Act on the Truth!

If there is any one thing I could wish for you readers of Tomorrow's World, it is that you would come to have the faith and the courage to act on the Truth. Through this magazine—and through the Tomorrow's World television program and other facets of this Work—we are giving you precious truth not understood by the majority of mankind. As Jesus said: "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:13–14).

Because the real truth of God's way is so very different from "mainstream" religion, many are hesitant to do anything about it. Or they are afraid it might "lead somewhere" they do not like, and so they "blot it out of their minds." As Sir Winston Churchill said: "Men occasionally stumble over the Truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened!"

Does that describe you?

In the lead article of this issue, I discuss one of the most vital and important issues squarely facing you. Are you fully converted—really converted? Have you genuinely been "changed"—which is what the very word "convert" means? As Christ descends from heaven in a few years at the seventh trumpet, and the cities of this rebellious society are shaken to their foundations (Revelation 16:17–20), will you be prepared and qualified to rule with Christ in His soon-coming Kingdom? As the Apostle Paul was inspired to write: "Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?" (1 Corinthians 6:2).

In your case, does God seem "far away"—and do all the biblical verses about Christ setting up a real government on Earth seem vague and unreal to you? Have you really come to "know" God, or have you just "grown up" in your parents' church—or perhaps "joined" the church of your choice? Is "your" church truly God's Church? Does it teach the real Truth about the entire purpose of human existence?

Please—for your eternal good—think!

Jesus Christ said: "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:44). If God is opening your mind to what is really going on in prophesied world events, and to true Christians' urgent need to prepare for rulership in Christ's coming Kingdom (Revelation 2:26–27), then I hope and pray that you will act on that vital knowledge! For time is short. We truly are living in the "last days" of this world's society under the influence of Satan the Devil.

Knowing the Truth is not enough! You must exercise the courage to act on the Truth. Many, many verses all through the Bible show us that we must act. One of my favorite passages is James 1:22: "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."

As we in this Work warn the American and British-descended peoples of the coming Great Tribulation, many hundreds of thousands are hearing or viewing our message through television, radio or the Internet. But they are often paralyzed by indecision—by the unwillingness to do anything! Notice how people often fail to respond to God's message. As God told Ezekiel: "As for you, son of man, the children of your people are talking about you beside the walls and in the doors of the houses; and they speak to one another, everyone saying to his brother, 'Please come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.' So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain" (Ezekiel 33:30–31).

God grant that you will be able to wake up and to act! For your eternal good, do not be afraid to acknowledge that you, personally, have never experienced the kind of "conversion" the Bible clearly talks about—that you have never experienced the genuine power of the Holy Spirit in your life to help you grow "to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13).

Let me be brutally honest. Most professing Christians and churchgoers have never been taught the powerful message of the soon-coming Kingdom of God. They have never been taught what "sin" actually is! So they have been unable to fully repent and be properly baptized as God commands.

Have you been taught about real repentance?

Please read carefully the following explanation of genuine repentance from one of God's faithful servants:

"So let me say right here something about conversion I find most people do not understand.

The repentance required as a condition to being truly converted by receiving God's Holy Spirit is something far different than most people suppose. It is infinitely more than merely "seeing" God's truth, or some of it, and being good enough to embrace and accept it. It is something altogether different from merely agreeing with certain doctrines.

Whoever you are, you have, or you have had, an idol. You have had another 'god' before the true living Almighty God. It might be your hobby or your habitual pastime. It might be your husband, or wife, or child or children. It might be your job. It might be your own vanity, or lipstick you paint on, or your business or profession. Very often it is the opinion of your friends, your family, your group or social or business contacts.

But whatever it is, that idol must first be crushed, smashed—it must be literally torn out of your mind, even though it hurts more than having all your teeth pulled out and perhaps a jawbone, too! I don't believe that many people experience this painlessly. I don't know of any anesthetic that will render it pleasurable. Usually it seems like something more excruciating than the agony of death by the cruelest torture" (Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, Vol. 1, p. 593).

Dear reader, have you ever experienced that kind of genuine repentance?

Jesus Christ is now training a cadre of truly converted, changed and faithful Christians to serve under Him in His coming world government. The time for half-baked Christianity is over! The time for "playing church" has passed! Please read carefully and prayerfully the lead article in this issue: "The Danger of False Conversion." Ask God for real understanding. And ask God for the faith and the courage to act on His Truth.