Herbert Armstrong Was Never a JW or SDA

NO!

I Never Was a "Jehovah's Witness,"

or a Seventh Day Adventist!

 

by Herbert W. Armstrong

LETTERS continue to ask, "Were you ever a 'Jehovah Witness'? Members of that sect have told me you were."

Although I have stated positively and definitely on the radio program a number of times and in articles in The PLAIN TRUTH that I never belonged to the sect known as "Jehovah's Witnesses," or the Seventh Day Adventist denomination, it seems that many, especially of "Jehovah's Witnesses" sect, continue spreading the claim that I once belonged to them.

Let me once again make the truth PLAIN.

I have never been a member of these so-called "Jehovah's Witnesses," nor of the Seventh Day Adventists. I have never in any manner, shape, nor form, had any remote connection with them, or associated with either sect or denomination. I have never had any fellowship with them.

I have never attended a regular meeting or church service of either, although I have attended a very few week-night evangelistic campaign services conducted by Seventh Day Adventist evangelists.

I have never, however, attended any meeting of the "Jehovah's Witnesses" sect of any kind. I have never had any kind of fellowship with any of their leaders or members. I never knew, or ever saw, their late leader, Judge Ruthford - tho strange tales reach me that I spent some time with him in prison. I have never been in prison or in jail.

I have never belonged to, attended any meeting of, or had any remote semblance of fellowship with the "Jehovah Witnesses" predecessor, the "Pastor Russell" people.

I did not learn any of God's TRUTH from the "Jehovah's Witnesses" sect. I have, of course, read some of their writings and their books, and I have been glad to find that they have certain truths, as all sects and denominations have (though mixed with dangerous errors), but God had already revealed these truths to me long before I read of them in their literature. I LEARNED NOTHING THAT I BELIEVE AND TEACH FROM THIS SECT. If they boast of having taught me anything, they misrepresent.

I learned God's TRUTH directly from GOD - thru His WORD - the Holy Bible. I did not learn it from any sect or denomination.

But I say unto you, as the Apostle Paul said:

"I certify you, brethren, that the GOSPEL which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, BUT BY THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST . . . But when it pleased God, who . . . called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him to THE WORLD; "immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood" - neither went I to any sect or denomination or organized "church," but I went directly to the WORD OF GOD, and on my knees asked God thru His Spirit to open my understanding - to correct me, reprove and rebuke, and instruct in His Truth and His righteousness; . . . then after three years I went to some of the humble of God's people in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, and preached to them. (Please compare with Galatians 1:11 -18.)

My ambition and zeal was not persecuting God's true Church, as was Paul's, but climbing the ladder of business success and making money. God struck me down three times successively, by taking out from under my feet the businesses I had started, wiping me out, financially. Then God brought me to the study of His Word by causing me to try to refute the eternal validity, and good of God's spiritual Law, which He had revealed to my wife, and which I at first bitterly opposed.

During that six-months' study of more than fourteen hours per day, I read very little literature favorable to the Law, but I read everything I could find which opposed it - but mostly I studied- just the BIBLE! After six months' intensive study I was forced, in honesty before my God, to swallow the most bitter pill of my life. It literally "killed" me - and I died - surrendered wholly to God, gave my life henceforth to Him to use "if He could."

I had been brought up from birth in the Friends Church (Quakers), though I had never been converted or begotten as a child of God, and at age 18 I strayed almost wholly away from all church interest or attendance, and devoted my whole energies to business. I had just passed age 30 when God forced me into this study of His Word, and total surrender to Him and His rule over my life.

From then on, I studied the Bible ON MY KNEES. Time after time it corrected me. Repeatedly I had to suffer reproof, and acknowledge I had been wrong in my beliefs and desires. God chastened and corrected me repeatedly, not only thru revealing His Truth in this way, but by continual circumstances. I had been conceited, proud. But now by bitter experience, by suffering, by circumstance, and by God's Word, I was brought low and humbled. But also I began to experience the unmatched joy of learning truth NEW to me, as God little by little, yet more and more, revealed TRUTHS so wonderful they produced spiritual ecstasy. For the first time in my life I found what HAPPINESS really is!

God launched me in His work, and after my first evangelistic effort in a church in Harrisburg, Oregon, I experienced the greatest thrill of my life so far, upon realizing a few precious lives had been brought to repentance, to surrender to God, to FAITH in Jesus Christ - CONVERTED - CHANGED! Truly it is more blessed to give than to receive!

That process of being corrected, of GROWING in grace and the KNOWLEDGE of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, has continued, now, lo these 30 years - more than a quarter century. And it is still continuing! God grant it shall forever!

No, MEN did not teach me what I preach to you. I was not taught of men, but of GOD! I do not speak to you by authority of men, or any politically organized church of men - but in the name, and by the AUTHORITY of JESUS CHRIST, the living HEAD of the true CHURCH OF GOD!

These words of Christ, which He received from the Father - the very words and Gospel of CHRIST which I speak and write to you - they are SPIRIT, and they are LIFE!


Copyright 1956 by Ambassador College
All Rights Reserved

The Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 is a MAN

Yeshua is the Suffering Servant
by David Ben-Ariel

"The suffering servant of Isaiah 53 is the Jewish nation," according to traditional Jewish misunderstanding.

Some Jewish people are self-righteous enough to consider themselves worthy of atoning for mankind, but only One from the Jewish nation - Yeshua - qualifies, having died and been resurrected, atoning for many, seeing his spiritual descendants, since He is alive. How else could someone who died - as the The Suffering Servant did (Israel is still alive - remember Am Israel Chai? The Nation/People of Israel lives), see the travail of His soul was well worth the sacrifice?

Isaiah 53
1 "Who has believed our report? (most of Israel and Judah - professing Christianity - haven't believed the report and either reject Yeshua or accept a Gentilized version)
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him,There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man [not a nation, a man] of sorrows and acquainted with grief.And we [collective Israel, especially Judah] hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He [one man] was despised, and we [Israel/Judah] did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we [collective Israel/Judah] esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted [and curse His holy Name].
5 But He was wounded for our [Israel/Judah] transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,And by His stripes we [Israel/Judah] are healed.
6 All we [Israel/Judah] like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living [just as Daniel foresaw He went "missing"]; For the transgressions of My people (the sins of Israel and Judah - they can't be their own savior) He was stricken.
9 And they made His grave with the wicked [Am Yisrael Chai - Israel has never died or God's Word would have been broken to the Fathers]—
But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin [something Judaism denies possible but God's Word and Yeshua prove true], He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days [having been resurrected to see and enjoy his spiritual seed], And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
11 He shall see the labor of His soul,and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant [One Savior] shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities [which Judaism denies but the Bible teaches].
12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death [Israel and Judah never died], And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many [which Judaism denies but the Bible teaches], And made intercession for the transgressors [as our resurrected High Priest in Heaven, at the right hand of the Ancient of Days]."

Remember Moses lifted up the snake on the pole in the wilderness and all who looked to it were saved? "...the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all...". Yeshua knew it foreshadowed His death.

John 3:14
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up...".

Yeshua took all the sins of Israel and Judah and the world upon Himself on the stake as THE Suffering Servant, crucified for all mankind - ONE whose life meant more than all, died that the nation might live, as the High Priest prophesied in His day:

John 11:50
"... it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish."

The entire nation wasn't crucified, wasn't upon the pole, but Yeshua is the One who we're to look up to and perceive that He is the Pierced One who is our Lord and Savior, our Priest and King, the One who has died in our stead:

Genesis 22:13
"Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son."

Joseph's brethren were also blind to his identity his first appearance before them. The second time their eyes were opened to recognize His revealed identity.

Zechariah foresees Judah and Jerusalem will learn to look up and recognize the ram Yeshua as the Firstborn Son of God and Savior-King of Judah and mourn their former rejection of Him and prepare for His imminent arrival to liberate Jerusalem and save klal Yisrael, as encouraged by the Two Witnesses (in the spirit of Elijah) who announce the coming of our King (Zech. 12:8, Matt. 23:39).

Zechariah 12
10 "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn."

Come Lord Yeshua! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the LORD!

Dust or Divine?

Re: Are We There Yet?

Quote from: Lord Jim on February 26, 2010

Here's what Lucifer said again, Dave:

Quote

I will be like the most High.

That's exactly what Armstrong, and now you preach. That people can become "like the most High"....

John 10:33-36

 33The Jews [the "Jims" of that day who suffered from serious spiritual issues] answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

 34Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are Gods? [our incredible human potential]

 35If he called them Gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;

 36Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?


Yahshua was born again by a resurrection from the dead:

Romans 1:4
4And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead

Romans 8:29
29For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the FIRSTBORN [by a resurrection] among MANY Brethren [not lesser beings, not angels, not dogs or cats or any other confused beliefs the Jims of this world blather who reject the plain truth of the Scriptures for their vague notions, their idolatrous ideas).

Colossians 1
27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Philippians 3:21
21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.

1 John 3:2
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.


Despite the faithless Jims of this world, the plain truth of the Bible remains: God is a Kingdom-Family that we may literally be born again into - which is why some of us legitimately call Him FATHER. Those who hatefully resist and reject this truth for idolatrous traditions, who would deny the glory, are of their father Satan the devil who is insanely jealous of our incredible human potential to become greater than him or any of the angels, to become literal God-Beings, literal members of the Kingdom-Family of God.

Ephesian 3
15 from whom the whole FAMILY in heaven and earth is named

Despite the faithless Jims of this world who are like the unbelieving Jews of Yahshua's day, who self-righteously considered it blasphemy to believe mankind is created after the Godkind and can be born again into the Kingdom-Family of God, who self-righteously consider it blasphemy that we can become literal God-Beings (even though the Scriptures are clear about it), whom Satan has blinded to this brilliant truth, this glorious truth continues to shine in the hearts and minds of those who love God and His Word.

2 Corinthians 3
14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

2 Corinthians 4:3-4
3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.


Born Again: The Kingdom of God!

How Adam and Eve Reflect the Kingdom of God

Kingdom of God-Beings to Rule Earth from Jerusalem!


I hope and pray the unbelieving Jims of this world repent so they can also become divine. Otherwise, they will become dust! (Revelation 21:8, Malachi 4:3).

Violence is the answer!

Living Church of God Commentary: Violence is not the answer
Many people have the idea that God loves war and is a bloodthirsty, violent God. What these critics fail to understand is that the true God of the Bible is actually a God of peace. Read more

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The Bible condemns senseless violence, however the God of War will enforce peace through strength, won't He? The Prince of Peace will speak in the only language some seem to understand. Why pretend otherwise? Why try to be more righteous than God?

The God of Jacob will force folks to learn His ways or else. After all, He's going to rule with a rod of iron - not a pussy willow; He's the Lion of God, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah - not some pussy.

Violence, as necessary, is the answer and it is called for in the Law of Moses. The wise know to make this biblical distinction (Ezekiel 44:23).

Exodus 15:3
The LORD is a man of war; The LORD is His name.

Psalm 2:9
You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.

Revelation 2:27
‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’

Zechariah 14
16 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 17 And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, on them there will be no rain. 18 If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the LORD strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.


Onward Christian Soldiers!

Separation of Church and State? Says Who?

God's One Government Has Two Branches!


http://www.davidbenariel.org/

Why is Obama hiding who visits him?

The Obama administration boasts of an "unprecedented" transparency in releasing lists of White House visitors -- except when the names are politically inconvenient, argues a Washington watchdog group, and except for nearly eight months worth of records, which remain locked away despite multiple legal attempts to pry them loose.

Click here for details.

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President usurper Obama/Soetoro/Obama, regardless of his proud and stubborn refusal to be transparent (as promised - no change there), paying expensive lawyers (at American taxpayers' expense) hush money to keep his revealing documents in the dark, is not a natural born citizen of two American parents and is therefore not eligible to be POTUS according to the Constitution. It's past time the fraud and foreigner is brought to justice! Emperor Obama has got to go! And let him take his illegal alien aunt with him, after he and his elitist friends pays back the American people the money she has stolen from us!

http://www.davidbenariel.org/

Faans Klopper

Prayer for Israeli Police

 

Faans Klopper was the chaplain for the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, Israel. Just before I was transferred from Jerusalem's Russian Compound to a holding cell at Ben-Gurion airport to await my unjust deportation, Gershon Salomon (chairman of the Temple Mount Faithful) requested Mr. Klopper to visit me since the police refused to permit him.

Although a *traditional Christian (from what I understand), Mr. Klopper was a God-send! He offered such hope and encouragement (in stark contrast to the incompetent American Consulate in Jerusalem - specifically Edward Abington, Jr. and Theresa Leech - see "David Ben-Ariel unjustly imprisoned and deported)", even his prayer seemed inspired, faithfully asking God that I would "pass through these fires unscathed, without even the smell of smoke upon" me and that God would frustrate the plans and purposes of those who would harm me. He also prayed, most appropriately, for the police officers and others there, that in God's good time they may look upon Him whom they've caused to be pierced (Zechariah 12:10). It was most important to pray and bless them, since humanly I wanted to curse some of them! God did thwart their plans, because my deportation is helping to further God's purpose ordained before the world began (Isaiah 46:10). God has a plan of action that mortal men can only help fulfill!


*This reminds me of when Gershon Salomon invited me to join him to meet with Jan Willem van der Hoeven, Director of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, and I told him, "He's a traditional Christian and they usually hate the plain truth of the Bible that I believe, as taught by Herbert W. Armstrong, since we keep the Sabbath and biblical festivals rather than Sunday and pagan holidays." Mr. Salomon wisely said, "You're going as a member of the Temple Mount Faithful and on this subject you're in agreement." I agreed and went with him.


http://www.davidbenariel.org/

The greatest threat to Jews

Purim celebrates the miraculous turn around of events, Jews saved in the nick of time, from the final solution Haman had planned for them.

Key characters in the Megillat Esther ("The Scroll of Esther") are Esther, whose Hebrew name is Hadassah, and her cousin Mordechai (Esther 2:15). Mordechai was a Jew in the sense he was a descendant of the Kingdom of Judah, but specifically Mordechai was from the Israelite tribe of Benjamin (Esther 2:5) - Mordechai was a Benjaminite. The Bible repeatedly notes tribal distinctions as important and so should we, rather than let the facts get blurred by careless traditions.

The greatest threat to Jews has always been from within. Never forget it. Today that clear and present danger is revealed in the accursed Neturei Karta and UNJews. Regardless, Am Yisrael Chai - the Nation/People of Israel lives - and will continue to survive and thrive because of God's love for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We have written guarantees recorded in the holy Bible!

We are the ethnic Elect, beloved for the fathers' Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's sakes, for whom the King of the Jews, the King of Israel, will specifically return to save and preserve from extinction! The GOOD NEWS is sent primarily to the Twelve Tribes of Israel and assures us of our NATIONAL DELIVERANCE, not just spiritual salvation. The Two Witnesses will testify to this truth before our captive audience. - "We're in the Times of the Gentiles!"