America has a number of problems that are compounding on a daily basis. The state of California seems to alternate regularly between fires, floods and earthquakes. The national debt has soared to nearly $18.5 trillion, and it’s only a matter of time before our creditors come calling. Our streets are filled with racially motivated violence. There have been over 50 school shootings so far this year. The Obama administration recently brokered the worst foreign policy deal in United States history when it essentially gave Iran the bomb. At the same time, it is abandoning a longtime loyal ally: the Jewish nation in the Middle East.

These are some huge problems. Only one book holds the solutions: the Holy Bible. The Bible is a mystery to this world—to religion, science and education. The vast majority of knowledge that people have about the Bible is actually false. They just believe whatever they have heard without proving it for themselves (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Our task is to remove the mystery from the Bible. It ought to fill us with joy, yet it doesn’t make sense to mankind.

Herbert W. Armstrong published his greatest work in 1985: Mystery of the Ages. The subheading reads: “Did you ever ask yourself: ‘Who am I? What am I? Why am I?’ You are a mystery. The world about you is a mystery. Now you can understand!”

Mystery of the Ages is the second-most important book ever written after the Bible. It decodes the Bible. As we creep toward human extinction, it makes sense that God would give us the solution in His Word. He wants us to understand the cause of our problems.

Mr. Armstrong covered seven mysteries in Mystery of the Ages, which are also the chapter titles:

1. Who and What Is God?

2. Mystery of Angels and Evil Spirits

3. Mystery of Man

4. Mystery of Civilization

5. Mystery of Israel

6. Mystery of the Church

7. Mystery of the Kingdom of God

Incredibly, Mr. Armstrong’s successors in the Worldwide Church of God (wcg) stopped printing Mystery of the Ages after just three years. Is there ever a reasonable time to stop printing the most important book since the Bible? Puny men tore down everything that Mr. Armstrong built in the Church. They never grasped the importance of this life-changing book.

A group of us left that church when its leaders started changing all the core doctrines. We in the Philadelphia Church of God went to court with the wcg for the right to print Mystery of the Ages and distribute it to the largest audience possible.

From 1997-2003, we spent several million dollars and overcame an unjust court decision to win the copyright to that book and 18 other works of Mr. Armstrong. Now, we give it all away for free to whomever requests it. Why? You will see if you deeply study it. Mystery of the Ages really will remove all mystery from your Bible.

Let’s focus on the first two monumental mysteries.

Who and What Is God?

People in general are miserable today. Our problems are piling up, and the worst suffering this world has ever seen is coming (Matthew 24:21-22; Daniel 12:1). If a loving God is out there somewhere, then surely He would give us the key to solving these daunting difficulties. God’s existence is easily provable. Request our free booklet Proof of the Bible, also by Mr. Armstrong, to see this for yourself.

We must realize that we are the cause of our own problems. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, millions blamed God. But there is a cause for every effect. Something is wrong with man. The Bible tells us that our human nature must change.

Until we listen to God and His messenger, the suffering will continue. Mr. Armstrong traveled the world proclaiming a message of peace to numerous nations and world leaders, but people didn’t heed. How hard man is!

On one of Mr. Armstrong’s trips, he rode in a taxicab around New Delhi, India, before meeting then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Out the window, he saw cows and oxen wandering through the city and asked the driver how their owners could track them down. The driver just smiled and explained that the animals know their owners and always return home.

This experience reminded Mr. Armstrong of a particular passage of scripture: “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward” (Isaiah 1:2-4).

God’s chosen nation Israel—or America and Britain and the nations of its former empire—has forsaken Him today. Israel had a special history with God, but it has thrown that away. Prove who Israel is with Mr. Armstrong’s book The United States and Britain in Prophecy. This book contains precious, priceless truth.

God never offered salvation to that carnal nation, but He has made it available to His Church! This prophecy in Isaiah applies specifically to God’s own Church—spiritual Israel. Despite significantly higher stakes, even most of His people have forsaken God.

Just think about what God is saying here: Both physical and spiritual Israel have less intelligence than an ox when it comes to knowing their owner! This is the biggest tragedy in the world today.

God wants every person on Earth to hear this message (verse 2). Both physical and spiritual Israel at one time had the responsibility to teach the world about God. Both failed, though a small remnant of God’s Church continues to do the job. The whole world needs to know what the Bible means.

The most highly educated are usually the most obstinate toward God and His truth. The Apostle Paul taught the Athenians about the “unknown god” (Acts 17). They set up monuments to all sorts of inanimate objects and called them gods, and they spent their lives discussing philosophy. They were quite intelligent in their own eyes. But Paul boldly told them, “You don’t know the true God!”

“For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (Matthew 13:15).

Our educated class today behaves appallingly when it comes to questions about God. Most scholars refuse to make Him a part of their knowledge and curricula (Romans 1:28). When the Son of God Himself came to this Earth, He ended up with just 120 converts. Clearly, God isn’t trying to save the world today. Mankind won’t heed, so God lets us learn the hard way.

Jesus Christ in the flesh had the humility to say that He could do nothing of Himself. Men don’t believe that. They think they are special and capable. They refuse to be taught. They truck ahead like mean children, stubbornly refusing any assistance from their Creator. God will only use those who are humble and teachable (Matthew 11:25).

Mystery of Angels and Evil Spirits

God created the angels and required they prove themselves trustworthy on Earth before going out to rule the entire universe. He still uses angels mightily. Exodus 25 shows that two archangels sit on either side of God’s throne. Angels watch over God’s Church and help move His plan forward in many other ways.

But the angels, led by the archangel Lucifer, failed the Earth test. A third of all angels rebelled and became twisted, angry demons. So God set into motion His backup plan: the re-creation of Himself in man. Only beings with the character of God could be absolutely relied upon to carry out His will to perfection.

God gives us a marvelous description of Lucifer: “Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee” (Ezekiel 28:12-15).

The beginning of this chapter is talking about a prince, a physical ruler. Then, it speaks of a king—Satan the devil, formerly Lucifer the archangel. God created him with the “tabrets” and “pipes,” or vast musical genius. Lucifer at one time produced the most beautiful music imaginable. After his rebellion, he produced the type of degenerate, immoral, discouraging music that we hear so often today. He is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4). We must understand that the music and other such influences surrounding us do not come from God.

The righteous angels still assist God in His plan, but He realized that perfect character is developed—not created in an instant. He is developing that perfect character in mortal man.

Lucifer was the “anointed cherub that covers”—a super-angel covering God’s throne! He spent countless millions of years in God’s presence, yet “iniquity”—or lawlessness—was still found in him. He became Satan and caused a third of the angels under him to pervert God’s law and government on Earth.

This mass rebellion did not catch God off guard. All along, He had a backup plan in place should the angels fail. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness …” (Genesis 1:26). Not only do we look like God, but we are also created in His image—His character!

God is offering us the greatest reward possible: the chance to rule over Earth and soon thereafter the universe! The big question is: Can we do it, or will we fail like Lucifer did? Each of us must answer this all-important question.