We see it on television all the time—Catholic soccer players make the sign of the cross when they score or even when they enter the field. Other athletes may make the sign of the cross on various occasions as well. In many cases, it has become a matter of routine. For example, the sign of the cross is made before meals, in church services, and at other times by many people. But what do we know about its origin?The Roman Catholic Church and many other religious organizations claim that the sign of the cross has its origin in early Christianity. The website of catholicstraightanswers.com/what-is-the-origin-of-the-sign-of-the-cross/ states the following perspective of the Catholic Church:

“The sign of the cross is a beautiful gesture which reminds the faithful of both the cross of salvation while invoking the Holy Trinity… The early Church Fathers attested to the use of the sign of the cross.  Tertullian (d.c. 250) described the commonness of the sign of the cross:  ‘In all our travels and movements, in all our coming in and going out, in putting on our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupies us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross’ (De corona, 30). St. Cyril of Jerusalem (d. 386) in his Catechetical Lectures stated, ‘Let us then not be ashamed to confess the Crucified.  Be the cross our seal, made with boldness by our fingers on our brow and in everything; over the bread we eat and the cups we drink, in our comings and in our goings out; before our sleep, when we lie down and when we awake; when we are traveling, and when we are at rest’ (Catecheses, 13).

Continue reading "What Is the Origin of the Sign of the Cross? Should Christians Make the Sign of the Cross? (Part 1)"

The Bible in fact has plenty to say about life insurance or protection through life insurance, which is applied by many different principles.  It’s however a lack of knowledge which confuses many when it comes to life insurance.  In the 1972 Good News magazine, Vol XXI, No. 03, the questions were asked if Christians should purchase life insurance in today’s society; if there is any need for God’s people to have insurance today; and “why most people feel their insurance payments serve no useful service except to swell the bulging pockets of someone else.” For the answers, we will quote extensively in this Q&A from the above-stated article.

First, an article in the 1960 Good News magazine, Vol IX, No. 01, pointed out:

“Understanding what insurance IS can help you properly exercise both FAITH in God and solid GODLY WISDOM!  Insurance is not a way to get something for nothing. Neither is it solely a way to protect the self. Nor is it a gimmick that costs you money from which you’ll never get any value.  Insurance can be defined as a pooling of resources exposed to a common risk to which a certain percentage of people will fall victim during a given period.”

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The Bible nowhere commands or even suggests that we need to use Hebrew expressions in our worship of God. This idea is mostly propagated by those who belong to the “Sacred Name” movement or who have adopted the philosophy of the “Messianic Jews.” In doing so, they are also insisting on Old Testament rituals, which Jesus Christ abolished through His death. They might also teach rituals which are based on human traditions, invented by Pharisees and scribes, but which Jesus strongly condemned.

He even warned that many times, teachers with human traditions of Judaism (Paul referred to them as the “traditions of the elders”) might do away with the commandments of God, while upholding their own faulty reasoning and practices (Mark 7:1-13). Today’s insistence on wearing tassels or having a woman wearing a veil in Church services is just one example of how true Christians can become sidetracked by superfluous or even counter-productive concepts. For more information on these issues, please read our free booklet, “Old Testament Laws—Still Valid Today?” 

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Since you believe that Mr Herbert W Armstrong had the ministerial rank of “apostle,” what is your response to those who believe that there is to be no further understanding or change after he died on January 16th 1986?

Our original Q&A on this subject, as quoted in the first part of this series, covered 1 Corinthians 11 v 1: “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”   In some other translations “imitate” is translated as “follow” and so the words follow and imitate seem to be interchangeable – but are they?   Dictionary definitions are as follows:

Follow: go after as an admirer; strive after; aim at

Imitate: mimic; try and get as close to the real thing as possible; impersonators

“Mimetes” is the Greek word translated imitate (see Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries).   So we need to know – and be sure – what Scripture says and imitate any leader only according to revealed Scriptural instruction and not to add on any unnecessary, unwanted, unwarranted or personal opinions or baggage.

Continue reading "January 16, 1986–No Further Understanding or Change? (Part 2)"

Since you believe that Mr Herbert W Armstrong had the ministerial rank of “apostle,” what is your response to those who believe that there is to be no further understanding or change after he died on January 16th 1986? (Part 1)

It is true that there are those who believe that understanding can only come through an apostle and since there are no apostles alive today, everything that was understood at the time of Mr Armstrong’s death is to remain so and any further understanding is not to be countenanced.   Of course, some have declared themselves to be apostles (and prophets) but self-declaration is not tantamount to unchallenged approval.

We have covered a number of matters via Q&A’s, editorials and member letters and it is worth mentioning these before we start looking at this overall question.

Continue reading "January 16, 1986–No Further Understanding or Change? (Part 1)"

The three periods of the year in which annual Holy Days fall are mentioned in Exodus 23:14-19. Note verse 19, which states, “‘The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God…’” (also, Exodus 34:26).

While God requires an offering of all kinds of “firstfruits,” the emphasis in Exodus is of “the FIRST of the firstfruits.” In the more extensive presentation of the feasts of the LORD as found in Leviticus 23, we find the offering of the “wave sheaf” described (verses 9-14). It was to be presented as the very firstfruits of the harvest (verse 10).

The timing of the wave sheaf offering was to take place following the weekly Sabbath associated with the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That always placed this ceremony on a Sunday within the Days of Unleavened Bread, and the rendering of the King James Version for Leviticus 23:11 is:

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Don’t Ephesians 2:15 and Colossians 2:14 teach us that Christ nailed God’s law to the cross so that we do not have to obey it anymore?

Ephesians 2:15 reads that Christ has “abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances…”

Colossians 2:14 reads that Christ has “wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” The Authorized Version says that Christ “[blotted] out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us…”

In a letter of the Letter Answering Department of the Worldwide Church of God, the following comments were made regarding Colossians 2:14:

“The ‘handwriting of requirements’… simply refers to the debt each of us owes for our sins (Rom 6:23; I John 3:4). Our individual, personal sins separated us from God and demanded the death penalty (Isa. 59:2). This debt of sin is what Paul said was ‘against us’ and ‘contrary to us’ (Col. 2:14), because it would prevent us from being in God’s Kingdom.”

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There are explanations from both sides on this issue.

Let us examine what Christ said about the sign that He gave in regard to His messiahship.

“But He answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth’” (Matthew 12:39-40).

So just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so Christ would be three days and three nights in the earth (in the tomb or a grave; “hades” in Greek). This was reiterated in Matthew 16:4: “A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah…”

Continue reading "Was Jonah Alive or Dead in the Belly of the Whale for Three Days and Three Nights?"

Some claim that this Scripture shows us that Gentile Christians are only obligated to abstain from the four things which are specifically mentioned in that passage, and that they are otherwise free from the “Old Testament” law. Others claim that today, they don’t even have to abstain from these four things anymore.

However, Acts 15:19-20 does not teach anything of the kind. It quotes James as saying: “Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood.” This concept is reiterated in Acts 15:28-29.

To fully understand this passage, we must review the context. The Jerusalem Council was held because the charge had been made by some that Gentiles could not be saved unless they became “circumcised according to the custom of Moses” (Acts 15:1) and unless they kept “the law of Moses” (verse 5; compare Acts 15:24).

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The House of Judah rejected Jesus Christ when He first came to them—a fact foretold and indeed fulfilled! Yet, it was from among His countrymen—Jewish men and women—that Jesus first found those who came to believe that He was “‘…the Christ, the Son of the living God’” (Mathew 16:16).

There was a sense of expectancy for the appearing of the Messiah in the time of Herod the king. Luke, chapter 2, and Matthew, chapter 2, recount events which occurred in the land of Judea following the birth of Jesus—all pointing to prophecies about the Messiah. These things were known— they were spoken of by many people (compare Luke 2:17).

It was knowledge of the Messianic prophecies which drew the attention of those who did follow Christ:

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