April 17, 1967  
April 17, 1967 - Brethren & Co-Workers Letter
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Herbert W Armstrong 

The WORLD TOMORROW
A WORLDWIDE BROADCAST

HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG

Proclaim to the World the GOOD NEWS OF THE WORLD TOMORROW

Box 111, Pasadena, Calif. 91109

Publishing: The PLAIN TRUTH a Magazine of UNDERSTANDING

April 17, 1967

Dear Co-Worker with Christ:

   At last I can give you the ONE greatest MOST EXCITING NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT in the history of our broadcasting Christ's GOSPEL to the world.

   But I am deeply sorry to have to announce, at the same time, that my wife's critical illness has ended in the manner least expected—in her death just after midnight Saturday morning, April 15. In the next second of her consciousness she will awake in the Resurrection, completely HEALED—and, far more than we beseeched God in our earnest prayers, NOT in the corruptible body of this mortal flesh and blood, but in an immortal SPIRIT BODY, in GLORY in GOD'S ETERNAL KINGDOM!

   Thirty-four years ago, at this same time of year, when my father died having reached his 70th year, I had to learn that GOD'S PROMISES ARE ABSOLUTELY SECURE—but not always in the way we expect. For HIS WAYS are not our ways. In the "Faith Chapter" of the Bible, Hebrews 11, speaking of the example of FAITH set by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob— "the FATHERS"—and of Sarah, we read: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them. . . that they, without us, should not be made perfect." (Hebrews 11:13 and 40.)

   Had they received the PROMISES by their faith AT THAT TIME, then you and I would have been left out. But God's PROMISES to them are IRREVOCABLY SECURE! They shall receive them IN THE RESURRECTION—and many thousands or millions of us also with them.

   God has PROMISED to HEAL the sick, upon real repentance and FAITH. But God has not promised HOW, or WHEN! That, we must leave to Him IN FAITH.

   We did fully expect that God would heal her NOW. True, she was 75 1/2 years of age. Even King David, who had been rescued from death, and healed from near-death more than once, "died in a good old age, full of days," at age 70. (I Chron. 29:28.) In I Kings 1:1, it is stated that "King David was OLD, and stricken with years," just before his death.

   God already had given my wife 5 1/2 years more of this life than He gave David. She was just a few months older than I, though part of each year we were "the same age," as they are counted. Yet neither of us have felt or acted in any manner like "old folks," or "elderly" people. We never thought of her as being anywhere near seventy!

   God had called her, and then me through her. He had chosen us for His Work. He had built His great Work through us, bearing great and rich spiritual "fruit."

   He used her illness to JOLT into a REAWAKENING His people, carrying on HIS WORK, around the world. God used her illness to CHANGE many thousands of lives—including, first of all, our own. My entire daily routine is much changed. With this jolt God gave us, He gave me what was needed to OVERCOME the three things that had plagued me—and which I had desperately tried, but been unable to overcome previously. It was like a chain reaction. This same reawakening, reconsecration, continued on through God's ministers here at world Headquarters of HIS WORK, and on to our ministers over the world—and then on to thousands and thousands of HIS PEOPLE whom He is using directly and indirectly in His Work.

   IF you'll read John 15, you'll realize that God corrects, "prunes, or "purges" every branch in Christ which is producing fruit—THAT THEY MAY BRING FORTH MORE FRUIT. It is only those bearing none that He cuts off.

   This great WORK OF GOD not only HAS produced fruit—but right now God is opening gigantic NEW DOORS for His Work to MULTIPLY in POWER!

   In our human thinking, it seemed God would heal her NOW, that she could continue the remaining few years as my HELP in the closing years of GOD'S WORK preparing the WAY for Christ's COMING, and the KINGDOM OF GOD, ushering in the wonderful WORLD TOMORROW! But, we know now, God had intended otherwise. He had intended to take her from "the evil to come," as He explains in Isaiah 57:1 (which read).

   Perhaps greater persecutions and terrors await us than we had expected. We are greatly persecuted already. From here and there, it seems tracts, booklets, religious-paper stories are belching forth utterly and foully MISREPRESENTING what God is proclaiming through this, HIS WORK. They are falsely telling people "Armstrong teaches" this and that—which we emphatically DO NOT TEACH AT ALL! If you want to know what we teach, then just listen to The WORLD TOMORROW broadcast, or read The PLAIN TRUTH, or write in for our free booklets or literature on whatever subject you wish. WE WILL TELL YOU THE TRUTH.

   Perhaps this persecution will become PHYSICAL threatening, and violence—we know not. Perhaps God has mercifully spared my dear wife from this.

   BUT GOD HAS NOT BROKEN A ONE OF HIS PROMISES! Like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Sarah, my wife will receive the PROMISE of complete HEALING in the Resurrection—a VERY few years hence! Then, I hope it may be God's will that she may rejoin me as my HELPER in His KINGDOM—although there will be no marriage—no male and female relationship—in God's Kingdom, for we shall be, as angels are, SPIRIT BEINGS, so born of GOD!

   To all you who have come to a REAWAKENING through her recent illness, let me plead: CARRY ON, in this spiritually rejuvenated new LIFE! Never slacken! Never lose COURAGE! Now I need your help more than ever!

   I am NOT grieving, as the unconverted who have no hope (see I Thessalonians 4:13). I must be, more energetically than ever, about my Father's business! My "Personal From the Editor" page in the May PLAIN TRUTH will explain this further. I will not say more here.

   But back, now, to this most important, MOST EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!

   For many CENTURIES, God has turned His back on Jerusalem. All these years it has been FORSAKEN by GOD—"trodden down by Gentiles." Yet, ONCE AGAIN, Jesus Christ is coming in POWER and GREAT GLORY to Jerusalem!

   From there He will set up what all scientists today say is the ONLY hope of saving this world ALIVE— W O R L D G O V E R N M E N T !

   Once again, Jerusalem is to be the CAPITOL OF THE EARTH!

   There is a prophecy about that in the second chapter of Isaiah. In these LAST DAYS, it says, the NATION or KINGDOM of GOD'S HOUSE shall be established above all other nations on earth. "For," it says, "out of ZION (God's Church—God's PEOPLE) shall go forth the LAW, and the Word of the ETERNAL from Jerusalem." And then the nations of the earth shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks; there will be WORLD PEACE—NO MORE WAR!

   I wonder if YOU realize the THRILLING part the Eternal GOD has actually called YOU, personally, to have in fulfilling this tremendous prophecy!

   LISTEN! For this affects YOU, individually!

   God BEGAN intervening in WORLD AFFAIRS over 33 years ago, in the very smallest way at first, with this WORLD TOMORROW broadcast and The PLAIN TRUTH magazine. This intervention is PREPARING THE WAY for Christ's coming.

   It is restoring the knowledge that SIN is the transgression of God's Law (I John 3:4). It is, by a preaching of LOVE, showing the people THEIR SINS! It is making plain WHAT sin is! It is lifting up its voice like a trumpet, and is CRYING, ALOUD, with the AMPLIFIED POWER of more than 45 million watts of radio power, WORLDWIDE! It is fulfilling Isaiah 58:1.

   God says He will do nothing without first WARNING the people (Amos 3:7).

   Very soon, now, God is going to INTERVENE in WORLD AFFAIRS, just prior to Christ's Coming, by sending on the SINNERS OF THE WORLD the PLAGUES of "The Day of the Lord." That is a time of GOD'S WRATH against evil spoken of in more than 30 different prophecies—both Old and New Testaments!

   Christ's Coming is to occur as the CLIMAX of this "Day of the Lord"!

   More than 33 years ago, the ETERNAL CREATOR began His intervention in world affairs! It was in the smallest way, at first. He started it through The WORLD TOMORROW broadcast and The PLAIN TRUTH magazine. Through this rapidly growing Work, NOW WORLDWIDE—God has been WARNING THIS WHOLE WORLD of the forthcoming world-shaking PHYSICAL INTERVENTION by GOD in world affairs.

   In HOLY WRATH, God Almighty will first bring physical punishment, through The PLAGUES of the period called "THE DAY OF THE LORD" on THE EVIL OF THIS WORLD.

   More than 30 prophecies foretell this DAY OF THE LORD! Yet, great and many as these prophecies are, I know of NO OTHER VOICE ON EARTH THAT HAS BEEN WARNING THE WORLD of the soon-coming terrible DAY OF THE LORD!

   It is to immediately precede Christ's own Coming, to establish The KINGDOM OF GOD, and usher in WORLD PEACE in the happy WORLD TOMORROW!

   And now, HERE IS THE STUPENDOUS ANNOUNCEMENT! I have been expecting to be able to release this BIG NEWS for the past two or three months!

   Right now, just prior by probably not more than five to seven years, to the coming terrible DAY OF THE LORD, the living CHRIST has moved swiftly to OPEN THE ALL-IMPORTANT DOOR THAT HAS BEEN CLOSED SINCE THE DAYS OF THE ORIGINAL APOSTLES!

   After TURNING HIS BACK on Jerusalem ever since 69 A. D. —after turning Jerusalem, because of the rebellious transgressions of His people Israel, over to be "trodden down of the Gentiles," since 69 A.D., ALMIGHTY GOD HAS OPENED TO THE WORLD TOMORROW, E X C L U S I V E L Y, THE GIGANTIC DOOR OF SUPER-POWER RADIO F R O M J E R U S A L E M !

   Read that again!

   I said we are now, immediately to BROADCAST by super-power radio, F R O M J E R U S A L E M !

   It's a THRILLING STORY!

   I cannot take time to give you the exciting details in this letter. It will come later, either in the next Co-Worker letter, or an article in The PLAIN TRUTH.

   But, we are to broadcast by Medium Wave, at the VERY BEST DIAL SPOT, 677 kilocycles (same as 677 on Standard Broadcast in the United States), with TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND WATTS OF POWER,

   Also, simultaneously, on RADIO JERUSALEM, The WORLD TOMORROW will be broadcast by SHORT WAVE, 100,000 watts—at 7155 kilocycles.

   And THE TIME OF DAY?

   The very BEST prime listening time, 8:05, following five minutes English language NEWS, EVERY NIGHT IN THE YEAR.

   Yes, READ THAT AGAIN! I said, EVERY NIGHT IN THE YEAR!

   And this is EXCLUSIVE to The WORLD TOMORROW! No other educational, religious, or Bible programs are to be allowed on this station (except possibly for short wave).

   FURTHER! We have signed with the Hashemite Government of Jordan, a FIVE YEAR BINDING CONTRACT, with option to RENEW another five years!

   MORE!!! This is to go out from Jerusalem, JORDAN—the ORIGINAL Jerusalem where Jesus and the Apostles preached! Jerusalem, Israel, is NOT the Jerusalem of Christ's time—of King David's time—of Solomon's Temple. It was probably just a bare open field then.

   Now THINK OF THIS!

   Not since the spring of 69 A.D.—time of the original Apostles—has CHRIST'S GOSPEL, the true WORD OF GOD, and GOD'S WAY OF LIFE, been proclaimed to the world FROM JERUSALEM!

   Not during the days of Constantine. Never during the days of the so-called "Holy Roman Empire." Not during the Middle Ages! Not since Protestant days began.

   THIS VERY THING NOW OPENED TO US IS FORETOLD IN PROPHECY!

   Thousands of years ago, the Almighty GOD said He would open this very DOOR! Yes, this event is written IN YOUR BIBLE! That, alone, makes it an event of INCREDIBLE MAGNITUDE!

   I want you to notice the thrilling PROPHECY:

   It's in the remarkable 40th chapter of Isaiah. It refers to THIS VERY WORK —to THIS VERY BROADCAST GOING FROM JERUSALEM! Notice, the first two verses speak of the very beginning of the Millennium, just a VERY few years ahead of us, now:

   "Comfort ye. comfort ye, my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned . . . ." (Isa. 40:1-2 RSV). Actually this is a Message to be DELIVERED to Jerusalem and the surrounding Holy Land just before the soon-coming time of world peace. It Is a Message from the CREATOR of COMFORT to Jerusalem of what is now SOON TO COME!

   But the next words, beginning verse 3, tell of a Message to go out FROM JERUSALEM just before the beginning of the Millennium! In other words—to GO OUT RIGHT NOW! It is a prophecy of THIS VERY WORK!

   Typically this Message was proclaimed by John the Baptist before Jesus' first coming. But primarily this refers to GOD'S WORK today. This is a prophecy of this VERY WORK!

   "A voice cries: 'In the wilderness prepare the way of the ETERNAL, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. . . And the glory of the ETERNAL shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the ETERNAL hath spoken.'" (Verses 3-5.)

   Notice, this is a Message to go out PRIOR TO the description of the first two verses, PRIOR to Christ's coming. It is a time when "the GLORY of the ETERNAL SHALL BE"—yet future—revealed.

   Continue: "A voice says, 'Cry!' And I said, 'What shall I cry?' (Verse 6.)

   "Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion." (Verse 9.) ZION is the CHURCH —not a single man like John the Baptist. The verse continues: ". . . herald of good tidings." That is, God's people—HIS WORK—proclaiming the GOSPEL. ". . . lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of Good Tidings, lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, 'Behold your God!' Behold the Lord ETERNAL comes with might, and His arm RULES for Him, behold His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him. He will feed His flock like a shepherd, He will gather the lambs in His arms, He will carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young." (Verses 9-11.)

   Now go back and read that CAREFULLY!

   It says, "Get you up, O WORK OF GOD, proclaimer of the GOSPEL." Next it says, "Lift up your voice with STRENGTH, O Jerusalem, proclaiming the Gospel!" NEVER until right now—this very day—could we understand that. This foretells the Gospel going to the cities of JUDAH. JUDAH is now erroneously named "Israel." JUDAH means the JEWS. They have gone back to PALESTINE. They do not call their section of Palestine JUDAH, but "Israel."

    Look at that again! This WORK OF GOD is to proclaim the Gospel—to whom?—to the Jews now settled, just before Christ's coming, in the land of Judah, which they today have named "Israel." Then, not only THIS WORK—but also it says, next, that JERUSALEM is to lift up ITS voice WITH STRENGTH!

    But HOW could such a thing as THAT be? Well, it could be, and it IS being done—BY THE MIRACLE OF SUPER-POWER JERUSALEM. When The WORLD TOMORROW program is heard on that new station, the announcers will say, "THIS IS JERUSALEM, JORDAN." Yes, JERUSALEM will lift up ITS mighty radio voice—empowering my voice and that of Garner Ted Armstrong with Christ's Message!

   Notice again, part of verse 10: It is speaking of a time when ". . . the Lord GOD will come with a strong hand, and His arm shall RULE for Him: behold His reward is with Him, and HIS WORK before Him." (AV). That could not be the Message of John the Baptist. Jesus did not then come to RULE. This message goes just before Christ's SECOND COMING—at a time when it says He "will come," not after He has already come! It is at His SECOND coming that "His reward is with Him" (Rev. 22:12).

   So THIS IS A PROPHECY FOR NOW—just before Christ's Coming—just before the plagues of "THE DAY OF THE LORD." It is the Message PREPARING THE WAY for His coming—just as John the Baptist did for His FIRST coming!

   DO YOU SEE WHAT THIS MEANS?

   It means that Christ's COMING is now very near! This is undoubtedly the most significant event in the history of this Work!

   Co-Workers, I have to tell you, this powerful station IN JERUSALEM is costing a great deal of money! We are having to pay a higher rate for this precious time than we have ever paid on any station, by far. So, to take advantage of this TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITY God has opened to us—AND TO US ALONE—we are going to have to tighten our belts, so to speak, and do without some of the things we had planned or wanted.

   Because ancient Israel defiled God's Holy Land, rejected GOD'S Laws and government over them, they were driven out as slaves by Assyria, 721-718 B.C. But Judah was left. Soon Judah was sinning worse than Israel had done. They were driven out to Babylon. Seventy years later part of the Jews went back to rebuild the Temple. In due time, their leaders became the legalistic hypocritical Pharisees, Sadducees, and others of the time of Jesus. They rejected HIM—demanded His crucifixion.

   In the spring of 69 A.D. they were driven out—and GOD'S CHURCH with them! In obedience to Jesus' warning of Matthew 24:15-20, His disciples all fled Jerusalem at that time.

   He turned His back on Jerusalem after that. It has been trodden down by the Gentiles ever since. BUT NOW, the time is almost here when JESUS IS COMING AGAIN, to take over Jerusalem, RESTORE IT, and make it THE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD!

   NEVER, until now, has He allowed JESUS' OWN MESSAGE to be proclaimed FROM THERE—and especially to the Jews of neighboring "Israel" from there! But God foretold it through Isaiah.

   And when this time came, TO WHOM did God open up these precious radio facilities? NOT to Roman Catholics—though they have shrines and buildings there! Yet they have never proclaimed the very Message JESUS taught for His Church from there! Nor the Protestants! Nor the Coptics, nor other professing "Christian" sects.

   No, He has opened it EXCLUSIVELY, by binding contract with the Government of Jordan, to HIS WORK, to which He has called YOU as a Co-Worker! This PROVES which voice on earth today is GOD'S OWN VOICE, through human servants He has called! If you ever had any doubts whatever about where the real WORK OF GOD is, you ought to be SURE now!

   Well, dear Co-Workers, I finish this important letter to you just after returning from the burial of my dear wife. A fitting tribute to the honor, respect, and high regard and affection in which she was held was paid by the attendance of the largest number of people I have ever seen at a funeral—many thousands!

   One of her last words, a day or two before she died, to several of God's ministers who briefly visited her bedside, was a smiling: "Well, you men go right along to your work—God has given you IMPORTANT WORK TO DO—I'll be all right!"

   In the next second of her consciousness, she will be IN GLORY in God's KINGDOM! Yes, SHE WILL BE ALL RIGHT! Her suffering is OVER! But YOU AND I have important WORK TO DO- and it is GOD'S WORK! I'm grateful beyond words for fifty years of loving, faithful, loyal HELP and inspiring companionship God gave me through "the wife of my youth"! I will say more about that in my next "Personal" talk with you in The PLAIN TRUTH.

   But now I MUST BE ABOUT GOD'S WORK! —as she said!

   So, tomorrow noon I fly, Polar flight, direct from Los Angeles to Paris, change planes there for Beirut, and after an overnight stop, fly on early Thursday morning to JERUSALEM, JORDAN, where I shall meet Mr. Raymond McNair, Director of God's Work in Britain, Europe and Africa, and also Mr. Charles Hunting, Business Manager of the Work for the same area, stationed at the College in England. They are today in Cyprus, opening a new branch office there to receive mail from the new Jerusalem broadcast. I will, with them, make final selection of a new branch office IN JERUSALEM, made necessary by this broadcast.

   I may even MAKE THE FIRST BROADCAST, IN PERSON, of Christ's true GOSPEL, over Radio Jerusalem, live and in person IN THE JERUSALEM STUDIOS—the FIRST proclaiming of GOD'S TRUE WORD from there since the original Apostles! It will be a lonely trip without the dearest person in the world at my side—but she did get to know, two days ago, that the Jordan Government had officially confirmed the history-making contract we had previously signed with their representatives! And she would say, "GO!"—as she would say to us all—"Carry on with GOD'S WORK! Never slacken! Never let down!"

   So, until next time, we shall CARRY ON!

With deepest love in Jesus' name,
Herbert W. Armstrong

Publication Date: April 17, 1967
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