Calling Evil Good and Good Evil

One of the sins God rebukes the people of Judah for is the sin of calling evil good and good evil.  "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isaiah 5:20).

We can see this in the world all the time.  Sexual perversion is called good. Teaching about the Bible is called evil and is called hate speech.  Abortion is called, "health care".  Right child discipline is called, "abuse".  There are many such examples.

But this can happen in the Church of God also.

I heard a sermon by a Church of God minister in which he listed learning "new truth" as a sinful compromise along with things like working on the Sabbath, watching our own entertainment on the Sabbath, neglecting attending Sabbath services, being too busy to pray, study, and fast, etc.

What did he mean by "new truth"?  He meant new knowledge.  Specifically, the context indicates he was talking about new doctrinal knowledge from the Bible.  Someone can rightly say that truth doesn't change, and that is technically correct, but our knowledge changes.  Our knowledge can be incorrect.  There can be mistakes in our knowledge.  Knowledge can be incomplete.  As the apostle Paul said, we know only in part (1 Corinthians 13:9).  So when we correct our mistakes or add to our knowledge from the Bible, we are learning new knowledge.  We are learning things we did not know before.  And that is not a sin.  It is good when we let God teach us new things from the Bible.  Calling it sin and comparing it with Sabbath breaking or neglecting prayer, Bible study, and fasting is calling good evil.

Think about it.  If it is a sin to learn new things from the Bible and from God who inspired the Bible and talks to us through the Bible, was it a sin for Loma Armstrong to learn about the Sabbath from the Bible?  Was it a sin for Mr. Armstrong to learn about the Sabbath and the holy days from the Bible?  Was it a sin for Mr. Armstrong to learn about the identity of the lost tribes of Israel from the Bible?  Was it a sin for thousands of radio listeners who heard Mr. Armstrong say, don't believe me, believe your Bible, to look up the scriptures and learn that their old traditional beliefs were wrong and turn to God and let God teach them new things from the Bible?  We would not be here if they had not done that.  Do we call that sin?  Do we call good evil?

Church of God Seventh Day was not willing to learn the new knowledge from the Bible that Mr. Armstrong and Loma Armstrong were learning and teaching.  So God could not use Church of God Seventh Day to do a great work.  He used Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong and the radio listeners who were willing to learn new knowledge.

I cannot imagine Mr. Armstrong calling the learning of new knowledge from the Bible "sin" or "evil".

I wish more people would read Mr. Armstrong's autobiography.

No one should make an idol out of Mr. Armstrong.  You do that when you believe him and his writings more than what you see in the Bible for yourself. That is wrong.

But if you are going to make an idol out of him, at least get to know the idol you are worshipping.  Don't worship what you don't know.  Worship what you know.  Mr. Armstrong put the effort into writing his autobiography because he wanted you to read it.

Learn about Mr. Armstrong before you worship him.  Then decide who you will worship.

You will learn the way of life he lived. He was always willing to learn new truth from the Bible, even when that new truth was contrary to Church of God doctrine and traditions.  

You may say, but he was an apostle and that makes it different.

But he was not an apostle before he was baptized.  He was not an apostle before he was ordained a minister.  He did not think of himself as an apostle for many years.  Yet, he was already practicing the way of life of believing the Bible more than the Church and being willing to learn new truth that the Church of God did not have and did not agree with.

But even if you want to insist that he was an apostle before he was baptized and when he learned that we are required to keep the holy days, contrary to Church of God teachings and practice, Loma Armstrong was never an apostle and she started doing this before Mr. Armstrong and showed him the way.

And thousands of radio listeners did it after Mr. Armstrong told them, don't believe me, don't believe any minister or church, believe the Bible, believe God.

Christ said we would know false prophets by their fruits.  "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them" (Matthew 7:15-20).  

What were the fruits of the willingness of Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong to learn new knowledge compared with the fruits of those who rejected new knowledge in favor of their traditions?  Doesn't the bad fruit of rejecting new knowledge from the Bible show that that approach is a bad tree?  Doesn't the good fruit of Church of God growth and the conversion and salvation of thousands who were willing to learn new knowledge from the Bible show that that approach is a good tree?  Yet the COG minister I mentioned listed it as a sin.

And what about those today in the world who hear our message, who hear us preach the true gospel?  Is is sin for them to check the Bible and learn new things and learn where their traditional beliefs they grew up in are wrong?

Yet, some in the Church, being part of a fellowship that tries to preach the gospel to the world, in effect asking the public to learn new things from the Bible, allow a minister to call learning new knowledge evil, calling good evil.

And some in the Church of God make an idol of Mr. Armstrong, telling members to believe Mr. Armstrong more than what they see in their own Bibles, and they call that good.  They call idolatry good, calling evil good.

I cannot imagine God blessing such people with success in preaching the gospel to the world when to their own members they teach that learning something new from the Bible is evil, a sin like Sabbath-breaking, while they try to teach new things to the public.

When we reject new knowledge from the Bible, when we tell God not to teach us any new doctrine or to correct any doctrinal mistakes we might have, we are rejecting the Bible and the God who inspired it. Mr. Armstrong correctly taught us that the Bible is the word of God in print and Christ is the Word of God in person, the same word.  When we reject the Bible we reject Christ.

When we reject new knowledge from the Bible we make ourselves like thousands of listeners who reject our message because they are not willing to let the Bible show them where they are wrong in their doctrines.  And as God rejects them until they repent, so He will reject us until we repent.

If we refuse to let Christ correct us in doctrine with the Bible, we may give Him no choice but to correct us with punishment.

We can ignore the Bible, we can ignore and reject new truth and correction, but we cannot ignore trials and punishments designed to bring us to repentance.  "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent" (Revelation 3:19).

God will speak to us one way or another.

God promises us priesthood in the millennium, but not if we reject new knowledge.  "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.  Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children" (Hosea 4:6).

No wonder Christ pictures Himself as outside of the Laodicean Church, knocking to come in.  "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me" (Revelation 3:20).

Those who refuse to learn new knowledge from the Bible or correct mistakes in Church doctrine are excluding Christ from the Church.  Christ has to knock to ask to come in.

David, a man after God's heart (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22), and possibly other writers of Psalms, often asked God to teach him (Psalm 25:4-5, Psalm 27:11, Psalm 86:11, Psalm 119:12, Psalm 119:26, Psalm 119:33, Psalm 119:64-68, Psalm 119:108, Psalm 119:124, Psalm 119:135, Psalm 143:10).

We should be willing to let the Bible teach us new knowledge and correct our mistakes.  Jesus Christ endorsed the principle of learning new things.  The Pharisees were not willing to learn or go beyond their traditions.  And the Church of God Seventh Day was not willing to learn the new things that Mr. Armstrong was learning and teaching.

Those who say, we will not learn any new doctrinal knowledge, are like the Pharisees or like the Church of God Seventh Day.  How can God use them?

"Then He spoke a parable to them:  'No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, "The old is better" ' " (Luke 5:36-39).

"Then He said to them, 'Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old' " (Matthew 13:52).

Those who reject correction and new knowledge from the Bible are rejecting Christ and are rejected Mr. Armstrong who practiced the way of life of learning new knowledge from the Bible and being corrected by the Bible.

Mr. Armstrong said that it is harder to unlearn error than to learn new knowledge.  Let us be willing to let God both teach us new knowledge from the Bible and correct us when we are wrong in doctrine.