FUSING MANKIND.” (Plain Truth, Feb. 1960, p. 26.) If everyone who speaks of the Holy Spirit as a per son is pagan then, of course, Jesus must also be labeled as “pagan” for he referred to the Holy Spirit as “He” time and again. As He revealed the great truth of the coming Comforter to the disciples, He said: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of right eousness, and of judgment . . . Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you” (John 16:7-14). Notice the teaching of Jesus about this personal member of the Trinity who can hear, speak, show, and guide. Certain ly this can never be said of a “force” as Armstrong defines the Holy Spirit. Once the scriptural identification of the Holy Spirit is seen, the wonderful truth of the Trinity becomes evi dent. Let the reader turn to Matthew 28:18-20, John 1:1-34 and other Scriptures and just believe the Bible and he will have no trouble in seeing that this plain Scriptural teaching concerning the Holy Spirit is not pag an, but proper. IV. HERBERT ARMSTRONG IS CONFUSED ABOUT THE NATIONS. Someone has said, “Show me a man who is right about Israel and I’ll show you a man who is right about the rest of the Bible.” That statement may not always be correct to the letter, but one thing is always sure, “Show me a man that is wrong about Israel, and I’ll show you a man who is wrong about God’s prophetic plan.” Herbert Armstrong is wrong about Israel, and this then becomes a source of error to him in a multitude of other things. Perhaps most exciting of Armstrong’s writings is his booklet, “The United States and the British Common wealth in Prophecy.” In this he unveils his acceptance of the outworn and unscriptural theory of British-Israe- lism. That is, he teaches that Britain and the United States are the lost ten tribes of Israel. Prefacing this booklet, he pulls all the stops of his journalistic organ to write: “No story of fiction ever was so strange, so absorbing, so packed with suspense, as this gripping story of the Bible.” After this interest-capturing beginning, he then presents in “Armstrong” style the usual fact-ignoring pattern of British-Israelism. “Ephraim is Great Britain. Manasseh is the United States. The throne of England is the throne of David.” There is not space here to deal with every aspect of this teaching, but'perhaps it will suffice to show the false foundation upon which it is built. Anglo-Israelism holds that at the return to Palestine after the captivity, only the house of Judah returned, leaving the rest of Israel to wander on to Great Britain and the United States in the centuries to follow, making these two nations “Is rael’s New Land” (T h e United States and the British Commonwealth in Prophecy, p. 15). In the above-named booklet, Armstrong writes: “Only those of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi, who constituted the house of JUDAH, returned at that time. Consequently those in Jerusalem in the time of Christ were only these three tribes, NOT of the House of IS RAEL.” NOW WHAT SAITH THE SCRIPTURE? “So the priests, and the Levites, and some of the people, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, unto Jeru-
had loved ones, wicked or good, who have died without accepting Christ. He says grief in such cases is needless and that the real need is a little “enlightenment,”'which he then proceeds to give. One heading in the booklet is “All Unsaved Not Fin ally Lost.” Under this heading, he labels as one of the greatest errors' of this time the assumption that there are only two classes — the SAVED and the LOST. Like the Jehovah Witnesses, he then endeavors to prove that the great majority of those who die without Christ will be saved during the Millennium. Compare the following two statements, the first from Armstrong’s booklet and the second from “Let God Be True,” (Jehovah’s Witness es). (1) And then what shall happen during the thousand- year reign from then on? . . . Here are the earth’s nations earth’s mortals — all nations! And now begins a process of SEPARATION. It is ac cording to the decisions they make, and the ac tions they take. Those who turn to a life of RIGHTEOUSNESS are set on the RIGHT hand. They are converted — given IMMORTALITY.” (Presdestination •— Page 11 — Armstrong) (2 ) “During Christ’s millennial reign they will re turn from the realms of the enemy and will ul timately, if obedient, see the promise fulfilled. At the end of Christ’s reign after successfully passing the final judgment test, these will attain to their justification to the right to life from Je hovah God,” (Let God Be True — p. 282 — Je hovah’s Witnesses). How different this is from the truth of God’s Word with no distortion of translation. “But the rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years were finished,” (Rev. 20 :5 ). If you are not saved, be saved today. This is the day of salvation (II Cor. 6 :2 ). If your friends and neighbors are not saved, witness to them today. Tomorrow may be too late. See the tears in the eyes of the precious Saviour as He weeps over Jerusalem and you will know that salvation is an urgent matter. Hear the heart cry of the great apostle as he states his willingness to be accursed from Christ if Israel might be saved, and you cannot es cape the importance of settling the matter of salvation NOW. Read your Bible and see God pleading with men to come to Him while there is time and then see how impossible it is to reconcile this with the unscriptural statement in the Plain Truth — March 1957, p. 26: “God is not trying to save many now.” This is as far from the gospel as a man can get. God is doing all that is divinely possible to save men NOW. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3 :16 ). You may know that everlasting life today by receiving this Saviour as your own. III. HERBERT ARMSTRONG IS CONFUSED BY THE TRINITY. Again following the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Herbert Armstrong goes to great trouble to prove that belief in the Trinity is pagan. He is a bit unlike the “Witnesses” in his views concerning the Father and the Son, but seems identical with them in his teaching about the Holy Spirit. To Armstrong the Holy Spirit is not a person but sim ply a “force.” To support this unscriptural teaching, Dr. C. Paul Meredith blasts all who do not agree with him on this point by declaring “Note now that the pagans termed the Holy Spirit a ‘Being’ such as the Father and Son. They wrongly made a Trinity. SATAN WAS CON
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