A recent papal headline caused me to recall a short incident that occurred in a primary school English class back in my native country of Australia. We had developed the habit of learning a word of the day. On one occasion, using the chosen “word of the day,” one of my classmates turned to me smirking and declared, “Fraser, you’re an oxymoron!” I reacted red faced and furious as I took the term to mean he’d called me a galah—Aussie lingo for a stupid fellow. Fortunately for us both the teacher stepped in and explained the meaning of the word.

Oxford Dictionaries defines oxymoron as “a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction.” On April 13, speaking in an online recorded message, a special message to thousands of Australian worshipers attending the third National Family Gathering in Melbourne, Pope Benedict xvi delivered one of the most striking statements using terms that were patently oxymoronic—he proclaimed the Catholic Church is “the Family of God.”

Now any elementary student of Catholic doctrine should be fully aware that the church teaches God is a trinity, a closed unit. It certainly does not teach Christ’s gospel message that humanity can be begotten by God, to become God, as God is very God, born into and becoming part of the God Family presently comprising the Father and the Son! Doctrinally, the universal church teaches an anti-family dogma of a closed spiritual Godhead comprising but three persons. It teaches that family is restricted to the human level. That is simply not biblical.

Benedict stated: “This important event is an occasion for you not only to witness to the bonds of affection within your individual families, but also to deepen them with the wider Family of God, which is the church, so that you become protagonists of a new humanity, a renewed culture of love and unity, of life and stability, giving glory to God our Father at all times.”

His statement left my mind reeling back to my school days in Australia and the word of the day, “oxymoron.” I thought of Christ’s own words in John 17:17: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” Did the pope tell the truth about the Family of God on April 13?

Oxford Dictionaries also cites a protagonist as “an advocate or champion of a particular cause or idea.” In the case of this papal message, the particular cause or idea being espoused is that of the human family of 1 billion Roman Catholics being the “Family of God.”

To understand about a new humanity, renewed culture, love, unity and how to give glory to God the Father, one must first understand why family and what it is according to the Scriptures. Today’s world is filled with doctrinal controversy over the very gospel Jesus taught. Was it a gospel about the personage of Christ, or was it the gospel message of God the Father delivered by His Son in the flesh?

Herbert W. Armstrong wrote in his final book, Mystery of the Ages:

It is necessary to believe that gospel to be saved! And how can you believe it, unless you know what it is? And for 1,900 years, the world did not know. That gospel was suppressed and replaced by man’s gospel about Christ.Jesus went everywhere preaching the good news of the Kingdom of God. He taught in parables about the Kingdom of God. He sent out 70 men preaching, and commanded them to preach the Kingdom of God (Luke 10:9). He sent the apostles, on whom the Church of God was founded, to preach only the Kingdom of God (Luke 9:1-2). After the resurrection, before ascending to heaven, Jesus taught His disciples about the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3).Isn’t it amazing that the world has lost the knowledge of what it is?The Apostle Paul preached the Kingdom of God (Acts 19:8; 20:25; 28:23, 31). And God Almighty, through Paul, pronounced a double curse on man or angel that would dare preach any other gospel! (Galatians 1:8-9).Why, then, do so many dare to preach so many other gospels? The good news of the Kingdom of God is something you must understand, and believe, in order to be saved! Jesus Christ said so! You had better be finding out what it is!

That’s the message that Herbert Armstrong declared to this world throughout his almost-60-year ministry. He was fully convicted that God had commissioned him, supported by the members and co-workers of the Church, to deliver the message of Matthew 24:14, which states, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” For nigh on six decades he preached, published and broadcast the true gospel message—that man was born in human form with the incredible human potential to become begotten spiritually by the Spirit of God, to be trained in Christ’s service to live His way of life and to be ultimately reborn, born as a member of the literal Family of God, a spiritual, eternal Family of God way above the human level! That’s the true gospel message that Jesus Christ taught and for which He was condemned, scourged and crucified! No religion other than the true Church of God teaches that ultimate, spiritually revealed reality. It is certainly not a tenet of the religion of Rome!

By the time of his death in 1986, Mr. Armstrong had visited more world leaders than both Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and President Ronald Reagan, having just the previous year completed the first visit of a Western religious leader to China’s supreme leader. It was this message of the incredible human potential that he preached to the masses and took personally to world leaders. It’s a message that this confused and disordered world desperately needs to come to know. That’s the message that the Trumpet and the Key of David program continue to publish and broadcast to an increasing audience worldwide. It is our primary commission (Revelation 10:11).

Soon this sin-soaked world will see Christ the true Advocate return to establish a new humanity, godly culture, outflowing love of concern for others, unity and stability. Those elect spoken of in Revelation 17:15 as the “called, chosen and faithful” are in truth the servants of God who give honor and glory to the Father.

To more deeply comprehend the incredible human potential that you possess to truly become a part of the Family of God, request The Incredible Human Potential and The God Family Vision. They will really help you to understand what and why family and just who really is the true Family of God.