Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
To do anything correctly, you have to WANT to., April 20, 2006
I clean windows for a living. If I really want to get the windows clean, I have to WANT to take the time and effort to really LOOK for the little spots and drips that would otherwise be very easy to miss or "accidentally" overlook. I have to open my mind to the possibility that I could have been mistaken when I first looked at that window and thought I had gotten it clean. In short, I have to WANT to get the windows clean, and be willing to admit that I may not yet have them as clean as they could be, or I will just do a half-way job.
The same principle can be applied in any area of our lives---if we truly WANT to change, to learn, to grow, or to just be the best we can be at any particular thing, then we will apply the effort necessary to accomplish that; and, we won't close our minds to the fact that we may not have gotten it quite right, yet. If we DON'T really WANT to, we will only give it a half-hearted effort.
I WANT to learn more about the Bible. I WANT to grow "in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." I WANT to really understand the mysteries this book talks about. Because I DO want all of these things, I have found this book to be an invaluable aid.
Using the questions and proposed answers given in this book (please prove the answers to yourself using your own Bible), I have been able to critically examine the foundations of the beliefs I had blindly accepted from birth; beliefs that I hadn't taken the time to prove for myself, but had followed because my mother or father or pastor or someone else had told me were correct.
This book is not God's Word, and doesn't claim to be. It does, however, help a person to answer a lot of questions about God that they might not otherwise be able to; or, for that matter, that they otherwise might not even think to ask.
For what it's worth, by using my Bibles and study aids (and I have a fairly extensive collection), I haven't been able to find any errors in anything spiritual that Mr. Armstrong presents---and I HAVE tried.
Also for what it's worth, there are no references to Mormonism, Gap theory, or Jehovah's Witness doctrines in this book. Nor is it anywhere asserted that Christ (or anyone else) had to "qualify" for salvation. It plainly states that salvation is the free and undeserved gift of God. Everything the author presents is supported with Biblical proof for those who are willing to open it's pages and work to understand God's Word (Isaiah 28:9-16). Again, you have to WANT to know God to be able to really know Him. You have to be willing to let go of falsehood before you can replace it with truth.
I feel like those who have given this book bad reviews must, necessarily, fall into one or more of three categories:
1.) those who, for whatever reason, do not WANT to believe anything other than what they have always believed and been taught;
2.) those who simply cannot comprehend plain truth when confronted with it; or,
3.) those who KNOW this is the truth, but want to suppress it.
In any case, if Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong is correct, one day their minds will be opened and they, too, will have another opportunity to learn these spiritual matters---during the Great White Throne Judgment. If he is wrong, then mankind has very little hope.
I pray he is right; and, I pray that you will read this book with an open mind, asking God to give you His understanding and the knowledge of His revealed Truth.
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27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Invalublae Revelation, February 5, 2005
In his 57-year ministry, Herbert W. Armstrong earned respect as an author, educator and theologian from laypersons and leaders around the globe. Mr. Armstrong often described the Bible as a jigsaw puzzle. The year before his death in 1986, he wrote this book summarizing his entire life's work that put the pieces of that puzzle together. He felt a tremendous need to get that book to "the largest audience possible." Mr. Armstrong never lived to see that goal realized. What's worse, after he died, the Church he founded abandoned his teachings, and Mystery of the Ages was removed from circulation. After an arduous six-year-long court battle, the Philadelphia Church of God-committed to the teachings contained in Mystery-now owns the copyright to it, and will send a free copy to anyone interested in this priceless truth(www.pcog.org). The PCG has taken on the battle cry of Herbert Armstrong: taking a book that unlocks the entire Bible to "the largest audience possible."
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you only knew, December 30, 2006
Please let me help you to want to read this book.You read it and make up your own mind.Within the pages of this wonderfully written book you will find that Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong has simply as possibly able made a summary of the most complex book in existence-The Bible.He has successfully explained the main themes of The Bible so a child can understand.You read it.You decide.
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by Herbert W. Armstrong
by Ronald Weinland
