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PASTOR'S REPORT(lt»
PUBLISHED BY THE WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
VOL 3 NO. 25
CALIFORNIA
JULY
MR. ARMSTRONG VIDEOTAPES PERSONAL THANKS TO SOUTHLAND BRETHREN
(Editor's Note: The following is from a transcript of the videotaped message
Mr. Armstrong prepared for the members of the Churches in Southern Califor
nia. He expressed his deep appreciation of their support during the Church/
state crisis and explains a bit further the why and wherefore of what the
Church had to do.)
GREETINGS EVERYBODY back there in Pasadena! I've just finished recording
my message for the opening on a Friday night of the coming Feast of Taber
nacles, and the opening sermon on Sabbath morning which will be shown on
the screen at all feast sites all over the world.
While I have the television crew here I thought that I might say a very few
words to just you people there in and near Pasadena, and in the Southern
California area.
I want to thank you millions and
llions of times over. I don't have the
words in my vocabulary to properly thank you for your loyalty and your
willinqness to get out and work when the State of California came down with
their �llegal and unconstitutional massive attack against the Church of the
Living God.
You know government has always fought God and God's way. Way back at the
time that God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, God said in
ef ct, "You've rejected Me as your King and as your Lord and Ruler /so/ now
go form your own governments, form your own kind of rulership.
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And-so
that's what man has done, and man has, ever since, been contrary to God.
�ow some few have tried to misapply the scriptures relating to our personal
conduct in regard to Caesar--in other words, in our relationship with the
government. But they forget that we are to render unto God the things t�at
are God's. I know Jesus said,
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Render therefore unto Caesar the things that
are Caesar's,"but when it comes to rendering the whole Church of God and all
of its assets over to the state, they are not Caesar's, they are God's! And
we are not going to render what is God's over to Caesar. And we didn't, and
thank you for standing back of us, brethren.
In our personal everyday life we are told in Romans and elsewhere in the
Bib
that we must be subject to the powers that be. I've explained that
so many times. Here's a little example: if the government says that we
must only drive 50 miles an hour, okay, only drive 50 miles an hour, not 55
or 60. That is for our everyday life and our private lives.
But what did Jesus do when the Pharisees came to Him? Remember the
Pharisees were in government positions (or did you forget that?). The
Roman Empire was ruling over Judea in the days of Christ and the Romans
were pretty smart. They didn't send a lot of people from Rome over there
to administer their lower and simpler form of government. They took the
sect of the Pharisees to do that ruling. But remember that there we=e