HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG, Chairman Publisher of The PLAIN TRUTH Magazine
EXTENSION DEPARTMENT An educational service at all levels for all people worldwide
August 29, 1974
Dear Inner Family of Co-Workers with Christ:
Events leading to the END of this world are now accelerating FASTER AND FASTER! More and more, the governments of nations are TOPPLING! Nothing like this ever happened before! Do we realize what it MEANS? Prophecy said this would happen, just before the END!
And the living CHRIST, the Head of THIS WORK, is stepping up HIS WORK, getting His last Message through us, into more and more nations, FASTER AND FASTER!
I am just now returning home from another overwhelmingly successful trip — this time into South America — where doors have providentially opened wide for near future PUBLIC APPEARANCE CAMPAIGNS in the following nations:
Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, the largest country in South America, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic!
Our Great Commission — yours and mine — is to get God's warning Message to ALL THE WORLD, as a witness to all nations, just before the END of this present world. But HOW? The doors were closed shut until NOW. That was our biggest problem. But now, with the successful massive Public Appearance Campaign in the Philippines, GOD HAS SHOWN US HIS WAY! There, in three successive nights, I was able to speak to approximately twenty-five thousand — and they were mostly the LEADERS of the nations, and upper and upper middle class people.
Never in the history of the world has anything like this happened before! Heads of state — presidents, kings, emperors, prime ministers and others high ranking in government, actually INVITING, and ENDORSING the Message God is sending to them and their people through me.
Like last January, this was another trip with high ranking members of the Japanese Diet (their national Congress). It was an OFFICIAL government mission, just prior to a series of STATE VISITS by Prime Minister Tanaka of Japan. These Japanese Congressmen now call themselves my "Japanese sons." There were eight of them in January. Now there are TEN — one of whom calls himself my "Japanese grandson," who graduated from our own Ambassador College at Pasadena a year ago June (I performed his wedding), and who had previously graduated from Tokyo University. Seven of these were on this present trip with Mr. Rader and me. And our Professor Gotoh, who is Japanese, acted as Secretary for their Mission — because he speaks English so much more fluently than any of them.
As I explained last January, they prefer to travel with us in our plane, for many reasons. In each of the capitals we visited, they had official visits with the Presidents of these countries. And in every case, they spoke highly of me as the Ambassador without portfolio for WORLD PEACE to the nations of the world, mentioning that their Emperor and Government had conferred on me the decoration of the highest honor ever conferred on a non-official non-Japanese.
As a result these South American heads of state are now looking forward expectantly to our personal meetings.
This is just one more WAY in which our God is opening more and more doors to the very CHIEFS OF GOVERNMENT, to get HIS MESSAGE to them, and to thousands of the leading people in their countries!
Brethren and Co-Workers, can you REALIZE what an UNPRECEDENTED thing this is, that only the Supreme GOD could bring about? God knows how short time now is. He knows what a TREMENDOUS JOB is yet to be done. He is SPEEDING UP our Work, opening doors FASTER AND FASTER, and MORE AND MORE OF THEM.
The way the Eternal GOD is moving to open these doors AT THE VERY TOP of these nations is a MIRACLE such as has NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD!
God knows how FAST conditions in the world are worsening! He KNOWS, as we must realize, how SHORT time is now — how LITTLE TIME we have — how FAST world events bringing us to the very BRINK of the END of this age are speeding up!
Last month I wrote to you of how governments are now toppling one after another, all over the world! Finally it HIT HOME TO US IN THE U.S.A.! Never before, in the 200-year history of the United States, has the head of the United States Government been forced to resign, putting a complete new administration into office, in the very middle of a term!
The response to that letter was one of the most gratifying, encouraging and INSPIRING reactions I have ever received from you Co-Workers. Letters poured in, by the multiple HUNDREDS, showing enthusiasm and gratitude for the way our God is opening these doors, and assuring me of ONE-THOUSAND PERCENT SUPPORT. Words cannot express to you how much your wonderful and enthusiastic response means to Garner Ted and me. Your loyalty, assurances, and prayers inspire us, and all of us here at Headquarters, to plunge on ahead with greater enthusiasm, vigor, and determination than ever before!
Since I wrote you last, two more governments are in such a dangerous condition that I may have to quickly make a DECISIVE CHANGE in coming PUBLIC APPEARANCE CAMPAIGNS! Details of that, later.
But all this sudden toppling of governments over the world is definitely PROPHESIED! There is such a REMARKABLE PARALLEL between that prophecy, and what is happening IN GOD'S WORK right now, I want to take space to go into it a bit.
This Work of God definitely is foretold in Revelation 3:7-13, where it says that because we have but LITTLE strength of our own, and yet have THE MESSAGE God wants delivered, Christ is OPENING DOORS — mighty doors — doors of TV, radio, the printing press to reach MASSES — and doors now for PERSONAL meetings with presidents, kings, emperors, prime ministers, and others high ln governments and in colleges and universities! And this leads to Public Campaigns reaching multiple thousands!
And so, there is the parallel of the ancient Zerubbabel, Governor over the Jews sent back to build the second great Temple at Jerusalem, around 515 B.C., seventy years after the destruction of Solomon's Temple.
This Work goes out, NOT by human might nor power, but, as God said to Zerubbabel, "Not by might, nor by power, but by MY SPIRIT, saith the ETERNAL of hosts" (Zech. 4:6). This is GOD'S Work, and it goes by the supernatural POWER of God's Holy Spirit!
This same prophecy actually begins in the book just ahead of Zechariah, the Book of Haggai. God had caused King Darius to order a large contingent of the people of Judah to return to Jerusalem to build this second Temple. God spoke through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel, governor, and Joshua the high priest, "This people say, the time is not come, the time that the ETERNAL'S HOUSE should be built" (Haggai 1:2). God answered, "Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house [of God] lie waste?"
All the way through Haggai and Zechariah, the local TYPE, of Zerubbabel and Joshua building God's House, is in reality a prophecy which actually refers to OUR TIME NOW, and the soon coming of CHRIST to RULE all nations and bring WORLD PEACE!
There is also a parallel here which might be compared with the building of our House of God at God's present (temporary) Headquarters for His Work, in Pasadena, California. Some were saying, it wasn't the time to build the House for God, who were living in their own houses. God's House is a "House of Prayer" as well as, at Pasadena, other college purposes. Never have God's people so seriously needed one central edifice for the Church worldwide, to stimulate interest in the Work and INTENSIVE HEARTRENDING PRAYER as now. Of course the new Ambassador Auditorium is NOT A TEMPLE! But it IS a house for GOD, and is dedicated to HIM and His service, and HIS NAME IS ON IT!
God said to those people under Zerubbabel and Joshua, they were wasting their labor, "sowing much, and bringing in little." This was due to their selfishness, lack of zeal for the work God called them to do, and self-centered WAY OF LIFE. Then, verse 12, Zerubbabel, and Joshua, and the people repented and OBEYED God, and feared God, and WENT TO WORK getting God's job done!
Then said God, "I am with you, saith the Eternal." And God "stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, ... and Joshua ... and the spirit of all the remnant of the people, and they came and DID WORK ..." at the work God had given them to do.
I am grateful that you, Brethren and Co-Workers, today, do allow God to stir up your spirits, give you a NEW VISION of the mighty IMPORTANCE of God's great WORK given us to do, and dedicate yourselves to it, and to heartrending prayer for it, as those people did, more than 500 years before Christ! He does say to us, as God said to those people, "From this day will I BLESS YOU." (Chapter 2, verse 19.)
Speaking prophetically of OUR DAY, RIGHT NOW, God said: "Speak to Zerubbabel, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth, and I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them [kings]..." (verses 21-22).
So THERE is the prophecy of heads of governments toppling, today, one after another! That is being fulfilled RIGHT NOW!
Then God continues, "In that day..." meaning our day, now, at this TIME OF THE END, "saith the ETERNAL of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, ... saith the Eternal, and will make thee as a signet [as a seal, or stamp of official approval]: for I have chosen thee, saith the ETERNAL of hosts" (Haggai 2:23). There will have to be a Zerubbabel of today — the time actually here referred to.
Next follows the Book of Zechariah. It, too, picks up the story of Zerubbabel and Joshua, God's team chosen to lead His people in building the second Temple at Jerusalem. Yes, even as Garner Ted and I are God's team, chosen to lead His people in this greatest END TIME Work!
In the third chapter Zechariah's prophecy comes back to Joshua the high priest. The prophet's vision sees him clothed with filthy garments, representing sin, standing before an angel, with Satan at his right hand to prevent him from doing God's Work. Then Christ Himself rebuked Satan, freed Joshua from Satan's power, calling Joshua a brand plucked from the fire. He caused the filthy garments to be removed and Joshua was clothed with clean garments — his sin forgiven, and he restored to righteousness. Christ said He had caused Joshua's iniquity to pass from him, and ordered a crown to be set on his head. Then Christ said to Joshua, "If you will walk in my ways, and keep my charge, then you shall judge my house."
Then God says to Joshua, "Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH [Christ]." Then the prophecy uses Joshua to show that in one day Christ will remove the iniquity of Jerusalem, and God's people Israel and Judah, and the millennium of PEACE is ushered in.
This prophecy refers, primarily, to OUR TIME, NOW!
Next, chapter 4, Zerubbabel enters the scene again.
In verse 2 a golden candlestick is described (compare Revelation 1:12) — signifying a stage of God's CHURCH. And in verse 3, two olive trees. The chapter makes it evident that the two olive trees refer to Zerubbabel and Joshua, not actually those two identical men of more than 500 years before Christ, but the "Zerubbabel" and the "Joshua" of today, of which they were types.
Then the angel says to the prophet Zechariah, "This is the word of the Eternal unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by MY SPIRIT, saith the Eternal of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace unto it. Moreover, the word of the Eternal came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the Eternal of hosts hath sent me unto you" (verses 6-9).
Brethren and Co-Workers, although building that second Temple in Jerusalem was very important in God's eyes, the great Work He is doing through us TODAY, is FAR MORE IMPORTANT — IN HIS EYES!!! May God give you UNDERSTANDING to see it as God sees it.
The GREATEST PART of THIS WORK is yet to be done. God's last Message is going now to those at the top, responsible for the spiritual welfare of the great MASSES of their peoples — who are mostly illiterate, and unreachable themselves with the true Gospel.
From here on, WE MUST SPEED UP THIS ALL-IMPORTANT WORK. It is the Message from GOD to these nations, which they have NEVER HEARD. WE know it is the only true Gospel. The world REJECTED this tremendous Message from the Creator of ALL NATIONS to mankind, when He sent it by Jesus Christ 1900 years ago. After the first century another gospel OF MEN, not of Christ (but about Christ), has been going to the world.
That is why I don't even call it "the gospel" in those countries. Rather, it is the Missing Dimension in Knowledge, explaining the CAUSE of all the problems, troubles and evils in the world today, and the WAY to WORLD PEACE and universal PROSPERITY — as well as eternal life.
I tell them that my Message for world peace is that which SCIENCE HAS NEVER DISCOVERED — RELIGION HAS OVERLOOKED — AND EDUCATION HAS NEVER TAUGHT — and GOVERNMENT HAS NEVER KNOWN! I take it OUT of the fields of religion, science, education, or government. I oppose none of those — and they do not oppose me — yet it is THE VERY GOSPEL which Christ brought 1900 years ago.
I need another three to five years to FINISH this Great Work which God started through me in January, 1934 — more than 40 years ago. I am getting to these nations as fast as I can. This particular job God has now opened to me is one which I, alone (with the team assisting me, of course), can do.
So I want to ask you to continue to PRAY, very specially and fervently for me personally, that God will grant me these additional years of vigorous, youthful life, that, as a parallel to His servant Zerubbabel of some 2,400 years ago, since my hands began this Work, my hands may FINISH IT!
God is still giving me good vitality, youthful strength and vigor, so that this last-minute Message about Christ's SOON COMING — the END of this world, and the KINGDOM OF GOD ushering in the happy and peaceful WORLD TOMORROW is going out in the dynamic POWER of God's Holy Spirit.
No other voice is carrying it to those nations around the world. That is the Message — and THE ONLY MESSAGE — that THE LIVING CHRIST wants proclaimed today. If God will give me about another three to five years of renewed strength and vitality and vigor, WE WILL GET HIS JOB DONE BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!
But I NEED YOUR HELP! I need you to continue back of me 100%! I need your continual, daily, heartrending PRAYERS, that God will continue to RENEW MY YOUTH, give me HIS power and strength. For this Message goes out not by human might nor power, "but by MY SPIRIT, saith the ETERNAL of hosts."
Please read all of Isaiah 40 — a Message I have to deliver — and especially verses 28-31. Young men may become weak and faint, but God is, today, RENEWING and INCREASING my strength.
The living Christ is going on ahead BEFORE ME, opening doors in an awe-inspiring way such doors have NEVER been opened to men of God before. More and more these doors to HEADS OF GOVERNMENTS are opening before me. More and more God is giving me providential — almost unbelievable favor, and even affection, in the eyes of kings, presidents, prime ministers, emperors, and the top men under them.
At the same time, governments are now toppling faster and faster, one after another, just as prophesied by Haggai.
I had scheduled the NEXT big PUBLIC APPEARANCE CAMPAIGN for Ethiopia, the latter part of October. It appears Emperor Haile Selassie's government is the latest one to topple. He has already been stripped of power, but possibly may stay on the throne. If this prevents the BIG CAMPAIGN there in late October, it will be moved to a BIGGER nation — Egypt, and the campaign will be held in Cairo. The stage is all set there.
Egypt is, of course, one of the chief leaders in the Arab world. Dr. Mohammed Abdul Lader Hattem, President Sadat's chief executive, who is now over the cabinet ministers, next to President Sadat in power, also plans to fly with us to a number of other capitals in the Arab world, so that plans may be laid in those capitals also for soon coming Public Appearance Campaigns.
A few days ago the North vietnamese were in a battle close to Saigon. We are sending a man close to officials there, to check as to the advisability of attracting big crowds of many THOUSANDS into one place in the campaign scheduled there for December. If it is feared such a crowd might tempt the enemy to BOMB that crowd, I will hold the big December campaign in BANGKOK instead.
If Saigon remains firm, Bangkok will come in January.
I am getting to these nations as rapidly as possible.
Pray for me. Pray for Garner Ted. Pray for the WORK — and for one another in God's Church. Keep praying.
We need to continue back of this great Work as NEVER BEFORE, with renewed vigor — renewed sacrifice.
With deep LOVE, in Jesus' name, Herbert W. Armstrong
P.S. The day after I finished the above, I was in Washington, D.C, and there contacted Mr. Abdullah Salah, the Jordanian Ambassador to the United States. You may remember that King Hussein of Jordan had been in Washington the first half of August, and was the first head of another government to have a meeting with the new President, Gerald Ford. King Hussein had personally brought with him a brilliant and flashy decoration, which he left with the Ambassador. This was presented to me by the Ambassador, along with the official photograph of His Majesty, signed, "To my good friend Herbert W. Armstrong, with best wishes" — then signed, and dated, August 4, 1974. There will be a Public Appearance Campaign in Jordan soon, and probably a "Testimonial Dinner" with about 100 top officials present, even on this September trip.
Let me add, conditions all over the world are worsening fast. The world's economy, worldwide, is in chaos. In such conditions, the best place for money, is to put it WHERE GOD IS WORKING — AND BLESSING! And where it never was more NEEDED!
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