equal family. 'Elohim' describes God! God is creating a family. And again, what are you going to do with 'the whole Family of God in heaven and earth' (Eph. 3).

Psalm 8:5 says that 'God made man a little lower than the angels'—elohim

That is a blatant false translation when it's translated angels. The New American Standard Bible clearly translated it "…made a little lower than God…" And that's what it should read. Angels are never anywhere called 'elohim.' Angels are 'malak.'

Bring him to the judges, Exo. 21:6: "He is to be brought to the judges."

He is to be brought before God. And after all, is that not where the judgment was to be? It was God's judgment. They were to be brought before the judgment seat of God. I want you to follow these very clever sounding words here.

Father and Son—Stavrinides' writing:

The names 'Father' and 'Son' do indicate a family relationship. We can omit the reference to the Holy Spirit in this light, because the name 'Holy Spirit' does not immediately suggest a family relationship. This is perfectly acceptable and biblically sound. The error creeps into the concept when the relationship is understood in terms of separate beings.

The following explanation should make the explanation easier to understand: In a human family a father and son are two beings. One is the father because he existed while the son was not yet born. The father provides for the son because the son needs his help. Human beings are limited beings. They have a beginning. They have needs. The father/son relationship is meaningful only in the light of these relationships. It is a gross misunderstanding to think of God in such terms.

God is spirit. He has no limitations in space or time. In other words, it is not true that the Son had a beginning or that the Father existed while the Son did not. Neither is it true that the Father looked after his young Son during some of his childhood, or provided for the son's needs. Rather, the names 'Father' and 'Son' reveal important truths about God.

Well, if it doesn't reveal a family, what does it reveal? Did not Jesus say that the Father taught Him? Yes He did!

The book of Hebrews speaks of the Son in various ways. He is referred to as the Son, as 'the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person.' These are three ways of expressing the same idea. As the Son is God, he has no needs, and he is not in the same relationship to the Father than a human son is to his parent."

But did Jesus not say that He would be subject to the Father? Yes He did!

The names 'Father' and 'Son' are applied to God without the limitations that hold true to the human family. This is another way of saying that God is not a family, a word that has meaning only in the context of limited human beings. God is infinite, eternal, and in all ways unlimited. The attempt to make Elohim reflect a family of divine beings is not only impossible historically, linguistically, and culturally, it is theologically wrong and inappropriate in the discussion of the true God."

So then you take the word 'Elohim' and you burn the rest of the Bible.

Brethren, I am totally shocked beyond words with this situation. I don't know what else to say, except that any of the brethren in [the former] WCG, if you believe this, and if you follow along with this, you're in deep trouble.

The comment was made, if we're not to be as a son of God as God is… That doesn't mean we're going to have the authority. No way! What's the use of going on? I wonder how many people are just going to give up and say, 'That good old Baptist church has a better church, has got a better choir; and furthermore, they don't ding me for all these stupid tithes. I'm going to go there.' Has Satan succeeded in what he wants to do? Yes!

Isn't it unreal, the basic Scriptures we've gone over how many times, brethren? Do you think that Christ is going to enter into a marriage relationship to someone who is not compatible with Him? What does it talk about, Eph. 5? I speak a great mystery concerning Christ and the church, concerning husband and wife! Do we throw that out?

1 John 3:1: "Behold! What glorious love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God! For this very reason, the world does not know us because it did not know Him."

I'll tell you one thing, this newly espoused doctrine does not know God. He's called the Father; we are called the children. We are called the sons of God.

Verse 2: "Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be; but we know that when He is manifested, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him exactly as He is."

Nothing can be clearer than that. And that, brethren, is the reason why you were born. That is the reason that God has called you. If God just wanted to have a whole bunch of unthinking robots, composed of spirit, He can make them by the billions. If He wants you to become like a lapdog, like your stupid little dog at home, that when you come in it barks and yaps and runs to you, and you put down your hand to pet it, and it licks it, and everything is just fine. Can you express love to the dog? Can you talk with the dog? You can talk to it, but you can't talk with it.

Now I've got in my hand something that Carl Franklin just did, in response to what this Pastor General's Report is. And it's called, The Chaldean Mystery of the One In Many, The Trinity: Part Two. Well, in The Trinity: Part One, Carl Franklin gives the origin, the history of the rabbi's, and where Philo admits that the philosophers were possessed. That's why philosophy leads to demonism! Philosophy is the thoughts of demons to explain their way to exclude God, and to include Satan the devil, and the gods they set up. So, remember the circle: 1-2-3. The circle is Satan, and the 1-2-3 is Nimrod, Semiramis, and Horus.

The Chaldean Mystery of the One In Many, The Trinity: Part Two by Carl Franklin. The Magi:

The Jews like to tell you that they are clean, wonderful, innocent people, and have never been involved with magic or any of that sort of thing. Brethren, the truth is that Judaism is based on the Kabbalah, and the Kabbalah is the heart and core of satanic mysticism and magic. Like the woman said, 'Turn up the heat, give us the meat.' There it is.

• Why do you think Jesus said, 'You are of your father the devil'?
• Was He saying that just to antagonize them?
• Was He saying it just as empty words?

or

• Was it a fact?

Here is a critique of some of the things of Plato:

The Parmenides presents a great difficulty to the reader. The best Platonists differ about its meaning. The ordinary person will be hard put to discover any meaning at all. The argument runs on and on in words that appear to make sense, yet, convey nothing to the mind.

Did we not just read some of that? Yes!

Examples are on every page. As for instance, "The One is also younger than itself at the time when, in becoming older, it coincides with the present. But the present is with the One always throughout its existence. Therefore, at all times, the One both is and is becoming older and younger than itself.'

I'll just short-circuit a lot of this, and say that Plato studied in Babylon.

• What about the image of Dan. 2? It starts out with a head of gold, and then silver, and then brass, and then down to the feet!
• What is the message that goes to the feet?
• Where does it come from? It comes from the head!

Brethren, this whole system is still operating on the basic philosophies of Babylon.

• What is Christ going to do when He comes?
• What does it say about the Rock cut out without hands? It's going to smite the image on its feet and going to grind it into powder, and it shall never exist!

We're going to find on the Day of Trumpets that Christ is not coming to play patty-cakes with theologians. Christ is coming to destroy this system!

• its religions
• its governments
• its theology
• its finances
• its education

Everything about this system God is going to destroy!

Read these books: Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion by Victor Marsden and En Route to Global Occupation by Gary Kah. In every one of these things, people think they can politically correct it. Like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. 'If we elect good people, there…' Listen! 'Good people' are the ones who have destroyed the earth! The only One Who's going to correct it is Christ.

Continuing with Cornford and his introduction to Parmenides:

The Parmenides seems to disclaim any achievement at all…

Finally, the great man says to his audience, "It seems to me that whether there is or is not a One, both that One and the others alike are, and are not, and appear, and do not appear to be."

"Most true," says Socrates, and the dialogue ends.

Sound familiar?

There is one God; that God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are distinct, but not separate. Therefore, God is everything we can conceive of and more.

Chaldean Mysteries of the One In Many is understood and expounded by modern Magi, the mystery of the Trinity.

Selected quotes of Parmenides: All Is One:

The One cannot be anywhere. Both equal and unequal to itself and others. It is neither equal nor unequal to itself or another one; comes into existence and ceases to exist. It is immovable. Neither is One, nor is it all. In no sense is. It is both in itself and in another; is both like and unlike itself and others. It is not like or unlike itself or another. Becomes older and younger than itself. Has shape, has no shape. Does not occupy time, partakes of time. Touches and does not touch itself and others.
Hypotheses: 1) If there is One, that One has being. If One is both one and many, it is like the others. If the One exists, the other exists.

Now you understand why the warning about philosophy in Col. 2? This is demonic gibberish! Where's the beef? It's there, but wasn't! If you look at it, you shall see it, but it won't be. If you thought it was in the bun, it was not between, but on top, which was underneath, but was within, which has to be without. The tomatoes are an illusion; they're not there. The lettuce and mayonnaise have all been run together and spoiled.

So the beef? That's a good question. The beef is the cow, the bone, the goat, the lamb. And it's not there because it wasn't ground up. And Wendy's has square hamburgers because he doesn't like to cut corners. So much for the beef.

Other qualities of One: does not change; partakes of existence and non-existence. Has inequality; may participate in many; has motion as is, at rest. Becomes and does not become unlike, unlike the others and like itself.

Sounds very much like a mystery. Now remember what we read in the book My Catholic Faith by Louis LaRaviore: 'The trinity is a blank mystery.' Strict mystery! Why? They make it so you can never understand it, because they don't want you to know that it is Satan, Nimrod, Semiramis, and Horus! That's why!

Again, we shall defer to Cornfeld: "The Parmenides presents a great difficulty to the reader. The best Platonists differ about its meaning. The ordinary person will be hard put to discover any meaning at all. The arguments run on and on in words that appear to make sense, yet convey nothing to the mind." This, then, is the source of Joseph Tkach's theology on the trinity."

Plato's successor…

By the way, was the name Academus was the name of the demon that spoke to Plato. So, academy means a place of demons. It was in a grove. What are our eco-freaks wanting to preserve? Groves!

Its principles are the one that stands beyond being, and many that populate the beings.

The realms of being are the mathematical numbers, the mathematical shapes, the soul, the world soul, and the perceivable bodies. They are created when one determines and limits the many. The One and the many are to be seen as analogous, but different principles on each level. Ordered the entire reality according to the relation of genus and species…

I remember when I went to the University of San Francisco, and I was only there for six weeks, and I had to take Philosophy 101. And about that time I was getting the Plain Truth magazine. God was calling me, and I sat there, and we started out with Aristotle, Plato and Socrates. And I said, 'What am I doing sitting here in this class? What does that have to do with the Bible?' That was a Catholic institution, by the way.

Middle Platonism:

The pagan origins of Jewish monotheism and the trinity of one."

Carl is going to do some research on the Temple of On in Egypt.

He prepares the way for Plutinus' monotheism and the theory of hypostasis. The One is the cause of everything, even matter. He distinguishes between the first one and the second.

Hypostasis: In philosophy, the underlying principle, or nature, essence, or substance; in theology, originally, the unique essence and nature of the Godhead and therefore of the three persons of the Trinity; any of the three persons of the Trinity; the personality of Christ as distinguished from his two natures, human and Divine.

Nicomaches of Garacia, 2nd century A.D., equates numbers and deities in his arithmetic theology; Numenius, 2nd century A.D. Proximity to Platunius is testified too by Platunius being accused of plagiarizing his works. Theology, Numenius claims in his work, On The Good, must originate back beyond Plato to Pythagoras, and integrate the teachings of the Brahmans, the Jews, the magicians, and the Egyptians. Plato is nothing other than the attic-speaking Moses. Numenius' first God is only related to itself; the second and third Gods are only two different functions of the next hypostasis, which then is the Trinity. It compliments the forms of the first God, and it combines with matter in order to give to the forms to it, and it does so lose its unity.

You've had your philosophy class for today.

We have to get back to the basics. It's a shame, brethren, that we have to go through this. But I tell you, there's a lot of people you know and love that have been in Worldwide, some are still there, and now the gauntlet has been thrown down, and you're going to have to choose whether you're going to follow Satan or you're going to follow God. The organization, apparently, is determined to follow Satan and not God.

This went out in the Worldwide News: It was made that people are interested in 'religion' now and not Truth. The Bible says, 'Your Word is Truth' and, 'Man shall live by every Word of God.' When you get interested in theology and in religion and not God, then these things happen.

Ephesians 5:9: "(Because the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and Truth); proving what is well pleasing to the Lord" (vs 9-10). Having your senses exercised thereby.

Verse 11: "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them." That's what I'm doing, brethren! If you can sit in your WCG congregation and say, 'Everything is lovely and nice and sweet,' you've got the deception pulled down over your eyes, and you are in trouble!

Verse 12: "For it is shameful even to mention the things being done by them in secret." Who knows what's going on?

Verse 13: "But all of these things being exposed by the Light… [and the light is God's Word] …are openly revealed. Therefore, He says, 'You who are sleeping—wake up, and arise from the dead!.…'" (vs 13-14). If this sounds shocking to you, wake up! God is saying, 'This is the wake up call.'

"'…wake up, and arise from the dead!.… [Are you spiritually dead?] …And Christ shall shine upon you.' So then, take heed that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as those who are wise…" (vs 14-15).

And let me tell you something, if you continue walking in this stupidity that I just read to you, you're walking in foolishness:

• you're not walking in wisdom
• you're not walking in Truth
• you're not walking in the Spirit of God

Here's the parallel account of where we started, Luke 12:1 "During this time, an innumerable multitude was gathering, crowding so close together that they were stepping on one another. First of all He began to speak to His disciples, saying, 'Guard yourselves from the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.'" Not only their hypocrisy, but also their teachings.

Verse 2: "For there is nothing covered that shall not be uncovered, nor hidden that shall not be known. Therefore, whatever you have spoken in the darkness shall be heard in the light; and what you have spoken in the ear in closed rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops" (vs 2-3).

Then He says this, because those who do it are going to endanger their lives. Tell you what, the one who wrote Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion endangers his life. The fellow who wrote En Route to Global Occupation—Gary H. Kah—has endangered his life, and has had threats against him, and was offered $100,000 to quit saying anything about the Masons. I mean, we are talking about tough times. We're not talking about just persecution of religion. We are talking about looking at gun barrels right down in front of our eyes.

So, He says, v 4: "But I tell you, My friends… [that's us. We're called the friends of God] …you should not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that are not able to do anything more. But I will show you Whom you should fear. Fear Him Who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into the fire of Gehenna. Yes, I tell you, fear Him!" (vs 4-5).

• Do you fear God?

or

• Do you fear just the authority in your little play-church, where you come in and play pitsy-patsy with the Bible?

You're throwing your salvation away because you're sound asleep and ready to let someone steal your crown?

The choice is yours! You either choose God, or you're going to have to choose this world. Because the world is coming in full force and full blast with all of its satanic doctrines.

• pray for them
• pray that they will wake up.
• pray that they will listen
• pray for them

Ask God to open their minds, but they have to choose to do it.

• they have to choose to open their mind
• they have to choose to follow God
• they have to choose which way they will go

They can't lay off with the old Adam and Eve excuse: The serpent; the woman. Did they still not get punished and put out of the Garden of Eden? Absolutely!

You are not going to escape if you stayed in the WCG, and you say, 'Well, it's the ministry,' or 'the brethren,' or someone else. It is you! We have to stand before God.

All Scriptures from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version by Fred R. Coulter (except where noted)

Scriptural References:

• Revelation 3:11
• Colossians 2:4, 6-8, 23
• Hebrews 5:12-14
• 2 Timothy 2:15
• Matthew 16:1-12
• Genesis 1:26
• John 1:1-4
• Colossians 1:16
• Titus 2:10-13
• Ephesians 3:14-15
• 1 Corinthians 2:16
• Philippians 2:5
• Colossians 1:27
• Jude 3-4
• John 4:24
• 1 John 3:1-2
• Ephesians 5:9-15
• Luke 12:1-5

Scripture referenced, not quoted:

• Matthew 24
• John 6:35
• Daniel 2

Also referenced:

• Booklet: Are You Complete in Christ? By Fred R. Coulter
• Sermon Series:
• The Holy Spirit
• Who Was Jesus?
• Satan's Ten Most Believable Lies
  • Article: From Pastor General's Report, WCG, July 27th, 1993
  • Books:
• Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion by Victor Marsden
• En Route to Global Occupation by Gary Kah
• My Catholic Faith by Louis LaRaviore

FRC:bo
Transcribed: 2/22/16