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Ambassadors for World Peace!
by M. John Allen
I am sure that many of you saw
the movie Ghandi, when it first came
out. I didn’t, but, recently, I caught it on Cinemax.
It is a rather lengthy film, but very instructive.
Ghandi was educated at the finest British university as a hot
shot lawyer. He apparently was very good at law, and, despite being Indian,
he was very British.
He got an assignment down in S. Africa,
and he bought a first class train ticket through the mail. After getting off
the ship, he boarded the train and was seated in first class. He didn’t know
that in S. Africa Indians had to ride third class, no matter how much money
or education they had.
At some point during the train
ride, the conductor came back and asked him how he managed to get a first
class ticket after demanding to see it and being shown it. Ghandi explained that he was a lawyer from England on assignment in S. Africa.
In response, the conductor said that there were no Indian lawyers in S. Africa. Ghandi retorted that now there was at least one, and he
always traveled first class, and he wasn’t about to move back to third class,
no matter what he said.
This infuriated the man, who
said that if Ghandi didn’t move back to third
class, he would have him thrown off the train. Ghandi
retorted that he was a citizen of the British Empire, educated in England, and a top lawyer in London, and he would absolutely not move. He was then, to his
surprise, thrown off the train along with his baggage.
Ghandi quickly learned the injustice towards Indians and blacks
in S. Africa. He learned that he could not be seen on the street with
a white man, and that if he was on the sidewalk he had to move aside to let a
white man pass. He also learned that Indians were supposed to have special
identification passes.
Ghandi hated this mistreatment of his people, and he confronted
some British soldiers by burning his pass in front of them, and telling
others to do the same. He collected their passes in a box for burning. The
soldiers said the passes were government property, and that the first man to
burn his would be arrested. Ghandi promptly burned
his and started burning others in the box, and other people walked up to the
fire to burn them.
The soldiers then turned
violent, but Ghandi emphasized that while he
wouldn’t fight back in violence, neither would he cooperate with them. So as
the soldiers beat him he continued to burn passes as long as he could.
This caused quite a stir. While
he was beaten, Ghandi would not fight back. People
respected his position of non-violent non-cooperation. He was adamant about
his position of non- violence even in the face of the organized violence of
the state. This was to cause the British extreme problems in the future.
After these incidents, the British
decided to up the ante. Not only were Indians to carry passes, they were also
to have fingerprints put on them. Ghandi was
outraged, and said that “under no circumstance will we be fingerprinted and
carded like common criminals. We will not fight back with violence, but
neither will we cooperate. We must make absolutely sure that we don’t answer
with violence. We will be beaten, we will be killed, but we will not fight
back and neither will we cooperate. Thus, shall their violence and oppression
be exposed and we shall win.”
Despite many people going to
prison and despite many deaths, Ghandi and the
Indians did not fight back, but neither did they cooperate. This caused many
problems for the S. African administration, because the press was reporting
the government atrocities on the peaceful Indian people because they would
not cooperate with official repression.
Throughout the movie, Ghandi held to his principle of justice and non-violence.
He would not allow the people to turn violent, but on several occasions when
they did turn violent against his wishes, his tool was to fast until they
cooperated and acted like human beings to each other. This method worked even
against the Moslem / Hindu strife towards the end of his life which
ultimately led to the creation of two nations where there had been one: the
creation of Moslem Pakistan and Hindu India. Ghandi
thought this was anathema, and struggled through fasting to return peace to
the country. It worked until an assassin’s bullet ended his life.
Ghandi’s position was one of extreme bravery. IN the face of the
organized violence and oppression of the state, which is the only weapon that
it has against its people at any time and in any place, Ghandi
took the hard course of non-violent non-cooperation. IN answer to those who
said they had to go along or lose everything, he showed that there are higher
values in human life than material possessions and social status. He had the
courage to shout that human rights and dignity transcend all of these things,
and are the only things worth fighting for. He took the hard way and the high
ground and beat his enemies at every turn. The authorities discovered that in
the face of non-retaliatory violence coupled with non-cooperation, they were
helpless, because if they persisted, they would end up having no people to
lord it over. Since there was no cooperation as well, this left them,
eventually, with the only choice being to leave.
Why did Ghandi
insist on non-violence in the face of state organized oppression? He said that
if they used violence, they would trade a foreign despotism for a home grown
variety, and the people would still not benefit.
Unlike most so called world
leaders down through history, Ghandi was not a
hypocrite, but practiced what he preached. He decided that in order to
represent the people, he must become like the people. He thus traded in his
fancy business suit for peasant dress, and his fine lifestyle for a hovel. At
one point, in a scene that showed Ghandi’s small
little house where he was feeding his goats, the visiting British made the
derisive comment that “here is that great threat to British rule, Mr. Ghandi.” And it looked like a joke, because here was what
looked like a poor Indian peasant who was about to drive Britain out of his country. It looked ridiculous, but the people
loved his courage and philosophy of peace, and supported him as they had no
other. They stood passively by as British troops massacred them on several
occasions. But the British neither gained cooperation nor the provocation of
being met with return violence. It turned into an embarrassing media debacle
for them.
Eventually, after years of
non-violent struggle and confrontation, the British realized
that they had no choice but to leave, just as Ghandi
had told them. They could no longer control the country or get cooperation
form its people, who no longer participated in their own oppression. Ghandi was an ambassador for world peace in a style very
reminiscent of Jesus Christ. Naturally, he did not have Christ’s
higher perspective, when He said, “My Kingdom is not of this world, otherwise
my servants would fight,” but he did have strong moral convictions that other
leaders, both secular and ecclesiastical, would do well to emulate.
As part of teaching people to
live the way of peace, justice, and equality, Ghandi
started a community early in the movie where his philosophy could be
propagated to those who would listen. In this community, everyone was equal
and shared the work, to prove that “one man’s labor is as good as another
man’s.” To prove this point, everyone was assigned to clean the toilets, even
Ghandi and his wife.
Ghandi did not set himself above the people, but served them as
an equal, or even doing a task that everyone despised. This is reminiscent of
Christ taking off His shirt and getting down and washing His
disciple’s feet at the Last Supper because no one else had been humble enough
to do this. And He did this right after the disciples had argued about who
was the greatest! And Jesus’ answer to this argument was to become as the
lowliest servant among them.
Ghandi understood this principle of humble service too, and so
assigned himself and his wife to the same duty as everyone else. When his
wife objected to doing this because she was an untouchable, Ghandi told his own wife that if she would not do it she
could not live in the community!
I found Ghandi
to be a surprising personality. Here was a man who was not a Christian,
upholding the very best of Christian conduct -- and he discovered that peace worked!
The loudmouthed roughneck
critics will claim that freedom comes out of the end of a rifle, but Ghandi
showed differently. And so did Jesus Christ,
and so have a few others in world history.
One example where I am living at
the moment is the small country of Costa Rica. IN the midst of the armed camp and all the violence of Central America, Costa
Rica has
remained an island of peace since its 1948 Civil War, after which the army
was abolished, in a move totally contrary to the armed camp of the rest of Latin America
and the world. Rather than wasting the country’s meager resources on
purchases of war material, Costa Rica chose to spend its money on education, health care, and
other benefits to its people. So, while the rest of Central America was squandering its meager resources on war, Costa Rica spent its money on peace, and thus secured for itself
the best infrastructure in Central
America, the best health care
system, and the best education system. Thus, the people of Costa Rica have enjoyed the highest living standard and the
greatest peace in a region until now torn by strife.
I believe that in no small part
one of the men responsible for bringing peace to the region is former
President of Costa Rica Oscar Arias. I think in the future I will contact Mr.
Arias to see if he can contribute an article to this publication on what he
believes will lead to world peace. I think we will discover that his work
parallels that of Ghandi.
Arias has set up a World Peace
Foundation here in Costa Rica, and he travels around the region and the world
promoting world peace. Arias is responsible for helping bring peace to Nicaragua during that nation’s civil war. He is also responsible
for getting Panama to follow Costa Rica’s example of disbanding its army, and I believe he has
done the same in the Dominican Republic. His works towards world peace are indeed laudable,
because he has encouraged the other countries of Central America to reduce the size of their armies, and I am sure he
hopes that they will also eventually be disbanded. It’s a very brave thing
for a small country to disband its army in a dangerous world, but Arias
should be commended for persuading other nations to do it, and Costa Rica should be commended for leading the way by example.
So, few though they may be,
there are people in the world today and in the past who have acted as
ambassadors for world peace.
Just a short time ago, God’s
Church also had a figure that reminded us that we are ALL AMBASSADORS FOR
WORLD PEACE AS REPRESENTATIVES OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON THIS EARTH! That man
was Herbert W. Armstrong.
I will be the first to admit
that Mr. Armstrong was not perfect. He was often far from it. IN fact, later
in this article I will invite you to compare what Christ
said we should do with what the church has done. But, we must not forget that
even though he, like all human beings was not perfect, he TRIED! It is just
unfortunate that certain evil men surrounded Mr. Armstrong after the death of
his wife Loma and lead him astray. For allowing that to happen, he can be
faulted.
Mr. Armstrong has been accused
by some of being a dictator, and engendering spiritual abuse. Folks, when I
read his earlier material, I don’t see that. However, we know that this
happened in the church, so SOMETHING HAPPENED between the late ‘60’s and the
time of Mr. Armstrong’s death to cause all of the problems that occurred. I
strongly feel that the HIRELINGS AND HYPOCRITES were at work, and eventually
gained the ascendancy behind Mr. Armstrong’s back, and evil advisors guided
him in the wrong way. They were able to pull this off while he was still
alive because first he was out of the country most of the year for almost a
decade, then this was followed by near death and a long recovery, then this
was followed by the crisis with the State of California, which required that
Mr. Armstrong remain away from Pasadena for several years, and finally, his
advanced age and frail health meant that these evil men could do almost
whatever they wanted and it was easy to hide their abuses from Mr. Armstrong
and it was even easy to manipulate him to do what they wanted.
When he died, attitudes of
selfishness, greed, and carnality, as well as apostasy, were able to come out
and the hirelings ran off in every direction to lead off a following after
themselves.
Mr. Armstrong mentioned this as
a problem for years, where wolves in sheep’s clothing -- hirelings -- would
try to pull off a following after themselves so that THEY would have the
glory and the power. We have seen this absolutely reprehensible behavior
reflected in virtually ALL of the corporate spinoffs
that I am aware of! All the hirelings want to do is to exalt the SELF and to
carve out their own little piece of the Body of Christ
for their own support. This even happened in the United Church of God, AIA,
which started out so wonderful at the very beginning but was soon overrun by
the same arrogance and hireling mentality as has been expressed in the
others. It’s a sad thing when you have a man who was kicked out because he
wanted to be a dictator, but then you have the men who kicked him out turn
around and do the exact same thing to other local church congregations that
simply wanted to hold to the founding principles of United. What a shame, and
what a perfect example of what I have been talking about.
At first, and for many years,
Mr. Armstrong had a very collegial approach to church government. The church
bylaws even stated that one couldn’t be disfellowshipped
by the ministry until as late as 1968 without a hearing before the local
church, meaning that the minister could not arbitrarily and whimsical
kick out whomever he chose. Further, the original bylaws stated that on all
matters of importance, the brethren should decide the matter through a VOTE! This
was the case until 1968, when the bylaws of the church were mysteriously
altered at a meeting that never took place! And so, in a moment, by a trick Adolf Hitler would have been proud of, a coup occurred
and the bylaws of the church were illegally changed!
But just WHO were the leaders in
this drive to put the ministry into a separate caste OVER the people instead
of SERVING THEM LIKE A SLAVE AS THE SCRIPTURE COMMANDS? Well, I think
Roderick C. Meredith gives us a clue in an excerpt form a sermon of his
quoted in the August 31 Journal. Let me quote a little form that
article: “At the beginning of his sermon, DR Meredith said he and longtime
WCG evangelist Herman Hoeh decades ago had helped
[and in hindsight, I would say that they worked on him constantly to
CONVINCE him that they were right] Mr. Armstrong understand church government
[I bet they did!].
“‘Herman Hoeh
and I did help him understand. But even as we helped him get a basic idea
about that -- which seemed to elude him [I just bet it eluded him, because
it was not true and can’t be proved from the Bible without carnal human
arguments of those who want to lord it over others!] -- he agreed many times
there were different variations of it [and I wish he had KEPT THAT CORRECT
VIEW so that all of the abuses wouldn’t have occurred!]. The big thing is
that we’re Christian, and we do things according to the mind of Christ.’”
It’s just too bad that Mr.
Armstrong didn’t stick to his guns and stand up for what he himself saw in
the Bible. But he was human like all of us, and all of us are subject to the
influence of our friends and associates. We can all succumb to this type of
peer pressure, and we need to be aware of that and stick to what the Bible
says on a matter and not allow ourselves to be swayed by clever human
arguments of carnality. Dr. Meredith and his crowd may PREACH “servant
leadership” now, but the FRUITS of their heretical doctrine on church
government have allowed the biggest disaster in church history to occur right
before our very eyes! We should know better than to impose a gentile form
of government in the church of God! We should KNOW BETTER than to put a carbon copy of the Roman Empire and it’s image, the Roman Catholic Church, into God’s
church! When Christ
said we are NOT to be as the gentiles, we should have PAID ATTENTION, and not
introduced a system subject to such abuse of authority into God’s church! If
you have ANY DOUBTS on this question, you should go to the library
section of the Restoration website [http://www.destiny- worldwide.net/rcg/library.htm]
and study my very thorough article on church government entitled The Plain
Truth About Church Government. That article answers ALL of the protests
of the dictatorial apologists, and blows them completely away!
So now, we know that it was Rod
Meredith, Herman Hoeh, and their crowd, which
includes Raymond McNair, who are the ones responsible for convincing Mr.
Armstrong of this heretical doctrine, and who thus sowed the seeds of the
church’s destruction! And these men REFUSE TO OPEN THEIR MINDS AND REPENT OF
THEIR EVIL. This is also probably why Garner Ted Armstrong referred to
Meredith and McNair as “little Hitlers in pinstripe
suits!” Garner Ted was never totally convinced as his father was, and so
eventually it was these SAME MEN, according to GTA, who were responsible for
getting him kicked out of the church, although I will have to admit that the
gross sins in his own personal life were reason enough.
One final comment on the
HORRIBLE ATTITUDE, which is TOTALLY OPPOSED TO CHRIST that these men espoused
was a statement that McNair and Meredith made over and over and over again
that Ambassador College was the WEST POINT OF GOD’S WORK, and McNair and
Meredith, when they were in charge of one or the other of the campuses, RAN
IT LIKE A MILITARY CAMP rather than like the CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY THAT IT WAS!
I think most of us fail to appreciate that the regimented military mindset,
which says to OBEY ORDERS WITHOUT THINKING is the exact opposite of the
mind of Christ. thus, to have the audacity to claim that GOD’S COLLEGE
is like some WORLDLY MILITARY ACADEMY is a slap in the face to Jesus Christ who never taught any such things!
Don’t misunderstand. God
COMMANDS obedience to His Ten Commandments, but He absolutely DOES NOT WANT
us to obey Him because we have turned ourselves into some kind of military
robots or automatons! He wants us to obey Him because we love Him and
because we have come to the conclusion that His way of life is the only way
that works. The military style of obedience is unthinking and robotics, and
if God wanted robots He could have made them, but it is His purpose to
REPRODUCE HIMSELF IN MAN, and that requires that we OBEY GOD BECAUSE WE
REALIZE HIS WAY IS RIGHT AND THE ONLY WAY THAT WORKS, NOT BECAUSE WE ARE
SIMPLY FOLLOWING ORDERS!
Let me make myself chrystal clear: making an analogy between Ambassador College and West
Point is as far as the
East is from the West and is a statement that CHRIST WOULD TOTALLY REPUDIATE!
God DOES NOT believe in militarism and all that goes along with this most
horrible and monstrous of human inventions! We must root this heresy
out of the church once and for all, and totally reject it. God’s people
should not contribute to such a humanly devised and contrived system of
command and control, whether it is blatant as it is in Global, or whether it
is passive, sneaky, and indirect, as has happened in United under the
influence of Chairman Dick and his supporters in United! God condemns gentile
style rule in His church and He is even now purging His Body of this horrible
poison.
So, to those people who lay the
blame on Mr. Armstrong alone, I would like to share with you something that
arrived in the mail just today form Guard the Truth. I haven’t had a chance
to study this whole document in depth, but I have before me now the
introductory lesson to the Visiting Program Training Class, dated September 8, 1968. I think you will be surprised to see that Mr. Armstrong
was right on track here. The best thing to do right now is to quote form this
outline, as it says many of the things I planned to say in this article
anyway: [I suggest you look up the scriptures cited in your own Bible]
“III. How to be a Success in
this Class. --
A. Have a right attitude!
Your success
in this class depends to a large degree on your attitude toward it. Do
you view this class as a stepping stone to an exalted position -- perhaps to
the ministry? If so, you will be sorely disappointed! Our goal must be the Kingdom
of God and the righteousness of God (Matt. 6:33) -- NOTHING ELSE!
All of us have the very nature
of Satan the Devil -- human nature. Humanly, we all want to be worshipped.
That is the strongest drive in human nature! We need to understand this
and not kid ourselves about our motives and our sincerity. We often deceive
ourselves into thinking that our motives are pure, but our minds are deceitful
above all things (Jer. 17:9). Know your own
mind. If you don’t realize that this applies to your mind, you are the very one
it applies to the most!
All of us carnally, humanly want
to be exalted. That is what really appeals to our human nature! It’s not natural to
want to be in God’s Kingdom and to want the spiritual rewards God has
promised us. We want our reward now -- and we equate a position or an office
in this physical life as a reward from God.
UNDERSTAND THIS! When Christ
said (Matt. 23:12), “Whosoever humbles himself shall be exalted,” He did
not mean in this life --in the flesh! (Rom. 7:18-- IN this flesh dwells no good thing.!) He was not
saying that if you humble yourself you’ll be ordained. God will NEVER exalt
us while we are human! Our reward is reserved in heaven for us (I Pet. 1:4)
and will come with Christ when He returns (Rev. 22:12).
IN Phillipians
2:5-9 we are pointed to the example of Christ.
We need to have this mind! Verse 7 -- He was a servant. Verse 8 -- He humbled
Himself. Verse 9 -- God has exalted Him -- at His resurrection -- not
before.
Colossians 3:1-3 -- We must set
the Kingdom of God before us as our goal and keep our eyes on things above,
rather than lusting for position or status in the sight of men here
below.
B. Seek to Serve!
All offices in God’s Church are
offices of service. Set your heart on service -- not on an office. God
will give you an office when and if you should have it -- not as a reward,
but so that you can serve more fully. Let God decide whether you
should have it.
Matthew 20:25-27 -- the chief will be the servant.
Luke 12:48 -- Our reward will be based on what we do with the
abilities we have. Since you are in this class, more will be expected of you.
Seek t serve as a “doulos” -- a bond slave of Jesus Christ
(Rom. 12:1). Don’t be concerned about who sees you serving.
God sees you. Apply Matthew 6:3 -- Don’t let your right hand know what your
left is doing. God will reward you with a lasting reward in His Kingdom.
C. Get Rid of Vanity!
Ecclesiastes 1:2 -- All is
vanity. Vanity is anything that does not lead to an eternal end.
Psalms 39:5 -- Man at his best
state is altogether vanity. Envying, competition, comparing the self with
others, self exaltation, self righteousness -- these are all forms of VANITY.
God hates it! Do you see it in yourself and abhor it? It is not a question of
whether we have vanity -- it is a question of whether we recognize it are
repenting of it and are overcoming it!
I Corinthians 1:26-27 -- Do you realize
deeply and personally that this applies to you? Of ourselves we are utterly
useless to God. He didn’t call us because of our abilities, and He won’t use
us because of any ability that we may have. Any of you who feel that you are
God’s gift to His Church will find that God can’t use you until you get rid
of your vanity and humble yourself before Him.
I Corinthians 10:12 -- Many of you by virtue of being a deacon or being in
this class, think you have it made.
Issaiah 66:2 -- To this man will God look.
Matthew 18:3-4 -- We must learn
to have childlike humility.
Earnestly beseech God to reveal
your vanity and to help you get rid of any feelings of self importance, self
exaltation, and self confidence so that He can use you in His Work!”
WHAT A QUOTE! I encourage you to
go back and read the scriptures cited in your own Bible so that you can get
the FULL IMPACT of what is being said -- remember this is just a COURSE
OUTLINE, the blanks were filled in by the speakers!
I can tell you I haven’t heard
this strong a thing since my time at Ambassador College many years ago! YOU JUST DON’T HEAR A LOT OF THIS IN
SERMONS, and from the fruits of the recent past this is because the MINISTRY
WASN’T, BY AND LARGE, PAYING ATTENTION TO THIS INSTRUCTION! This, brethren,
is a very good outline of the way to peace and shows us how to become LITERAL
AMBASSADORS FOR WORLD PEACE!
Down a little further is a
statement that these future ministers -- the ministry of today -- should have
taken to heart and remembered: “Realize that correction is necessary for
growth.... Seek correction ....Don’t justify yourself in the face of it ....
Accept and profit from correction; don’t resent it -- take it and CHANGE!”
This way, the way of Jesus Christ,
the way f humility and the ability to be easily corrected, this way of
service and love towards others -- these are the ways to become Ambassadors
for world peace!
But the world is not a peaceful
place. IN the world there is literal WAR, with many thousands dying all the
time. IN the churches of God there is ANOTHER WAR -- a WAR engendered by SELF
RIGHTEOUSNESS AND VANITY! God tells us in His word that “by their fruits you
shall know them!”
Think about it. If we all did
what Christ did and became like little children, able to easily
take correction, and if we REALLY DID become each other’s slaves instead of
trying to rule over one another like the gentile rulers do, where would be
the strife and division?
I remember a favorite story that
I think Herbert Armstrong first originated and it was then picked up by
Garner Ted. I believe I heard it from both.
They related how in this old
W.W.II spoof movie that Hitler and Mussolini entered a barber shop for a
haircut. They sat down in chairs beside each other. Both were short men.
Neither man could accept being
lower than the other, so first Hitler raised his chair, followed by
Mussolini, followed by Hitler, etc. Each man raised his chair until they
reached the roof! This story illustrates just how SILLY human vanity is, with
each wanting to lord it over the other and be the boss. Does this sound
familiar in our churches today?
It is God who gives promotion,
not men. We have to accept God’s choices of who is to do what job, otherwise
we will have the chaos that we have today!
We started out this article
relating the wisdom Ghandi had miraculously
discovered, despite the fact that it is NOT natural for the human mind to
think this way. Ghandi believed in service. Ghandi believed in self sacrifice. Ghandi
believed in true servant leadership. And, Ghandi
did not use violence to get his own way, but he also believed in taking a
stand for what was right through non violent resistance to oppression. Ghandi just didn’t sit and do nothing, but what he did against
tyranny was non violent, and so worked much better against gentile types of
rule than violent resistance. Ghandi had
somehow discovered some of the most important laws of God, and he applied
them, and, contrary to popular belief, THEY WORKED! IN fact, far from being
IMPRACTICAL, these methods proved to be the MOST PRACTICAL, as God’s ways
always do in the end. As Christians we must oppose the wrong by peaceful means, and
refuse to support those who would oppress us and rule us like gentiles. If we
don’t, we become co-conspirators in our own oppression, and are actually
thwarting the will of God by supporting a government model in Christ’s Church that is not Godly and holding it up to the
world as if it were. Then we are surprised when people in the world don’t see
any difference between us and everyone else!
So many people, even in God’s
own church, think the ways espoused by Jesus Christ
are nice, but not practical. They think you have to lie to get ahead. Wrong.
They think you have to cheat your neighbor. Wrong. They think that once you
get in a position of authority you should use it to make others do what you
want and as a means of personal gain. Wrong. They think the story of the Good
Samaritan is a pipe dream. Wrong. They think that when Christ
said if someone slaps you in the face on one cheek, turn to him the other
also, that He was just dreaming. No one could do this. Wrong. Even some non-Christians
like Ghandi have used this law, and have won their freedom
by it. When the officers struck him, he took it and allowed them to do it
again without resistance -- BUT THIS DID NOT MEAN THAT GHANDI DID WHAT THEY
WANTED! IN the same way, the early apostles allowed the Sanhedrin to punish
them, but THEY DID NOT OBEY THEM! INSTEAD, THEY SAID THAT THEY WOULD OBEY GOD
RATHER THAN MEN!
Most men would never get down
and do the job of the lowest servant -- washing their feet -- to the man who
a few hours later would betray him -- but Christ
did , thereby showing the truth of what He said when He told us to love our
enemies and those who would despitefully use us.
Somehow, God’s way works and
man’s doesn’t. It’s just that simple and the sooner the world learns this
truth the sooner they can start living a life of peace and abundance. We
understand, of course, that this won’t happen until Christ
literally FORCES humanity to live the good way of life during the millennium.
I would like to conclude with a
quote form James that spells this whole thing out for us. Only by following
directions will we become ambassadors for world peace as God intended each of
us to be. God can only tell us to do something so many times
before He moves on to another group of people. It’s just that simple. If
there is division and strife there are reasons and it behooves us to find out
just what those reasons are, and to then take appropriate action. Here is
what James has to say on this subject. If you disagree with the Bible, your
problem isn’t with me, it’s with the Bible, so I don’t want a lot f people
and ministers to write me nasty notes telling me how wrong I am and saying
how dare I accuse them of wrong doing. It’s not I who am showing these
faults, it’s your Bible, so if you want to argue, go argue with the Bible and
with God, not me.
As they say, a pear tree grows
pears, not apples, so if you recognize yourself or someone you know in these
verses, you will know you have identified the problem. Remember that you
yourself may be a big part of this problem.
“Therefore lay aside all filthiness
and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word,
which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers
only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a
doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he
observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty
and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work,
this one will be blessed in what he does.
“....Where do wars and fights
come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war
in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot
obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
“You ask and do not receive,
because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers
and adulteresses! Do you knot know that friendship with the world is enmity
with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself
an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain ‘The Spirit
who dwells in us yearns jealously?’ But He gives more grace. Therefore He
says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’
“Therefore submit to God. Resist
the devil and he will flee from you. draw near to God and He will draw near
to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double
minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and
your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will
lift you up.” [James 1:21-5; 4:1-10]
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