by Herbert W. Armstrong
(Good News - Nov. 1957)
AMERICA has strayed so far away from her God that she does not realize what blessings could be hers if she served Him, and what doom is soon to strike because she rejects Him, while professing to worship Him!
The nation today does not know that serving and OBEYING the ways of God is THE WAY, and the ONLY way, that leads to increasing and perpetual prosperity, peace, and happiness.
America does not know that God's Laws are for OUR GOOD, OUR PROTECTION. America's false shepherds teach the people that God's Laws are bad for us. Therefore these false preachers have led the nation into unhappiness, discontent, suffering, and headed it into chaos and toward DOOM!
The Great Apostasy
America does not know, because her false preachers of organized religion have not told her, that God made a SECOND COVENANT with our own national people Israel (the Jewish people we all understand are from Judah; the American and British are racial ISRAEL) just prior to entrance into Palestine back in the days of Moses, 40 years AFTER, and IN ADDITION TO, the Covenant made with them at Mt. Sinai. And because we are breaking this covenant today, we are DOOMING our nation to DESTRUCTION!
Forty years after the making of the Old Covenant, just before Israel entered Palestine -- just before Moses' death -- God Almighty made a Second Covenant with our forefathers, THE TERMS OF WHICH ARE BEING CARRIED OUT ON OUR PEOPLE TODAY.
At that time, God said of our people: "O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments ALWAYS, THAT IT MIGHT BE WELL WITH THEM AND WITH THEIR CHILDREN FOREVER!" (Deut. 5:29).
Then God commanded Moses to send the people to their tents, while Moses alone stood before God ... "and I will speak unto thee all the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which thou shalt teach them ... Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Eternal God hath commanded you, THAT YE MAY LIVE, AND THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH YOU" (Deut. 5:31-33).
"Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Eternal your God commanded to teach YOU, that ye might do them (chapter 6:1).
Thru the remainder of the Book of Deuteronomy are written the commandments and statutes and ways which would produce national and individual BLESSINGS, if followed, and national and individual CURSES if neglected, ignored, or disobeyed.
These are the ways of Moses which the original true Christian Church, in the days of the twelve apostles and of the apostle Paul, observed so carefully, as long as authentic New Testament history continues. After some 30 years of New Testament history, the record of the New Testament Church is almost a blank for almost a hundred years. When, at last, rays of historic light give us glimpses into the activities of the Church, we find a Church VASTLY CHANGED.
A Second Covenant
As the Gentiles came into the Church, especially in the second, third, and fourth generations, they brought with them their pagan customs, ways, and beliefs. Thus paganism began mixing into Christianity. Soon the pagans professing Christianity greatly outnumbered those who held fast to the original TRUTH of Jesus Christ, of the apostles, and of Paul.
By 148 A.D., for example, only the churches of Asia Minor, raised up by Paul, continued to keep the Passover. All others, pagan dominated, had substituted the pagan spring festival in honor of the goddess Easter.
By 198 A.D., only two churches publicly kept the Passover, and a hundred years later this and the other true New Testament Church practices were forbidden by law, and prevented by the state police!
And it is from THIS paganized apostasy that today's so-called "Christianity," of organized religion has degenerated. People born into today's perverted world, reared in churches PROFESSING to be true New Testament churches, ignorant of what happened in those early years, suppose, erroneously, that the churches of this day are the true churches of Jesus Christ! But PROPHECY says that long before our day they would turn away their ears from the TRUTH, and be turned to FABLES! This has happened.
Our land is filled with FALSE PREACHERS, today, just as Jesus foretold. Many of them, themselves, are deceived -- yes, many sincere, but DECEIVED!
So our people today do not know that the nation is suffering, and facing DOOM, because it is living in flagrant violation of A SECOND COVENANT which God made with our people forty years after the covenant at Sinai!
It fills most of the Book of Deuteronomy. First, as recorded in Deut. 6:3-5: "Hear, therefore, O Israel (today America, Britain, etc.) and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily ... Hear, O Israel: The Eternal thy God is one Eternal. And thou shalt love the Eternal thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."
That is the FIRST and the most important precept, which America breaks today. No one will claim that our people as a nation loves the true God quite that much!
Space here does not, of course, permit quoting all the words of this Law and this Second Covenant STILL IN FORCE AND EFFECT TODAY! It fills most of the Book of Deuteronomy. Read it yourself. But we shall hit the high-spots, and quote a number of outstanding points.
"Beware, lest thou forget the Eternal ...Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you" (6:12,14). America doesn't realize it or admit it, but AMERICA -- AND BRITAIN, TOO -- HAVE FORGOTTEN ISRAEL'S GOD!
America is deceived and doesn't know it. She is embracing a religion falsely called "Christianity" which in true fact embodies the essential beliefs, philosophies, customs, and ways of the religions of the pagan gods of Moses day!
Regarding other races and nationalities, "Thou shalt make no covenant with them ... neither shalt thou make marriages with them" (Deut. 7:2-3). America made herself the ally of godless, heathen Russia. America is falling victim today to the Communist propaganda of MIXING THE RACES, contrary to God's commands! God Himself scattered the races at the tower of Babel. God decreed they shall remain SEGREGATED until the end of this world, and the coming of Christ.
Communism stands for amalgamation of the races, until there will be but one race again. They disseminate this propaganda among the Negroes of America. Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt has fallen under this delusion, and other public leaders have started a trend in America which makes segregation, which GOD COMMANDS, appear to be sinful and evil, and which makes a mixing of races, which GOD CONDEMNS, appear to be Christian and good! This has nothing to do with race superiority or racial DISCRIMINATION. God condemns racial discrimination, but COMMANDS racial segregation. There's a vast difference! Today people confuse the two as though they were the same!
Why We Have Diseases
"If ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them ... thou shalt be blessed above all people ... and the Eternal will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt upon thee" (Deut. 7:12,14-15).
"Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong ... There shall no man be able to stand before you: for the Eternal your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all ... Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; a blessing IF ye obey which I command you this day" (Deut. 11:8,25-28).
"Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man WHATSOEVER IS RIGHT IN HIS OWN EYES" (Deut. 12:8). America violates that command above all. By teaching that sin is doing what is contrary to your own conscience, the preachers lure the people AWAY from the laws and commands and ways of God, and teach them to do WHAT IS RIGHT IN THEIR OWN EYES. This, which God condemns, is made to appear to be righteousness, and Christian. But by condemning the laws of God, they make God's true ways appear to be evil! This is America's RELIGION today! AND AMERICA IS UNDER A DIVINE CURSE!
"Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing" (Deut. 14:3). Then follows the list of the clean and unclean meats. The list is also given in Lev. 11. Yes, this, too, was one of the CONDITIONS to good health, national peace, prosperity, and individual happiness and joy. But the preachers tell you that's all done away. They tell you to eat pork, ham, bacon, oysters, clams, crab, and all the other foul, filthy, unclean animals. And GOD'S LAW which is inexorable, takes its toll! The people are sickly and diseased, restless, discontented, full of fears and worries, unhappy and suffering, and now facing national captivity in war! The assurances of the false prophets CAN'T PREVENT THE CURSES hitting our people for disobedience!
Also in the laws of this covenant are the commands on TITHING. The FIRST tenth of every person's income belongs to God, not to the individual, and is to be paid to God's minister. Under the Old Covenant priesthood (Sinai) the tithes were paid to the Levites, then God's ministers. Under the New Covenant, the Priesthood being changed to the spiritual ministry of Jesus Christ, a CHANGE (not an abolishing) is made in the tithing law, so that today everyone is directed to pay God's tithe to the truly called ministers of Jesus Christ (Heb. 7). But in Deut. 14:22-27, is written instruction for a SECOND tithe, that is, a second tenth of income, to provide expense money for God's true people to attend God's festivals--the Passover and Pentecost in the Spring, and the Feast of Tabernacles in the Fall -- at whatever place GOD shall designate. Not one American out of a hundred thousand has ever so much as HEARD of this second tithe, today! Those who practice it are greatly blessed.
But the nation is under a divine CURSE!
Then there is yet a third tithe, once every three years, to be given to the widows and orphans as God's insurance program.
Other Laws Add Blessings
"At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release ... Every creditor that lendeth unto his neighbor shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbor, or of his brother, because it is the Eternal's release" (Deut. 15:1-2). Yes, these ways which God commanded seem rather STRANGE, don't they? People don't DREAM of the blessings they lose because they ignore them!
"Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover unto the Eternal thy God. Seven days (following Passover) shalt thou eat unleavened bread seven weeks (thereafter) shalt thou number unto thee ... and thou shalt keep THE FEAST OF WEEKS (Pentecost) ... and thou shalt REJOICE before the Eternal thy God ... thou shalt observe the feast of Tabernacles seven days . . and thou shalt REJOICE in thy festival" (Deut. 16:1,3, 9-11, 13-14). People today don't even know what the month "Abib" is. It is God's first month of the year, but it is not the same as the pagan January. It begins in the spring, when new life is budding forth in nature. But the nation has deserted God's calendar, and accepted the pagan calendar. The people look on God's holy days as "Jewish holidays," have forsaken them which God enjoined FOREVER, and taken up, instead, with the pagan holidays.
But AMERICANS ARE UNDER A CURSE, AND NOW HEADING RAPIDLY INTO NATIONAL DESTRUCTION!
Next, chapter 18, comes instruction against fortune-telling astrology, seances. Yet America and England are full of that today. In chapter 22:57 women are commanded not to wear clothing which pertains to men. But it's the STYLE to disobey God. In chapter 23:19, "you must never exact interest upon a loan from a fellow-Israelite (a fellow American or Britisher today) ... From a foreigner you may exact interest." In chapter 24:14 is a command against employers underpaying employees, or holding back their wages, and in 25:13, a command for giving full measure, honest weight -- a full money's worth in any transaction.
What Is Prophesied to Befall Us!
Go thru this entire Book of instruction, BINDING ACCORDING TO ITS SPIRIT AND INTENT ON US TODAY, and you'll see our people do EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE in every case!
Once we see these things thru the mind of God, the sins and ways and customs of our people today are shocking -- APPALLING! That's how they appear to God. Our people are insolent, stiff-necked, rebellious, going their OWN way, and like dumb sheep going to the slaughter.
Finally, chapter 28, "IF ONLY you will listen carefully to what the Eternal your God orders, mindful to carry out all His commands which I enjoin upon you this day (40 years after Mt. Sinai covenant), then the Eternal your God will lift you HIGH ABOVE ALL THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH, and all these blessings shall come upon you. You shall be blessed ... foes who attack you the Eternal will rout before you; they may assail you all together, but they shall fly before you in all directions. The Eternal will command you to be blessed in your barn and in every enterprise to which you put your hand. IF you obey the orders of the Eternal your God AND LIVE HIS LIFE, so that when all nations on earth see you are owned by the Eternal, they may stand in awe of you. The Eternal will make you OVERFLOW WITH PROSPERITY ...
"BUT IF you will not listen to the voice of the Eternal God, "All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you . . till you are destroyed ... these curses shall be a mark and portent UPON YOU AND YOUR DESCENDANTS FOR ALL TIME ... He will put AN IRON YOKE upon your neck till you are destroyed." (Compare with Isa. 47:1-6, speaking of the DAUGHTER of ancient Babylon -- the European Fascists of TODAY putting a yoke on America's neck; and Jer. 30:7-8, where that yoke is finally broken and removed by Christ at His second coming.) "The Eternal will bring on you a nation from the far ends of the earth, swooping like a vulture.
"The Eternal will inflict on you and your descendants [our people today] amazing plagues, severe plagues and prolonged, diseases sore and prolonged; He will bring back upon you the diseases of Egypt [cancer, heart-failure, T.B., etc.] ... You shall enjoy no ease ... the Eternal will give you an anxious mind suspense, you shall be afraid [fear and worry] by night and by day, unable to have any confidence in life ..." (Deut. 28:1 to the 29th chapter).
"SUCH WERE THE TERMS OF THE COMPACT which the Eternal ordered Moses to draw up with the Israelites in the land of Moab, IN ADDITION TO the Compact which He had made with them at Horeb" (Deut. 29:1).
There it is!
Because Abraham did obey God, and keep His commandments, God STOOD BOUND to bring all these blessings upon our people. In Lev. 26 you will read how, thru Moses, God promises these blessings for Israel of that day IF they would follow His orders and live HIS WAY. But if they rebelled and refused, then they were to be driven into national captivity, and the promised blessings withheld 2520 years (seven times). That happened. The 2520 years expired shortly after 1800 A.D.
ALL THESE GREAT NATIONAL BLESSINGS CAME TO BRITAIN AND AMERICA, beginning 1803 A.D. We have been privileged to enjoy them, not because we have kept God's ways, but because Abraham did (Gen. 26:5). But now God has fulfilled His promise to Abraham.
And now, from here, America is to be blessed, or cursed ACCORDING TO HER OWN DEEDS. And America today is breaking every order of God's compact, and already beginning to suffer EVERY CURSE listed as a penalty. GOD SAVE AMERICA! God help America to WAKE UP, and COME TO HER SENSES!
How YOU Personally May Escape
The destruction will come from the place we least expect. Not Russia, but from Germany, and a united Europe -- the Europe we are helping today.
If you hear ministers DENYING this coming doom, assuring the people of PEACE, telling them to do that which is right in their own eyes, and that God's commands are done away, just read Jer. 23:16-17, 31-32, and Ezek. 34:1-10, and I John 2:4.
God help this nation to UNDERSTAND. But YOU -- you, personally, whose eyes God has opened -- if YOU will remain true to God, forsaking your own way and the ways and customs of the people, repenting, and seeking God thru Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, giving your very self to HIM, dedicating your life to Him, and to live by every word of the Bible -- You CAN DELIVER YOUR OWN SOUL FROM THE TRIBULATIONS AND THE PLAGUES TO COME!
Christ died to deliver you from the curse of the law! He paid the penalty of your sins in your stead. Now you can receive the BLESSINGS of the law if you continue in obedience!
"WATCH ye therefore" -- yes, WATCH world events fulfill prophecy -- "and PRAY ALWAYS, that ye may be accounted worthy to ESCAPE ALL THESE THINGS that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man" (Luke 21:36). So warned AND PROMISED, Jesus Christ!