Page 7 - Just What Is the Purpose and Mission of The Church Pt.

only reason YOU have been called now, instead of later. If The PLAIN TRUTH has to
die, the WORK will die – and IF it does, it will be only because you members have already died SPIRITUALLY! You ALL – you in the Church as a whole – NEED A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING! Some of you have been criticizing instead of helping and PRAYING.”
“I know there is too much tendency to get your whole interest in your local church. But your local church IS NOT THE WORK!”
“God’s CHURCH for this age is called Christ’s ‘BODY.’ Why? As Jesus said He, Himself, divine though He was as well as human, could do NOTHING of Himself. It was the dynamic POWER of God’s HOLY SPIRIT in Him. He came, among other things, to START the Work of God – the WORK FOR THIS AGE. [The Work had gone on in the Old Testament days, but the Work that Jesus Christ started in a vital and spiritual sense was the Work of the New Testament age, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on His New Testament Church.] When He went to heaven, the SAME HOLY SPIRIT entered into the COLLECTIVE BODY of His disciples. That begat them as God’s children. Now, with the SAME POWER working in them THEY – THE CHURCH – BECAME THE COLLECTIVE BODY TO CARRY ON THAT WORK, directed by the living CHRIST from Heaven!”
“THAT is the real PURPOSE of the CHURCH, NOW! We are commissioned to get God’s Message to the world. THAT is WHY God called YOU, now, instead of later ...”
—Herbert W. Armstrong, letter to brethren, 12 April 1971
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PREACHING THE GOSPEL OF THE COMING
KINGDOM OF GOD IS THE “WORK” OF THE CHURCH
“Jesus went everywhere preaching the GOOD NEWS of the KINGDOM OF GOD. He taught in parables about the KINGDOM OF GOD. He sent out seventy men preaching, and commanded them to preach THE KINGDOM OF GOD (Luke 10:9). He sent the apostles, on whom the Church of God was founded, to preach only THE KINGDOM OF GOD (Luke 9:1 2).”
“The Apostle Paul preached THE KINGDOM OF GOD (Acts. 19:8; 20:25; 8:23, 31). And God Almighty, through Paul, pronounced a double curse on man or angel that
would DARE preach any other Gospel! (Gal. 1:8-9).”
“Why, then, do so many DARE to preach so many other gospels?”
—Herbert W. Armstrong Just What Do You Mean ... Kingdom of God? (Worldwide Church of God, 1972), p. 8.
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