Two Phases of Education of the First Generation of Israel in the Millennium

The first generation of Israel in the millennium will need to be educated to live the right way of life.  This will be necessary for them to be fully converted and serve as the model nation to set an example for all other nations in the earth to follow.

The education of Israel will occur in two stages.  One prepares for the other.

In the millennium they will be taught directly by Christ and the resurrected saints made immortal spirit beings.  They will be taught to keep the weekly sabbath.  At sabbath services they will learn God's law.  They will hear sermons expounding on and teaching the two great commandments, the ten commandments, and the statutes and judgments.  They will be taught the true gospel.  They will learn about the kingdom of God.  They will be taught the steps for their conversion and the great opportunity they have ahead of them if they repent and turn to God.  They will learn many things, the same things a prospective member will learn today coming into the Church of God and preparing for baptism.

But that is not phase one.  That will be phase two.  Phase one will come earlier and will teach them things in preparation for phase two.  Phase one will help make them teachable so they can quickly and readily learn in phase two.  What they learn in phase one will prepare them for repentance leading to conversion.  Phase one will increase the chances that they will choose to repent and be saved.  It is a necessary preparation that will increase their chances for salvation.

Phase one of Israel's education does not take place during the millennium.  It happens before the millennium.  It happens now, today, and will continue to happen from now through the great tribulation and the Day of the Lord, right to the time of Christ's return.

What will they learn in phase one?

They will learn that God can be trusted.  They will learn that God is fair and just.  They will learn that He means what He says.  They will learn something about God's holy, righteous character.  Not everything, yet.  But at least the point that God is fair.  "Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not fair.' Hear now, O house of Israel, is it not My way which is fair, and your ways which are not fair?" (Ezekiel 18:25).  "The slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the LORD" (Ezekiel 6:7).

They will learn something about themselves also.  They will learn that they are not as smart as they thought they were.  They will learn, some of them, that they are not righteous as they thought.  They will be humbled.  "Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities and your abominations" (Ezekiel 36:31).  "The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, And the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day" (Isaiah 2:11).

They will have heard the true gospel and the Ezekiel warning preached to them now and in the years just ahead.

Who will preach that to them?  The Church of God.  Us.  Now.  Before the great tribulation and the two witnesses.

Will they believe our message?  No.  Most will not.  Not in this time of peace.

Among the whole population of all the tribes of Israel, all the nations like the United States, Great Britain, etc., will be many millions of religious people.  There will be many Catholics and Protestants that think that they are Christian.  They think they are righteous.  They think they are serving God by keeping Sunday, by keeping Christmas and Easter, by praying to Mary, by bowing down before images of Christ, by believing in the trinity and an immortal soul, etc.

Will they believe us, the majority of them, when we tell them the Holy Spirit is the mind and power of God that flows from God the Father and Jesus Christ, but is not a person?  No.  Will they believe us when we tell them that they should keep the seventh day sabbath and the annual holy days?  No.  Will they believe us when we tell them they should stop bowing down to images and using them as an aid to worship?  No.

Why not?  We can prove what we teach with the Bible.  Why won't they believe the truth?

Because they will choose their traditions over "new truth" from the Bible.  They will reject the Bible, the word of God in print, and they will reject Jesus Christ, the Word of God in person (John 1:1-5, 10-14, Revelation 19:13).  They will not accept new knowledge from the Bible.  They will not let the Bible correct their mistakes in doctrine.  They will not accept changes to their doctrines and traditions.  They will believe their own leaders, ministers, and churches more than they believe the Bible.  They will say, we will believe our teachers in our church because we know they have God's Holy Spirit.

They will be like some in the Church of God today who reject correction or new knowledge from the Bible, choosing to "hold fast" as they call it to the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong and the long held traditions and teachings of the Church of God.

We will also warn them that the punishments of God will come upon them if they don't repent and believe God, believe the Bible.  They won't believe that either.

Then, after a period of time, the great tribulation will come upon them and the two witnesses will begin their special work.  Then they will learn.

They will learn that God's word, the Bible, is true.  They will learn that God means what He says.  They will learn that God was fair to warn them before punishing.  

They will be humbled.  They will acknowledge their foolishness.  They will not say, "God was not fair.  He never warned me that Christmas and Easter are wrong.  I never had a chance."

Instead, they will remember that they were warned by the Church of God.  God, through us, gave them a warning.  They will remember that they had time to study and repent, but they didn't use it.

They will be able to acknowledge their responsibility for scorning or neglecting the warning.  They will be able to say, "This is my fault. God gave me a chance but I didn't take it.  I should have listened.  I wish I had listened."

What an important step that will be!  They will learn that God is fair.  They will learn that God, in His love, wisdom, and power, gave them fair warning before punishing them.  He did that by leading and inspiring faithful members and ministers in the Church of God to be willing to learn new things from God's word and to believe God more than the Church, and thus qualify to say to the public, without hypocrisy, don't believe us, believe God, and then actually do the work of warning with zeal and with power.

That knowledge, that God is righteous and is fair and can be trusted, will be part of the education of phase one.  And it will help prepare them for the beginning of the millennium when phase two of their education will begin.

All this requires that we do the work of preaching the true gospel and the Ezekiel warning to the hundreds of millions of people in the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and many other nations that make up all the tribes of Israel.  We need to go all out to get that message out with power.

To succeed we need God's help.  We cannot do it by our human power alone.  And if we want God's help, we should make sure we practice what we preach to the world.  We have to say to ourselves as we say to outsiders, don't believe me, don't believe any man or church or tradition, believe God, believe what you see in the Bible.

And just as we teach the public to learn new knowledge from the Bible and let the Bible correct their mistakes in doctrine, so we must practice that ourselves.  We must be willing to learn new knowledge from the Bible and let the Bible correct our mistakes in doctrine.

And just as we preach to the public that they should believe what they see in the Bible more than their churches and ministers and leaders, so must we believe what we see in the Bible more than we believe our leaders and ministers.

If we do that, if we practice what we preach, God can bless us and use us to teach our nations important lessons about God's fairness and righteousness in preparation for their further education in the millennium.

Three Doctrinal Errors - What Do They Have in Common?

I have noticed three doctrinal errors some Church of God members have held in the last few years.  Recently I have noticed something those errors have in common.  This may explain a situation in which some may hold all three errors.  There may be a reason for that because they relate to each other as I will describe.

I have posted on these errors before, so I will not go into details.  But I will list them and you can look at past posts to get the scriptures and the reasons why they are errors.



Doctrinal Error Number One:  Refusal to Acknowledge Spiritual Healing


The first is the error of refusing to acknowledge the need for spiritual healing or refusing to acknowledge the role that Christ paid in paying the penalty for our spiritual sins so we can be spiritually healed.  Those who hold to this error think that the beating Christ took only paid the penalty of our physical sins - broken laws of health - and only enables us to be physically healed.  They think that the scripture that says, by His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5), only applies to physical healing and not spiritual healing.  

But the context and other passages, as well as the logic of physical healing, indicate that spiritual healing is also included.  Christ was beaten and suffered to pay the penalties for both our physical sins and our spiritual sins.  

Death is not the only penalty for spiritual sin.  Suffering is also a penalty for spiritual sin.  Death is one penalty, and Christ paid the death penalty by His shed blood so we can be given eternal life.  But we need spiritual healing of our character also.  If God gave us eternal life without healing our sinful character, we would live forever in misery.  The beating Christ endured and His broken body pays the penalty for all suffering brought on by sin, both the physical suffering brought on by broken laws of health and all suffering brought on by spiritual sin.



Doctrinal Error Number Two:  We Should Only Believe What Mr. Armstrong Taught


Doctrinal error two is believing in and practicing a way of life, a way of believing church tradition and leaders more than God, more than believing what God says through His word, the Bible.  That way of life is opposite of the way of life practiced by Loma Armstrong first, then Mr. Armstrong, then thousands of radio listeners who heard Mr. Armstrong say, don't believe me, don't believe any man or church, believe God, believe your Bible.  This error is manifested by some if they say they will not correct Mr. Armstrong's errors or learn new knowledge to add to what he taught.  Yet in taking this position, they are going in the opposite direction of Mr. Armstrong himself.  

Jesus said that a disciple will be perfectly trained when he is like his teacher.  "A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher" (Luke 6:40).  So we will be perfectly trained by Mr. Armstrong when we are like him.

Those who practice this error are making an idol out of Herbert W. Armstrong.  They will deny that, perhaps not realizing that faith is part of worship, and if we have greater faith in the writings of Mr. Armstrong than God's word, the Bible, we are giving Mr. Armstrong faith that belongs only to God.  We are putting our loyalty to Mr. Armstrong's teachings in place of our loyalty to God, and by putting him in place of God we are making an idol out of him.  We are rejecting God's word, the Bible, when we do not allow God to correct our doctrinal errors or teach us new things.  We become like the Pharisees who rejected God's word in favor of their traditions.  They were not willing to accept correction from Christ and learn new things from Him.

"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).



Doctrinal Error Number Three:  Teaching That the True Gospel Is Not About Jesus Christ


Those who say that Jesus Christ is not part of the true gospel are in error.  Do they think that it is not good news but rather bad news that we can be saved from our sins and enter the kingdom of God - a kingdom whose king is Jesus Christ - because of the sacrifice of Christ?  

Without the sacrifice of Christ no one could be forgiven and enter the kingdom of God.  How would that be good news?  It is the sacrifice of Christ and salvation through Christ that enables us to enter the kingdom of God that makes the news about the coming kingdom good news.



What Do These Doctrinal Errors Have in Common?


Is there a common denominator for all these errors?  Yes.  There is something they all have in common.

All involve rejection of Jesus Christ.

Error one, rejection of spiritual healing, rejects Christ's role in enduring physical suffering in being scourged and beaten, which is represented by the broken bread we eat at Passover.  This error rejects the sacrifice of Christ so we can have our evil nature replaced by God's nature.  Christ suffered so we can be healed spiritually.  Those who hold to that error reject the tremendous sacrifice Christ made by suffering so we can be healed of those things that cause us suffering.  That is not just a rejection of doctrine, but a rejection of Christ and His sacrifice.

Error two, rejection of the Bible as a guide to doctrine superior to the writings of Mr. Armstrong, is also a rejection of Christ.  When we refuse to learn new doctrine from the Bible or to correct our doctrinal errors from the Bible, we are rejecting God's word, the Bible.  Mr. Armstrong taught that the Bible is the word of God in print and Christ is the Word of God in person (John 1:1-14, Revelation 19:13), the same word.  When we reject the Bible, we reject Christ.

The third error in some ways is the most obvious.  Rejecting Christ as being part of the good news of the kingdom of God is a rejection of Christ.  It is a rejection of Christ as the king of the kingdom of God.  It is a rejection of salvation made possible by Christ so we can enter the kingdom of God.

Not everyone who holds one or two of these doctrinal errors holds to all three.  But I think, if anyone holds to all three, that may be a powerful witness that that person is rejecting Jesus Christ Himself.  And if anyone rejects Christ, he rejects the Father also.

"He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me" (Luke 10:16).

It is as if someone is saying, in regard to Christ, I will not have that Man rule over me (Luke 19:14).

In the mouth of two or three witnesses, the truth is established (Deuteronomy 17:6, Deuteronomy 19:15).  Some who hold all three doctrinal errors have a three-fold witness against them that they are rejecting Christ.

Can we expect Christ to give such men an open door for preaching the gospel?

If we reject Christ's word, we reject Christ and the Father who sent Him.  And such men do not have Christ as their head if they are not willing to follow where Christ leads.  

"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).