The BIBLE-Word of God

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 Errors of  "Armstrongism"

---GOD---CHRIST---HOLY SPIRIT---
---SIN---REDEMPTION---SALVATION---RETRIBUTION---

"They received the WORD with all readiness of mind,
and searched the SCRIPTURES daily, whether those things were so." Acts 17:11

G O D

The Bible

PERSONALITY OF THE GODHEAD ... in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1: 1

He is God; there is none else beside him (Deuteronomy 4:35). God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus (I Timothy 2:5).

• Go . . . and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). Jesus was baptized; the Spirit descended; the Father spoke (Matthew 3:16-17). Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech (Genesis 11:7). From the time that it was, there am I; and now the Lord God, and his Spirit, has sent me (Isaiah 48:16).

Armstrongism

• God is a Family, a Kingdom, not a limited trinity (The Plain Truth, Aug. 1958, p. 17).
• The doctrine of the Trinity is false, pagan (The Missing Dimension in Sex, 37).
• God is a family: God is reproducing Himself and man was created to literally become God (What It Means to Be Equal with God, p. 43).
• At the present time there are only two beings in the God Family, 1) God the Father, Father of Jesus Christ, 2) God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the One who became Jesus Christ, God the Son ("The God Family" in Tomorrow's World, May 1971).
• You can become God ("God's Power" in TW, Nov. 197 1, p. 12).
• But quantitatively, man will never equal God the Father, just as surely as God the Creator (Jesus Christ) will Himself never quantitatively equal God the Father (WMEG, p. 44).
• YAHWEH was the God of Israel. They (Israel) did not know God the Father ("Is Jesus God?" in PT, Sept. 1958).

J E S U S
C H R I S T

The Bible

o    In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God (John 1:1). When, as His mother, Mary, was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1: 18).

o    Behold, the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14).

o    God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the nations, believed on in the world, received up into glory (I Timothy 3:16).

o    And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth (John 1: 14).

o    No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him (John 1:18).

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

o    And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain (I Corinthians 15:17). Wherefore, he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25).

o    This same Jesus . . . shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into Heaven (Acts 1: 11; cf. John 14:3; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

Armstrongism

o    BEFORE Jesus was conceived by Mary, He was not the Son of God ("Just What Do You Mean-Born Again?" p.43 in TW, Oct. 1971, p. 43).

o    God the Creator (Jesus Christ) Himself will never quantitatively equal God the Father (WMEG, p. 45).

o    Jesus Christ was born a Son of God by a resurrection from the dead ... and as a born son of God, Christ is God! God Almighty His Father is God. They are two separate and individual persons (Why Were You Born? pp. 21-22).

o    God the Father did not cause Jesus Christ to get back into the body which had died. Jesus Christ was dead ... and the resurrection body was no longer human. It was Christ resurrected, immortal, once again changed (PT, Apr. 1963, pp. 10, 40).

o    Christ's body disappeared. Christ was raised as a divine spirit being (If You Die, Will You Live Again? P. 6).).

H O L Y
S P I R I T

The Bible

§  When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, he shall testify of me (John 15:26).

§  When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:8).

§  When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth (John 16:13).

§  The Comforter, who is the Holy Spirit, he shall teach you all things (John 14:26).

§  His spirit that dwells in you (Romans 8:11).

§  Be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18; see also I Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 3:16).

§  But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his (Romans 8:9; see also vv. 14, 16).

Armstrongism

§  The Father and the Son are in definite locations with respect to each other . . . spirit proceeds from them and fills the entire universe Spirit is God's life (How You Can Be Imbued with the Power of God, p. 5).

§  Theologians have blindly accepted the false doctrine that the Holy Spirit is a third person-the heresy of the trinity. This limits God to Three Persons! (Just What Do You Mean-Born Again? pp. 17, 19).

§  God's Spirit dwelling in you is God's own divine love (What Do You Mean-Unpardonable Sin? P. 9).

§  Whenever we become members of God's begotten family, we receive a portion, a seed or germ, of the Father's Holy Spirit (HYIPG, p. 4). Notice that the Holy Spirit, the germ by which we are begotten, comes from the Father (Ibid., p. 3).

S I N

The Bible

§  There is none righteous, no, not one (Romans 3: 1 0).

§  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

§  If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us ( I John 1: 10).

§  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us ( I John 1:8).

§  Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law (I John 3:4).

§  All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death ( I John 5:1 7)

§  Whatever is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23).

§  Therefore, to him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin (James 4:17).

Armstrongism

§  In literally hundreds of places in your New Testament, Jesus Christ and His inspired apostles teach absolute obedience to all ten of the Ten Commandments (PT, Nov, 1959, p. 18).

§  We must repent of sin, repent of transgressing God's law, which means turning from disobedience as a prior condition to receiving God's free gift (The Inside Story of the World Tomorrow,, p. 48).

§  Sickness is only the penalty of physical transgression, and whenever one is sick, he is paying that penalty. Healing is nothing more or less than the forgiveness of sin. God is the only real physician! Scripture labels other modes of healing idolatry. Medicine has a pagan origin (Does God Heal Today? P. 8).

R E D E M P T I O N

The Bible

§  We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7).

§  You were not redeemed with corruptible things . . . but with the precious blood of Christ (I Peter 1: 1 8-19).

§  Unto him that loves us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us a kingdom of priests unto God and his Father (Revelation 1:5-6).

§  Without shedding of blood is no remission (Hebrews 9:22).

§  Made peace through the blood of his cross (Colossians 1:20).

§  This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. . . . For by one offering he has perfected forever them that are sanctified (Hebrews 10: 12, 14).

Armstrongism

§  The purpose of life in us is that God is really creating His own kind, reproducing Himself. At the time of the resurrection we shall be instantaneously changed from mortal into immortal. We shall then be God! You will actually be God, even as Jesus was and is God, and His Father, a different Person, also is God. You are setting out on a training to become Creator, to become God (WWYB, pp. 21-22).

§  We . . . will generate eternal life intrinsically within ourselves (MEG, P. 44). Furthermore, we will counsel and advise our Creator-Father (Ibid., P. 45).

§  Physical human beings in Tomorrow's World . . . will worship before the feet of God's present-day human servants (Your Destiny- The God Family, p. 37).

S A L V A T I O N

The Bible

§  Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and your house (Acts 16:31).

§  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name (John 1:12).

§  He that believes on him is not condemned; but he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the . . . only begotten Son of God (John 3:18).

§  He that believes on the Son has everlasting life; and he that believes not the Son shall not see life (John 3:36).

§  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5).

§  For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God-not of works, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

§  Justified freely . . . through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:24).

§  Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes (Romans 10:4).

Armstrongism

§  Jesus alone, of all humans, has so far been saved (WWYB, P. I 1).

§  The blood of Jesus Christ does not finally save anyone. It saves merely from the death penalty (of sin) (All About Water Baptism, pp. 1-3).

§  Baptism is an essential ordinance for salvation. You must be baptized to become a true Christian ("This is the Worldwide Church of God," in TW, Feb. 197 1, pp. 16-17).

§  Along with the physical act of baptism is promised the Holy Spirit, through the laying on of hands (TW, Apr. 1971, pp. 41-42).

§  One who is born of God is merely begotten spiritually. He is not yet really born. Only those who develop spiritually shall finally be given immortality . . . at the second coming of Christ (AAWB, p. 2).

§  When Jesus Christ returns to this earth, He will, for the first time, set His hand to save the world. He will offer salvation (to all people) (There Is a Real Hell Fire, P. 6).

§  A majority of those who die without Christ will be resurrected and gain opportunity to believe during the Millennium (Predestination-Does the Bible Teach It?).

R E T R I B U T I O N

The Bible

§  The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

§  Those who sleep in the dust . . . shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame, and everlasting contempt (Daniel 12:2).

§  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment (Hebrews 9:27).

§  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. . . . And the dead were judged out of those things . . .written in the books, according to their works (Revelation 20:12).

§  The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven . . . in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel. . . ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10).

§  If your foot offend you, cut it off; it is better for you to enter lame into life than, having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched (Mark 9:45).

Armstrongism

§  When a human being dies, he is DEAD, which means that his body, mind, and soul are all dead. He simply stops being (Do You Have an Immortal Soul? p. 41).

§  The wicked will be resurrected at the close of the Millennium, but only to be annihilated (Lazarus and the Rich Man).

§  Rebellion against the Law of God means eternal punishment and everlasting death. God will save no person He does not rule (Which Day Is the Christian Sabbath? pp. 35,58, 93, 94).

§  "Everlasting" means "age-ending." The translation "everlasting" is misleading, since the fire itself will not burn forever.

§  The concept of "hell" is part and parcel of the folklore and mythology of the whole world . . . as a place of punishment and torture of the wicked (TW, pp. 14, 18).

Quotations are from standard writings and leading teachers of the sects. Intitials in parentheses are abbreviations of aforementioned book and magazine titles. Scripture quotations are from the New Scofield Reference Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967). Outline and statement summaries are a compilation from various reference works and authors.

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