Herbert W Armstrong

VOL. V.  Number 3                        March 24, 1944

   Hollywood, Calif. — again I am writing from Hollywood. I am on the way to San Antonio, Texas, and Des Moines, Iowa, for a series of broadcasts — broadcasting daily from Des Moines for three weeks. I have stopped off here just long enough to make contacts and tentative arrangements for sending "The WORLD TOMORROW" program out over the newly formed A.B.C. net-work, Coast to Coast!

   I have written you before, thru the BULLETIN, about the pressure being brought by powerful economic-religious interests in New York, thru the existing broadcast chains, to force all true gospel preaching off the air. N.B.C., the BLUE net-work, and C.B.S., refuse to sell any of their time for religious programs. And finally MUTUAL sent notices of cancellation, effective this coming September, to all those broadcasting religious programs over their facilities. It now appears probable MUTUAL will continue to carry one or two of their present programs, but only prior to 10:A.M. Sunday mornings. Further than that, religious preaching of any kind is barred from all the big chains.

   I have ben warning our Co-Workers that prophecy reveals plainly we are nearing the time when there shall be a FAMINE of hearing the Word of the Lord preached! The powers that be in this world will forbid it. Our days for proclaiming the last WARNING MESSAGE for this hour are numbered! But, as I have pointed out, Satan will be utterly unable to shut off the privilege of proclaiming God's Message until GOD'S PURPOSE IS FULFILLED, and this last warning Message has gone!

   And so just when it appeared Satan had succeeded in shutting off all possibility of getting the Message with the LOUD SHOUT of radio into homes in every nook and corner of this continent, a NEW AVENUE is opened to us!

   A new Coast-to-Coast net work is now forming — the Associated Broadcasting Corporation — to be known as the A.B.C. So far as large bulk contracts are concerned, or three hundred stations, including the small-power station in the smaller cities and towns all over the country, this new net-work will be about three times as expensive as MUTUAL has been, at least until the new net-work is better established, since MUTUAL offered bulk discounts up to 60 and 75% — and the new net-work offers no net- work discount whatever. However, for our purpose, the cost will probably be little if any more than MUTUAL, and the new net-work has advantages of pliability and wider range of latitude in selecting the exact stations our purposes require. We can use a very few stations at first, adding others as we are able. And the new net-work is very friendly toward religious broadcasts!

   This is a DIRECT ANSWER TO PRAYER! Just as existing doors were closed, God has opened wide a BETTER ONE for our purpose.

   Here, then, are the plans for carrying out the most important commission in the world today! First, to get The PLAIN TRUTH on a more regular and dependable basis. It has simply out- grown the facilities of the printing company in Eugene, and due to this and war-time difficulties, we have encountered delay after delay. Plans have been made to have it printed, after the issue now on the press, in Portland in a large establishment which specializes in printing a number of magazines and trade-papers. And we plan, God willing, to have it come out regularly, on a definite date, monthly or bi-monthly, beginning with the next issue after the current one.

   I hope, also God willing, to add station WOV, New York, within a few weeks. Then, at the earliest moment possible, super- power WCAU, Philadelphia, one of the nation's leading stations. Then, beginning the Fall and Winter season, to begin adding key stations in principle population centers thru facilities of the new A.B.C. net-work as rapidly as possible, until The WORLD TOMORROW is heard locally EVERYWHERE!

   Brethren, and Co-Workers, this opens before us a marvelous opportunity! I have tried to be careful not to get ahead of the Lord. But from the time He called us to this great mission, He always has graciously gone before, and opened the way. And now He has opened this new avenue — by far the largest yet — WE MUST FOLLOW WHERE HE LEADS — We must not falter — we must not fail Him — we must take advantage of this marvelous opportunity opened only by the supernatural Hand of God! How grateful we are to our heavenly Father for opening the opportunity!

WHAT  IS  P R O P H E S I E D   —  FROM  N O W !

   The most THRILLING subject of this hour is

P R O P E C Y!

   None but the Eternal God can know, and reveal to us, the FUTURE. God reveals this future, thru prophecy, as a WARNING! It is important that we know what is GOING TO HAPPEN! We must act accordingly.

   And so in this BULLETIN I want to give our Co-Workers a very brief, condensed outline of what is prophesied — FROM NOW! We do not have paper on hand for a more complete exposition. But in the following BULLETIN, early next month, I shall take up this subject more fully. And perhaps a series of articles dealing with it still more fully in coming issues of The PLAIN TRUTH.

   First, it is important to realize that most of the PROPHECIES of the bible were inspired, written, and preserved thru the centuries to reveal the events of NOW — and the IMMEDIATE FUTURE — our GENERATION! Few have ever realized that — but it's TRUE! We have now reached that period called by Daniel (Moffatt translation) "the CRISIS AT THE CLOSE." We are the very last generation of this age! An AGE is ending before our eyes! The ways, the customs, that have developed the present civilization upon earth — all ways and customs contrary to GOD'S LAW — are climaxing in one grand final crisis of CHAOS, DESTRUCTION, and DEATH!

   For nearly 6,000 years Satan has held this earth under his invisible sway! Originally his name was LUCIFER — meaning "Shining Star of the Dawn" — and archangel, perfect in wisdom and beauty. But he reasoned that God's Law — the principle of LOVE — of love toward God in humility, obedience, and reverence as Superior; of love and service toward fellow-creatures — was all wrong. He exalted himself. Pride entered his heart. He said, "I will ascend. I will exalt MY throne above the angels of God. I will RIVAL the Most High." Lust for GETTING — the spirit of RIVALRY — COMPETITION entered his mind. So his name was changed to SATAN — meaning ADVERSARY, or COMPETITION. And so God gave him ONE MILLENNIAL WEEK to prove thru human experience that his theories of competitive GETTING — of greed and vanity — were wrong. "Six days," said God, "thou shalt labor and do all thy work (of deceiving humans by his philosophy); but the SEVENTH millennium is the Sabbath of the Eternal. In it thou shalt not do any work."

   For six millenniums the world has been under his sway. A competitive-type civilization has been built. Men have turned from God's Law — Satan has convinced them it was "done away." Men exalted themselves and one another. Men sit in authority over their fellows. Lust, greed, selfishness, is the activating principle of life. Competition has become ORGANIZED. And now we behold the fruitage of this way of life — the grand smashing chaotic CLIMAX OF 6,000 years of this type civilization! Yes, "sin is the transgression of the LAW" (I John 3:4), and "ALL have sinned." Look and BEHOLD THE RESULT!

   And so, where are we now, and what lies ahead? In His Olivet prophecy, Jesus listed six general events to occur at this end-time (Mat. 24): 1) False christs and false prophets preaching false christs, throwing a fog of deception over the world as a smoke-screen for events to follow; 2) wars, climaxing in WORLD WAR, of which we now are in the second phase; 3) famines; 4)pestilences; 5) the GREAT TRIBULATION when the saints shall be persecuted and martyred, followed immediately by 6) the heavenly SIGNS of darkened sun and moon, and falling stars, together with the SIGN in heaven of Christ's coming, and, 7) the actual SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.

   But when Jesus comes, every prophecy describing the condition of natural ISRAEL shows the Israelites in a condition of CAPTIVITY and slavery, scattered among nations all over the earth, FROM WHICH they are delivered by Christ at His coming! Now we — the white, English-speaking American and British peoples — WE ARE THE BIRTHRIGHT TRIBES OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL, Manasseh and Ephraim! Prophecy does not picture us going back to Palestine (or representatives, one of a family, two of a city) from the ISLES — or from the chief of the nations, or from a condition of affluence, and wealth, and world dominance. But "Here am I," says God (Ezek. 37:21, Moffatt), "about to take the Israelites FROM THE NATIONS WHERE THEY HAVE GONE, gathering them from EVERY QUARTER, and bringing them back to their own land, where I will make them a single nation upon the uplands of Israel..no longer two nations." "He who scattered Israel GATHERS THEM,..for the Eternal has SET JACOB FREE, and RESCUED HIM from a STRONGER POWER." (Jer. 31: 10-11). "And it shall come to pass in THAT DAY, saith the Lord" — the day when Israel was chief of nations, like a lion compared to other beasts (Micah 5:8-11), "that I will cut off thy horses (of war)..and I will destroy thy chariots: and I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy STRONGHOLDS."

   The prophecies all thru the Bible show that, unless our people REPENT, and turn FROM our present sinning ways contrary to God's law, and seek the Eternal God with our WHOLE HEARTS, and PUT OUR TRUST IN HIM instead of ourselves and foreign allies, WE SHALL LOSE THIS WAR — whether the present phase, (World War II), or the next phase, (World War III, after another armistice), is not revealed — BUT WE ARE TO LOSE, and GO INTO CAPTIVITY AGAIN, as our forefathers did in 721 B.C., and be scattered into nations all over the earth! There, God says, we will come to our senses, repent of our ways, turn to HIM — and FROM there Christ will rescue us at His COMING, restore our national material prosperity, and bring our people salvation!

   The NEXT PROPHESIED EVENT, now, is this CAPTIVITY OF OUR PEOPLE! Brethren, Co-Workers, it need not happen — but it is CERTAIN, unless our people are WARNED, and they HEED the warning, repent, and turn to God in a manner altogether different from any- thing we have done yet. Now, tho we boast of our righteousness, we actually are skidding down a toboggan-slide of SIN! GOD HELP US! God never sends a judgment until the PEOPLE ARE WARNED! I know of no-one else warning the nation of this terrible judgment! It is the MEAT IN DUE SEASON — the last FINAL WARNING we must shout! Also, the full complete GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM must go to every nation, before the end of the age comes.

   AFTER our people fall into captivity at the hands of the revived and 7th head of "the BEAST," then united with the "False Prophet," their headquarters removed to PALESTINE, which they shall have captured, the MARK OF THE BEAST shall be enforced. Pure Gospel preaching shall be PROHIBITED! Then comes the FAMINE of HEARING the Word of God. Then the SAINTS who refuse to take the Mark of the Beast or worship his image shall be PUT TO DEATH. PART of the saints — those who WATCH, and PRAY without ceasing, and are accounted worthy to escape all those things — shall be taken to a place of safety. The others shall be MARTYRED. Immediately following this TRIBULATION, God shall step in and send the terrible heavenly signs. Then follows the DAY OF THE LORD — the time of DIVINE WRATH — the PLAGUES, upon Babylon and the seat of the Beast.