THE LAYMEN’S HOME MISSIONARY MOVEMENT
[Bible Standard Ministries]
Its history, nature, and purposes
The LHMM is a worldwide interdenominational, non-sectarian, non-profit-making, unincorporated religious movement, in which many Christian people, especially laymen, of all walks of life, from and apart from various denominations, co-operate voluntarily. There are many chapters in the U.S.A. and abroad. It is not affiliated with any other group or denomination. It is financed by unsolicited voluntary contributions. Donations to it are income-tax exempt.
The purposes of the LHMM are to preach the Gospel (the “good tidings of great joy”—Luke 2:10, 14), to encourage growth in Christlikeness, to spread and encourage others to spread Bible knowledge (particularly as it pertains to our times), and to stimulate greater interest in individual and group Bible study along non-sectarian lines—in churches, assembly rooms, homes, etc.
To accomplish its purposes, the LHMM publishes and circulates—through literature evangelists and other Christian workers, by mail, etc.—large quantities of Bible-based books, booklets, magazines and free tracts, in various languages. Also, it uses its staff of qualified speakers, teachers and evangelists at planned conventions in many nations. Our ministers are specially prepared for service by education in the Bible’s teachings, in our ministry training schools. Funds are never asked for their services, but free-will offerings are accepted.
What We Believe
TO US THE SCRIPTURES CLEARLY TEACH
That Jehovah is the Most High God—infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, perfect in wisdom, justice, love and power; that Jesus, His only begotten Son, had a pre-human existence as the mighty Word, or Logos, “the beginning of the creation of God,” “the firstborn of every creature,” the Father’s Agent in all the works of creation (John 1:1-3; 6:51; 17:5; Rev. 3:14; Col. 1:15-18).
That the Word “was made flesh,” born of “a virgin,” and thus became the man Jesus, “made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death,” yet “separate from sinners” (John 1:14; Isa. 7:14; Heb. 2:9; 7:26).
That Christ is Divine; that He was “put to death in the flesh, but quickened [made alive] in the Spirit,” made “a quickening Spirit,” highly exalted, and “given a name which is above every name”; “who only hath immortality [God being excepted]” (1 Pet. 3:18; 1 Cor. 15:45, 50; Phil. 2:9-11; 1 Tim. 6:16; Heb. 1:3, 13).
That the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, and is manifested in all true Christians (Luke 11:11-13; John 14:26; 15:26; 16:7-15; 1 Cor. 2:9-16; 3:16: Eph. 3:16; 4:4, 30; 2 Tim. 1:7).
That man was created perfect, in God’s character image, and that through disobedience he fell, into sin—not of eternal life in torment, but-of the Adamic death, (not the second death) destruction, which he is undergoing by exposure to various evils, permitted by God to teach him by experience the evil nature and effects of sin and the desirability of hating and forsaking it (Gen. 1:26-31; 2:17; 3:1-31; Eccles. 7:29; Rom. 5:12-19; 6:21-23; 8:20-22; 11:32; Psa. 76:7-10; 90:1-17).
That the Church, the 144,000, gathered from among Jews and Gentiles, is God’s Temple, “his workmanship”; that “the church of the firstborn” includes the Great Multitude, “living stones” in this great Temple’s Court, together with the Ancient and Youthful Worthies Millennially; that this great Temple’s construction has been in progress throughout the Gospel Age, beginning when Christ became mankind’s Redeemer and the Chief Corner Stone of this Temple, through which, when finished, God’s blessings shall come to “all people,” and they shall gain access to Him (Rev. 7:1-17; 14:1; Rom. 11:11, 12; 1 Cor. 3:16, 17; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:10, 20-22; Joel 2:28, 29; 2 Tim. 2:20; Heb. 11:38-40; Gen. 28:14).
That meantime the pre-Millennial preparation—the chiseling, shaping and polishing—of the Gospel-Age consecrated believers in Christ’s atonement for sin progresses; and when the last of these shall have been made ready, the great Master Workman will bring all together in the resurrection; and the Temple, filled with His glory, will become the meeting place between God and men throughout the Millennial Age (Rev. 15:5-8; 21:3).
That the basis of hope for everlasting life for the elect and the non-elect is in the fact that God “is the Savior of all men, specially of those that believe”; that Jesus “by the grace of God tasted death for every man,” “a ransom [corresponding price] for all”; that God “will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth”; and that Jesus is “the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” “in due time” (1 Tim. 4:10; 2:3-6; Heb. 2:9; John 1:9; Num. 14:21; Isa. 11:9; 40:5; Jer. 31:34; Hab. 2:14).
That the hope of God’s true people now being developed is that they will have an abundant entrance into God’s everlasting Kingdom, and that their present mission is to develop and perfect themselves and others in Christlikeness, to witness for God and Christ to the world, and to prepare for the work of blessing all the families of the earth in the coming Kingdom on earth (Rom. 12:2; Phil. 2:12; Gal. 5:22, 23; 2 Pet. 1:5-11; 3:18; John 18:37; Acts 1:8; 1 Cor. 9:16; 2 Tim. 4:2). That Jesus is the satisfaction for the sins of the Church and the world; that the Gospel Age is the Church’s judgment day; that God has appointed a Thousand-year Day in which He “will judge the world in righteousness,” with Satan bound; that while none of Adam’s race get a second chance, each of them will have one full, free, fair opportunity to gain eternal life through Christ, either in this life or after being awakened from the dead (1 John 2:2; 1 Pet. 4:17; Acts 17:31; 2 Pet. 3:7, 8; Rev. 20:2-7, 12, 13; John 5:28-29 (ASV); Acts 24:15; 1 Thes. 4:13, 14).
That the gospel was preached to Abraham, saying, “In thee shall all nations be blessed”; that the Christ, Head and Body, is the great Seed of Abraham (the rest of God’s people are the subordinate seed), through whom “all the families of the earth shall be blessed”; that this blessing of salvation for the world will come during Jesus’ Second Advent, in “the times of restitution of all things,” when God’s Kingdom will be established on earth (Gen. 12:3; Gal. 3:7-9, 16, 29; Eph. 1:22, 23; Acts 3:19-23; Matt. 6:10; Rev. 22:17).
That we are now in “the time of the end,” with its unprecedented “time of trouble,” the Epiphany, or Apocalypse, period, in which Jesus reveals Himself in His Second Advent; that He is now overthrowing Satan’s dominion; that His reign of peace and righteousness is soon to be established; and that Israel’s return to their homeland presages the beginning of His reign (Dan. 12:1, 4, 9, 10; Matt. 24:21; 2 Tim. 4:1; Zeph. 3:8, 9; Dan. 2:35, 44; Amos 9:11-15; Rev. 11:15; 21:1-8).