May 31, 1972  
May 31, 1972 - Brethren & Co-Workers Letter
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Garner Ted Armstrong    |   Remove Highlight

WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
WORLD HEADQUARTERS
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91123

HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
President and Pastor

May 31, 1972

Dear Brethren of God's Church:

   I'm writing this special letter to express, if I possibly can, the combined feelings of vast relief, thanksgiving, humility, and joy over the events of these past few months.

   My father, along with several of the Vice Presidents of the Work and Mr. Rader, our General Counsel and Financial Adviser were here only a few hours ago in the little "A-frame" my wife and I have been renting for several months in the mountains of Colorado.

   It was one of the most important days in all my life — and, I really hope and pray, an important day for the Work of our Savior for this age.

   As I write, I know my father has already told a few close friends in Pasadena preparatory to an announcement he will make this coming Friday night in Bible study that I am to begin radio broadcasting, television programs, writing, and other duties almost immediately — that he has written a letter to you Brethren, making the same announcement, and that, if I can get this letter to him in time, he will include my thoughts to you. He is announcing not only that I will be back on radio and TV soon, but that a whole new format is to begin, which I have wanted desperately to do for many years. It will not really be so "new," after all, but rather much more like the format of the broadcasts my father was doing when I was but a boy, and very much like many of the newer programs he has been doing of recent date. Not only on radio, but on television, I hope to begin more of the hard hitting, straightforward Biblical and prophetic messages which make our program absolutely unique in this world. I hope, through God's own help, these new programs will be more powerful as witness for the soon coming Ruler and King of this earth Jesus Christ of Nazareth, than ever before! God truly does now "command all men everywhere to REPENT." His time has come to get that message to the world.

   Brethren of God, I know there were literally thousands of you praying for this Work — and even for me, personally, during these past months. I needed those prayers, like a member of any family needs the loving concern of all the other members if he is in sore trial. I know through many experiences that God Almighty was working with me — that the very purpose for my drawing breath on this earth is to give myself utterly to His own Work — that God, Himself, was rendering a decision. It was as if He had said, "I will yet use you to MY honor and glory — to MY purpose — you are NOT YOUR OWN, you are BOUGHT WITH A PRICE!" I know Christ PAID for my life, and what a purchase price for such worthless merchandise. Still, if God will use me for His purpose I want only that for the rest of my life — and nothing else.

   I know some were confused, perhaps shocked, in wonderment and perplexity — and I know that many defamatory articles appeared against God's own Work. God is the judge, however, of all such men — and He alone really searches and tries their hearts. We should only pray FOR them.

   I want to thank all of you who have so earnestly besought our Creator in my behalf — and, if I could, the tens of thousands who are not yet truly converted, and brought to their God, but who, nevertheless, made it obvious I, in spite of my own clay, and totally common humanity, had come to have daily meaning to their lives. Thank you, Brethren, VERY much for your loving concern.

   The one in this human sphere to whom I truly owe the greatest debt, besides my own father, is right here beside me, as she has been for these many years — my wife, Shirley. Without her, I know I would be only a vagabond in this earth, without cause or purpose — not a whole man.

   We serve a wonderful God, Brethren — and how totally ANXIOUS I am to be about our Father's business!

In Christ's name,
Garner Ted Armstrong

Publication Date: May 31, 1972
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