Among the many splits and divisions of God’s people in the past several years, one troubling theme seems to be springing up again and again. That theme or concept is that “the Work is over,” or that “we don’t need to do a Work except merely to feed the flock.”
This idea should seem almost incomprehensible to one who deeply drinks in of what the Bible clearly says. Yet some very misguided individuals seem bent on denigrating the zeal we all should have to “finish the Work.” Consider carefully the Great Commission which Jesus Christ gave to His followers: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the END of the age” (Matthew 28:19–20). Jesus said He would be “with” us in doing this Work until the END of the age.
Has the “end” come? Of course not! Did Jesus ever modify this statement to tell us to keep preaching the Gospel to “all nations” only until Peter died? Or until the Apostle Paul died? Or until Herbert W. Armstrong died? Again, of course not!
Rather, every single indication in the Bible about our Christian responsibility tells us that God’s true servants will continue to preach and publish the Gospel to the nations until they are physically stopped and kept from doing so. In an obviously prophetic commission, Jesus told His disciples, “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes” (Matthew 10:22–23). In a prophecy pertaining to the years just ahead of us, Jesus said, “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake” (Matthew 24:9).
Were we “hated” by ALL nations in the Work Christ did through Mr. Armstrong with many of us participating? Of course not! Because, in fact, most nations did not even know that we existed as a church. And Mr. Armstrong personally made brief “protocol visits” to a number of world leaders and was very warmly received with NO persecution whatever!
In our Work today, the little groups of God’s scattered people are virtually UNKNOWN to nearly all the nations. They do not hate us because they do not even know that we exist!
Yet, clearly speaking of His Second Coming, Jesus described how we would have to flee from persecution and said, “You will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” This surely indicates that we would at least be TRYING to go through all “the cities”—publicly preaching and publishing Christ’s Message to the END of this age.
Definitely speaking of this END-time when the “abomination of desolation” is to appear, Daniel writes, “The people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits. The people who understand shall instruct many; yet for many days they shall fall by sword and flame, by captivity and plundering” (Daniel 11:31–33). We who do truly know God and understand His will have both the opportunity and the responsibility to proclaim Christ’s Message to the nations of this deceived world!
Turning our churches into virtual social clubs, trying to mainly feed ourselves and be with our friends in a comfortable environment is NOT God’s will. For this coming Holocaust will be the time of the GREATEST national tribulation in human history. And it is definitely coming primarily upon the “house of Joseph”—the American and British-descended peoples all around the world.
At such a time, what are we COMMANDED to be doing? God answers His true Church who should understand: “But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand. So you, son of man: I have made you a WATCHMAN for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and WARN THEM for Me” (Ezekiel 33:6–7).
Do you want to have the responsibility for the BLOOD of thousands or millions of people on your hands because you tried to reason around the responsibility we have been given?
Sabbath-keeping ministers who try to kid themselves and their followers that there is “no Work to be done” are in for a rude awakening! Those so confused that they cannot remember what God’s Apostle, Herbert W. Armstrong, taught, or somehow do not grasp the special responsibility we have to warn the “house of Israel,” should consider God’s inspired warning about ANY type of Holocaust coming upon a national peoples: “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the SLAUGHTER [Great Tribulation!]. If you say, ‘Surely we did not know this,’ does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?” (Proverbs 24:10–12).
Despite any real or imagined faults, Herbert W. Armstrong was the human leader in God’s Church whom God used very powerfully for 52 years. He always taught us that the heart of any true Christian should be in “the Work.” He always said that most people grow spiritually according to how much their heart was in getting Christ’s Message to others—to the whole world!
Just before his death a few days later, Mr. Armstrong wrote his final co-worker letter on January 10, 1986. Notice what God’s Apostle wrote:
Dear Brethren and Co-Workers, This is my first letter to you in 1986, and could very well be my last. Now in my ninety-fourth year I am in a very physically weakened state enduring severe pain and with virtually no strength whatsoever. I briefly described my condition in last month’s Co-Worker letter to you, and now it has worsened. It may be that the work God has given me to do is complete, but not the Work of God’s Church, WHICH WILL BE FAITHFULLY DOING GOD’S WORK [emphasis ours] till Christ, the True Head of this Church, returns….
Remember, brethren, this is not the work of Herbert W. Armstrong, nor will it be the work of Mr. Tkach, or any man. It is the Work of the Living Creator, God. You are supporting this Work of God, and it is the Great God who will pour out His blessings on you for your generosity. Continue to sacrifice through 1986 to finish the commission God has given His Church. The GREATEST WORK [emphasis ours] lies yet ahead.
Then consider what Jesus Christ said, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest?’ Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together” (John 4:34–36).
Finally, let us never forget the inspired statement of Daniel referring specifically to the time of the END. Daniel wrote, “Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who TURN MANY to righteousness like the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:3). As most Bible commentaries acknowledge, the Hebrew expression “turn many” has the connotation of “evangelism”—of “doing a Work,” of bringing in NEW believers and NOT merely “feeding the flock.” As the Expositor’s Bible Commentary, states regarding Daniel 12:3:
“The parallel expression is those who lead many to righteousness. The fruit of a Christ-centered, godly life is NEW BELIEVERS, won to the Lord through God’s servants. The Good Shepherd rejoices to see His sheep brought home to Him through faithful soul winners. Such ‘will shine… like the stars for ever and ever (Vol. 7, p. 152).’”
Those of you who may have been called after 1965, or any year, where would you have learned the Truth if the people and the leadership of God’s Church had decided that the Work was done in 1960? What if they had gotten off radio or if they had never gone on television? And had ceased to publish the Plain Truth magazine? Are we now to say that because we have the truth about salvation, taught us by others, we no longer have a responsibility to continue spreading the Truth of God? I think you know the answer is we DO have that responsibility.
God’s special blessing is on those who are willing to serve and sacrifice so that “others”—NEW CONVERTS—may receive and have a chance to act on God’s Truth and so be protected from the Great Tribulation and/or the Day of the Lord. One of the reasons we are called now is to do this very Work.
Brethren, Mr. Armstrong has been dead almost 14 years. An entire new generation comprised of hundreds of millions of young people all over the world is now growing up. The vast majority of them have never even heard of Herbert W. Armstrong. But we in the Living Church of God are the spiritual descendants of the Philadelphia Era of God’s Church led by Mr. Armstrong. We are the ones to carry on the Work Christ did through Mr. Armstrong—some of us already having assisted him for many decades. Christ continues to set before us an “open door” to proclaim His powerful Gospel to the nations!
Will we have the out-flowing LOVE and CONCERN—the faith and courage—to continue walking through that “door” of evangelism as long as God gives us the opportunity? The rewards for carrying out Christ’s Great Commission are AWESOME. The result of failing to zealously participate in the Great Commission is tragic—not only for the untold millions who might otherwise had been reached with the Truth, but also for those small-minded individuals who merely want to serve themselves. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”