In early August 1927, a series of physical illnesses and injuries attacked Mrs. Armstrong. First, she was bitten on the arm by a dog. Then she was driven to bed with tonsillitis which later developed into quinsy. To add insult to injury, she had contracted blood poisoning because of being stuck with a rose thorn. Her condition grew so bad the doctor felt she could not last another twenty-four hours. A neighbor lady came to their home and asked if Mrs. Armstrong would like to be anointed. They consented and the man came over. In his autobiography, Mr. Armstrong writes about this occasion:
“That evening this man and his wife came, about seven. He was rather tall. They were plain people, obviously not of high education, yet intelligent appearing…I believed. My wife believed. We knelt in prayer beside her bed. As he anointed my wife with oil from a vial he carried, he uttered a quiet, positive, very earnest and believing prayer which was utterly different from any prayer I had ever heard. This man actually dared to talk directly to God, and to tell God what He had PROMISED to do! He quoted the promises of God to heal. He applied them to my wife. He literally held God to what he had promised!”
She was divinely healed—Mr. Armstrong remarks: “Incidentally this was the last time we have ever called a doctor for any illness in our family.” Around this same time, Mr. Armstrong and his wife had learned an exciting, shocking truth. The resurrection of Christ did not occur on Sunday morning! He continues:
“But, exciting as these new truths were to me, I realized fully I was new in the truth — a novice spiritually — a "babe in Christ." I deemed it wise to have this newly discovered truth about the day of the resurrection verified by others more experienced in Biblical understanding than I. It was but natural to look upon the man whose prayer God had so miraculously answered in healing my wife as a "man of God." …This "man of God" promised he would study my article and give me his opinion. Then a few nights later I returned to his living quarters in a corner of the giant tabernacle…”Did you study into my article about the day of the resurrection?" I asked, since he avoided mentioning it. "Well, yes, Brother," he replied, "I took it to our pastor and we went over it together." "Well, did you find any error in what I wrote?" I persisted. "Well, no, Brother," he admitted, "we couldn't find anything wrong with it. It does seem to be according to the Scriptures, but Brother, we feel that studying into that kind of subject is likely to be dangerous. It might get you all mixed up. We feel it would be better for you to just forget all about that — just get your mind clear off of that. There are more important things for you to think about and study into. It's best to just keep your mind on Christ."
What can we learn from this story? Is there a relevant lesson for our lives today? What warning does the Bible give to those who knowingly reject truth? And what should be our response? Hosea 4:6 states: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children”.
Mr. Armstrong writes: “A week or two later I walked back out past 82nd Street to the huge old Billy Sunday tabernacle. This thing had weighed heavily on my mind. This tall, uneducated, plain and simple man had been an instrument in God's hands not only in saving my wife's life, but also in opening our eyes to the truth of God's healing power. I felt deeply grateful. I hoped that even yet I might help rescue this man from the consequences of rejecting God's revealed knowledge. I found him in the big auditorium. He appeared dejected, downcast, worried. "Brother," he said, on looking up and seeing me, "Brother, something terrible has come over me. God has left me. He doesn't answer my prayers any more. I don't understand what has happened." Poor man! I understood what had happened. He had been a trusting and deeply sincere, if simple, man. God had used this man. God used him to bring my wife and me the knowledge that God actually performs miracles for those who trust Him — He heals — if we obey and believe. And how many other people God had helped through this man's prayers I did not know. Evidently, until God used me to test him by bringing to him a new truth, he had not deliberately rejected truth nor disobeyed God's commands knowingly. God looks on the heart, and until this man followed his preacher in deliberately rejecting light and truth from God which he acknowledged to be truth and which led to willful disobedience, his heart was honest and sincere in his simple way. But he had rejected God's knowledge. And now God had rejected him! His prayers were no longer answered. He was now guilty of disobedience of God's Law”.
This understanding is echoed by the Apostle John: “And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3:22). God had used that man to bring the Armstrong’s truth. They accepted it and walked in it. Then God used Mr. Armstrong to take to him a truth. He acknowledged that it was the truth, proved it, and rejected it. He walked in disobedience instead of in the light! God used that man no more. As true Christians, we cannot be motionless. Either we advance, and grow spiritually against opposition and obstacles, or we fall by the wayside to be rejected. And it’s not an easy path.
In this regard, notice the teaching of Titus 3:9-11: “But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless. Reject a divisive man [KJV: a man that is a heretic] after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned”.
"Divisive” is from Strong’s 141 hairetikós (an adjective, derived from 138 /hairéomai, "to choose, have a distinctive opinion") – a factious person, specializing in half-truths and misimpressions "to win others over" to their personal opinion (misguided zeal) – while creating harmful divisions (used only in Tit 3:10). See 139 (hairesis).
The word “heretic” is to be applied to one who holds some fundamental error of doctrine—an individual who holds and teaches opinions offensive to the established faith once and for all delivered to the saints. When men cause divisions in the Church of God, instead of aiming to promote unity by following the doctrines of God’s apostles, they are to be avoided! Now that does not mean we need to act hasty and rash. Everyone deserves a second chance—"Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector” (Matt. 18:15-17).
Titus said, “Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition”. In other words, give the person an opportunity to explain himself, repent and abandon his course—to defend his conduct, and to repent if he has done wrong. But, if he does not repent, he is to be “rejected” (GK: paraitou)—excused, refused, and avoided. Yet, the primary connection is to reject him in relation to an office, to decline to appoint or admit him to a church office. This doesn’t mean we “burn him at the stake”. But we leave him to God, and we don’t follow him anymore! He cannot say, no one told him better—he has condemned himself. If his individual self-will prevails and he teaches what he chooses, independent of the true doctrines and traditions of the church as established by God’s apostle, then have nothing more to do with him. Sadly, history has shown very few good leaders that had the humility to overcome self-will. One must wonder if there will be anyone in this end-time.
Why is this understanding paramount to each one of us? Will you believe a lie about the truth? The disastrous effect of believing lies, whether through carelessness or laziness, is that it turns us from the truth (Titus 1:14). Do we grasp that even a little false doctrine, is like a cornerstone of a building? We are told in 2 Thessalonians 2:10-11, “and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,”. If we believe in error, we reject the truth of God on that point. That little bit of falsehood is like leaven. It begins to grow and flourish (Matt. 16:6). Soon a little more knowledge is built upon this foundation. Since truth does not fit with error, the additional building blocks of knowledge, built upon this initial keystone of falsehood, must be altered to fit the foundational error. Error grows until a person has built himself a fortress of falsehood—a stronghold of error. And the pathetic truth is that he is deceived and may believe he has built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, the apostles, and the Bible (Eph. 2:20) when in fact, he has built it upon ever-shifting sand (Matt. 7:26-27). What is your foundation? Will you build upon the Father, the Son, and His apostles or will you believe the pathetic truth?
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