<TITLE>07. Par 22-24</TITLE>L-22 Those things of turning new pages, that's good. We think that's very good. Just like after the first world war, many of you, men and women, can remember that perhaps. I was a little boy of about eight or nine years old. I remember well of even ministers saying, "War is over. We'll never have no more wars. It's all settled now. We just can't have no more wars, because we've got poison gases, and so forth."
Many of you remember that. The nation told us, "Wars are settled for good." They meant that. From that time, they said, "There'll be no more war." But we had them just the same.
When they begin to see rumors rising up, nation turning against nation, they formed what was known as the League of Nations to police the nations. They tried that. See? That was mental, but it did not work. It throwed us right into one of the greatest wars we ever had after that. Now, they've got what they call the U.N. Police the nations again, but it will fail just as sure as two two's are four. It's got to fail. They think it's good, which it is, but as long as mental thinking... It doesn't do it; it takes revelation, spiritual revelation.

L-23 All those things, as good as they may be, trying to join church. That's good. I think everyone ought to join church. That's good, as far as it goes, but that's not the cure. I think that everyone ought to take their choice as American citizens to join any church that they want to. And I think that we ought not to disfellowship that person upon their conviction. I think we should all fellowship with one another, asking God's mercies on us all. But that's not the thing yet.
Every New Year's men will make a pledge, go out and write on a book, maybe on the Bible sheet, and say, "I'll never drink again. I'll never smoke again. I'll never be untrue to my wife again." And less than five or ten days, they've broke every vow they made. See? They're making it by mental conception.

L-24 That's why many people join churches, because they fear hell, and they come, and put their names on books, and go out, and think it settles it. But it doesn't. It's not lasting. All those things are temporal, but there is a time when a certain thing can happen, and from then on, it's different, really different. That's when man meets God. Things change when man meets God.
A man can never meet God and ever be the same again. You will either be a better person or a worse person. You'll be better off, or worse off after you meet God. It depends on what you want to do about it. But a man can never meet God and ever be the same.
Whatever your attitude is towards God, seals your eternal destination. You can walk across the line between grace, mercy, and judgment; and when you spurn grace so many times you can separate yourself from ever from the Presence of God, or you can accept Him and have Eternal Life, and never die, but be raised up again at the last day in the general resurrection. Oh, how glad I am, that there's something that we can point back to and say, "From that time, something happened."


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