Herbert W Armstrong

   I have just returned from my first trip abroad since my severe illness. This was another visit to Jerusalem. I had a very busy and eventful four days in this city soon to become the WORLD CAPITOL.

   I had meetings with President Navon, with Prime Minister Begin, Yigael Yadin (leader of the Democratic Movement for Change Party), Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, Speaker of the Knesset (a friend of ten years standing), Shimon Peres (leader of the leading Labor Party), Mayor Teddy Kollek, Knesset member Gideon Hausner (who prosecuted the German Eichmann as Attorney General for Israel,) Professor Benjamin Mazar, who directed our great archaeological project adjoining the south wall of the Temple, Dr. Joseph Aviram of the Hebrew University, and many others.

   Mayor Kollek had arranged a special inauguration of the new downtown city park in my honor, with a formal ceremony, a band, and speeches. Over the park was flying the stars and stripes, alongside the Israeli flag, and at the entrance on a special stone sculpture work, a plaque had my name engraved in it (since I had sponsored the Children's Playground area at the entrance of the park). This was done through the AICF (Ambassador International Cultural Foundation). The park is called the "Liberty Bell Park," and inside the entrance is an exact replica of the Liberty Bell —a gift of the city of Philadelphia to the city of Jerusalem. So it's like a bit of America in the very ancient and historic city of Jerusalem.

   There was a special program for me and our party at the ICCY (International Cultural Center for Youth), founded by Eleanor Roosevelt and by Moshe Kol, for years a member of the Knesset and Minister of Tourism for the nation. The program consisted of special dances by both male and female Israeli and Arab youth. The ICCY has been almost wholly supported in the past ten years by Ambassador College and the AICF, and is doing a good work in bringing about an active friendship between Arab and Israeli youth.

   In front of the entrance of the ICCY building is a large paved court. It has been named the "Herbert W. Armstrong Square," with that name engraved in a stone marker.

   There were special luncheons, dinners, and banquets in my honor, celebrating the tenth anniversary of our relationship with the Hebrew University and the Israel Archaeological Society.

   This year I have planned to publish five new full books, to be available in bookstores and shops all over the English-speaking world.

   The first book, which many consider the most important book since the Bible, THE INCREDIBLE HUMAN POTENTIAL, will be available in bookstores in February. Editors have written inside the flap cover, "Not since the days of the early apostles has such a startling message of hope, vitality, and unparalleled vision been preached... THE INCREDIBLE HUMAN POTENTIAL is the ultimate book—the story of God's awesome purpose for human beings. It is a dynamic, compelling account of Jesus' gospel—which has not been preached since the first century!...This truth will amaze, astound, fascinate and move you more irresistibly than the most gripping thriller—and make you praise the great Creator God..."

   I feel sure it excels anything that I have ever written, and I feel that God inspired its writing for these end-time days.

   I am close now to finishing another book, A VOICE CRIES OUT AGAINST RELIGIOUS CONFUSION. I believe it will be equally important but it will not reach the bookstores until next fall.

   This book cries out against the staggering religious confusion of this world. Look at the mix-up! Beside Christianity, with its more than 250 denominations and sects, there is Judaism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Moslemism, Shintoism, Taoism, agnosticism, atheism, and evolution. Out of this spiritual wilderness this book will be a voice crying out in clarity and truth decrying this universal confusion and leading into the reassuring TRUTH of the world's only and sure HOPE!

   How could the world have gotten so mixed up? God tells us that Satan has DECEIVED THE WHOLE WORLD—ALL NATIONS. But HOW could we expect anyone brought up in one of these religions to find his way out of such confusion, into the TRUTH! It would be IMPOSSIBLE except by a miracle from God!

   Moses never would have known God's TRUTH, had not God miraculously revealed Himself in the incident of the burning bush. Yet Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible! The Apostle Paul was bent on persecuting Christians "breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord" (Acts 9:1), when Jesus Christ struck him down blinded, and instructed him with the knowledge to write several books of the New Testament.

   I could not have known these truths, had not God struck me down in a manner quite different from the Apostle Paul's experience, but nonetheless effective.

   This new book will show that of all these religions and denominations, NOT ONE except the one true Church which Jesus Christ founded in 31 A.D. knows WHO AND WHAT God is! NOT ONE, except God's true Church, small and persecuted, knows what a human being really is! NOT ONE knows and understands what is the true Gospel message Jesus Christ preached—which was not proclaimed to the world for 1900 years! NOT ONE knows the transcendent potential of MAN!

   But, in the meantime, three other important books will appear in the bookstores. Coming later this spring will be the revised and enlarged book, TOMORROW—WHAT IT WILL BE LIKE. Another, a revised edition of THE UNITED STATES AND BRITAIN IN PROPHECY, and another, a greatly enlarged edition of THE SEVEN LAWS OF SUCCESS.

   I hope that you will obtain and read each of these books. As time permits, I also hope to finish volume two of the AUTOBIOGRAPHY, which has never yet been published, although it is mostly written.

   Meantime, we are striving to greatly improve The PLAIN TRUTH. Besides the more than a million subscribers receiving The PLAIN TRUTH by mail, more than another million copies are going on newsstands all over the United States, besides hundreds of thousands in European countries.

   Watch for the 45th anniversary number, the February 1979 issue of The PLAIN TRUTH.

   And I forgot to tell you that after speaking with Prime Minister Begin in the Knesset last week, I am scheduled for a meeting with President Sadat in Cairo (or, perhaps in Aswan), in February, and another visit to Tokyo in April. I am happy to be back in harness once again.

   THANK YOU for your interest in The PLAIN TRUTH—and in the ONLY message of sure hope in a mixed-up, deceived, and hopeless world!