Blair:

I was once a member of TTOI. I learned a lot during the time I was a member, and give thanks to God for the experience. I brought a lot of good away from it and grew spiritually from reading the Bible one chapter a day. You will read members saying that it (ttoi) is not for everyone and this is true. God has a master plan and everyone has a place according to His will and purpose. The most important thing is your personal relationship with Jesus Christ and your place in the true Body of Christ.

The book you are referring to that members should read by Herbert Armstrong is called "Mystery of the Ages." I did a search on the internet on Armstrong and found a site that shows some of the things he believed, which do not line up with the Bible. It's http://www.geocities.com/iain_scott/wcg.html. I am not familiar with the whole site and cannot vouch for what's there, but this seemed like an interesting article that explains some of the concepts of the book.

Also included is the link for Chapter 5 of the Mystery of the Ages titled, "Mystery of Israel." http://www.hixnet.co.za/home/Mystery/general/Chapter5.html. This guy was a racist which definitely does not agree with Ham, Shem and Japhet.

The other book, the metaphysical bible dictionary is a new age book through and through. The concepts and definitions are not Biblical at all, and I never understod why this book was used to define things in the Bible. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit is the interpreter. A link for info on that book and the author is http://www.watchman.org/profile/unitypro.htm. This link says that Fillmore was a student of "new thought" which is described as follows:

"The New Thought movement--not to be confused with New Age--is a more than century-old, practically oriented spirituality that promotes fullness of all aspects of living, through constructive thinking, meditating, and other ways of realizing the presence of God. New Thought includes Unity, Religious Science (Science of Mind), Divine Science, and other groups and individuals. It was recognized as "The Religion of Healthy-Mindedness" by William James in The Varieties of Religious Experience. New Thought involves habitual God--good--aligned mental self-discipline. It has no one creed, but has affinities to idealistic philosophical traditions of all ages and places. It is mostly Christian in background, but has become allied to various religions. New Thought continues to develop conceptually, educationally, and organizationally.

Because New Thought affirms freedom of belief of each person, New Thoughters cover a broad range of theological positions, from traditional supernaturalistic theism (God largely outside the world) at one extreme, to pantheism (all is God) at the other, with the newer panentheism (all is IN God) as a centrist, mediating position, rapidly gaining supporters in many theological quarters. In common with most other religions and spiritualities, most forms of New Thought take for granted the existence of continuing substance; however, the Process New Thought represented by the Anderson and Whitehouse writings linked below accepts a process understanding recognizing experience, process, living quanta of energy, and the interactions of these many minds, as the nature of reality. This Process New Thought presents process, panentheism, and a personalism recognizing God as the supreme, not anthropomorphically conceived, person as essential to an adequate New Thought. The latest expression of process thinking within New Thought is Process Science of Mind. An earlier non-pantheistic interpretation of New Thought was advocated by Horatio W. Dresser." (http://websyte.com/Alan/index.htm)

While it is true that the authors of these books are not to be worshiped, you must know what their spiritual stand is if you are going to read and accept these concepts into your own spiritual walk.

I am not here "ttoi bashing" but sharing some insight into the question you raised.

Ephesians 4:14-15
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: