Contents:- Personal From Herbert W. Armstrong

-- Are You Worthy to Take the Passover?

The Crucifixion Was Not on Friday. Part Two

Managing EditorDexter H. Faulkner

Editor-in-ChiefHERBERT W. ARMSTRONG

Assistant Managing EditorNorman L. Shoaf

ContributorsDibar K. Apartian

Jerold W. AustK. Neil Earle

John A. HalfordGeorge M. Kackos

Ronald D. KellyJames P. LichtensteinGraemme J. Marshall

L. Leroy NeffBernard W. Schnippert

Richard H. SedliacikClayton D. Steep

Philip StevensEarl H. Williams

GraphicsGreg S. Smith

Minette Collins SmithEditorial Assistant

Colleen M. Gus

PUBLISHED BY THEWORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD

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VOL. XXXI, NO. 3

What HappensIf I Askfor a Visit?

25 See page 9

MARCH 1984----~~n~~

CIRCULATION: 230,000

COVER: Wine is a key symbol associated with the Passover, an annual reminderof the Christian 's covenant with God. Wine pictures Jesus Chr ist's blood , shed forthe remission of our sins. See page 3. Photo by G.A. Belluche Jr.

Ministudy: The Forgotten Law of Financial Success

- Are You Happy as a Christian?

-c- Sharinq: Narrow Is the Way

- GN Focus: What Happens If I Ask for a Visit?

- " I Uphold My Integrity"

PublisherHerbert W. Armstrong

TreasurerL. Leroy Neff

Director of Publishing ServicesRay L. Wright

Production DirectorRoger G. Lippross

Production ManagerRon Taylor

Circulation ManagerBoyd L. Leeson

International EditionsDutch: Bram de Bree

French: Dibar K. ApartianGerman: John B. Karlson

Spanish: Don Walls

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How Leaven Pictures Sinn Important Reminder

Letters

- Quest ions & Answers

Are You Self-Righteous?

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PERSONAL FROM

Some of the teachings inthe Bible are a littlehard for the average

thinking mind to under­st and.

l ames tells us to count it alljoy when trials, ordeals,reverses, beset us (las. 1:2).Troubles a JOy ? That's prettyhard to accept, isn't it? And,for the average person , a lotharder to put into practice.

Few find an y pleasure , letalone JOY, in the obstacles andtroubles they encounter. Yet thisbiblical teaching says we ought soto count them. There is a reason,although few understand it.

In one of the Psalms you 'll readthat the righteous are going tohave to bear many afflictions.But, it promises, the Eternal willdeliver us out of them all - ifwebelieve and trust Him (Ps .34:19)!

Again, it is through much trib­ulation th at we must enter theKingdom of God (Acts 14:22).WHY? There's a reason!

Now con sider another biblicalteaching hard for some to under­stand . We publish a booklet,ava ilab le to the public at nocharge, entitled What Do YouM ean - Born Again? In the fifthchapter of Ephesians you find ahu sband-wife relationship pic­turedas corresponding to Christand the Church. Scriptural teach­ing assures us that, at His com­ing , Christ is going to marry theChurch.

Also, the Scriptures teach thatthe Church will , at His coming,be born of God, by a resurrectionof all who have died, and theinstantaneous conversion frommortal to immortal of those thenliving (I Cor. 15:50-53) .

So one man reasons: Could afull-grown MA N marry an infant

girl baby, just born? If those inthe Church are to be just thenborn of God, how can they marryChrist before they grow up ?. This, too, seems difficult for

some to comprehend. Yet theanswer to James' teaching - theUN DERSTANDING of what Jamesreally means - is also the answerto this seeming inconsistency.

There is a third seeming incon­sistency, hard for some to under­stand. I have previously expl ainedhow, contrary to the thinking ofmany, a Christian may - and toooften does - actually commit sinafter he is converted. He shouldnot, of course. But too often hedoes, and yet he still remains aChristian.

The true explanation of James'teaching, first mentioned above,is also the explanation of thisexperience.

So let's understand!WHY were we born, in the first

place ? What is the real PURPOSEof human life? God Almighty theCreator is reproducing Himself!As truly as we mortal humanshave been given power to repro­duce ourselves - to bring forthprogeny in our own image, bornwith our very nature - even sothe great God is bringing forthsons in His image, born with Hisvery divine nature!

The very PURPOSE of our exis­tence is that we be begotten asGod's children , and ultimatelybecome BORN of Him. Andhuman reproduction is the verytype of spiritual reproduction.

What God created at the timedescribed in the first chapter ofGenesis was a physical creation.You'll find nothing spiritualthere. In physical man, made ofthe dust of the ground , Godcreated the MATERI AL with whichHe ma y mold, shape, form andcreate the spiritual being. Hepictures us as the clay, Himself as

the potter - forming us into thespiritual image of His designing.

Now human reproduction, Isay aga in , pictures spiritualreproduction .

Each human , since Adam andEve, started from a tiny egg,called an ovum, the size of a pin­point. It was produced in thebody of the mother. The egg isin complete, of itself. It has a lifeof only about 48 hours, accordingto some authorities. Unless fertil­ized by the life-giving sperm cellfrom the human father withinthat limited lifetime, it dies.

Each human, spiritually spea k­ing , is like an egg. The averagehuman lifetime is said to be 70years. Adam was created incom­plete, and each of us was BOR NINCOMPLETE - that is, we weremade to need the Holy Spirit ofGod . And unless , within our lim­ited life span of some 70 years, weare begotten of God by His Spir­it, which is Hi s IMMORTAL ,DIVI NE LIFE, entering to imparteternal life to us , we shall die andthat shall be the end, except thatGod has appointed a resurrectionof all who have lived and, forthose who reject His gift of eter­nal life, the final second death inthe lake of fire.

But, in the case of the humanovum, once fertilized as a begot­ten human, the egg - now calledan embryo - is kept within thebod y of the mother, and is nour­ished and fed material foodthrough her ana protected by her.And there it must grow, being fedphysically through the mother,large enough to be born. After anumber of weeks, the embryo iscalled a fetus , and at birth it is ahuman baby.

In like manner, the Bible callsthe CHURCH the " mother of usall" (Gal. 4:26) . That is, themother of Christians thosebegotten of God. It is the func-

March 1984

tion of th e C hurc h to prot ect andfeed, sp iritua lly, on th e spi ri tua lfoo d of God's WO RD, th osebegotten children of Go d, so th atwe may GRO W SPIRITUALLY, inth e divine cha racter, ready to beborn .

S ure ly thi s is a wonde r ful com­parison. Yet types and ant ity pesa re not always a like in eve rydet ail.

When a ph ysical baby is born ,it is not read y fo r marr iage.When th e spirit ua l child of Godis born, he will be fully maturefor th e spi ri tua l marriage. Howca n thi s be? This is what oneth inking man co uld not see.

The unborn hum an fetus iso n ly g row ing phy s ically . A tbirth , t he hu m an bab y kn owsnothing. H e is helpless. He mu stbe tau ght. He mu st learn . He isborn merely with a mind capableof learn ing, knowin g, th inking.He is not yet of mature size phys­ica lly or mentall y.

Man y do marry who ar e st ille n t i re ly im mat ure spi r it uallyand/or emo tionally. But we doass ume th at on e has reasonablematurity ph ysicall y and mentallybefor e marriage. In the human ,this development takes place inth e human sta te after th e humanbirth .

Ther efore, th e human baby isnot read y for marriage at birth .

But the sp iri t-born are di ffer­ent! Just as the fer t ilized ovum ­th e em bryo th at becomes th efetus - mu st grow physicallyfro m mat eri al food , so the Spirit­begotten chi ld of Go d mu st growsp iritua lly befor e he ca n be born .But th ere is a difference!

The fetu s does not attain tocomplete ph ysical maturity be­fore birth , and has no mentalmaturity . But, in th e spirit ua lreb irth, one mu st attain reason­able spirit ua l matu rity bef ore heis spirit-bo rn .

Now what is spiri tua l grow t h?Just as th e physical embryo-fet usm ust g row ph ysi c all y larg eenoug h to be BORN, so the S pirit­begotten C hristian mu st growspirit ually or he will never beborn of God. But spiritual growthis CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.

The S piri t-begotten sta r ts out

2 The GOOD NEWS

with a MI ND from th e beginning.God is pe r fe ct c ha racte r ­divine, spiri tua l character. God isalso LOVE. A nd perfect spiri tua lcharacte r is THE WA Y of LO VE!

Such cha racter is the attain­ment of th e ability, in a separa te,independe nt ent ity of free mor alage ncy to be able to discern righ tfrom wrong - the true valuesfro m th e false - truth from erro r- th e righ t way from the wrong,a nd th en to mak e th e r ightCHOICE or DECISION, even againstse lf-des ire, impulse or tempta­t ion , plus th e WILL and se lf-disci­pl ine to resist th e wro ng and toDO th e righ t.

N o human , with human na­ture, has th e power - alone byhimsel f - to do th is. But Godhas made the spiritua l power andhelp man lacks available. Manmu st desi re to know - mu sthu nger and thirst for truth ; manmu st make hi s own deci si on ,exe rcise his own will, even againstthe pull s of his nature. But with­out th e help of God - withoutspir it ua l POWER fro m God ­man is utterl y unabl e.

That is why truly convertedC hrist ians some ti mes actua lly dosin . They are like the apos t lePau l, as he describes himself inRom an s 7. With his mind hewanted to go th e way of God'slaw, ye t he found himsel f unabl e.A nother law - human nature ­warred wit hin him agains t th egood resolutions of his mind .

But the seque l to Rom ans 7 isRom an s 8 - the Holy S pir itchapter. WHO, Paul cr ied out,could save him from this body ofdeath he st ruggled ag ai ns t invain? The answe r is God, throu ghHi s Holy S pirit ( Ro m. 7:24-25).

A true C hris t ian doesn ' t wantto sin - should not. But some­times he finds himself ca ug ht inth e vise of habit , or ove rwhe lmedby temptat ion or by ci rc um­sta nces from which he is unabl eto free himself.

S urely, had suc h a one beenco nt inually prayin g , keep inghim sel f close t o Go d a n ddet ach ed fro m the world or itslu res or th e temptat ions of th eflesh, he prob abl y would have hadsufficie nt divine he lp to have pre-

ve nte d th e sinning . But onlyJesu s Chris t ever d id keep th atclose to God!

God looks on the heart. In suc ha case , the C hrist ian does not sinmali ciously, with mali ce afo re ­thoug ht. He is mer ely ca ug ht inthe vortex of a te mpta tio n thatsucks him helplessly down intoth e sin. Then he is terribl y sorry.He is disgu sted with himsel f. Herep ents. H e goes to work to ove r­come . He may not succeed, du eto human weakness, at once . Buthe rem ain s det ermined and final­ly does, with God 's help, over­come com pletely.

M an y a true Christian has hadsuch a struggle over a particularhuman weakness and te mpta t ion,and after eve n seve ra l se tbacks,fina lly, t h ro ug h G od ' s power ,won th e victory and fou ght hisway free.

God looks on th e hear t. GodFORG IVES in suc h cases. The liv­ing C hris t, our High Pri est , hascompassion , is filled with mercy- as long as th e attitude is right,the desire of th e inn er man is toconque r th e flesh and ove rco methe temptat ion and be FREE fromit entirely.

In the end, it is GOD who givesthe victo ry. But, in suc h a st rug ­g le, t he C h r is tian DEVELOPSCHARACTER.

N ow cha racte r, I have sa id .many times, is something G oddoes not create automa tica lly. Itis develop ed, aga inst the oppos ingpull s of human nature, with th edecisions and wills and st rugglesof the indi vidual, an d t hroughEX PERIENCE.

The development of th at CHAR­ACTER is th e very PURPOSE of ourbeing alive. A lso th e developmen tof th at cha rac te r, unlike th e pure­ly physical growth of the unbornbaby, actua lly is growi ng towardSPIRITUA L MATURITY, right nowin th e begettal stage pr ior to spir­it BIRTH - in this pr esent mortalhuman life.

N oti ce how t he " mother of usall," th e C hurch, is to protect andfeed th ose in it , until they reachspirit ua l MATURITY.

In I Corinthians 12 yo u' ll readhow God gives spiritua l gifts for

_(Continued on page 21)

AreYouWorthy toTake

the Passover?What does the Passover mean to you? Do you really know

why Jesus had to suffer and die - and what is required of us?

By Allen L. Stout

P a u l wrote toChristians: "Foras often as you

eat this bread anddrink this cup, you pro­claim the Lord's deathtill He comes.

"Therefore whoevereats this bread or drinksthis cup of the Lord in anunworthy manner will beguilty of the body andblood of the Lord" (ICor. 11:26-27).

Paul was writing aboutthe Passover, the annualmemorial of the death ofJesus Christ, which Godcommands His people toobserve. How few professingChristians understand!

If you have not been aware ofGod's annual festivals , writeimmediately for our free bookletPagan Holidays - or God 'sHoly Days - Which?

Many have not fully compre­hended the significance of Paul'swarning. Some, feeling they werenot worthy of Jesus ' sacrifice,have not taken the Passover .Others have taken the Passover ina casual or ritualistic manner.

It's time we all understand!The Passover is the first of the

Christian festivals commanded by

God (Lev. 23 :5) . It is not to betaken lightly.

Purpose of the Passover

The Passover originally repre­sented the turning point in theseparation of Israel, God's chosenpeople, from Egypt, which sym­bolized sin . The blood of thePassover lamb, sprinkled on thedoorposts , distinguished thosewhom God was sparing (Ex.12:13-14).

The Passover for Christianstoday is a memorial, an annualreminder or renewal of our spiri­tual covenant with God . It

reminds us not only of whenGod called ancient Israel outof Egypt, but, more impor­tant, of God calling lis todayout of sin.

Let's make the meaningof Passover clear by examin­ing what the Bible says.

What was required to freeus from the bondage of sin'?God's sacrifice of Hi s first­born, Jesus - the blood ofthe Lamb.

Why'? Why couldn't Godjust forgive our sins withouta sacrifice'? Why did Jesushave to give up His glorywith God, take upon Him­self the form of a servant,become a human being andsuffer and die for our sins

(Phil. 2:7-8) '?Because there was no other

way to save man from the con se­quence of sin .

God will notcompromise His law

God can do all things, but Godwill not compromise His law(Matt. 19:26,5:18) .

God's law is perfect (Ps. 19:7) . .It would, if kept , produce and imaintain a peaceful and happy ~

society. Tragically, no human has :kept God's law perfectly - all ~have sinned (Rom. 3:23) . ~

The Bible likens sin to leaven ~

March 1984 3

- if sin is not disposed of, itgrows and spreads rapidly (I Cor.5:6). The whole world is sufferingunder the curse of sin (Gal. 3:10)!Death is the penalty for sin ­breaking God's law (Ezek. 18:4,20, Rom. 6:23).

God will not allow anyone intoHis holy Family and Kingdomwho will compromise His law(Gal. 5:19-21, I Cor. 6:9-10, Rev.22:14-15).

God's law requires that bloodbe shed for the remission of sin(Heb. 9:22). Thus blood had tobe shed in order that the sins ofevery human might be forgiven,upon repentance.

The sacrifice of Jesus

The only way God couldredeem humanity - all of us! ­from the death penalty withoutcompromising His law was tohave our penalty paid.

Enter Jesus Christ. Noticewhat God's Word says:

"For God so loved the worldthat He gave His only begottenSon, that whoever believes inHim should not perish but haveeverlasting life" (John 3:16) .

"God demonstrates His ownlove toward us, in that while wewere still sinners, Christ died forus .. .. when we were enemies wewere reconciled to God throughthe death of His Son ... throughwhom we have now received thereconciliation" (Rom. 5:8, 10­I I) .

Our sins had separated us fromGod (Isa. 59:1-2). We had thedeath penalty hanging over us .But Jesus' sacrifice paid thedeath penalty for sin in our stead(Rom. 3:24-25). Does Jesus'death save us, then? Let's seewhat the Bible tells us .

What is required of us?

What is our responsibility, giv­en Jesus' sacrifice, in God's planof salvation? Notice Acts 2:38:"Repent, and let everyone of yoube baptized in the name of JesusChrist for the remission of sins;and you shall receive the gift ofthe Holy Spirit."

Jesus' sacrifice does not re­deem us from the death penaltyuntil we have repented of break-

4 The GOOD NEWS

ing God's law, turned from sinand accepted Jesus Christ as ourLord and Master. We must sub­mit to God's government over ourlives and begin to live God's way .Then what happens? NoticeRomans 8:1 :

"There is therefore now nocondemnation to those who are inChrist Jesus, who do not walkaccording to the flesh, butaccording to the Spirit."

Jesus actually lives His life inus (verse 10). We strive to followJesus' example as revealed in theBible (I Pet. 2:21). We shall,then, be saved by Jesus Christ'slife (Rom. 5:10)!

By obeying God's law with thehelp of God's Holy Spirit and bysubmitting to God's government,we actually begin to take onGod's very nature. We graduallyovercome sin - sin no longer haspower over us. We are God's ser­vants rather than the servants ofsin (Rom. 6: 12-16).

We have embarked upon a newway of life that leads to everyblessing and joy for eternity. Toturn back from it - to rejectGod's way and Jesus' sacrifice,which paid our death penalty ­brings the death penalty on usagain, this time with no chancefor redemption (Heb. 10:26-29) .

Now what about observing thePassover?

Are you worthy?

God's redeemed people arecommanded to observe the Pass­over annually, in its New Testa­ment symbolism, as a memorialof Jesus' death and to picturewhat God has done in our lives(Matt. 26:26-28, Mark 14:22-24,Luke 22:14-20, John 13:2-5) .And we are to do so in a "wor­thy" manner, as we have seenfrom I Corinthians 11:26-27.

What, exactly, does it mean tobe worthy?

Paul warned, "Let a manexamine himself, and so let himeat of that bread and drink of thatcup" (I Cor. 11:28) .

What is your attitude? Johnwrote: "Do not love the world orthe things in the world. If anyoneloves the world, the love of theFather is not in him. For all that

is in the world - the lust of theflesh, the lust of the eyes, and thepride of life - is not of theFather but is of the world. Andthe world is passing away, and thelust of it; but he who does the willof God abides forever" (I John2:15-17).

As long as we live in this evil,Satan-ruled society, there will betests and temptations to breakGod's law . We are temptedthrough our own lusts (Jas. 1:14)to cheat, to lie in business, toboast, to swear, to gossip, to com­mit adultery (Matt. 5:28) and toput other things before God.

And we as Christians - yes, astruly called and redeemed Chris­tians - will slip occasionally andsin!

But, as long as we are repen­tant, striving to overcome sin,God accepts us, applying Jesus'sacrifice (I John I :9) . God con­tinues to lead us. We live undergrace (Eph. 2:8).

No one is worthy of Christ'ssacrifice, but not to take the Pass­over is to deny Christ. To take thePassover in a worthy manner, wemust repent of our evil desiresand ways, come to hate the sinthat Jesus had to suffer and diefor and set our will not to com­promise God's law.

"For he who eats and drinks inan unworthy manner eats anddrinks judgment to himself, notdiscerning the Lord's body. Forthis reason many are weak andsick among you, and many sleep.For if we would judge ourselves,we would not be judged. Butwhen we are judged, we are chas­tened by the Lord, that we maynot be condemned [judged] withthe world" (I Cor. 11:29-32).

Our goal, as Jesus commandedin Matthew 5:48, is to becomeperfect, as God the Father is per­fect. Keeping the Passover andunderstanding all it pictures, aswell as striving to keep all ofGod 's other laws, is vital toattaining that perfection.

So, as Paul wrote in 1 Corin­thians 5:8, "Let us keep the feast,not with old leaven, nor with theleaven of malice and wickedness,but with the unleavened bread ofsincerity and truth"! 0

TheCrucifixionWasNotonFriday Part Two

Easter Sunday does not commemorate theresurrection! Christ did not die onGood Friday! Here is the astoundingtruth, rejected by most of Christianity.

By Herman L. Hoeh

H ow shocking! Thevast majority ofChristians - theolo­

gians, scholars and lay mem­bers alike - today reject theonly sign Jesus gave to proveHe was the Messiah - theSavior of the world!

J esu s plainl y state d : " A sJ on ah was three d ays a ndthree nights in th e bell y of th egreat fish, so will the Son ofMan be three days and threenights in the heart of thearth" (Matt. 12:40).

There is no way to count mor eth an a day and a half betweensunse t on G ood Friday and Eas te r

.. Sunday morning . Yet Jesu s sa id.;~e would be dead and buried for

/ ' - three days and three nights.The plain truth is th at th e

Good Friday-Easter Sunday tr a­dition is a fable - or else youhave no Savior!

Last month we learned th atJ esus was ind eed dead and buriedfor three days and three nightsjust as He said He would be, not aday and a half as most of C hris ­ti anity tod ay believes.

We discover ed th at J esu s wasactua lly crucified on W ednesdayand died lat e W ednesd ay afte r­noon , and that He was resur­rected on S aturday j ust beforesundo wn.

W e also found th at it was th eso-ca l le d ap ost oli c fa t he rs,steeped in tradition , who pr opa­gate d th e G ood Friday- Eas terSunday myth.

Only two matter s are needed toprove when th e crucifixion andth e resurrect ion occurred . One isto determine the dates of th ePassover during C hrist's minis­try. The other is to determine th eyea r of the cruci fixion .

Now to con tinue wi th this sec ­ond inst allment :

The Hebrew calendar ~

tells when S2

Here is a ch art ver ified by ~

March 1984 5

works on the "Jewish calendar"- actually God's sacred calendar- absolutely correct according tothe computation preserved sincethe days of Moses!

To place the Passover on a Fri­day in A.D. 30 is to violate one ofthe rules of the fixed calendar ­that no common year of thesacred calendar may have 356days. Common years of 12months may be only 353, 354 or355 days long, a fact you can ver­ify in the Jewish Encyclopedia.

Theologians place the Passoverof A.D. 30 on Friday, April 7,356 days after the Passover ofA.D. 29. Count it for yourself!This date is two days late. ThePassover in A.D. 30 was only 354days after that of A .D. 29 .

The 14th of the month Nisancould have occurred on Wednes­day in A.D. 30, as well as in A.D.31 . Thus, if you want to believethat the crucifixion was in A .D.30 - which it was not - youwould still have to admit that Fri­day could not be the day of thecrucifixion!

For the year A .D. 31 a fewreferences, unacquainted with therules of the Hebrew calendar,mistakenly give the Passover,Nisan 14, as Monday, March 26.But this is one month too early.The year A.D. 30-31 was inter­calary - that is, it had 13 months- thus placing the Passover 30days later in A .D . 31, and on aWednesday.

The decree of Artaxerxes

There are several basic datesfrom which the exact year ofChrist's death may be deter­mined. These dates are so precisethat there can be no doubt that thePassover upon which Jesus wascrucified occurred on Wednesday,April 25, in A.D. 31.

The first date is the year inwhich Artaxerxes issued hisdecree to restore and build Jeru-

DatesA.D. 29A.D. 30A .D. 31A.D. 32A.D. 33

PassoverSaturday, April 16

Wednesday, April 5Wednesday, April 25

Monday, April 14Friday, April 3

salem (Ezra 7) . Daniel 9:25-26records that there would be 69prophetic weeks till the Messiahwould come, after which hewould be "cut off" - crucified- "not for Himself' but for thesins of the whole world .

Sixty-nine prophetic weeksequals 483 years (69 X 7). Thisdecree was first issued by Cyrus,king of Persia, in 538 B.C. It wasset aside and reissued by Darius I,king of Persia, and again set asideand reissued by Artaxerxes I.

When we determine the year inwhich this decree was issued, wecan locate the exact year, 483years later, when Christ, theMessiah, began His ministry.

Records have been found thatwere written in the very monththat Artaxerxes, under whosereign the decree was issued, cameto power. The death of Xerxesoccurred in late December, 465B.C., and his son, Artaxerxes,came to the throne in thatmonth.

According to the Persianspring-to-spring reckoning of reg­nal years, as recently translatedbusiness documents clearly show,Artaxerxes' first year extendedfrom April, 464, to April, 463B.C. These same documents showthat the Jewish autumn-to­autumn mode of reckoning placedthe first year of Artaxerxes fromSeptember, 464, to September,463 B.C.

The period of time from theday the new king ascended thethrone to the first year of hisreign was called his accessionyear and was regarded as com­pleting the last regnal year of theprevious king.

Astronomical tablets contain­ing more than a dozen preciserecords of eclipses prove that thefirst year of Artaxerxes, accord­ing to the Jewish reckoning, wasfrom 464 to 463 B.C.

The seventh year of Arta­xerxes, the year in which heissued his decree (Ezra 7:8),would extend from about Sep­tember, 458 B.C., to September,457 B.C.

From the first month to thefifth month of God's calendar -

from the latter part of March tothe latter part of July, 457 B.C .- Ezra journeyed to Judea in theseventh year of Artaxerxes, atwhich time the decree went forthto build Jerusalem as the capitalof the revised Jewish nation.

And just 483 years later wouldbring us to the autumn of A.D.27 - the year when the Messiahwould appear.

Age of Jesus at His baptism

Jesus, according to Daniel'sprophecy, was anointed the Mes­siah in A.D. 27, which was 483years after the decree of Arta­xerxes to restore Jerusalem. Thenext fact that we need to under­stand is the age of Jesus when Hewas baptized and entered uponHis ministry.

The only historical account ofthis was written by Luke to The­ophilus (Luke 1:1-4). In thisaccount it is plainly stated thatwhen Jesus began His ministryHe was "about thirty years ofage" (Luke 3:23) .

Luke did not say, "about 29,"or "about 31 ." He records thatJesus was "about thirty" - andhe meant it, for he was aninspired historian. Either thisrecord is true or you might aswell discard the Bible.

As Jesus was about 30 yearsold in the autumn of A.D. 27,then He must have been born inthe autumn of 4 B.C.

The death of Herod

The time of Jesus' birth isimportant. Jesus was born beforethe death of Herod the king(Matt. 2: 15). When did Heroddie? Again the critics are in con­fusion because they refuse toweigh all the facts .

According to Josephus, theJewish historian, Herod died,"having reigned, since he hadprocured Antigonus to be slain,thirty-four years; but since he hadbeen declared king by theRomans, thirty-seven" (Antiqui­ties, XVII, viii, I).

The two dates for the begin­ning of Herod's reign are not dis­puted, but given as 37 B.C. and40 B.C. respectively. Reckoning

6 The GOOD NEWS

as Josephus does, the last year ofH e rod ' s reign ex te nded fr omabout April, 4 B.C. , to A pri l, 3B.C.

Josephus, in A ntiquities of th eJ ews, XVII , vi, 4 , mentions anecli pse of th e moon befor e thedeath of Her od . That ecl ipse, ascalculated , occurred ab out M arch13, 4 B.C. Yet it was so me timeafter th is th at H er od went beyondth e river Jordan to be cured of hisd iseases. Finding th at th e ph ysi­c ians could n' t cure him , he st illrevived suffic ient ly to re turn toJ e r ich o . Th ere , h e gat he redtogether and co nt rived th e deathof th e principal men of th e ent ireJewish nati on. And as if thi s werenot en ou gh , H erod had his sonA nt ipa te r killed five days beforehis ow n death .

S ince th ese and ot he r eve ntsoccurred afte r the eclipse men­ti on ed by J osephus, an d sinceHer od died prior to a Passover ,accord ing to Josephus, th at Pass­ove r mu st have been 13 monthsa fter the ecl ipse a nd not onemonth lat er . The tradition al dateon the H ebrew calendar for thedeath of H erod places it lat e inth e year 4- 3 B.C. , th e only dateth at ag rees with all the knownfac ts of histor y.

As J esu s was about 30 yearsold in th e early autum n of A .D.27, then H e mu st have been bornin th e earl y autum n of 4 B.C. ,s ho r t ly b e fore the d e ath o fHerod.

C lea rly, J esu s could not havebeen born befor e th is time, or Hewo uld have been mor e th an 30years old at th e beginning of Hi smini stry. Neithe r could He havebeen born lat er in 2 B.C. , as someass ume, for He would have beenonly 28 years old at the beginn ingof His min istry. But Luke plainlysai d th at H e was about 30 yearsof age .

When did thewise men arrive?

But wha t are we goi ng to dowit h the state ment recorde d inMatthew 2: 16 th at just befor e hisdeath H er od had all th e child re nin Bethl eh em kill ed "fro m twoyears old and under " ? This would

appear to ind icate th at J esu s mayhave been born one year ea rlierth an H e reall y was born .

M ost peopl e ca re less ly readthi s acco u nt by ass um ing th atH er od knew th e date of J esu s'birth. They ass ume he had th ec h ild r e n kill ed be cause Jesusmu st have been between I and 2years old .

Think for a moment how illog i­ca l this would be. W ould a mur­der er like H er od wa it for at leastone who le year afte r t he wise menleft befor e attempt ing to kill th echild Jesu s ? O f co urse not.

The t ru th is th at H erod did notknow the time of Jesu s' birth.N otice wh at th e Scripture sta tes :As soon as H er od saw th at thewise men d idn 't return to him hebecam e very ang ry, orde r ing allthose little c h ild re n bu tchered"fro m two years old and under ,accord ing to the time which hehad determined from th e wisemen " (Matt. 2: 16) .

Now wh at was the exact ti meth at he learned from th e wisemen ? W as it th e date of J esu s'birth ? No! N oti ce verse 7 of thissa me ch apter : " T hen H erod ,whe n he had secre t ly call ed th ewise men, determined fro m th emwha t time th e sta r appea red ."

O f course!The wise men or magi had

co me a grea t di st ance from th eeas t. The sta r had a p pea redaro und the time of th e co ncept ionby M ary of J esu s, in order forth em to prepar e to make theirjourney to Bethleh em while hewas sti ll very young .

Si nce th e star appeared aboutone year previously, H er od tookno c ha nces, but had every in fantkilled up to 2 years of age.

Jesu s was a few wee ks old atth e time of Her od's de ath . Thelat est possible dat e for th e birthof J esu s was the autum n of 4B.C. , before winte r ar r ived (Luke2:8). This places the commence­ment of th e ministry of C hris t 30years lat er in th e autum n of th eyear 27.

The reign ofEmperor Tiberius

One of th e most vita l keys to

th e chro no logy of Christ' s minis­try - and yet one of th e mostuni versall y mi sunder stood dat es- is th e 15th year of th e reign ofT iberiu s Caesar. Luke tells usth at John th e Baptist began topreach in his 15th yea r ( Luke3: I ).

When was this 15th year?The troubl e ar ises becau se it

has been ass umed there we re sev­era l possible dat es from which th ere ign of Tiberius Caesar wasco u n ted. Tibe riu s indeed wasmad e coruler wit h A ug us tus Cae­sar at t he very end of A .D. I I orth e beginn ing of A .D. 12. Theexact month is not kn own, but itis not essential any way, as theem pe ro r did not count his officialyea rs fro m his joint rule withA ug us tus .

T iberiu s reckon ed hi s r eignfro m his so le rul e in A ug ust,A .D . 14. Tiberius ' 15th yearco m mence d O ct. 1, A .D. 27.

In th e Near East , wh ere Lukelived , the first year of Tiberiusex te nde d from A ug us t to th e endof th at calendar year - Sept. 30 ,A .D . 14. The seco nd yea r ofTiberius began on Oct. I andex te nde d throu gh S ept. 30 , A. D.15. The officia l Syria n ca lenda rth en in use b eg an w it h th eautum n mo nth of October.

At the beginn ing of this 15thyear J ohn th e Bap ti st began topreach repe ntance a ro u nd theJordan River before Jesu s wasbapt ized by him. John 's ministryoccupied severa l week s before th ebaptism of J esu s.

Not ice ho w this dovet ail s withthe nex t pr oof.

When was Pilate governor?

Luke names Pontius Pil at e asgovernor of Judea whe n J ohnreceived his call: " Now in th e fif­teenth year of th e re ign of Ti­berius C aesar, Pontiu s Pil a t ebein g gov ernor of Judea '... theword of G od came to J ohn "( Luke 3: 1-2) . Pil at e ruled for 10years .

Pil a t e was depo sed a fewmonths befor e th e Passover nearth e close of his 10th year. Hehu r ri edl y sa iled for R om e toappeal to Em pe ro r Tiberius. On

March 1984 7

his way news ca me th at Tiberiusdied . You will read thi s in J ose­phus' A ntiqui ties , XV II I, iv, 2.

Si nce Pilat e was in a great hur­ry to reach Rom e, he mu st haveleft short ly befor e th e death ofth e emperor, which occ urred inM arch, A .D . 37 .

T en yea rs befor e this is aboutth e beginn in g of A. D . 27, atwhic h time Pil at e began his pro­cura to rship.

Her e is what th e InternationalStandard Bible E ncycloped iasays in its ar t icle " Pilate" : Theassumed dat e for Pilat e is usually"from 26 to 36 A .D. .. . Tiber iusdi ed on M arch 16, 37 A. D. S uc ha delay [in Pil at e's jo urney toRom e] is inco nceivable in view ofth e ci rcums ta nces; hence . . . theper iod of his pr ocurator shi p [is]27-3 7 A. D."

The New Schaff-Herzog Ency­clopedia sta tes, under th e article" Pi late": "He pr ob abl y succeede dGratus 27 A .D. and ended hisprocu ra tor ship ea rly in 37 ; it isnot likely that Pi lat e requi redmor e than a year for his returnjourney t o R om e . .. a nd hea r r ived t here a fte r T ib er iu s 'death, which took place M arch16, 37."

The appointment of Pilat e mayhave occu rre d as early as Novem­ber, A. D . 26, and he ente red hisoffice in Judea ea rly in A. D. 27.As Pil at e did not begin his gover­norship in Judea till about th ecom me nceme nt of A .D . 27 and asTiberius' 15th year did not begintill October th at year, John th eBapt ist mu st have begun his min ­istry in t he first few days of Octo­ber in A.D. 27.

J esus , therefore, mu st havebegun to pr each in th e autum n ofA .D. 27. T he re is no ot her datetha t would be consist ent wit h allth e provabl e facts.

T o find th e dat e of th e cruci­fixion , we now need only findhow long the min ist ry of J esuslast ed .

How long was Jesus'ministry?

The pr oph et Dani el for et oldth at th e len gth of C hrist's m inis­tr y at H is first coming, to con-

8 The GOOD NEWS

firm th e New Covena nt, would beone half of a prophetic wee k ofseven years .

In th e midst of that prophet icweek He ca used the need of sac ri­fices for sin to cease by offeringHimsel f for th e sins of th e world .He was " cut off" in the midst ofthe wee k, making th e ministr y atH is first com ing three and one­half years ( Da n. 9:25 -2 7) .

" Know th er efor e and under­sta nd, that from th e goin g forthof th e command to rest or e andbuild J erusalem unt il Messiah th ePr ince, there shall be seven wee ksand sixty-two weeks" - 69 pro­phetic wee ks or 483 yea rs in all.

It was 62 propheti c weeks or434 yea rs (62 X 7) from th edecree of Artaxerxes I in 457B.C. to th e decision to prepareth e stones for re bu ildi ng t heT emple. That occu rred in th e15th year of Herod, 23 B.C. Andit was seve n prophet ic wee ks or49 years (7 X 7) to A .D. 27 .

"And after the six ty-two weeksM essiah sha ll be cut off, but notfor Himsel f . . . th en he sha ll con­firm a covena nt with man y for awee k" - this prophecy is not yetcomplete ly fulfilled .

Why? Becau se " in th e middleof th e wee k He sha ll bring an endto sacrifice and offering" - H edi ed for th e sins of the world inth e m iddle of th e wee k.

In a sense this is a du al proph­ecy. C hrist died in the midst ofth e proph eti c week of seve nyea rs, after three and one-ha lfyears of ministry, but He alsodied in th e midst of th e wee k ­W ednesday!

N ow let' s turn to th e gos pels tofind th e proof that J esus C hrist'sministry was exac t ly three andone-ha lf years . Ther e would haveto be three Passover s du rin g th ethree years of His ministry, and afourth on th e last day of Hisea rthly life - the cru cifixion.

The first Passover occ urred inA. D. 28 and is recorded in John2:23. During the following wee ksJ esu s spe nt time bapti z ing inJudea (J ohn 3:22) .

The next note of t ime is foundin John 4:35, a refer ence to fourmo nths t ill the next harvest sea -

son at Passover in A.D. 29 . Soth is time reference is to th e ninthmonth or Keslev in December,A. D. 28 , only days before J esusbegan to publ icly announce th eGospel in th e synagogues of Gali­lee after John the Baptist wasimprison ed (A cts 10:37 , J ohn4:43-45) .

In Lu ke 6: I is the next t imerefer ence - " the second Sabbathafte r th e first." This is a refer­ence to th e seve n Sabbaths th atwere counted from Passover toPentecost. So her e we see a sec ­ond Passover, A .D. 29 , in J esus'minist ry .

In John 6:4 is anothe r Passover ,whi ch brings us to a W ednesday inth e yea r A. D . 30: "Now th e Pass­over, a feas t of th e J ews, wasnear. " This was the th ird Passoverin Jesus' mini stry.

The fourth and final Passoveris recorde d by all th e gos pel writ­ers . N ot ice J ohn 11:55: " And th ePassover of th e J ews was near ,and man y went from th e co unt ryup to Jerusalem befor e th e Pass­over, to puri fy th em selves ."

T his last Passover completed aministry of t hree an d one-ha lfyea rs, from aut umn of A.D. 27 tothe spring of A .D. 3 1, when thePassover upon which C hrist wascrucified fell on Wednesday.

S ince Jesus began His th reeand one-ha lf year ministry notlat er th an A .D. 27, He could nothave been cruci fied so lat e asA .D. 33. Ther e was, th er efor e, noPassover th at occ urred on a Fri­day during H is enti re ministry!

Yes, hist ory proves false th etrad it ion tha t J esus was crucifiedon Friday and rose on EasterSunday!

In this two-pa rt ar t icle we havegive n you th e undeni abl e, abso­lute record of history and of th ecale ndar th at th e c r uc ifixio ncould not have been on Friday ­th at th e res urrec t ion was not onSunday morning!

N ow you should also read ourt wo fr ee bookl ets T he Pla inTruth A bo ut E as te r and T heR esurrection Wa s Not on S un­day . You may have co pies ofth ese bookl et s by writ ing to ouraddress near est you. 0

GNFOCUS

What HappensIf IAsk for aVisit?

By John A. Halford

"'X Te recentl y recei vedl' l' this letter fr om one of

our readers in England:

Could I make a suggestionprompted by my own personalexperience?

When I came into theun ique knowledge of theWorldwide Church of God, I

wondered how different inother respects this organiza­tion might be. We are suspi­cious of the new, the foreignor the different. Our imagina­tion begins to take over andadds to our already suspi­cious minds. So our suspi­c ions cause us to do nothingposi tive.

What I would like to sug­gest is that you write an arti­cle on what happens when

someone does contact theWorldwide Church of God.Who will come? What should aperson do? Does the visitordrink tea or coffee? What ifmy home is too humble toreceive a minister?

There are so many thingspeople wonder about, espe­cially those who have pre­

viously had somecontact w ith cer­tain other religiousorganizations.

That is a good sug ­ges t ion, and one th atperh aps we s ho u ldhave th ought of our­se lves.

Th e W orld wid eC h u rc h o f G od re­ce ives ma ny t ho u­sa nds of requests forper sonal visits, and soour min isters and rep ­resentatives are keptbu sy.

But - it' s a nintriguing th ou ght ­mayb e they would beeven bu sier if so mepeopl e who would liketo ask for a visit knewexact ly wha t to ex­

pect. Perhaps the peopl e would beless relu ct an t to co ntact us.

Contacting a minister

The Worldwide C hurch of G odhas always had a policy of " nofollow- up." That me an s nobodywill eve r ca ll on you unl ess youyourse lf request it. However , wedo have mi nist ers an d t rainedrepresentat ives read y to help ifyou ask for it. So , if you were toask for a visit , this is wha t would

hap pen : Most req uests for per­sonal visits come to us thro ughth e mail , ei the r to world head ­qu arter s in Pasad ena or to one ofour man y region al offices whereour ministers se rve around th eworld. Also, man y peopl e, espe­cially in N orth Ameri ca, use thete lepho ne inst ead of wri t ing .

Bu t w het her yo ur requ es tco mes by ph one or mai l, our pr o­cedure is th e same. The messageis sent immediat ely to our Per­so nal Cor res po ndence Depar t­me nt. H ere it is g iven top-prioritytr eatment.

Quick ly - usuall y by re turnmail - a letter will be sent toyou, informing you of th e tele­ph one number of th e c losestauthorized representati ve to yourhom e. This represen tat ive wi llnormally be the ordai ned mini sterwho is past oring th e loca l co ngre­gat ion of the Worldwid e C hurc hof G od .

You should ca ll him as soo n aspossibl e and ar range a time th at ismutually conveni ent for th e visit,whi ch will usu all y take place inyour own hom e but elsew he re ifyou pr efer . In some major cit iesth e Worldwide C hurc h of G odmay have a downtown office,whic h, of course, is a co nvenientplace to meet.

If you would rathe r have ourminist er contact you, inst ead ofyou contacting him, let us knowwhen asking for a visi t.

The visit

Who will co me? The min ist er ~himself, pr ob abl y. He is t rai ned Man d co mpetent to answer your ~Bib le qu esti ons and to help you ~

with any personal co unsel you ~may desire. H e wi ll be accompa- ~

March 1984 9

nied by his wife , ano ther min isteror a senior member of th e localcongregat ion .

T hey will not be coming toarg ue religion wit h you. Theywon 't give you th e th ird degr ee orpry into yo ur person al affairs .They will not try to get you tojoi n some thi ng, nor will th ey haveanything to se ll. ( However, theymay sugges t that you write forsome of our f ree books and book­let s. T he W orldwide Church ofGod publish es a wid e asso rt me ntof free liter ature on th e Bible andtopi cs relat ed to success fu l liv­ing. ) Our re presentat ives will notaccept mon ey, eit her as directpayment or genera l cont ributio nsto God's work .

Us ua lly, they will have plannedto spend about an hour with you,for th ey have a bu sy schedule andman y peopl e to see. If you haveman y qu esti ons and think youmay need more time, you shouldlet our represen tative know whenyou first conta ct him so th at heca n plan his sched ule for th e dayaccord ing ly.

Our men will not be wearin gst ra ng e clothes , nor will th eyem barrass you in any way. Theywi ll con ce nt rate on an sweringyou r qu esti ons and j ust getting tokn ow yo u the fir st tim e t heycome .

" First t ime!" you may exclaim." Yo u m ean th e y wi ll co meback ?"

That dep en ds ent irely on you.N ot if you don't want them to .Our representat ives will neverpest er or bother you. They won' tvisit agai n unless you spec ificallyask them. That is just not th e waywe do things.

Further contact

But if you do wa nt mor e con­tact - and th ere are some sub­j ect s (l ike baptism, for inst ance)whic h you and th e minist er willneed mor e th an one visit to t hor­oug hly discu ss - the n our m inis­ter s will be pleased to sch ed ulefurther appoint me nts .

O f course, th er e are st ill man yareas of the world whe re we donot have fu ll-t im e represen ta­t ives. In some parts of Africa and

10 The GOOD NEWS

As ia, for example, one man mayhave to se rve a who le country oreven seve ra l countries. Ph one ser­vice may be nonexistent and thepostal se rvice may be slow andunreliabl e.

In th ese cases, our proced uremay not be qu ite so efficie nt. Itmay be seve ra l wee ks or evenmonths befor e th e minist er is dueto visit your area . If you live faroff the beaten track , he may haveto ask you to meet him in a near­by town . But he will not ignoreyour request , and eve ntua lly hewill meet you. Our minist ers willgo anyw he re - th e foothills ofth e H imalayas, up the Amazon,the N orth S lope of Alaska or thesmalles t is lands of the SouthPacific.

(T he wr iter rem embers th atsome yea rs ago he was told by hissuperior " not to com e back " untilhe had contacted a ma n who hadbeen waiting for several yea rs ona remote island several hundredmi les fr om Fiji.)

Nothing to fear

So whoever you are, whereveryou are , if you have wonde redabout as king for a personal visitfro m one of God 's tr ue min ist ers ,don' t be afra id to.

Here are so me actual com­ments showi ng th e react ions ofreaders who have been visi ted byGod's ministers:

I was impressed by the min­ister's wide field of knowl­edge, not only in the Bible butthe extension of it into thefields of human endeavor, andhis attention to the principlesof success.

God desires us to succeed ,yet we need to be taught.Here is a man trained and ded­icated to teaching us how tosucceed in our lives, our mar­riages, our child rearing , ourjobs, giving us the knowledgeand counsel we need , helpingus see where we are makingmistakes, spending his life tohelp us become obedient toGod 's laws.

What a contrast to the " re li­gious politicians," who are

like government politiciansexcept they are in a differentfield!

Having a true minister ofthe living God near to call onis truly a great blessing andcomfort. To know he is contin­ually improving himself byacquiring additional under­standing and knowledge ,which automatically makeshim even more capable tohelp, is a continually increas­ing blessing.

Thanks be to God for minis­ters of knowledge , under­standing and compassion.

Washington

My husband and I are pro­spective members at the timeof writing th is letter, but bythe time you receive it , we willbe baptized members! Withour baptism only a few daysaway, we felt this a good timeto write and express our deeplove and gratitude for every­thing we learned throughyou.

We hope Ambassador Col­lege will continue to educatesuch fine ministers as theones who have helped andinstructed us along the way toour baptism.

We just want to let youknow how joyous we are thatGod has called us and givenus you to gu ide us throughthese end times.

New York

Don ' t be concerned th at yourhom e is " not nice enoug h." Don 'tthink you are bein g a nu isance.Don 't worry th at you will be infor a peculi ar ex perience withsom e st ra nge peop le. Don 't beafraid th at you will be "gett inginvolved ," or th at pressu re will beput on you to join some thing .

None of th ese things will hap­pen. What will happen is th at youwill meet decent, friendl y peopl ewho will consider it a pri vilege tobe allowed to help you in any waythey can .

Oh , yes : A nd th ey will dri nk acup of coffee or tea if you ca re tooffer it. 0

'I UpholdMy Integrity'

It's human to try to justify ourselves - witness Job's example!But what does God require of us in terms of righteousness?

By Jerold W, Aust

11

lawbreaking, he still has a respon ­sibility!

So it is w i t h C hr is t ia ns.C hrist's death paid , in our stead,th e pen alty for our sins ( Ro m .6:2 3, 5:8-10) . But th at does notfree us from responsibility afte rwe accept th at sac r ifice.

After all, God required eve nJesu s - who never sinned andthus did not bring the de ath pen­alty for sin on Himself - to su f­fer man y trials in orde r to learn toobey Hi s Father while in a ph ysi­ca l sta te of ex iste nce ( He b. 5:8).A nd it just doesn 't mak e goodse nse th at th at sa me God wo uldnot require any mor e fro m yo uand me than to say we love Hi mand "give our hearts" to Him .

Understand : G od ' s C h u rc hdefinitely does not preach sa lva­tion by works. W e are saved byG od 's g race throu gh faith , andeven th at fa ith is not our ow n butC hris t's faith, wh ich G od gives usthrou gh Hi s Holy Spiri t (Epn. ]

2:8). '"/ '- But whi le we ~~.:=-... ' live under th e ~

.... :~, ,, ~ grace of G od, ~

,ei, .~;: t-" G od requires ~~.. ' . - , l it......·:""" ,]! ,', ~

'ii)!, n;'r " u~ ,. ~,tfrt '~ \, ~ jl/;~," },' ·1i\\\1 't" i· JlJ"~ t :.i \ ,'

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I r \\\·r.\d .\: iL(l :<: ,~ ;:;;! ! : ',:..:~~ q '~ ~~ \ '" ,, ' "'j\ ,"" '" ,. "

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"\~~\\: ii, t 'fi ! . ~('.it'.t

Millions of professingChristians believeth ey can come to

God " j us t as they a re" !Th e y r e a s on th at J e su s

C h r is t " d id it a ll" for them a tth e c ross. A ll o ne h as to donow, th ey believe , is acce p t./e sus in the heart, profess tolo v e H im and b e " bo r n

to be born again? I f you have notread our sta r t ling fre e bookl etJust What Do You M ean ­Born A ga in? wr ite for a co py atour add ress near est you.

Conside r the dri ver who vio­lat es a traffic law. Suppose th atwh en thi s dr iver appea rs in co urtto face se n te nc ing, the j udg einstead forgives him - abso lveshim of guilt and sets him free .

Does th at mean th atagain ."

/.~. --.." th e driver i ~ fr ee to goSounds sim ple, doesn 't / '0~f' , out and violat e t ra f-

it '? I\ r b . \ fie laws at will fromBut does God 's plan If;?,'(J'i . • / ' \ th en on? o~ T~e

of sa lvatio n really work ', '*';',~, ',_"';'.,,~~ la ws a re s t i li Inthi s way? Does Jesu s' ( ~}:;p~; \ J ... ' \ .force , an~ he willsac r i f ice remove a ll s ' !:?':r; ' /" \ : Incur th eir pen al-respon sibilit y from us? r~,:; ·< f~t I ties ever y time heWhy, then , d oes the v...... \ /-,';'p",~. ,; , breaks one.apos t le Paul tell us to '\~ " ;1 ,}"y~~ ,~ I Though the dri v-work out our own salva- ' :1\, y er is freed from thetion wit h fear and trem- / ' ~' pen alty of thi s pastbling ( Phil. 2: 12) ? / t;J:c.; ., "-And wha t does it .r i:i4:r:;;; ~:~- ':. I '~:--mean , exact ly, ~t " ' ~_' -: ·ft"" . (~ \ -:/- ' \

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us to obey His command me ntsand per form C hris t ian works .A nd th ose works det ermine wha treward we shall receive in God'scoming Kin gd om. In th e par ableof th e talents (Matt. 25:14-30) ,th e se rva nt who, sy m bo lically,th ou ght C hr ist's sacr ifice haddon e it all and thus did nothinghimself d id not even qu alify forsalvation, let alone a rew ard!

H ow many times have yo uheard of par ents who withheld awayward son's inheritance untilth e so n co m p lie d wit h theirwishes? The inh er itan ce is a gift.There is nothing th e son can do toea rn it - the par ents give it tohim fre ely. But th e son mu st doce r ta in thin gs t o qu alify toreceive th at gift.

It is t he sa me with sa lvat ion.Salvat ion is God's free gift to us.W e don 't ea rn it by any works.But th er e are certa in things wemu st do to qualify to receive it.

The point is unmist akable: Godwill not accept you or me just aswe are. H e demands th at weprove our love and obedience toHim (Jas. 2: 18-20, I John 2:3-6,J as. 1:21- 27 ) .

We are now nearing th e seasonof th e Passover, th e annua l me­mori al of th e death of Jesus. Godinstructs us to examine ourselvesduring this time ( II Cor. 13:5) ,especially in light of J esus' per­fect sac rifice and our imperfectconduct.

Are you sa t isfied with yourspir itua l progress as a disciple ofC hrist? Do you so metimes feelyou have little to repent of - th atGod will receive you as you arenow? God will not acce pt youwit ho u t yo ur heartfelt re pe n­tance. Let's see why.

Job and his three friends

Recall th e Old T est am ent sto ryof J ob. God, to teach a speciallesson , allowed Sat an to kill Job 'schildre n, destroy all J ob 's mat eri­al possessions and afflict Job withpainful boils all ove r his bod y.Most of th e book of Job is mad eup of a dialogu e tha t took placebetween J ob and th re e of hisclose fri ends afte r th ese tr agedi esocc urred .

Job 1:3 tells us th at J ob was

12 The GOOD NEWS

th e greatest person of th e East.H is friends, Eliphaz, Bildad andZopha r, may well have been pro­fess iona l assoc iates of his. Thethree came fro m, appa ren t ly,some little dist ance, each from hisown place (J ob . 2: II ) , to comfortJob:

" A nd when they raised thei reyes from afar, and did not recog­nize him, they lifted th eir voicesand wept; and each one tore hisrob e and sprinkled du st on hishead toward heaven. So th ey satdown with him on th e gro undseve n days and seve n nights, andno one spoke a word to him , fort hey saw tha t his grief was verygreat" (ve rses 12-13) .

Jealousy surfaces

Finally Job spoke. Hi s torrentof un witt ing wor ds, th ough , onlyclouded the issue at hand. Whywas Job being afflicted? Afte r all,wasn't he a righteous person ? Jobwent to lengths to tr y to substan­t iate his sinless ness .

N o human othe r th an Jesuswas eve r complete ly sinless. Allhumans sin - br eak God 's holy,ri ght e ou s la ws ( Ro m . 3 :2 3,I John 3:4). Even if a per soncould manage to sin only "a tinybit," whatever th at would mean ,God would st ill need to clear allcha racter defect s from his life (ICor. 3:12- 15) . God has no inte n­tion of coexist ing for ever wit hunholin ess and sin ( Rev . 2 1:22­27).

Once Job attempted to defendhimself, his three friends couldnot sit idl y by, nodd ing th ei rapproval to his slig htly warpedse lf-assess me nt.

E n te r jealo usy . Su re , th e yrespected him - they prob abl yenvied his great ness . They likel yeve n fear ed him. But th ey feltth ey had to se t him st ra ight. H er ewas th eir chance to deflat e some ­one to whom th ey prev ious ly mayhave had to play seco nd fidd le.

Re ad Job 15:9-10 . How oftenhad th ey observed his wealth , hisway of car ry ing h im sel f , hi simpeccable speech, his insig htfuldecisions and unimpeach ab le wis­dom ? But now, yes, he was sitt ingin a pile of ashes suffering fro mputrid boils! Wasn' t it obvious

tha t something was diabolicall ywro ng with J ob ? How could th eyremain quiet ?

J ealousy prevailed. Ente r se lf­r ighteousness .

Self-righteousness prevails

What gene ra lly happens whe none per son is jealous of anothe r?Often he will do his best to belit­tle th e other. How ? By ex to llinghimself, for he, of course , is th esta ndard by which he rates (a ndberat es) others. W he n one doesthis, he is proclaiming his ow nri gh teou sn ess ( Prov . 20 :6, 9,2 1:2).

No t ice w ha t E l i p haz th eTemanite said to Job : "Should awise man answer wi t h em ptyknowledge, and fill himsel f withthe eas t wind? . . . What do youknow that we do not know? Whatdo you underst and th at is not inus? . . . I will tell you, hear m e;what I have see n I will declar e"(Job 15:2, 9, 17).

When one is se lf-r ighteo us , hedoes not recogni ze th at he is se lf­r ighteous. H e can ' t at th e t ime, orhe would not be so livid in hisown defen se.

Job 's three frie nds no doubtcame to J ob with good inte nt ions.But th eir goo d intentions we reliber ally mi xed with th eir ownse lf- importance a nd se lf- r ig h­teousness. W e all suffe r fro m th ispr oblem on occasion. W e ca n beour own wors t ene my !

Job's great enemy

Job did battle with a false god- himsel f! He had a probl emwith van ity . Satan is th e aut horand per petu ator of vanity, andth is world has read ily adopted th eways of vanity in eve ry area.That ' s one reason wr on g peerpressure can destroy you.

J ob , at th at point, was his ow nworst ene my becau se he allowedhi s th ough ts and accom plis h­ments to obsc ure his perspect iveof and relati onsh ip with God .

Job 's att itude is well sum medup by his state me nt in Job 27 :5-6:" T ill I d ie I will not put away myintegrity from me. M y righ teous­ness I hold fast , and will not let itgo; my heart sha ll not reproachme as long as I live." Job was

saying, in effect, " I uphold myintegrity !"

S ilent- film sta r C harlie C ha p­lin once offe red a humor ou s por­tra yal o f t he pompous , se lf­important att itudes di spl ayed byAdolf Hitler and Benito Musso­lini . In C ha plin's skit , th ese twoFascist lead ers were seate d onold-s ty le, hand-cranked barbercha irs . Each too k turns cra nkinghimself higher and high er in th echa irs, un t il both were si tti ng atan absu rd and pe rilous height.Th e le s son was cl ea r : Botht ho ug h t too h ighl y of t he m­se lves.

Likewise, Job 's en em y was hisse lf- im por tance and se lf- r ig h­teou sness: " T hen J ob answeredand said: 'N o doubt you are th epeople, and wisdo m will d ie withyou! But I have understand ing aswe ll as you; I am not in fer ior toyou . Ind eed , who does not knowsuc h things as th ese ? ' " (Job12:1-3) .

Job went so far as to eve n dareGod to show him wh at his sinswer e (J ob 13:23).

Her e is th e point about ourwea k condi tion as human bein gs:Had J ob d irected t his specificquestion to God from si ncerehu m ility and a desire to co rrecterro r, G od co uld have helped J obimmedi ately. But Job was deter­mined to defend himsel f and hissuppose d superior ity.

A ne edl e s s s q ua b b le haderu pted between the th ree friendsand Job over who was supe rior.A lthoug h each ostens ibly ad mit­ted that God was, th eir responsesto one anothe r beli ed a deeperfeeli ng of th eir ow n superiori ty .

The key is to dail y co mpareoneself with God and only God .J esu s had no diffic ulty wit h th is.He had been di vine before Hebecame human. He kn ew th e di f­ference between being a ca rn alhuman and bein g God . That' swhy whe n He ex perienced th ewea kness and frailty of humanex iste nce, He humbled Himselfeve n to th e poin t of death on thestake (Phil. 2:8) .

What is righteousness?

The r igh t eou sn ess o f God ,clearly, has nothing to do with th e

se lf-righteous ness of man. Ourow n huma n rig hteousness is nobetter th an filt hy rags (l sa. 64:6) !We have seen that se lf- righteous­ness is wort hless . W ha t, the n, isgod ly righteousn ess?

N otice Psalm 119:172: " M ytongu e sha ll speak of Your word,for all Your com mand me nts arerighteou sn ess." There it is! Adi rect and specific Bibl e defini­tion . Could any thing be plainer?N ume ro us ot her scri ptures alsoshow th at t rue rig hteous ness isGod's way of life, as defined byGod's co mmand me nts.

A ll God's com ma nd me nts aresumme d up in two great com­mandments: love toward God andlov e tow ard neighbor ( Mat t.22 :35 -40). A nd I John 5:3 te lls usth at we ex pres s love toward Godby keep ing H is laws, specificallyth e great laws of love embodied inth e T en Com mandments. We areto keep th ese T en Com mand­men ts in the spi ri t as well as theletter of th e law.

The apos t le J am es ca lls God'scommandments "the perfect lawof liberty" ( Jas. 1:25 ) , a ndindeed, obey ing th ese laws liber­ates us fro m pain, sufferi ng anddeath , both premature ph ysicaldeath as well as ete rnal deat h inthe lake of fire !

The righteo usness of God isdefined as kee ping H is co mmand­ments. A rich young rul er askedJ esu s C hris t t he age-o ld quest ion ," Good T each er , wh at good thingsha ll I do th at I may have ete rnallife?" Jesu s answered, " If youwant to ente r into life, keep thecommand ments" ( Matt. 19: 16­17).

Was Jesu s kidding? Did Helater cha nge Hi s mind on thi smatt er , so vita l to sa lvatio n, anddecide th at H is death would freehumanity from th e responsibilityto keep th e same co mmandmentsHe referred to her e ?

Le t 's see wha t th e apos t le Johnsa id in abo ut A. D. 95, more th ansix decad es after Jesu s' death:" Blessed are those who do H iscommand me nts , that th ey mayhave th e rig ht to th e tree of life[symbolic of ete rnal life], andmay enter th rou gh the ga tes intot he ci ty [the heavenly J erusalem,

sy m bo lic of God's Kingdom] "( Rev . 22: 14) .

It' s quite obvious th at Jesusdidn ' t change H is mind, sinceth at same J esu s is the one whod eli vered th e messages in thebook of Revelati on (Rev. I : I )! Doyou beli eve Him ? Yo u must , youkn ow. God ca nnot allow anyoneto live and rule wit h Him whowill not ag ree wi th and obey H im .Would you?

You can 't do it alone

O f co urse, yo u ca nno t obeyGod 's co mmand me nts on yo urow n power (Rom. 8:7). You can' tmak e yourse lf righteous . It tak esth e power of God's Hol y S pir it,which God only gives to th osewho obey Him (Acts 5:32) .

God mu st impa rt to you H isown righteous ness - H is ownnatu re. Yo u must allow J esu sC hris t to live Hi s life over in you(Gal. 2:20).

God's Holy Spirit helps us toperform God's righteou sn ess ­to obey H is commandments. A ndwh en we fail - and we will fromtime to time - we mu st acknowl­edge thos e sins and repent befor eour G od , and He wi ll th en applythe sinless , shed blood of our Sav­ior to blot th ose sins out of exis­te nce (I J oh n 1:8-1 0).

Weare near th e Passover sea­son, and J esu s is our Passover (ICo r . 5:7) . Especially at th is cru­cial t im e, we a re ex pected toexamine ourse lves to see wh etherwe reall y are in th e faith (I Cor.11:28, II Cor. 13:5).

J ob fina lly recogni zed he hadnot been as much "in th e fai th "as he previously had pres umed(Job 42: 1-6) . A re you?

W ill you ap proach this Pass­ove r with J ob 's form er approach,challeng ing someone to specifi­cally number your sins if th ey ca nfind th em ? Or will you compar eyourse lf to Jesu s' per fect exampl eand th en ask G od to help you seeand overcome all your iniquitiesand sins?

If you wi ll follow this latterco urse, God will pardon you andbless you as never before - Hewill help you overcome and quali­fy for Hi s Kingdom. Of suc hthings, sa lvat ion is mad e! 0

March 1984 13

An Important Reminder-

How LeavenPictures Sin

God offers Christians vital lessons through theDays of Unleavened Bread. What do these days picture,

and how can they help you lead a happier life?

By George M. Kackos

T h e a pos t les we rejolted! First , thesou nd of a violent

windstorm filled the housewhere they were meeting.Then , a lmost before theyhad time to think, glowingflames of fire began leapingupon them.

G od ' s H ol y Sp irit h adente re d th em, and th e power

of th at Spirit was far greate rth an the forces of nature theyhad witnessed .

To their amazement , theycould now spea k words they hadnot spoken before. Quickly thenews spread - here wer e menw ho co u ld s pea k m an y lan­guages.

Thou sands speaking di fferentlan gu ages eagerly ga t he re d tohear th e a pos t les . What th eyheard shocked th em. Man y were

deepl y con victed by th eir g uilt inth e de ath of th eir S avior, J esu sC h ris t. A mighty urge to doso me thing sti r red within them,a nd they as ked the a pos t les ," W hat sha ll we do?"

Th e repl y ec ho ed loud a ndclear: " Re pe nt, and let everyoneof you be bapti zed in th e name ofJesu s C hrist for th e rem ission ofsins ; and yo u sha ll receive th e g iftof th e H oly S pirit" (Acts 2:38) .

Those earl y C hrist ian co nve r ts

began so met hing that God 's trueCh urch st ill pr actices - baptismfor the forgiven ess of sin.

But how, exactly , sh ould a trueChristi an deal with s in, bothbefore and afte r baptism ? Thisquesti on brings us to our subject,th e Days of U nleavened Bread.To understand this Festi val andits meaning and applica t ion to ourlives, le t' s go back in history.

These days are commanded

Because of famine, th e descen­d an ts o f th e patri arch Is rae lended up in Egypt more th an3,000 yea rs ago. Th ere theybecame slaves (Ex. I :8- 1 I ).

Through a series of mirac les,G od finall y released th e Is raelitesfro m bondage . Among th e mira­cles was the death of th e Egy p­t ian firs tborn. T o prot ect theirown firstborn, the Israel ites wererequired to begin keeping theFe stival called Passove r (Ex .12:3-14) .

For C hrist ians today, this Fes­tival pictures our acceptance ofJ esu s C hrist's sacr ifice for th efor given ess of our sins.

For mor e information on thePassover and God's other festi ­va ls, a nd wh at each pictures,write for our free booklet PaganHoliday s - or God's Holy Day s- Which?

God instituted, just a fter th e

Passover, another festival - theDays of Unleaven ed Bread. Thisseven-day fes t iva l pictu red there lease of Israel fr om Eg ypt(ve rses 15-17).

The Da ys of U nlea vened Breadwere held yearly during Abib,which is the first month of theHebrew calendar. This monthcorresponds to the time of theR o m an ca lendar mo n t h s ofM arch and April. Both t he 15thand 21st of A bib, the first andlast days of the Feast , are "holyconvocations" - days of re st andworship (Lev. 23:6-8) .

These days are st ill kept bytrue Christians today, and willalso be kept after Jesus Christ 'sSecond Coming (Ezek. 43:2, 7,45: 21) . This year th ey fall onApril 17 and 23.

Leaven symbolizes sin

During this Festival, all leavenand leavened foods are to be pu tout of your home and off yourproperty (Ex . 12:15, 13:7) . Thisincludes yeas t, baking soda, bak­ing powder - all le aveningagents, subst ances th at producefermentation and cause do ugh toris e. The prod ucts of leaven arebread , cake, some crackers, cer-

tain cookies and so me prep ar edcereals and pies . A few ca ndiesand other foods also use leaveningagents.

Of course, there is nothing sin­ful about these pr oducts th em­selves . Removing the m fro m ourhomes is m erel y a sy m bo licen actment of removing sin fromour lives.

Instead of eating these leav­ened food s, replace them withunleavened products ( Ex. 12:15,19- 20 , Lev. 23:6). These includemat zos, hardtack and a number off1 atbreads . But beware : S omefoods that are sold as " kos her forP as s ove r " con t ai n leaven ingagents .

If you are in d oubt a bo u twh ether a pr oduct is leaven ed ,che ck th e list of ingredi ents onthe wrapper. I f yo u a re s t illun sure, as k someo ne exper iencedor don't ea t it. Remember:"Whatever is not from faith issin" (Rom. 14:23) . Wheneveryo u eat bread during these days ,it sho uld be unleavened. '0

Far beyond the ph ysical uses of ~leaven ar e the significa nt sp iri- ~tual meanings. .2

After being jeered a t a nd ~

tempted by th e hyp ocritical Ph ar­isees and S adducees, J esu s said toHis own disciples, " Take heedan d bewar e of th e leaven of th ePh a r isees and the S add ucees"(Matt. 16:6). The di sciples d idn 'tknow what He meant. Do you?

The di scipl es th ou gh t J esu swas ta lking abo ut ph ysic al br ead ,bu t He was n' t. He was talki ngabout th e doctrine of th e religiou sauthorit ies, which led peopl e intosin ( Matt. 16:11-1 2, 23 :13). Byway of analogy, this leaven offalse doctrine has spread throught he who le world as a tool ofSata n's deception (Rev. 12:9)!

The apost le P aul al so usedleaven as a symbo l for sin . A cer­tain C hurch member was co m­mitting a serious sin and makingno progress toward rep en tan ce.Paul sa id this per son was like alittle leaven th at would affec tth e w ho le lump - ot he rC hurch members - wit h hissinful way of life. The personwas put out of th e C hurch.

S ince Paul w ro te to th ebre thren du rin g th e Days ofU nleavened Bread , th ey wouldhave already pu t out th e ph ysicalleavening fro m th eir hom es. Nowhe encoura ged them to put outthe leaven of mali ce and wicked­ness - sin. He to ld th em to ea tth e unl eaven ed bread of since rityand truth - ri ghteou sn ess (ICor. 5: 1-8 ).

Sin versus righteousness

When you consider th e natureof both leavened and unl eaven edbr ead , you can see severa l spir i­tu al co mpariso ns with sin an drighteou sness. Let's noti ce th em:

• Li ving in sin is easy; beingrigh teous is hard. Becau se of itssoft texture, leaven ed bread iseasier to eat th an unl eavenedbr ead. Likewise , go ing th e way ofsin is eas ier th an living rig hteo us­ly (Matt . 7:13-14). Obeyin g G odis di fficult eve n for a C hristian,becau se you st ill have a ca rnalnature th at wants to sin ( Rom.7:14-25) .

• S in exalts th e self; righteou s­ness builds humility . Leavenpu ffs br ead up. The sa me is trueof sin. It puffs up th e sinner ­his desire is to exalt himself rath-

16 The GOOD NEWS

er th an allow God to" rul e him( Ps. 10:3) . When you choos e tolive God's righteou s way of life,you abase se lfish desires.

• Sin's p leasures are tempo­rary ; th e benefit s of righ teous­ness end ure. Leaven ed bread lefto u t soo n bec om e s hard a ndmoldy. U nleavened bread lastsmuch lon g e r. S pir it ua lly, t hepleasures of sin soo n pass away(J ob 20: 12-1 6). The end result iseternal death (Rom . 6:23). Ri gh ­teou sn ess, in co nt rast, brings bothtemporal and ete rnal blessings(Deut. 28:1-1 3, Ps. 15) .

• Sin spreads eas ily; righteous-

God is showing,through the analogy ofleaven , that He wants

us to escape theclutches of sin andlead righteous lives.

ness is built slow ly. It doesn'ttak e long for leaven to spreadthrou gh out a loaf of br ead. This isth e way sin is - it spreads rap­idl y (Gal. 5:9) , whereas buildingright character tak es a lifet ime.

• S in is based on deceit; truthis th e basis for righteousness.W hat you see is not wha t you getwith a loaf of leaven ed bread . Ai rpock ets give the impression tha tth ere 's more in th e loaf tha n therereall y is. S in also ap pears to besomething it isn't, deceiving th esinner into thi nkin g he is ge ttingsome thi ng worthw hile when he isonly ea rn ing th e death pen alty(Heb. 3:13) . W it h righteou sn essth ere is no deceit, only t ruth (Ps .119 :151,1 72) .

• Sin is m ore prevalent than

righteousness. Most peopl e pr e­fer leaven ed bread becau se th eyfind its taste mor e de sirabl e. Is itreally better ? Not necessaril y ­j ust mo re co m mo n. Peopl e areacc us tomed to it.

S pirit ually, th e sa me is t ru e .M ost people pr efer to live in sin.But yo u must reject s in, andchoose to live a righ teou s life( De ut. 30 :19) .

• S in bu ilds a false im age;righ teousness builds true charac­ter. As you have seen, leaven edbr ead gives a false impression . Sodoes th e sinne r. He may appearimpressive on th e outsid e, bu t ishe ? Read Matthew 23:27. Truech ar acter is based on mu ch mor e

th an outward appeara nce. Itin volves righteou s livin gba sed o n o bed ie nce t o

God's W ord (1 John 2:5) .

Grow in righteousness

W hat G od is show ing usth rou gh th e ana logy of leaven

and sin, parti cularl y at thi s ti meof th e Days of U nleavened Bread ,is clear: He wa nts you to escapeth e clutch es of sin an d lead arigh teou s life. But how ca n youelim ina te sin and grow in righ­teousn ess? The follo win g " threeR s" - recogn ize, r esi st a ndrepent - can help.

1) R ecognize sin. Can you rec­ognize sin? M an y cannot. Why?M ost peopl e ove rlook G od 's sim­pl e, c lear definiti on for s in :"Wh osoever co m m itt e t h s intransgresseth also the law: for sinis the transgression of th e law" (IJohn 3:4, Authori zed Version) .

Discerning sin is a matter ofapplying G od 's law . At th e basisof G od 's law are the T en Com­mandments (Ex. 20: 1-17, Deut.5:6-2 1). Do you kn ow what th eT en Command me nts ar e? If not ,how can you possibl y expect toove rco me and put sin - spir itua lleaven - out of your life ? God 'slaws are real , working forces tha tguarantee goo d results whe n youare in harmon y with th em. Theywere given to be lived and ac tedup on , not ignored or out r ight lyrejected!

Beyond th e basic command­ments, G od requires obedience to

(Continued on page 22)

QUESTIONS & ANSWERSIs there any evidence, out­

side the Bible, that JesusChrist really lived?

Actua lly, th e accounts in th eBibl e, whi ch is God 's inspiredrevelat ion to humanity, are proofenoug h. But ex t rabiblical sourcesalso amply attes t th at J esus lived ,was bo rn of a yo ung vi rgi n,pr eached th e Gospe l, perfor medmiracl es and was conde mned toexecut ion.

Just in M artyr , a seco nd-ce n­tury th eol ogi an , wr ote : " Nowth er e is a village in th e land of th eJ ews, 35 stadia from Jeru salem ,in whic h C hrist was born , as youca n ascerta in also fro m the regis­tri es of the taxing under Cyre niusyour first procurator in Judea"(Firs t Apology, cha pte r 34) .

Justin was referring to publicrecords tha t ex iste d in his day todem onstrat e th at Jesus was bornin Judea. O f course , one wouldexpec t tha t a re ligionist suc h asJust in would naturall y suppo rtJ esus' authe nticity as a historicalperson . But what about a hist ori­an who despised C hrist ians?

Cornelius Tacitus , Rom an his­torian , senator, consul and gover­nor of the pr ovince of Asia, wro teconcerni ng J esus and Christians:" Nero . . . pu nish ed wit h eve ryrefinem ent th e notoriou sly de­pr aved C hris t ians (as th ey werepopularly ca lled) . Their origina­tor , C hrist, had been executed inT iber ius' reign by th e gove rnor ofJudea, Pon tius Pilat e. But in spiteof this tem por ar y se tback, th ede adl y supe rs t it ion had br ok enou t a fres h, not only in Judea(where th e misch ief had sta rted)bu t eve n in Rom e" (The Annalsof Imperial R ome, xv, 44) .

Th is was not a C hr istian wri t­ing, bu t a pagan Rom an hist ori anwho hat ed eve ryt hing C hrist ian.T acitus had access to gove rn me ntrecords. H e had proof Jesus wascrucified !

W e also have the test imon y ofanothe r Rom an , th e fourth-ce n­tu ry em peror Jul ian th e A posta te

(so ca lled becau se he turned fromC hris t iani ty afte r being brou ghtup in it). He wrote a major workagai nst C hristianity in which hesa id thi s: " Jesus, whom you ce le­brat e, was one of Caesar's sub­ject s. If you di spute it , I willprove it by and by; but it may beas well don e now. For yourse lvesallow, tha t he was enrolled withhis fathe r and mothe r in the t imeof Cyrenius . . . . Bu t J esus havingper suaded a few amo ng you, andth ose the worst of men , has nowbeen ce lebrated about 300 years;having don e nothing in his life­t ime wor t hy of remembran ce;unl ess anyo ne th inks it a mightymatt er to heal lame and bli ndpeople, and exo rcise dem oniacs inth e vill ages of Bethsaida andBethan y" (quoted in th e polemicof Cyril of A lexand ria againstJul ian , Cy ril Contra J ulian, vi,pages 2 I 3, I 9 I ).

If Jul ian could have dem on­st rated t ha t J esu s was not anaut hen tic figure, he would havedon e so. Inst ead , he asserted t ha tth e proof th at J esu s was one ofCaesar's subjects was st ill avail­able ( t he census records we reapparent ly sti ll in the im pe rialarc hives). Rather th an den yingth at J esus performe d miracl es,Jul ian simply do wnplayed th esemiracl es as not being a " mightymatter."

What about th e J ews? If J esusd id not ex ist, the J ews would havehad no reason to rej ect H im!A lt ho ugh th ey did not acceptJ esus, th ey were forced by th ever y ci rc ums ta nce of Hi s powert o r ecogni ze Him i n th eirrecords.

The J ewish historian Josephusadmitted that J esus, J esus' d isci­ples and John th e Baptist lived.H e ca lled John th e Baptist "thegood man " (A ntiqu it ies of theJews, xviii, 5, 2). Sch olars recog­nize the genuineness of Josephus'account conce rn ing the death ofJ am es, " the br other of J esus whowas ca lled C hrist" (A nt iquities,xx, 9, I) .

J esus is also mentioned in theT almud . The Jewish E ncyclope­dia terms as a mere "subte rfuge"the attempt of athe ists to den ythose talmudic references tha tapply to Jesus of N azar eth .

In th e T almud, J esus is ca lled"Son of Pandera," whi ch ob­scures th at H e was born of ayoung virg in. Pandera , a wordmeaning " panther" or " leo pard,"is an anag ram for th e Greek wordp ar thenos, meaning "virgi n."The re fer ence makes Jesus, figu­rati vely, th e son of a panther orleop ard ( t he Greek wo rd fo r"panther" is panther, which J ew­ish usage corru pte d into th e formpandera ).

The T almud subt ly ca lls theGospel th at Jesus preach ed anavengil, meaning a "blank pa­per," rath er th an referring toJ esu s' message by the or igina lwo rd evangel, meaning "goodnews." J esus br ought the goodnews of the comi ng Kingd om ofGod !

There a re records of J esu shealing th e blind, th e halt and theleprous. The T almud also men­t ions Hi s wa lki ng on th e sea.J esus' mi racles were not den iedby th e J ews. Instead , th ose whosaw J esus perform those miraclessa id H e learn ed so rcery inEgypt.

J esu s is ca lle d "dead dog ,"" the hanged one," " the sorcerer,"" Balaam" and "Sed ucer." Noticethe similari ty between some ofthese epithets and t he acc usationin Matthew 12:24 .

These fac ts, all fro m sourcesouts ide th e Bible, clearl y substa n­t iat e th e ex is te nce of J esu sC hrist. J esus was not a myth ­the Bibl e record is true. Th isworl d will soo n see just how realJ esus C hrist is today!

If you would like furthe r infor­mati on about J esu s C hris t andth e Gospel H e came to announce,se nd immed iatel y for our fr eere pr int se ries " Is Jesus God?"and our free bookl et What Is theTrue Gospel? 0

March 1984 17

AreYouSelf-Righteous?

Could you be guilty of thisdeadly, insidious sin? How can you be sure?

By Bernard W. Schnippert

I hate bugs. Al ways have.I g uess th e reason I hate

b ugs is that we didn ' t havebugs in o u r house when I wasa kid .

Well, maybe an occasiona l an twandered into our house, but aquick spray of ant ki ller put anend to that nonsense in a hur ry .What I mean is that we never hadany bad bugs - like roaches.

The fact that we had no bu gs,while others d id, ma de me fee lsuperior - t hat I was even in aseparate class above those whodid have bugs. A fte r all, I rea­soned, our hou se was bu g-freebeca use i t was c lea n. Ot herhouses must be a mess or theywouldn't have bu gs.

So you can im agin e my con­ce rn (no, mak e that my hor ror)whe n, having grown up , marri edand j ust bou ght a new house, Iarose late one night to get a glassof mi lk, only to turn on the lightand d iscover bu gs! In my house!Mine! T housands of them. A ndthey were th e much-d esp isedroaches!

I learned a lesson from thisexperience. I learn ed that every­one has bugs fro m ti me to timeand may not eve n know it. Eve nme .

Even you.But the bu gs I want to write of

here are n't the kind we ge t in ourkitc he ns . Rather, th ey are sp iri­tual pests; t hey are the sins weco mm it.

O f co urse, everyo ne has sins,

18 The GOOD NEWS

but the pr ob lem is th at some­t imes we don 't think we haveth em (a t least not th e bad ones) .

Spiritual bugs

How about you? Do you havespi ri tua l bu gs and not know it ? Ifso, you may be engaged in a se lf­deception th at co uld rob you ofyour eternal life.

Consider Pau l's warni ng on th esubject in Galatians 6:3 : " For ifanyo ne thi nks himsel f to be some­th ing , when he is noth ing, hedeceives himself."

Decei vin g o urse lves is thewor st type of decept ion possible.Yet the ca pac ity for se lf-dece p­tion lurks in eve ryone of us. An dco nsider for a mom ent the conse­quences of this se lf-deception .R ead the account Jesus gave ofthe pu bl ican and th e Ph arisee inLuke 18:9- 14 .

Here J esus gives us a par ableabo u t " some who trusted inthemsel ves th at they were righ ­teous, and despi sed othe rs" (ve rse9). Despi sing others is a co mmo natti tude of th e per son who is se lf­r ighteous.

The Ph arisee thoug ht he wasrighteou s - full of virtues. Heprayed and th anked God for allth ose suppose d virtues. The pub­lican , who knew he was a sinner,humbly prayed and co nfessed hissins before G od .

A nd th e results? God heardth e prayer of th e sinning publi­can , but not th at of th e "righ­te ous" Ph ari see . The Phariseewas not justifi ed (his sins were

not forgiv en ) because he wouldadmit to no sin in th e firs t place(verse 14) .

Could t his be happening toyou? Think about it ! You co uldbe like th is Ph ari see and not eve nknow it. You r pr ayers could behind ered , and yo ur sins co uldrem ain un for given .

T his is serious! J esu s tells us,"U nless you r righteou sn ess ex­ceeds the righteous ness of thescri bes and Ph arisees, you wi ll byno means ente r the kingd om ofheaven " ( Mat t. 5:20).

Do you want to enter God'sKingd om ? Then you need to besure th at your righteousness isreal and not self-r ighteous ness .

Her e's how.

All have sinned

T o begin with, you m ust firs tsee any possible self-righteous­ness. A nd to see self- righteo us­ness, you m ust first kn ow exact lywha t it is.

S elf-r ighteou sn ess is the atti­tude of beli eving you are not a" big" sinner. (Even a se lf-righ­teous pe rso n wi ll occas ionallyad mit in public or to himsel f thathe m igh t possibl y be sinning insome area.)

The Ph ari see of J esu s' par abl eis a classic example of se lf-r igh­teou sn ess. He clearly shows th eatt itude of " I' rn not a sinne r"(i.e ., " I don 't have any bu gs - atleast not any bad ones!").

Self-righteou sn ess is insidiou sbec au se it blinds itself to th efacts. J esu s C hrist pointed out

th e deceptiveness of se lf- r ig h­teousness when He ch astised thePh arisees (Matt. 23). He repeat­edl y pointed to th e fact th at th eywere blinded spi rit ua lly .

How you can know

If self-r ighteousness can blindyou to itself, how ca n you know ifyou have it ?

Start by ad mitt ing at least th epossibility th at you may havesome self-righteo usness, and thenlook at some of the telltale signsto see if they could apply toyou.

A mo ng the signs are the verba lex pre ssio ns th at the self- r ig h­te ous person will find himselfsay ing (or thinking, which is justas bad) . These include expres­sions like "I would never do tha t"or " How ca n she be like th at ?" or"I ca n't believe th at I've donean ything wrong ."

These are all expressions rem­ini scent of my " I would neverhave bugs" att itude and, althoughmer ely outward express ions, th eysh ow self-rig hteousness in side .J esus plainl y taught tha t out ofth e abunda nce of th e heart themouth speaks ( Luke 6:45 ).

It may be th at th ose who sayth ese things are dece ived , and sin­cerely believe th at they are tellingthe truth . Perhaps we don't seeourse lves as capabl e of commit­tin g a part icul ar sin . If thi s is thecase, it would pay us to examineourselves ca refully, for we may becommitt ing th e same sin we con­demn in others (Rom. 2:1-3) !

There are also some telltaleatt itudes th at indicat e self-righ­teou sness.

One is a condescending att i­tud e. Such an att it ude is theopposi te of Jesus' atti tude andcom es from self-righteo usness.

Judgin g - th e act of passingan opinion (eve n to ourse lvesmentally) about th e spiritu almot ives of a per son when youdon 't have th e facts or it' s notyour place to do so - is alsowrong and shows se lf-righteous­ness. It is this very att itude thatJesus attempted to combat in thesto ry of th e mot e and the beam(Matt. 7:1-6) .

H arshn ess in d ealin g with

othe rs is also an atti tude indi cat­ing se lf-righteousness . Recall th atJesus told th e par able of the pub­lican and th e Ph ari see to combatthe self- rig hteousness of so mewho " des pise d ot he rs " ( Luke18:9).

Despi sing others and t reat ingth em harshl y becau se " they ' renot as good as you ar e" is a se lf­righteous atti tude .

R el ated t o h arshn ess butslight ly di ffer ent is being overlyst rict. Sometimes we automati­ca lly requi re othe rs to ad here toour st rict inte rpre ta t ions so th atthey (like us, we think) will berighteous.

Paul showed the error in thi stype of re asoning when he sta ted:" Fo r th ey being ignorant of God'srighteou sness, and see king toes ta blish th eir own righteousness[i.e. , se lf-rig hteous ness], have notsubm itted to the righteousness ofGod [instead , th ey go by theirow n sta nda rds and rul es] " (Ro m.10:3 ).

Recall th at J esus said it wasnot wrong for Hi s disciples topick a few handfuls of gr ain onth e Sabbath to eat right th en ,whe reas th e se lf-righteous andoverly st rict Phari sees would haveforb idden the di scipl es fr omdoing so (Matt. 12:1-7) .

Not only are th oughts and att i­tudes telltale sig ns of se lf-r igh­teousness, but certain act ions alsoindi cat e th e problem .

The act ion of avoiding or refus­ing to visit or be seen with certainpeopl e eve n at church servicesmay di spl ay se lf- r ig hteous ness(Gal. 2 :11- 13) . Likewise , notspeaking to some peopl e ca n stemfrom a wrong attitude ("I don 'twant to get too close to them ­th ey have bugs" ) . Refusin g tohelp or be fri ends with sometypes of people can betray feel­ing s th at we are superior to ormore righteous th an they.

Proof th at th is frame of mind iswrong is found in C hrist 's mu ch­cited and little-under stood par­able of th e good Sam ar itan ( Luke10:25-37) . Read it and ask your­se lf whether yo u would havesto pped to help the injured manor passed by.

Of course, this is not to say

th at we are required to have fel­lowship with people who alwaysinfluence us wrongly, or thoserecogni zed as harming or ca usingd ivisions in God 's C hurch (Ro m.16:17 ).

Paul wro te that we s ho u ldreceive those weak in th e faith,but not to " do ub tfu l di sputa­tio ns" ( Rom. 14:1, AuthorizedVer sion ) . This means we are notforced to be with th ose who areconst antly in a neg ati ve att itudea nd prone to making us d e­pressed , doubtful or skept ica l ofour Christi an convict ions.

By now, you may realize th atall of us displ ay a few of th esetelltale signs at least once in awhile. If you don't see any ofthese things in yo urs elf, thatcould indicat e a prob lem , too.

How good can become bad

Where do th ese wrong feelingsof sel f-righteousness and superi­ori ty come fro m? Par adoxically,an att itude of se lf-rig hteo usnesscan spring from qu alities th at , ofth emselves, are good and evennecessary in th e Christi an life .

For exam ple, II Peter 3:18commands us to grow in knowl­edge. But we ca n allow ourse lvesto have a wro ng attitude of supe­riority becau se of our kno wledge:"Knowledge puffs up " (I Cor.8:1).

Likewis e, a person ca n believeth at he is righteous becau se heperforms certain "wor ks" ­C hrist ian act ions of love and obe­dience to God 's law .

Hand in hand with this delu­sion over works goes th e falsesuppos it ion th at obed ience " qual­ifies" one for God 's Kingdom ,and this belief ca n make on e se lf­righteous (Gal. 5:4).

Likewise , ph ysical pr osper it ycan mak e a per son feel he is supe­rior, if he supposes th at howmuch he has is a measure of hisgod liness (I Tim. 6:5, A V).

True righteousness

O f course, none of these att ri­butes - knowledge, works, obe­dience, prosperity - is wrong initself. The first three are impor­tant for salvatio n. Bu t cons ide ri ngoneself righteous becau se one has

March 1984 19

LETTERS"Go to the Ant "

We want to take time to thank Rex J .Morgan for his fine article "Go to theAnt" ( Dece mber). It made us thinkabout our role and our responsibilitiesthat God has given us, and th at we mustbe about our Father 's business withuttermost care.

Mr. and Mr s. Jay C. VaughnChicago, III.

" Open Doors for Christ's Gospel"I wish at this tim e to thank you for

your wonder ful Good News magazine,and to commend you on yet anoth erexcellent article, which was one of manyI have read over the past year or so sinceI sta rted my subscript ion.

Your article " Open Doors for Christ' sGos pel" (December) was very dir ect andto th e point. I applaud you for your greatwork of reach ing out to othe rs aro und theworld who need to hear God's Word.

Even though I am only 27 years old, Ifeel that I have 50 years of knowledge.Your magazine has so much!

To quote you: "And no human powercan stop it!"

Keep up the good work.George V. HillHillsboro, N .H.

Christmas for children?I am writing this lett er about your arti­

cle "Christmas - Qu estions We AreAs ked" (Octobe r-November) . In myopinion, C hristmas reminds us why wewere born here on earth . Christmas is forthe children of th is ea rth.

I believe that when Christ was born,

these things or do es these thingsis erroneous.

Righteousness comes by faithas a gift from God, who gives usHi s own righteousness by dwell­ing in us through Hi s Spirit (Eph .2:8). Righteousness is not some­thing we ca n acquire or exhibit bywhat we do . Therefore, to com­pare our works or knowledge orother qualities with so meoneelse's attributes is wrong (II Cor.10:12) , and a root cau se of self­righteousness.

Such comparisons ignore God'sadmonitions concerning righteousj udgme nt:

" J udge not , th at you be notjudged. For with what judgment

20 The GOOD NEWS

people came from all over and offeredgifts . We all know Christ is no longerwith us, but if He were today, wouldn' twe be giving the gifts to Him ? Don't welike to feel that we are giving them to theChrist child , which reminds us that weshould give rath er than receive?

My question is, Is it a sin to celebrateChristmas and all its festivi ties? Myyounger sister also want s to know. Canwe pray over it and then celeb rate Christ­mas?

Terribly DisillusionedLos Ange les, Ca lif.

We encourage yo u to reread the arti­cle. The clear f acts speak fo r them­selves. And we again invite everyone whois not af raid of the truth to write f or ourf ree booklets Th e Plain Truth AboutChristmas and Pagan Holidays - orGod's Holy Days - Wh ich ? For ouraddress nearest yo u, see the inside f rontcover.

Deals with re levant issues

You are certai nly not avoiding the rel­eva nt issues of the day. I especiallyappreciated those articles on the impor­tance of the home environment in thelearning processes of the children. That isthe most vital link in the educa tion pro­cess and one that society as a whole tendsto sweep under the rug and instead pre­fers to place the onus on the schools,teac hers and society in general.

W .J . S kryhaVan N uys, Ca lif.

The we lding question heats up

In reply to Sherwin Scott 's letter (Se p­tember, 1983 ): Begging your pardon, but

you judge, you will be judged"(Matt. 7:1-2) .

" Do not judge according toappeara nce, but judge with righ­teous judgment" (John 7:24) .

Now what if, after you haveread this ar ticle, you feel that youmay have some self-righteous­ness, but wish to see it even moreclearly in order to conquer it?What then? What should youdo?

In my case, when I bought myhome with the bugs, I was notskilled enough to see the bugsbefore I bought. I should havebrought in an expert.

You, too, should bring in anexpert. And in this case you

may I submit that th e definiti on of weld­ing is the joining of met al togeth er usingheat ? Therefore, if two pieces of metalare soft-soldered together using a solder­ing iron , they have been welded.

Fusion welding is not necessarily thestrongest. It depends on the applicationand subsequent use of the component.Many brazing meth ods used in aero ­engine produ ct ion are far st ronge r thanany other. It is necessary to know all th epossible methods and th en to select thebest , takin g into acco unt all relevantparameters.

So with mar riage: In courtship oneshould be learning to select the options.Th e subsequent " heat" of courtshipshould, with the least possibl e stress,stra in or distorti on, be sufficient to weld(or marry) th e two "components" perm a­nentl y toge ther.

Jack TaylerBristol, England

Each issue st ronger

Each tim e that I get hold of my newissue of The Good News I always feeljoy, knowing that it will be richer andstronger than the preceding issue. Th ereis ju st no way that I could fully express inwords how grateful I am to God especial­ly, to you, Mr. Armstrong, and to yourstaff for the wonde rful and trul y inspir­ing and enlightening articles th at eac hissue br ings.

I've always been putti ng off writing togive praise and th anks for the grea t jobyou are doing. Keep up the grea t work ­God is certainly blessing it!

Isidoro S. LagahitTacloban Cit y, Philippin es

should get the best expert around- one who can clearly see insideyour heart - God.

You should pray, as did David:"Who can understand his errors?Cleanse me from secret faults"(Ps. 19: 12) .

Pray this pr ayer, and ask Godto exterminate any bug of self­righteousness.

I speak from experience when Isay that there is only one thingworse than knowing you havebugs - not knowing . I havefound that I do indeed have bugs- lot s of them. And so do you.But now you know how to ex ter­minate the bad bug of self-righ­teousness. 0

PERSONAL(Continued from page 2)

various administrations, or func­tions of service. Ephesians 4: 11­13 shows that Christ has givenspecial spiritual abilities or talentsto certain ones in a chain ofauthorit y under Him in theChurch - and notice for whatPURPOSE:

"And his [Christ's] gifts werethat some should be apostles,some prophets, some evangelists,some pastors and teachers , toequip the saints for the work ofministry, for building up the bodyof Christ [the Church], UNTIL weall attain to the unity of the faithand of the knowledge of the Sonof God, to mature manhood, tothe measure of the stature of thefulness of Christ " (Revised Stan­dard Version).

In other words, to full spiri­tual maturity!

Now WHY should we count thetroubles and problems and temp­tations that beset us as all JOY?

Simply because we cannot hur­dle these obstacles successfully inour own power. They drive us toseek help from God.

To go to God for the wisdom toknow what to do, and the powerto be able to do it, requires FAITH.This is a li ving faith . It is ALIVE.It is active.

When we meet such trials, weoften do not know what to do. Welack the WISDOM to make theright decision. So open your Bibleto the first chapter of J ames.Notice verse 5.

If you lack wisdom in suchtrials, GO TO GOD for it! But askIN FAITH - no wavering - nodoubting. Be SURE God will notfail , but will give you this wis­dom. Depend upon Him for it.

If you waver, you are like awave in the ocean - tossed backand forth - going nowhere! So,instead of wavering, BE STEAD­FAST. And if you don't get theanswer immediately from God,have PATIENCE. Don 't give up .Trust Him.

Now notice verses 2-3: "Countit all JOY, my brethren, when youmeet various tri als , for you know

that the testing of your faith pro­duces steadfastness " (RSV) .These trials force you to yourknees. You must have FAITH tomeet them. They test your faith .They de velop spiritual CHARAC­TER! In the Authorized Version,it says the trying of your faithproduces patience. It producesthat kind of patience th at is stead­fastness. THAT IS CHARACTER!

Sure, it may be unpleasant fora while. But, Paul assures us thatif we suffer with Christ, we shallREIGN with Him - and the GLO­RY to be revealed in us is soincomparably greater th an an y­thing we now are that this prom­ised future for eternity is some­thing to REJOICE over!

Yes, count it all JOY! Even ifunpleasant. It is maturing you,now, for the marriage to Christ.The CHURCH of God shall beBORN into the KINGDOM OFGOD!

The Kingdom of God will notbe composed of spiritual know­nothings and infants .

When we are born again ­born of God - resurrected inspirit bodies - those bodies willnot be sm all, like a human physi­cal infant that must grow to fullphysical size. We shall look as wedo now, so far as form and shapeand features are concerned. Butthe resurrected body will be a dif­ferent body - composed of SPIR­IT instead of flesh and blood (ICor. 15:35-44).

The original 12 apostles wereChrist's witnesses. That is, theywere actual eyewitnesses thatJesus rose from the de ad - thatthe living, resurrected Christ wasthe same Jesus who had been cru­cified . They were with Him 40days after His resurrection.

But nobody will be fooli shenough to suggest that whenChrist was BORN very Son of Godby the resurrection (Rom. 1:4)that He was resurrected in a tinyinfant's body composed of spirit.He was resurrected FULLGROWN, as He had been whencrucified .

How did the apostles know Hewas the same Jesus? Becausethey knew what Jesus had lookedlike - and in His born-again,

resurrected body He looked thesame, except He now was com­posed of spirit instead of matter!

The resurrected Christ wasPERFECT - He was very God!But He did not grow up into per­fection after He was 'resurrected .It was during His human lifetime,sett ing us the example, that Hewas made p erfect, as you read inHebrews 2: I0 and 5:8-9.

Thus it is plain that we mustdevelop spiritual character, grow­ing to spiritual adulthood, duringthis life - not after our resur­rection in GLORY!

This is the spiritual growth, ofwhich th e physical growth of theunborn child, from tiny embryoto a size and weight of some six toeight pounds at birth, is a type.The physical growth of theunborn human is a growth ofphysical size and weight. Thespiritual growth of the begottenbut yet unborn spiritual child ofGod is a growth in spiritualCHARACTER, not of physical vol­ume, size or weight.

The human baby merely growslarge enough to be born prior tobirth - NOT TO PHYSI CAL ORMENTAL MATURITY. But he doesgrow.

And this physical growth is theTYPE of the spiritual growth byfeeding on the Word of God, andprayer, and Christian fellowship ,and participation in the Work ofGod in the life of the begottenchild of God.

The difference is merely thedifference between matter andspirit. One is a material growth.Material growth is measured byvolume, size, weight. The other isspiritual growth, measured bycharacter development.

Jesus was BORN very Son ofGod by Hi s resurrection (Rom.I :4). He was born fully mature.He was born in a spirit body,which was manifested to Hisapostles in the same apparent sizeand shape as when He died.

When He appears on earth thesecond time, in His spirit, glori­fied body, we shall be resur­rected, or instantaneouslychanged, to a bod y that will belike Him (I John 3:2) - fullgrown - adult! 0

March 1984 21

By George M. Kac kos

Are Some SinsWorse1ban Others?

Leaven(Continued from page 16)

biblical principles referring toone's conduct. While some thingsare not written in the form of adirect command, the underlyingprinciple or spirit of the law isnonetheless just as binding (Matt.5:17-48, Rom. 13:9)! Under thi scategory fall aspects of God's civillaws and statements made by Hi sapost les and patriarchs.

Examine yourself, as I I Corin­thi an s 13:5 commands, and seehow God's laws expose the "leav­en" in your character. Are youREALLY putting God first inEVERYTHING? Are you humblysubmitting to His authority ? C anyou ad m it when you're wrong ?

For a thorough study of God 's

Wh ich of the se sins is worse: kidn ap­ping and murdering a 6-yea r-old child, orlosing your temper ?

S ince death is the pen alt y for sin, wecould co ncl ude th at there is no differenc e(R om . 6:2 3).

But aren't we overlookin g somet hing?Throughout the Bibl e, God reveals th atsome sins are worse than others.

Aft er Israel rebelled at Mt. S inai ,Moses said they had sinned a great sin( Ex. 32 :30) . Since there are gre at sins,th ere mu st be lesser sins. C hrist's sta te­ment to Pilate valida tes thi s conclu sion:"Jesus answered, ' Yo u could have nopower at all aga inst Me unl ess it hadbeen given you from above. There foreth e one who deli ver ed Me to you has th egreater sin' " (J ohn 19:11 ).

Co nside r the sys tem of puni shment forbroken laws in ancient Israel. Were allth e pun ishments equ al ? No . For exa m­ple, th e puni shment for kidnapp ing wasdeath ( Ex. 2 1:16) , whe reas th e puni sh­ment for stea ling livestock was th eir res­torati on (Ex. 22: I ).

G od 's und erl yin g basis for dealingwith sin is by the pr inciple of proportion­ate puni shment, in which the pun ishmentfits the crime: "eye for eye, tooth fortooth, hand for hand , foot for foot, burn

22 The GOOD NEWS

basic law and how it applies inyour life, write for our free book­let Th e Ten Commandments.

2) Resist sin. We have alreadyseen through the ana logy of leav­en that sin spreads quickly andeasily. Therefore you must resisttemptation before it turns into sin(Jas .1 :13-15).

Doing this requires self-cont rol- acti vel y re si sting wrongthoughts and replacing them withright thoughts (I I Cor . 10:4-5) .

In struggling aga inst sin youmay reach a point when you growso battle weary that darts of self­pity and injustice pierce you. Atsuch times it' s easy to thinkyou've done all you can. Don't befooled . You can do more (Heb.12:4) .

Throughout the Bible we seethe number 7 used as a symbol of

for burn , wound for wound, st r ipe forst ripe" ( Ex. 2 1:24-25).

Christ was ex plic it - ce rta in thingsare more import ant! Included are theweightier matt er s of th e law and thegreat command ments (M att. 22:3 5-40,23:23) .

So wh at's th e point ? Don't fool your­self. Some sins you commit are worseth an others . They do more damage toyour charact er and the well-being ofothers . Put top priority on eliminatingth em . Extract th em from your cha racter.Don 't tolerate major sins because youhave ch osen to work only on minor ones( Matt. 23:24) .

But don 't misunderstand . This is notto say th at lesser sins should be over­looked . Jesus was emphatic: " W hoevertherefore br eaks one of th e least of thesecomma nd me nts , and teac hes men so,shall be called least in th e kingdom ofheaven; but whoeve r does and teachesthem, he sha ll be ca lled grea t in th e king­dom of heaven " ( Matt. 5:19) .

If you want to be great in God 's King­dom , face all your sins, no matter howbig or small. By elimina ting them , youwill find yourself makin g rapid progresstoward per fecti on and member ship inGod 's Family. 0

completeness (Gen . 2:2 , Josh .6:16 , Rev. 16:17) . In relationshipto the Days of U nleavened Bread ,th e number 7 pictures the com­plete e lim ina t ion of sin . Youshould earnestly strive to elimi­nat e sin from your life (11 Tim .2:19) . .

3) R epent of s in. Even whenyou recognize sin and resist it,you will st ill find yourself fallinginto sin (I John I :8) . When thishappens, wh at should you do?

Strive not to sin, but when youdo, seek God's forgiveness . Up onreal repentance - abandoningthe wrong way and beginning tolive the right way - God prom­ises to cleanse you from allunrighteousness (I John 1:9).

Some would say not to try sohard - to just rely on grace . Butwhat does God say? "What sha llwe say then ? Shall we continue insin th at grace ma y abound ? Cer­tainly not! How shall we who diedto sin live any longer in it ?"(Rom . 6:1-2).

Will you overcome all sins allat once? Absolutel y not! Som esin s are so deepl y and habituall yrooted th at they may take yea rsto tot all y overco me .

Don 't use that as an excu se tocontinue, but don't dismay either.Ask yourse lf, Am I sinning asoften as I once did? Does this sinhave as much control over me asit once did ?

If the an swer is no, you'regrowing - making progress.

Today the world is in miserybecause of sin . Yet humanityrejects the very Festival - theDay s of Unleavened Bread ­that pictures the process th atwould lead them out of theirsins .

What a bou t you ? Are yo ugoing to keep these special daysas G od has instructed H is peopleto ? Will yo u be learning th eman y important lessons th at theDays of Unleavened Bread aremeant to teach you?

If you do work at ridding yourlife of sin, you will be greatlyble ssed , now and in the future asa member of God's Family: "Inthe way of righteousness is life ,and in its pathway there is node ath" (Prov . 12:28) . 0

MINISTUDY Prepared by Richard H. Sedliacik

The Forgotten LawofFinancial Success

Few people reali ze that financial success isgoverned by a living, dyn amic law of God . Stillfewer ac tua lly believe G od 's promise to blessth ose who comply with that law .

You can 't afford to be unaware of this fund a­mental law of financial success - and of thislaw's spiritual implications! Let's un derstandthe biblical truth abou t this forgotten law ofG od .

1. Does God reveal Himself as the Creatorand Owner of all th at we see around us ? J ohnI : 1-3, Ps. 24 : I , J ob 41 :1 I . Does all the gold andsilver bel ong to G od ? Hag. 2:8.

God create d everyt hing, and by virtue of thatcreation He owns it a ll. Therefore God alsoowns everything man produces on G od 's earth .

God 's financial law can be compared to acontract. He wants us to underst and th at we areworking with H im in a partnership. But how ?

The C rea tor a llows us to live and work on theearth - to cu ltivate th e land and produce thefood we eat. He allows us to use H is raw mate­rials in producing the m any products we use.But God requires us to return to Him a smallportion of wh at we produce and earn. A nd whenwe underst and, th at small portion is, in turn ,ac tually spent for the benefit of mankind .

2. W as the patriarch Abraham obed ient toGod? Gen . 26 :5. How did he honor the Creatorand Owner of all things? Gen. 14:17-20, H eb.7:1-4 . Was Abrah am ble ssed ? H eb . 7:6 .

Abrah am was a tither! He gave a tenth part(tith e means "tenth " ) of the spoils of battle toMelchi zed ek , God 's representative on earth a tth at time. The context of the verses we read inGenesis shows that God received H is partbefore any furt he r dispositi on of the goods wasmade to others. Abrah am thus acknowledg edth at G od was the source of all his blessings.

3. W as Melchi zedek G od 's minister? G en.14:18, Heb . 7:1.

Tithing is revealed in th e Bibl e as God 's sys ­tem for financing Hi s ministry. Hund reds ofyea rs before th e Levi tical priesthood, the mi nis ­try was that of Melchizedek, wh o was noneot her th an the member of the G od Family wh olat er became J esu s Christ. Melchi zedek wasG od 's representati ve on earth during patriarcha l

times, and He received tithes fro m G od ' sfaithfu l serva nts. (For more information on thetrue identity of Melchi zedck, write for our freereprint " T he M ystery of Melchizedek Solved! " )

4. What did J acob, grandson of Abrah am,promise God he wo uld do with all of hi sincrease? Gen. 28:20-22. W as he pr ospered ?Gen. 30 :43 .

5. After Is rael's deliverance from Egypt , Godled them to Mt. S inai . There H e instructedM ose s to fo r ma lly write down His laws .Incl uded was a command regarding the tithe .To whom and for wh at purpose were the peopleto t it he? Num. 18:21, 24 .

Melchizedek (Christ, the "Lord" of the OldTestament) selected the Levites to be H is min­isters. But there was no commission to spreadth e G osp el a t that time. The Levites we re mer e­ly to te ach th e peop le the letter of God's laws,and to administer the rituals and sacrifices asreminders of sin . And the people were com­manded to bring the tithe of th eir pr oduce tothe Levites. Christ (Melchi zedek) thus tran s­ferred receipt of the tithe to the Leviti cal pri est­hood for th eir suppo rt.

6. Does the seventh ch apter of th e book ofHebrews show th at tithing is not ce re mo nial orLevitical , having or ig ina ted befor e Levi wasborn ? Heb. 7:5, 8-10 .

Hebrews 7 makes clear th at tithing was pr ac ­ticed long before G od instituted anc ient Isr ael'scivil law throu gh Moses. Becau se tithing did notbeg in with the Levit es, it th erefore did not endwhen th e Levitical priesthood ended.

Rather, accord ing to Hebrews 7:11-17, G odch anged the priesthood back to the spiritualpriesthood of Melchi zedek . The Levitical pri est­hood was replaced by the priesthood of Jesu sC hrist - the Melchi zedek priesthood re st ored .Therefor e, a ch ange as to wh o sho uld receivethe tithe was also mad e (ve rse 12) . C hris t hasaut ho rize d H is New Test ament ministry toaccept the tithe to finance th e spiritual work ofGod's Ch urch!

The New Testament era was ushered in whenMelchi zedek (Christ), wh o abides as our Hi ghPriest continuall y (Heb. 7:3, 4:14-16) , becamemortal so He could be sacr ificed for the sins of

March 1984 23

mankind and mak e th e Holy S pirit available toth ose who m G od ca lls.

7. What is Jesu s C hrist's co m mission to H isminist ry? M att. 28 :19-20 , Mark 16: 15. WhatGospe l would H is min ist ers pr each in this endt ime? Matt. 24 :14.

J esu s C hrist came to es ta blish a spir itua l min­ist ry . It is a ministry of sa lva t ion, of pr ophecyand of wa rn ing, as we ll as of goo d news - ofprophesyin g Hi s g lor ious return as world rul erto rescu e mankind from se lf-a nnihilat ion andbring world peace.

In th ese chaot ic days approaching the end ofth is age, God 's C hu rc h is reaching mill ion s ofpeople aro und the world with Jesu s Christ'smessage . It is a huge undert aking requiring notonly finan cial su ppo rt for hundreds of ministersand othe r laborers, but also th e use of expensivetechnol ogical fa c iliti es - radio, televi sion,printing presse s - for pr ocl aiming Jesu s' G os­pel of th e coming Kin gd om of God " to all th enati on s"!

T od ay, God pr ovid es for th e finan cing of th eg lobe-gird ling work of His C hurc h by th e sa mesys te m He has used for millennia - th e tithingsys tem .

8. Did Jesu s uphold G od 's law of tith ing ?Mat t. 23:23, especially the last part of th isverse.

How clear! Jesus said th at spiritua l qu al it iessuc h as judgment, love, mercy and faith aremor e important th an st ric t ly payi ng t ithes oneve ry little plant th at migh t g row in your garden- es pecia lly when th at st r ictness lead s to se lf­r ighteous ness . But C hrist sa id not to leave th eothe r undone - not to fail to pay your full titheas God requires.

9. Did the apost le Paul clearly show th atJ esu s' New Test am ent ministry is to be sup­ported j us t as the Levites wer e in ancient Israel ?I Cor. 9:7-14, especially verses 13 and 14.

10. How have peopl e lit erally sto len fromGod? Mal. 3:7-12, especia lly verses 8 and 9.

Can anyo ne afford to rob G od ? Stealing fromGod is a se r ious matter!

A ltho ug h tithing is giving G od a tenth ofone's inco me, th at tenth is not yours to g ivesi nce it belon gs to G od .

In the G arden of Eden, God reserved just onetree for Himsel f. A da m and Eve had no right toea t of it. But Sata n co nvinced th em th at thistree was also th eirs to use (Gen. 3: 1-6) . W he nth ey too k th e fru it of th at forbidden tree, th eysi nned - they sto le fro m God. We likewise sintod ay if we hold back the tenth of our incom eth at belon gs to God .

Tod ay, th e sa me devil wa nts us to believe th atall of our inc ome is ours . But don 't beli eve it !

God has put a "no-trespassin g" sign on th efirs t tenth of our ea rni ngs - it is reserved for

24 The GOOD NEWS

Him, to be used as H e direct s Hi s ministry. It isour respon sibili ty to acknow ledge G od's priorclaim ove r th at first tenth of our incom e bypayin g it to H is represent at ives who m we haveproved to be doing H is work on ea r th.

11. W ha t does one come und er as a result ofbreaking this fundamenta l financial law of G od ?M al. 3:9 . How does one escape th is finan cialcurse? Verse 10.

12. What does G od c ha lle nge us to do topr ove Him - to see if H e reall y will bless us?Verse 10, Provo 3:9 - 10.

The sim ple equa t ion is: Pay to G od wh at yo uowe Him - the tenth th at is H is - and He willreward yo u with blessin gs. God does not pr om­ise to make you a mill ion air e, but if you workdiligently and are faithful in returning His por­ti on to Him, making Him your financial part­ner, H e will work with yo u and bless yo ureffor ts. God will cau se yo ur partnership withHim to prosper.

13. What should be our att itude in payin gG od's representati ves the tenth th at bel ongs toHim, and even in giving offer ings ( Mal. 3:8) aswe are able? II Cor . 9:6-7.

A ge ne ro us attitude is fund amental to G od 's"give" way of life. G od is a gene ro us g iver! H ewants Hi s child ren to reflect a lik e generos itywit h in their co m pa ra tively limited mean s.

14. Does G od promise tha t th ere are auto­mat ic blessin gs for livin g Hi s "give" way oflife? Pr ovo II :24-25, Luke 6: 38, Gal. 6:7.

15. What grea t spiritua l principles d id Jesu sC hris t reveal about th e use of our money? M att.6: 19-2 1.

S to r ing up spir itua l " t reasures in heaven " isfar mor e important th an being prospered ph ysi­ca lly. But God promises both! Why not proveGod by act ing on this im porta nt law? M akeG od your financial partner. Put God 's tithe,your offer ings and your heart into the greatpu rp ose He is pe rforming on the earth tod ayand receive Hi s blessing .

For a co m prehens ive st udy of th e subj ect oft ithing, se nd for our free bookl et Ending YourFinancial Worries . 0

EN RO L L IN FR E EBIBLE COU RSEThe short study you 'vej ust completed is a sampleof the study meth od usedin each monthly lessonof th e eye-openingAmbassador Co llege BibleCo rrespondence Course.You ca n enroll in this freecou rse by writi ng to theGood Ne ws office nearestyou. Sec inside front coverfor add resses.

By Stanley M. McNeil

Tr ue Christians should be the happiest ofall people! Here 's how you can be that way.

AreYou Happyasa

Christian?

you . Real joy, th e kind th at per ­meat es G od's way of life ( Ps.16: I I ) , comes onl y from G od.

G od gives us thi s joy in mea­sure as we submit to and startpracti cing H is way and begin tobear th e fruit s of Hi s mind in ourli ve s (G al. 5 :22 ) . From themoment we truly turn to G od ,our happiness sho uld be some ­th ing th at cons ta nt ly deep en s an dgrows.

Look to the future

T o be happy, we mu st look toth e fu ture. W e have to keep ourminds on th e goal of cha racterdevelopment and th e end resul t ofGod 's plan for us. God allows usto face occasio nal physical adver­sit ies to hel p us grow.

By con cent rat ing on the bigpicture, we can fai thfu lly an dcheerfully endure difficu lt ies thatwould be grievous if we d idn'thave thi s per specti ve (I Pet. 1:7­8, J as. 1:2-4).

The apost le Pau l was a man "who rej oiced eve n in severe tr ials. ~Through terribl e persecution s, ~beatings , imprisonments, ship- ~wr ec ks , health p robl em s an d c­other person al trials in perfor m- ~

ing God's great co m miss ion, he ~

'"was happy eve n th ou gh he suf- ~

fered ph ysically . <3

Why? Because Paul was spir i- ~

tu all y or iente d . Ph ysicall y, he was ~depl eted , but he was exceed ing ly Jihappy becau se he saw th e fruit of ~

Is it possible to be happyin this world ?

M ost peopl e aren' t, be ­cause they do n't know wha treal happiness is.

Most peop le feel happ in esscomes fro m p leas ing the se lf,either thr ou gh phys ica l comfor tssuch as food, shelter and mat er ialpossessions or through psych olog­ica l r e ward s s uc h as b ein gaccepte d and appreciated.

Fa i l i n g to f in d h app in e s sthro ugh th ese cha nne ls, inc reas­ing num be rs are turni ng to alco ­hol , drug s or ot he r fo r ms ofesca pism to titillat e th e se nsesand provid e tempor ar y rel easesfrom unhappiness and futilit y.

But joy tha t co mes from ph ysi­ca l pleasure is only temporar y,and isn' t real happiness at all!

J esus C hrist , in some of Hi slast inst ructions to Hi s followersbefore Hi s de ath , revealed howwe can be truly happy: " If youkeep M y co m mand ments , yo uwill abide in M y love, j us t as Ihave kept M y Fa the r's command­ments a nd a bide in H is love.These things I have spoke n toyou , that My joy may remain inyou, and that yo ur joy may befull " (John 15:10- 11) .

God wa nts yo u to be full ofhapp iness! A nd He ex plains th atthe only way yo u ca n be th at wayis throug h obeying Him, so th atyo u ca n have Hi s ow n joy inside

wh at God was doing with him(II Cor. 6:10) .

Further mor e, Paul worked tohelp ot he rs ex pe rience joy (I ICor. 1:24), showi ng th at C hris­tians must control their thinkingand develop positive, upliftingattitudes ( Phil. 4:8) .

Paul also warned against thefoll y of seeking esca pe throughsuch means as excessive drinking.These means do not produce hap­piness . Rather , we should befilled with the Hol y Spiritthrough meditating on God's planand being thankful (Eph. 5: 18­20). With the help of God 'spower, Pa ul was able to be happyin any circumstance.

Work toward happiness

This kind of joy doesn't comeovernight. We m ust work towardit. We are warned to beware ofthe false happiness that comesfrom sa t ia t ing physic al or psycho­logical de sires. Even sin can betemporaril y pleasurable ( H eb.11 :2 5 ) , but produces empty ,unsati sfying results (Eccl. 2:11).

God's way is the way of give.That means we will develop joy,not to the extent th at we try toget happiness, but to the extentthat we give love and happiness toGod and other people.

Giving requires us to overcomeour natural human tendency to beselfish . G iving is often hard work!But Jesus said we will enter intoeternal joy only after expendingviolent effort in overcoming(Matt. 25 :21 , 23, 1 I :12) .

Jesus compared His own deathand , by an alogy, the process ofconversion to th e inevitable pain awoman experiences in givingbirth to a child . Once the baby isborn, the anguish is no longerremembered . Jesu s said the occa­sional pains a nd so r ro ws thatcome with Chri sti an growthalways result in deeper joy th at"no one will take from you"(John 16:20-23).

In other words, as we overcomeour human nature by replacing itwith God's ch ar acter, we reap abumper crop of happiness!

For our example

We today need to emulate the

power o f the apostolic era ofGod's Church. The early Chris­tian s, though persecuted, kn ewreal joy.

Let 's get acquainted with afirst-century Church membernamed Rhoda. Her sto ry of jubi­lati on is recorded in Acts 12.

These were difficult yea rs inthe fledgling Church. Fac ing gov­ern me nt persecution at th e vio­lent hands of King Herod , one ofth e original disciples, J ames th ebrother of John, had been kill ed .Since this s e n s e le s s killingpleased the public , Herod de cidedto imprison Peter , no doubtintending to execute him, also.

The C hurch had just lost oneapostle, and now Peter, the chiefapost le, was in danger. What todo ? Their an swer was to ferventlypr ay, without ceasi ng, for Peter'srelease. Rhoda was a mong th osewho beseeched God on Peter'sbehalf.

The result ? God miraculou slyanswe red by se nd ing an ange l toawa ken Peter, break his ch ain s,ope n th e pri son door and lead himinto the city.

Pet er went straight to thehome where the members werest ill pr aying, and knocked on th edoor. Rh od a answered .

You can imagine her exulta­tion! The Bible exp lains that"When she recogni zed Peter'svoice, because of her ·g lad ness shedid not open the gate, but ran inand announced that Peter stoodbefore the gate" (Acts 12:14) .

Rhoda was so overjoyed th atshe couldn't contain herselfenough to open the do or. Afterpr aying from the heart for Peter'srelease, G od 's answer gav e hermuch reason to rejoice!

A nswered pr ayer should have "thi s effect for all of us tod ay, ~especially as we pray for the work ~G od is doing. .5l

Another maj or cau se for happi- ~ness in th e early Church was th eir ~obvious apprec iat ion for G od ' s i5truth . Jesu s described thi s joy as ~th e receiving of the " pea rl of ~great price" (Matt. 13:45-46). sPaul described the C hurch's att i- ~

tude this way: "You became fol- ~lowers of us and of the Lord , hav- ~

ing received the word in much ~

a ffl ic t io n, with joy of the HolySpirit" (I Thess . 1:6).

We should have this same att i­t ude tod ay, especiall y in light ofth e many truths God has revealedand rest ored to His Church. Jesusst ro ngly admonishes His follow ­ers that we should never lose ourlove for the knowledge He hasgiven us (Rev . 2:4) .

Harmony among Christians

O ne more aspect that broughtthose early Church members somuch happiness was their unity.As they "continued sted fast ly inthe apost les' doctrine and fellow ­ship ," they were unified with"gl ad ness and single ness ofheart" (Acts 2:42, 46 , A V) . Theyall shared the sa me leadership,spirit and way of life. God's pur­pose was more important to themthan anything else.

They realized their responsibi l­it y was to back God 's chosenapostles in spread ing the Gospelmessage, and th ey were unifiedthrough God 's government in theChurch (Eph. 4:4, 11-16) . Thisunity produced tremendous lovea nd concern . Each memberrej oiced as he saw fellow mem­bers ex perience blessi ngs (I Cor.12:26) . In thi s way, one person'shappiness multiplied to be sharedby all.

As we tod ay put aside an y ten­dency we ma y have toward beingindependent or set ap art from thework God is doing through HisChurch, we can experience moreof the happiness He intendsthrough togetherness. "Behold,how good and how pleasant it isfor brethren to dwell together inunity!" (Ps. 133 :1).

Along with unity and onenessof mind comes another spiritualqu antity th at produces happiness- spiritual fellow ship and hospi ­tality . The original Christianswere with one another as much aspossible, visiting in each others'homes for meal s and fellow ship.Paul commented th at the minis­try was comforted because themembers served and shared witheach other and also supportedGod 's ministers in thi s way ( IICor. 7: 13).

On one occasion , eve n mem-

bers in a poverty-stricken areacollected goods to help the con­gregat ion in Jerusalem during adrou ght. Th ese churches gavebeyond their means and act ua llybegged Paul to allow th em to help(II Cor. 8:3-4) .

Through this outstanding atti­tude of giving to help others,these members of the Church ofGod learned the meaning of realhappiness. It is more blessed togive than to receive (Acts 20:35) .Expressing love br ings much hap ­piness to the giver.

Another joy these vibrantChristian s e x pe r ie nc ed camefrom the prevalent attitude ofrepentance. Real repentance ­total surre nder to do God's will- is where real jo y begins. Greatjoy also comes as we continue torepent when God corrects us (I ICor. 7:9-10), and our loving Godwill correct us when we need it.This chastisement isn 't enjoyableat first, but a repentant responsewill be (Heb. 12: I I) .

This kind of happiness can nev­er come from satisfying our phy s­ical de sires or going our own way.The happiness produced by a sub­mi ssive and obedient a tt it udecomes onl y from God. Nothingwe do ca n make us or God reallyhappy unless we have this atti­tude ( Ps. 5 1:16-17, Isa . 66 :2) .

Our opportunities now

We tod ay have all of the sameopportunities that produced suchdeep happiness for the membersof the earl y New TestamentChurch.

Jesus said His followers wouldbe the light of the world , and th atwe should let our light shinebefore men (Matt. 5:14-16) . ~

Nothing brightens up a day more ~for someone than to be in contact ~with a begotten son of God who is ~unselfishly happy - who shares ~

the same joys the members of the 8apo stolic era experienced. '"

If you truly want to be happier , ~you can do something about it. ~Examine your priorities and your ~

thoughts. Determine to make any :£inecessary changes so you ma y ~

reflect more of the lasting happi- ~ness now th at God wants for you ~

always! 0 ~

SHARING

Narrow Is the WayBy Rainer S. Salomaa

N ot far from my homein British Columbia,

Canada, is the site of one ofthe great marvels of God'sawesome creation - thesockeye salmon run in theAdams River.

Every four years maturesockeye make their arduous300-mile trip up the FraserRiver, passing through theThompson River and intoShuswap Lake by way of Lit­tle River. This leads to theAdams River, the spawningground of between two millionand three million salmon .

Crowds of up to 300,000people come to view this majestic,spectacular phenomenon of na­ture when it occurs. Some timeago I had the chance to witness itmyself.

What a sight! The fish pair off,

28 The GOOD NEWS

male and female, in a seethingmass of crimson bod ies . Thefemales, swollen with eggs, flailthe gravel river bottom with theirworn tails to create deep nests .When everything is ready, malesdeposit sperm, called milt, an dthe females their cl usters of eggs

~:. . , !! .

in the nests . Togetherthey b u r y the eggswith gravel.

Soon afterward, af­ter they have guardedthe nests, the maturesockeye die, complet­ing the cycle of life.Their b loated bodiesfloat downstream anddecompose, filling theair : with a very dis­agreeable odor.

The si lent spectaclehas an almost mysticalaura about it. You can actuallyget a lump in your throat as youwatch the bruised and battered

salmon literally serving to theirdeaths.

An arduous journey

They have come a long way,ove rcoming many obstacles, andhave endured to the end . Theyhave fo ught the rapids, whirl­pools, fallen logs, rock slides andpollutants from pulp mills. Theyhave escaped the fishing fleets oftwo nations, which stalk them andreduce their population by up to80 percent. T hey have escapedthe native fishermen along theshores of the Fraser.

They have found their wayfrom the far reaches of thePacific Ocean and swum 300miles upstream, fighting the swiftcurrents of the mighty Fraser,and had their bodies battered for17 days as they continued theirfinal migration - and all of thisto lay down their own lives so that

the next generation might receivetheirs .

One area the sa lmon have to

pass through is ca lled Hell 's G at e,a turbulent, ragin g chute of wat erin th e Fraser Canyo n, 110 fee twide at its narrowest point.

An ave rage of 34 million gal­lon s of wa te r a minute rushth rough thi s narrow go rge . A ttimes as mu ch as 200 million gal­lons a minute have been recordedduring runoffs, since water fro m8, 400 sq uare miles of Briti shCo l u m b ia h a s t o d r ain o f fthrou gh thi s area.

Back in 1913, a rock slide vir­tu all y blocked Hell 's G at e andonly a small number of sa lmonsomehow man aged to ge t th ro ug hto spaw n upriver . In 1946, man ­mad e fishw ays were co mpleted ,a ft er which the sa lmo n populati onslow ly began to inc rease to th epreslide levels.

A nyo ne who has stoo d on th eviewi ng pl at forms ove r H ell ' sG at e has to adm ire th e det ermi­nation , streng th and fort itude oft he anima ted c rimson arrows thatleaped ove r thi s area withou t theaid of th e fish ways during t heafterma th of th e rock slide . Eve nwith th e fishways, it is a fantasticfeat.

The soc keye sa lmo n run of theAdams Ri ver surv ived becau se at iny minorit y of overco me rsdefeat ed see ming ly insurmount­abl e odds and mad e it to th eirdestinati on so th at future genera­t ion s might live.

Ther e are man y parall els of thesoc key e sa lmo n run to the C hris ­ti an st ruggle. Let's look at someof th em .

Our "Hell 's Gate"

A C hr istian has to mak e itthrough th e "Hell 's Gate" andturbulen ce of thi s world to reachhis final destinati on . God says,"Enter by th e narr ow gate; forwide is th e ga te and broad is th eway th at leads to destruction , andth er e are man y wh o go in by it.Becau se narrow is th e gate andd ifficult is th e way which lead s tolife, and th er e are few who findit" (Mat t. 7:13-14) .

God's peo ple have to exert vio­lent effor t to reach th eir G od- giv­en goal. J esu s stated, "And fromth e days of John th e Bapt ist un t il

now th e kin gd om of heaven suf­fers viole nce, and th e violent tak eit by force" (Matt. II :12) . C hris­tians are pr omised an upstreams w i m (II Tim . 3 : 12 , J oh n16:33) .

A C h ris t ia n ha s t o s wi maga ins t currents polluted withimmoralit y, escape th e nets ofmat erial ism , resist th e steady cur­ren t of satanic influen ce a ndhum an nature a nd resi st th ewhirlpoo ls of negative peer pr es­sure th at constantly try to su ckhim under.

Tribulations along the way

Som e of God's se rva nts, j us tlike th e sockeye, have sufferedmuch ph ysical abuse in th is colos­sa l struggle.

R e ad Ac ts 14: 19- 2 2 , fo rinstan ce, whe re Paul comme nted," W e mu st through man y t ribula­ti on s e n t e r th e kin gd om o fGod ."

Read in II Cor in thians I 1:23­33 or in I I Cori nth ians 4 :8-9about th e abuse Paul took. Yet hesa id : " We are hard pr essed onevery side, ye t not crush ed ; weare perpl exed , but not in despair;persecuted , but not fo rsaken ;st ruck down , bu t not destr oyed ."

R ead in Hebrews I I abo utGod ' s faithful peopl e. Th e y" t hroug h faith s ubd ued kin g­doms, worked righteousness, ob­ta in ed promi ses , s to p pe d t hemouths of lions, quen ch ed th eviolence of fire, escaped th e ed geof th e sword, out of weakn esswere made st rong, becam e valia ntin battle, turned to fl ight th ea r m ies o f th e a lie ns .... St illothers had t rial of mock ings andscourg ings, yes , and of ch ain s andimprisonment. They were sto ned,they we re saw n in t wo, weretempted , were sla in wi t h th eswo rd . ' T hey wandered about insheepskins and goats kins, be ingdestitute, a ffl ic te d , tormented"(ve rses 33-37) .

God in Hi s infin ite mercy pr o­vides, a long th e way of li fe 'sst ruggles, occasiona l qui et poolswhere we can rest and gat herst re ng t h for the next ons laug ht( Ps . 23 :2-3).

He eve n bu ilds paths aro und

our obs tacles and probl em s for us(I Cor. 10:13).

God knows th at if enoug h don'tove rco me life ' s obs tacles a nden dure un til th e end , futu re ge n­erat ions will di e (Matt. 24: 13,22) . God's mast er plan will beup set!

No turning back

Just as sa lmon hover over th ei rfert ilize d nest of eggs and pr ot ectit from othe r fish, a C hristian hasto pr otect his mind , whi ch hasbeen fert ilize d by God's Spir it ,fro m th ose who would shipw reckhis faith and d rown him in th eperdition of un godliness (Matt.10:35-39,24:8-1 2, II Co r. 11:3-4,I Tim. 1:18-1 9) .

The st ro ng curre nts that Go d' speople sw im against help buildst ro ng resolve and cha rac te r.

Jesus learn ed by wha t He suf­fered ( Heb. 5:8). So do we. Paulago nized to br ing his bod y intosubjec t ion (I Co r. 9:27) . So dowe . Ther e is no t u rn ing back( Luke 9:62) . A sa lmo n wou ld n'tth ink of it. Neithe r ca n we.

G reat rewards lay in sto re , butth ese are st ill upstream , in thequ iet wa te rs of the Kingdom ofGod ( Rev. 2:26 , 3:21). T rials andtest s have to co me first - and wehave to overco me them.

The psalm ist compared ou rst ruggle to th at of mariner s bat­tl ing stormy oceans, and showedGod's desire to help us: " T heymount up to th e heavens, th ey godown again to th e depths; theirsoul melts because of t rouble.They reel to and fro, and staggerlike a drunken man, and are at o

th eir wit s' end. Then th ey cry out ~to the Lord in their tr ouble, and ~

He brings them out of th eir di s- ~tresses. He ca lms th e sto rm, so ~th at its waves are sti ll. Then th ey ~are glad because th ey are qu iet; so ~

He gu ides th em to th eir desired ~

haven" (Ps. I 07 :26- 30) . ~With God's help and with th e ~

navigati on al aids of Hi s W ord ~and H is C h urch, all things are ~

poss ible . We ca n make it th rough ~

th e " Hell's G at es" of this world 8into th e placid wa te rs of God 's ~

Kingdom ( Ro m. 8: 16- 23, 35- ~

39)! 0 3

March 1984 29

CO INGIN THE GOOD NEWS

Why Did God Raise Upthe NationIsrael and Deny Them Salvation?What part did ancient Israel play in God's master plan?Were they merely God's "pet nation"?

Psalms Proclaims Prophecy!Far from being just a collection of unrelated poems, thefive books of the Psalms vividly describe God's plan ­from the two trees in Eden to the Millennium and beyond.

Daniel 9 Proves Jesus Is the ChristCan you prove that Jesus Christ of Nazareth reall y was theSavior prophesied in the Old Testament? This amazingprophecy, when understood, makes it clear.

Joshua - Stillan Example Today!Israel remained faithful to God throughout Joshua's rule .What can we learn from this great leader?

The Work Ethic - What IsIt? DoYou Have It?As unemployment and competition for work grow, knowingthe biblical viewpoint on work habits could mak e thedifference between having a job and losing it.

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