December 15, 1975  
December 15, 1975 - Brethren & Co-Workers Letter
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Herbert W Armstrong 

WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
WORLD HEADQUARTERS
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91123

HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
President and Pastor

(In my "office" jetting at 45,000 feet elevation over the Atlantic on last leg of present around-the-world flight-Paris to Pasadena)
December 1975

Dear Co-Worker in Christ:

   I'm flying back to Headquarters on another 'round-the-earth flight, 8 1/2 miles above the Atlantic Ocean. I have been reading the year-end summaries of world news in three weekly news magazines and this morning's Paris edition of the New York Herald-Tribune. On the front page of the newspaper is a two-column picture of an angry Henry Kissinger shaking a finger in a press conference, warning the Russians over expansion in Angola, saying the United States will "resist action."

   Other front page headlines: "Terrorists Quit in Algiers, Free Last Hostages"; "Portugal Gets Grim Year-End Message"; "U.S. Envoys Shun W. Europe Reds"; "Gunman Kills U.S. Diplomat in Athens"—all BAD NEWS!

   And so it has been all year.

   In the magazines: "Violence is on the Rise, Worldwide"— especially featuring civil wars and guerrilla wars in Angola, Lebanon, Oman, Timor and elsewhere.

   Violence, and, as I have written you before, the toppling of the governments of nations—at one a month—pretty well spell out what has been happening throughout 1975 in the world. Then, especially in the United States, the speed-up in another kind of war—the "Women's Lib" movement. At an unprecedented pace, the United States seems to be moving toward equality of the sexes. Women want to do men's work. More and more men are doing housework. But at the same time more and more families are breaking up—the divorce rate soars—and the very foundation of a stable and permanent society is crumbling.

   On this trip I have just finished writing Part VIII of the series of articles running in The PLAIN TRUTH, 'The Incredible Human Potential." This installment is on HUMAN NATURE, and how the whole world has been deceived as to its origin.

   TROUBLE! TROUBLE! TROUBLE! The world seems full of nothing but TROUBLE! WHY? Well, it's generally blamed on HUMAN NATURE.

   But where did human nature come from? Ever think of that? Positively NOTHING is more important than the answer to that question. Did human nature just develop in us by evolution? At what stage? We are supposed to have evolved from some lower animal vertebrate—something similar to an anthropoid ape. But anthropoid apes do not indulge in constant violence against their own kind, as human nature seems to cause people to do. Some animals—by natural instinct—feed on certain other species. But animals do not constantly fight violently against their own kind.

   Was the HUMAN race CREATED by an almighty supreme Creator GOD? Did God design and create us with a "heart that is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9), and a mind that "is enmity [hostile] against God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7)?

   It is recorded in the Bible that God saw all that He had created and made, and that it was —- WHAT? Very GOOD? Or very BAD? I have quoted—in this article—a person saying, "Just look at that sweet, beautiful little baby just born, and full of all that despicable, evil human nature." But ARE human babies born with such an evil, hostile nature?

   WHAT, after all, is the real basic CAUSE of all these troubles and woes that beset mankind? I hope you'll look forward eagerly to reading this article in the next PLAIN TRUTH!

   Two things account for all the evils we humans have suffered all over the world for six thousand years. Human nature, of course, is one. The forbidden fruit incident recorded in the second and third chapters of Genesis is the other. The first humans rejected the rule and government of God the Creator—took to themselves the determination of the knowledge of what is good and what is evil— what is right and what is wrong. They cut themselves off from contact with God and the guidance of God. Their human descendants have ever since continued to be cut off from their Maker.

   God has adopted a "hands-off" policy for a 6,000-year duration. Humans have organized their own ideas and kinds of governments. They have devised their own life-styles, cultures, civilizations. They can't agree on how they want to be governed. Certain ones have risen to leadership, establishing a form of government, a kind of religion, a style of culture. The world has had absolute monarchies, constitutional monarchies, dictatorships, various democratic forms, republican forms, fascist forms, and communism. Armies fight wars for one form to prevail over another—and each has brought its troubles and its evils.

   Man's religions have enslaved, deceived, and led people into this and that superstition. And in a humanity that cut itself off from contact with its Maker, not one of the major organized religions has had the TRUTH.

   Not one reveals WHY humanity was put here on earth. Not one explains WHY the human mind can invent astounding mechanisms, learn to fly to the moon and back, but can't solve his own problems with his own kind here on earth. Not one knows the REAL PURPOSE for human life—where humanity is going—or what is THE WAY. Not one knows how to lead the world into WORLD PEACE.

   But that 6,000 years allotted for MAN to go his own way is about up. It will end in OUR GENERATION. The REAL truth IS revealed. And I have been given the GREAT COMMISSION and God has called YOU TO STAND BACK OF ME IN ANNOUNCING to the world that our Almighty Creator is now SOON going to INTERVENE in world affairs— send Jesus Christ in the supreme POWER AND GLORY of the GREAT GOD— to take over the government of every nation on earth:

   —to bring us world peace;

   —to rid the world of POVERTY, IGNORANCE, SICKNESS AND DISEASE;

   —to lead us into UNIVERSAL PROSPERITY, HAPPINESS AND JOY, with the GIFT of ETERNAL LIFE offered to EVERYONE!

   For forty-two years now, I have been leading the MOST IMPORTANT WORK ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH! It started in the ONLY country where it could start—our United States of America. For forty years I found the doors CLOSED to this Message in many of the world's most populous nations—in virtually all except the United States, Canada, and Australia. But now our God is opening those closed doors!

   As the U.S. enters the second centennial year, God's Work comes to its SECOND GREAT DIMENSION. Testimonial dinners—each carrying this Message to from fifty to four hundred of the LEADERS of many nations—are being planned for 1976 in Jerusalem and in Cairo, where I already have held three such important dinners. Also planned are campaigns in Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Nigeria, Malaysia and possibly India—where many testimonial dinners reaching the nation's LEADERS already have been held. Also a second campaign is planned in Jamaica, as well as smaller campaigns in Barbados, Trinidad and the Bahamas; also—I hope—a campaign in South Africa.

   Co-Workers, THINK of the MILLIONS of hungry and STARVING in India, other parts of Asia, in Africa and South America. THINK of the sick and diseased all over the world! THINK of the people misled into CRIME; into enslaving themselves with dope and drugs: the MILLIONS suffering heartaches, injustices, every kind of TROUBLE! The whole human race is suffering!

   Jesus Christ is soon coming IN PERSON—this time in all supreme POWER AND GLORY, not only to RULE and give the entire world perfect GOVERNMENT, but to "...bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound...to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of JOY for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord..." (Isaiah 61:1-3)—to DELIVER the sick and diseased—all the poverty-stricken—all the victims of injustice, crime—to RID THIS WORLD ONCE AND FOR ALL TIME OF ITS TROUBLES AND ITS EVILS!

   God Almighty is calling YOU to have a vital PART in hastening this day. It WILL NOT come until this worldwide ANNOUNCEMENT has gone out! Perhaps God has already held up Christ's coming, that this last Message from Him to this dying world may GO IN POWER!

   Let's GIVE as never before. SACRIFICE as never before. PRAY AS NEVER BEFORE!

   I seriously need YOUR FERVENT AND BELIEVING PRAYERS that 1976 will be by far the most fruitful year so far! The more WE respond, the sooner the whole world will be saved! Your continued generosity and even greater SACRIFICE financially are needed NOW! And for this I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

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

Publication Date: December 15, 1975
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