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Preaching the Gospel Website
(Website Last Updated April 2012)
Welcome to Preaching the Gospel. This book is about the true gospel, what it is, why there is an urgent need to preach it to the world as a witness, and how to do it effectively. It shows you how you can prove that the Bible is the word of God and why it should be trusted as the primary source of belief in all doctrine. This book also explains the doctrines of Herbert W. Armstrong, who learned from the Bible and restored many truths that have been lost to the Church of God since the first century.
Herbert W. Armstrong Herbert W. Armstrong preached the true gospel from late 1933 until his death in January 1986. He produced the World Tomorrow radio and television programs and published the Plain Truth magazine, which at one time had a circulation of about ten million. God used him in a powerful way for 52 years. He studied the Bible with an open mind and was willing to learn new knowledge from the Bible and discover truths that most men do not know, because he was willing to believe what God said. He also had a tremendous zeal for getting the truth of God out to the public. Today, those who have learned from him have been scattered into a multitude of fellowships and organizations, and these groups do not all believe, teach, and practice the same things. Some have changed Mr. Armstrong's teachings, not in order to follow the Bible, but to please men. Others say that Mr. Armstrong's teachings should never be changed. Some teach that we should be zealous to preach the gospel to the world, as he was, while others teach that the time of preaching the gospel ended when Mr. Armstrong died. Some follow Mr. Armstrong's teaching about government while others claim that his teachings about government cannot be proved from the Bible, and they have adopted different practices concerning Church governance. Preaching the Gospel explains and shows from the Bible what God teaches about these issues.
Major Themes of This Book Two major themes run throughout this book. One is that the Bible is God's word and that the principle of faith requires that we believe the Bible more than any other source for our beliefs about religious doctrine. This means that we must believe the Bible more than any minister, more than tradition, and more than our own opinions and preferences if we want to know the truth. Another theme is that there is an urgent need to preach the true gospel to the world as a witness and a warning to our nations about God's punishments to come if we do not turn from our national sins. The true gospel includes a message of repentance, and the two themes of believing the Bible and preaching a message of repentance to the world compliment each other, because in preaching the gospel to the world, the Church must also point the world to the Bible.
Purposes and Permissions This book, not including quotes of copyrighted sources, is in the public domain and may be freely copied and used as a resource for writing and speaking. It is written both for those with a Church of God background who are in agreement with the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong, and also as an introduction to the doctrines of the Church of God for those not familiar with Mr. Armstrong's teachings. I believe this book can be a valuable resource for writers, speakers, and members in the Church of God. It will be especially valuable for those that must deal with controversial issues such as changing Herbert W. Armstrong's doctrines, giving priority to preaching the gospel to the public, the Elijah to come, church government, causes of the scattering of the Church (and the solution), when and how we should judge others, members promoting their pet theories, how the Church of God is organized, the authority of the ministry and the limits of that authority, and many other topics. But it also covers basic doctrine that is useful for the general public and for new members such as what Bible prophecy foretells for the United States, the proof of the Bible, God's plan and purpose, the Sabbath and the holy days, and other major doctrines. As a work dedicated to the public domain, any portions of my original writings in the book may be incorporated into the articles, books, booklets, sermons, and sermonettes given by writers and sermon or sermonette speakers in the Church of God and edited as they see fit for the particular audience they are addressing. Attribution is welcome but not required. This version of the book is published April 2012. I have added a new chapter on repentance and I have made a number of small changes in the rest of the book. I would like to thank everyone who has emailed me to give me feedback, criticism, suggestions, or encouragement. Links to this site or to individual web pages within this site are welcome. You may download the entire book in pdf format, or click on the links below to browse individual chapters. Be aware that the chapters are lengthy, and each chapter is a web page, so if you browse the book, please wait while the page loads. With most dial-up connections, the longest chapters may take about one minute to fully load. To download the book in pdf format, which can be read with Acrobat Reader, click on this link with the right button on your mouse, then click on "Save Target As..." in the menu that appears: Download book. The pdf file is about 1.5 megabytes and takes about 5 minutes to download with typical dial-up connections, so please be patient. Further instructions for downloading are in the Download page. To browse the book online, click on the chapter title below to browse that chapter, or click the NEXT button in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen: Title, Table of Contents, and Introduction Chapter 1 - The United States and Britain in Prophecy Chapter 2 - What Is the True Gospel? Chapter 3 - The Ezekiel Warning Chapter 4 - Why Preach the Gospel Chapter 5 - Should the Church Feed the Flock Only? Chapter 6 - Obtaining God's Help -- Practicing What We Preach Chapter 7 - Suggestions and Strategies Chapter 8 - Government in the Church of God
Comments are welcome. Click here for contact information: Contacts. There is a blog that discusses issues related to this book. Click here to enter blog: Blog.
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