Herbert W. Armstrong

Around the world today at the United Church of God, many if not most congregations, or most if not all congregations, will be the celebration of the blessing of the little children.

This is a tradition that goes back many, many years, started in the church by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong, at least in part from the examples from Jesus Christ.

Matthew 19, when Jesus was talking to his disciples, I'll just read Matthew 19, beginning of 13.

Then little children were brought to him that he might put his hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them.

wake up

that's the father's love right there herbert armstrong speaking back in 1976 the church was heading into a liberal era watering down doctrines there was rebellion right at the top And Mr. Armstrong, God used him to single-handedly get the church back on track.

And it finished strong before he died in 1986.

But there he is.

and you don't know that you're wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

So the many have slipped into this condition and just a faithful few have remained steadfast and persevered in this race.

Following Mr. Armstrong's death in 1986, This church, the Philadelphia Church of God, started with Malachi's message at the end of 1989.

And it's been 36 years since.

This is serialized from, uh, Mr. Flurry's latest book, The Father's Love.

A book really, especially for those that remember Herbert W. Armstrong, that were in the Worldwide Church of God.

And this is a, this, this chapter in particular is all about what is God doing in the lives of true Christians? What c- what was the co- what were the promises you made him when you were baptized? Do you understand the scale of the commitment, the scale of the commitment and the investment God made in you, and therefore how committed he is to your success, how much he wants you to succeed, and therefore how much he will work to correct you and, and turn you around if you're going in the wrong direction? And then, what did you commit to him? What promises did, did you make? And I think it's corrective for all of us reading that material and thinking about just how invested God is in us, the sacrifice he made for-- The greatest sacrifice in the history of the universe made for each and every true Christian.

And then, well, what am I doing? How am I acting in response to the way that, that God the Father and Jesus Christ acted for me? So that's another just really practical and, uh, and inspiring article.

Uh, and I think, uh, this affects all of us.

I know you and I are on the trumpet staff, so we often talk about or hear other staff members talk about societal ills and, you know, social problems and, and, you know, these percentages and these huge numbers and things.

Um, and, you know, I grew up reading about, uh, you know, what life was like for an Abraham Lincoln or for Herbert W. Armstrong.

He wrote an autobiography.

Doing God's work is often a big challenge.

The late educator, theologian, and Worldwide Church of God founder Herbert W. Armstrong wrote about this in the April 1982 Good News.

He said, "Do you have problems, difficulties, troubles? Some seem to think God's people meet no trials or tests, but are blessed with continual smooth sailing.

In my personal responsibilities in the conduct of this great, important, always growing work of God, I have not found it a smooth, easygoing road with no difficulties.

The cause of the crisis is us.

So that again is from the United States and Britain in Prophecy documentary series based upon the content in this book by Herbert W. Armstrong, The United States and Britain in Prophecy.

And if you know anything about the history of this book, you see as soon as Mr. Armstrong died, his successors, they became the leaders of the Laodicean church prophesied in your Bible, Revelation 3.

Of course, there was one man at the top, and all of his fellows, as it says there in Zechariah 3, and they went right to work to destroy the message of this book, to discontinue this book.

A lot of people in the United States will see it as a wonderful thing for Europe.

Now, Herbert W. Armstrong talked for many years about the role that the Catholic Church would play in bringing Europe together.

He said, the crucial fact is this in 1965, the nations of Europe are utterly unable to unite themselves by their own political maneuvering.

And he talked about, well, there's important political differences and that the Germans don't want a French leader ruling over them.