Dear Brethren and Friends, What is the one “key” concept that will often help even a carnal mind properly grasp why we believe what we believe—why we have this “crazy” religion involving observance of the Sabbaths and Holy Days, and the repudiation of such commonly held concepts as Christmas, Easter and going to heaven?
Over the years, many religious writers and speakers have accused Mr. Armstrong and the Church of God of being “syncretists.” That term is used for those who attempt to unite or combine different or opposing ideas, principles or teachings. In their ignorance, these religious writers attempt to disparage the Truth by saying that Herbert W. Armstrong got the Sabbath from the Seventh Day Adventists, his teaching about the pagan holidays from the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the understanding that God is reproducing Himself from the Mormons.
In fact, Mr. Armstrong did NOT do any of this! Having talked for hours with Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong, with a number of “pioneer” members of the Radio Church of God such as Mr. and Mrs. David Henion, Sr., Mr. and Mrs. Arch Shippert, Mrs. Helen Starkey and others who were with Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong almost from the beginning, I know—and KNOW that I know—that Mr. Armstrong didn’t “put together” his understanding of the Bible from these sources. As he himself acknowledged a number of times, he learned many of the basic truths from the Seventh Day Church of God. From them he learned the Sabbath, the concept of really observing the Ten Commandments, about the Good News of Christ’s soon-coming Government to be set up on this earth, the truth about heaven, hell and the immortality of the soul, clean and unclean meats and a number of other fundamental truths. He found in some of their earlier writings references to the need to observe the Holy Days. So although this Church was not, in fact, keeping all of these days, the writings of some of their earlier leaders put in Mr. Armstrong’s mind the idea of researching the truth about God’s Holy Days and asking, in effect, “Why are we not keeping them?”
This should not seem strange to anyone. For God’s Word speaks of “the Church of the Living God, the pillar and ground of the Truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). So down through the ages—small and scattered though it was—God’s true Church has indeed held on to many of the key elements of the Truth. It has been—sometimes to a limited degree—a “pillar” upholding the Truth. Some translations render the term “ground” as “bulwark.” So the true Church of God is also a bulwark—an institution giving protection and support to the Truth even during times of trial and persecution.
Even though the Sardis Church is described by God Himself as being “dead” or “ready to die” (Revelation 3:1–3), nevertheless it was used by God to preserve certain fundamental truths. And after a profound conversion experience and years of intensive Bible study, prayer and meditation, Mr. Armstrong was able to add a spiritual dynamic to the observance of these truths and was able, also, to enlarge the understanding in such areas as the annual Sabbaths, a much fuller understanding of prophecy and the enormously important new concept of what it means to become a full son of God.
So, again, Mr. Armstrong learned most of the fundamental truths of the Bible from the “Church of the Living God, the pillar and BUL-WARK of the Truth” (RSV). He was NOT a syncretist. And he did NOT get his teachings from the SDAs, JWs or others. I personally investigated this matter at some length nearly 50 years ago and I know whereof I speak. Virtually all of the writers referring to this“syncretist” theory did NOT know Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong intimately as I did. They did NOT interview his early followers or others who were personally familiar with how he began his ministry.
A major point is that the true Church of God has always under-stood the need to pattern itself after the early apostolic teachings and examples of Christ and the apostles. Many have understood the concept of the “Jerusalem Church of God.” It is that concept which I now want to address and which I feel is a vital “key” for ALL of our brethren to understand and to be able to use in dealing particularly with outsiders, with religious “debaters” or with self-styled “intellectuals.”
The Apostle Paul was inspired to write to the Thessalonians, “For you, brethren, became IMITATORS of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 2:14). The book of Acts makes it clear that the earthly “headquarters” Church of God—for many decades—was the Jerusalem Church. It was here that the Holy Spirit was originally poured out on the true Christians (Acts 2). It was here where Peter, James and John carried on most of their ministry for many years (Acts 4:1; 8:1; 11:1–2, etc.). Later, it was to the leadership at Jerusalem that Paul and Barnabas came to settle the major question of circumcision for the Gentiles and related questions (Acts 15:4). As renowned historian Edward Gibbon wrote, “The first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem were all circumcised Jews; and the congregation over which they presided united the law of Moses with the doctrine of Christ. It was natural that the primitive tradition of a church which was founded only forty days after the death of Christ, and was governed almost as many years under the immediate inspection of his apostle, should be received as the standard of orthodoxy. The distant churches very frequently appealed to the authority of their venerable Parent” (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. 15, sec. 1, p. 389).
As indicated above, the only major ministerial conference indicated in the New Testament was held at Jerusalem. Here lived the leading original apostles. Here was the true “mother” Church (NOT Rome!). And it was to Jerusalem Paul and Barnabas had come even earlier, lest, as Paul had put it, “I might run, or had run, in VAIN” (Galatians 2:1–2).
After the major Jerusalem conference, Paul and Silas traveled through Asia Minor visiting the churches: “And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep, which were determined by the apostles and elders AT JERUSALEM” (Acts 16:4).
Clearly the original apostles and the Jerusalem Church of God set the inspired “pattern” for true Christianity—NOT just for that time—but for ALL time! Contrary to the heretical Protestant ideas that the Apostle Paul later was used by God to “reinvent” Christianity, the real Apostle Paul of the Bible—as we have seen—constantly showed deep respect for the original apostles and deferred to the leadership at Jerusalem in all major matters! And it was the Apostle Paul who wrote the primarily Gentile church at Corinth, “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters” (1 Corinthians 7:19).
Noted historian Carl Von Weizäscker wrote in 1895:
“Paul was far from confining his interest to the Gentile Christian Church which he had himself founded. His thoughts were much too lofty to leave Jewish Christianity to itself. He toiled not merely for his own work, but for the Church of God… the whole Church. He never forgot for a moment the true birthplace of the gospel.
And for him the Christians in Jerusalem were always the [saints]…. He did not however merely entertain a grand policy of ecclesiastical union, but his first and constant thought was that the primitive Church was the foremost divine institution under the Gospel…. In the early Apostles he saw… the Apostles of the Lord. Fromthem the testimony of the Resurrection emanated (1 Corinthians 15:1 ff.). They were ever the apostles, whom God had placed at the head of His Church, the first of those divinely commissioned men who held the leading office in the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:28)” (The Apostolic Age of the Christian Church, pp. 12–13).
Later in Paul’s ministry, he traveled again to Jerusalem: “And when we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present” (Acts 21:17-18). Notice that Paul presented himself to James, the Lord’s brother, who by now was undoubtedly the chief apostle at Jerusalem— Peter probably having gone to the “lost sheep” of the house of Israel in northwest Europe and the British Isles.
After rejoicing in the good news Paul brought about God’s Work among the Gentiles, the Jerusalem leadership told Paul, “You see, brother, how many MYRIADS of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law” (v. 20). The term “myriad” literally means “tens of thousands.” So as not to confuse or discourage these many Jewish Christians, Paul was asked by the Jerusalem Church to go through an offering ceremony to publicly demonstrate that he was NOT teaching in any way against God’s laws. As the Jerusalem leaders explained to Paul, “Take these men along and be purified with them and pay all the expenses connected with the shaving of their heads. This will let everyone know there is no truth in the reports they have heard about you and that you still REGULARLY observe the Law” (v. 24, Jerusalem Bible).
Brethren, if Paul had in fact been teaching against God’s Law in ANY way—especially the SPIRITUAL LAW containing the Ten Commandments—he most certainly would NOT have gone through this ceremony of the law of Moses! That particular ceremony—probably a thank offering at the conclusion of the Nazarite vow—was NOT necessary for a New Testament Christian. But it was not “sinful” either! And Paul’s deep respect for God’s Law, for the original mother Church and the pattern of OBEDIENCE to God’s Law—all this guided Paul in his decision to go ahead and participate in this ceremony. By guiding Paul in this—and putting this example in the Bible—God is showing ALL of us that Paul’s approach was one of OBEDIENCE to law, NOT one who tried to do away with or “reason around” God’s spiritual laws as so many Protestant theologians teach!
Speaking of the common practice of the MAJORITY of early Christians, Historian W. D. Davies wrote:
“Everywhere, especially in the East of the Roman Empire, there would be Jewish Christians whose outward way of life would not be markedly different from that of the Jews. They took for granted that the gospel was continuous with [the religion of Moses]; for them the New Covenant, which Jesus had set up at the Last Supper with His disciples…did not mean that the covenant made between God and Israel was no longer in force. They still observed the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles; they also continued to be circumcised, to keep the weekly Sabbath and the Mosaic regulations concerning food. According to some scholars, they must have been so strong that right up to the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 they were the dominant element in the Christian movement” (Judeo-christianisme,“Paul and Jewish Christianity,” 1972, p. 72, quoted by Samuele Bacchiocchi, From Sabbath to Sunday, p. 151).
Brethren, I ask all of you to study this subject, study these quotes I have given you from history, and in your thinking and in your talks with outsiders, FOCUS on the fact that we are restoring Apostolic Christianity and are following—as best we can—the inspired “pattern” of the “Jerusalem Church of God”!
Study the entire book of Acts to see that pattern of obedience to God’s Laws, observance of His Sabbaths and HolyDays and of the ZEAL to get the true MESSAGE out to all the world. Notice the sacrificial love, the warmth, the “family spirit” the early Church possessed. Beside restoring the true doctrines, we must also—with God’s help—LOVE one another, serve one another, and then zealously share that love with all those we can reach with God’s Truth. The Apostle Paul said, “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22). We must also use all our talents, our time and our resources in every way possible to carry the true Message of Christ “to the ends of the earth”!
Let us catch that vision. Let us deeply understand that we are NOT merely a small church with “unusual” doctrines. For we are, in fact, the spiritual descendants of the “Jerusalem Church of God”—the true Apostolic Church led by Jesus Christ.
