How do you know you have God’s truth? How do you know you are in God’s true Church?
How do you know you have God’s truth? How do you know you are in God’s true Church? Is there only one true Church? Would God choose one group, led by one man, under the leadership of Jesus Christ, to do one Work? Is this even a question to really concern ourselves with? Our eternal lives depend on us getting the right answers to these questions!
People are skeptical, suspicious, even hostile, when it comes to God’s truth and His Church. This human reasoning is very dangerous and it has deceived many of God’s own people—it could even deceive you! Skeptics say we are vain, arrogant, self-righteous and egotistical. Are we? We had better not be!
Finding God’s Lamp
Now, with this solid foundation, it should not be too difficult to see where God’s lamp is shining in this pitch-black world of spiritual darkness. If we truly have a humbled spirit, a spirit and mind ready to act on God’s revealed word, and we rely on God’s Spirit to lead us through sincere Bible study, prayer, meditation and fasting, we should be able to see where God is working today.
Satan has confused God’s people and scattered us around since the Laodicean era began. Hundreds of “churches of God” have been formed. How is someone able to tell who is right? Is anyone right? Are all of the “churches of God” right? Can we just take our pick? Is there, in fact, one Church doing God’s will, fulfilling the commission and doing the Work God has given to be done in this end of the end time? Is there one Church that hangs on to all of the doctrines and traditions that God placed into His Church during the Philadelphian era?
This is a good place to start our proof! No one besides the Philadelphia Church of God holds fast to every doctrine and even the traditions that God established in His Church. Every other church has changed and watered down some of God’s truth. This is a simple matter of fact that can be proven easily by looking at the literature put out by the different groups of God’s people.
Remember, however, that not everything from these other churches will be wrong. The Laodiceans are still God’s people and they are not 100 percent wrong. God just says they are “lukewarm” (Revelation 3:15-16)—partly right, but partly wrong as well. Satan deceives us by throwing a little bit of good in with the bad. This has caused the Laodiceans to reject some foundational doctrines.
God does not say anything bad about the Philadelphian era of His Church (verses 7-13). So why would we want to depart from anything that God established through that era? God even warns those of us who were in that era not to depart from what He gave us—“Behold, I come quickly! Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown” (verse 11). How well we hold on to what God gave us during the Philadelphian era of His Church directly relates with whether or not we lose our “crown”! So says Jesus Christ through the Apostle John!
Besides the fact that only the Philadelphia Church of God (pcg) holds fast to all of the doctrines and traditions of God, there are three other major differences between the pcg and all other churches. These differences are major and they are vital if one is to prove where God is working today.
The End-Time Type of Elijah
One major difference between the Philadelphia Church of God and all other churches is the acceptance of Mr. Armstrong as an end-time type of the Elijah, prophesied to come in Malachi 3:1-5; 4:5-6 and Matthew 17:11. In the later years of his life, Mr. Armstrong certainly thought and taught that he had fulfilled this role. He only came to believe this after the fruits of his life proved it. Now some people not only deny that he fulfilled that end-time role, but they even go on to say that Mr. Armstrong never believed it himself.
Notice what Mr. Armstrong wrote in Mystery of The Ages, a book completed and published just months before his death: “It is revealed in Malachi 3:1-5 and 4:5-6 that God would raise up one in the power and spirit of Elijah, shortly prior to the Second Coming of Christ. In Matthew 17:11, Jesus said, even after John the Baptist had completed his mission, that the prophesied Elijah ‘truly shall first come and restore all things.’ Although it is plainly revealed that John the Baptist had come in the power and spirit of Elijah, he did not restore anything. The human leader to be raised up somewhat shortly prior to Christ’s Second Coming was to prepare the way—prepare the Church—for Christ’s coming, and restore the truth that had been lost through the preceding eras of the Church.”
Who did Mr. Armstrong think this “human leader to be raised up” was? Who restored the truths back to God’s Church that had been lost? If Mr. Armstrong wasn’t the end-time type of Elijah, who was—or who is? If the end-time type of Elijah still must come sometime in the future, we certainly can’t say we are very close to the return of Jesus Christ. The end-time type of Elijah would need time to fulfill the prophecy of restoring all things.
Notice what else Mr. Armstrong said concerning this subject in a sermon titled “The Unthinkable Will Happen” on July 3, 1982. Mr. Armstrong was reading and discussing the prophecy of Malachi 3:1-5. Here are the comments he made between the reading of the verses. (You can read these verses yourself from your own Bible.)
After reading verse 1, he said: “Now is this talking about [Christ’s] first coming? You’ll read in Matthew, Mark and John, at least in three of the four Gospels, of how John the Baptist fulfilled this prophecy. John the Baptist was not Elijah. Jesus said Elijah had already come, but Jesus said that [John the Baptist] had come in the power and spirit of Elijah. A different man, but in the power and spirit of Elijah. Now Elijah, the same man, is not coming back until the time of the resurrection and that hasn’t happened yet. But who is this talking about here? Was that talking about John the Baptist before Christ’s first coming?”
After reading verses 2-4, he continued: “That didn’t happen when [Christ] came the first time. None of this had happened when [Christ] came the first time.”He continues after reading verse 5: “We’ve had liberals in this Church trying to turn people aside just a little bit, liberalizing, watering down the truth of God. O God, help us from that kind of thing. I hope that we’re getting that cleaned out of the Church. That’s talking about someone to prepare the way before the Second Coming of Christ—someone to prepare the way before the Second Coming of Christ …. And brethren, it’s a tremendous responsibility and you have to share that responsibility with me.”
We helped Mr. Armstrong with his tremendous responsibility by supporting him, backing him, holding his arms up. Mr. Armstrong and the Bible continually spoke of one man or someone to fulfill this prophecy of the end-time type of Elijah—not a group or a church. What an honor it is to know we helped the one to come in the spirit and power of Elijah to fulfill these prophecies!
Notice, also, that Mr. Armstrong speaks of liberals watering down the truth and turning people aside. This is all in the context of the truth concerning the end-time type of Elijah. Anyone today who rejects this truth is watering down and liberalizing truth established by God during the Philadelphian era of the Church.
Mr. Armstrong certainly believed he had fulfilled the role of the end-time Elijah and the fruits of his life proved that he did! The Philadelphia Church of God is holding fast to the truth about the end-time type of Elijah. All other churches on Earth have rejected it!
The Church’s Commission
Another major difference concerns the Philadelphia Church of God’s commission—to warn God’s people. This revolves completely around Malachi’s Message. Over the last eight or nine years, people have been asking, “What is happening to God’s Church? Where is God in all of this? Is God leading this? If He is not leading it, why has He not straightened it all out?”
Malachi’s Message answers these questions and more! Not only does it answer these questions, but it was revealed in 1989—fifteen years ago! God gave us the answers to all of our questions through this book because, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7).
God showed Mr. Flurry what was happening. No man could have figured this out. No man could have foreseen what has taken place in God’s Church over the past 18 years. Only God could! God did, however, require action from His loyal remnant. But that is not anything new—God has always used men to warn other men before He punished them.
“So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul” (Ezekiel 33:7-9).
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