March 24, 1972  
March 24, 1972 - Brethren & Co-Workers Letter
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Herbert W Armstrong 

AMBASSADOR COLLEGE
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA

HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG, Chairman
Publisher of The PLAIN TRUTH Magazine

EXTENSION DEPARTMENT
An educational service at all levels for all people worldwide

March 24, 1972

Dear TOMORROW'S WORLD Subscriber:

   I have an important ANNOUNCEMENT.

   In TOMORROW'S WORLD magazine — a magazine of Biblical UNDERSTANDING — we have been sending you the wonderful good news of tomorrow's world — a soon coming joyous world of PEACE — a world filled with happiness, universal prosperity, with good sound health and abundance for all. Moreover, TOMORROW'S WORLD magazine has been showing its readers WHY we do not have such a world now — the CAUSES of all this present world's evils — and also THE WAY to a happier, more abundant life for YOU, now! And, most important, inheriting eternal life!

   We are dedicated to getting that wonderful Message into all the world, for a witness to all nations. It is the most important mission on earth today. And, of course, it involves the expenditure of large sums of money, now that we are reaching many MILLIONS of people on every inhabited continent on earth.

   It has now become possible to put the same kind of articles you have been reading in TOMORROW'S WORLD into the hands of almost THREE TIMES as many readers, and at the same time, to do it at a considerable reduction in the expenditure of money.

   Sound impossible? It's true! And this will release the expenditure saved for reaching still additional millions through other channels we have not been able until now to afford.

   Years ago, The PLAIN TRUTH was primarily a magazine of Biblical understanding, much as TOMORROW'S WORLD is today. But a few years ago circumstances had developed in which the more religious appearance pretty much limited the readership of The PLAIN TRUTH to that minority of the population who were already interested in the Bible and its truths.

   Our commission is to reach NOT ONLY that small minority of the world's population which was already interested in the Bible and the true Gospel Message — but the WHOLE POPULATION, or as much of it as possible. To do this, we wanted to advertise The PLAIN TRUTH by purchasing advertising space in such mass- circulation media as LIFE, LOOK, The London Sunday Times, and many other mass-circulation magazines in Germany, South Africa, Australia, the Philippines, etc. Most of their subscribers were not interested in the Bible and the Gospel Message. We wanted to encourage their millions of readers to subscribe to The PLAIN TRUTH.

   To do this, and to make The PLAIN TRUTH magazine more acceptable and desirable to their vast readership, we felt it desirable that The PLAIN TRUTH become less religious-sounding.

   Of course, we have continued to keep the actual Biblical teachings as to God's right WAY OF LIFE — the causes of personal, family, and world troubles — THE WAY to the right and happy solutions to the world's social, moral, and other problems and evils. The IMPORTANT THING was that we put these truths before people in their kind of language, rather than in religious sounding language.

   This policy immediately began to expand the readership of The PLAIN TRUTH remarkably. And thus we have been able to get MUCH of God's Biblical truth before a fast-increasing number of subscribers whom we could not reach before! Not in religious- sounding or Bible language, but in their kind of language!

   Yet this left much that we could not put into The PLAIN TRUTH. For example, we could not take a specific Bible subject, and expound it by quoting and explaining all the Bible passages on that subject.

   THAT fact led us to establish the then new magazine, TOMORROW'S WORLD, as a magazine of Biblical understanding — dealing directly with the Bible as such.

   Under this policy, the circulation of The PLAIN TRUTH grew rapidly, to more than 2,100,000 copies monthly, and a readership of probably six to seven million people! We have induced them to THINK about conditions, problems, and evils the SOLUTION for which can be found only in THE BIBLE! We have opened thousands and millions of minds to WANT what can come only from the Word of God! Meanwhile, TOMORROW'S WORLD circulation grew also, until it has become larger than The PLAIN TRUTH was, in the days when it was a more religious and Bible-expounding magazine.

   But we are living in an ever changing world. Now the situation has become such that we may begin putting, more and more, the same kind of articles into The PLAIN TRUTH as you have been reading in TOMORROW'S WORLD!

   Therefore we plan, now, to COMBINE the two magazines.

   The PLAIN TRUTH will continue to publish some of the same kind of articles it has contained these past few years — but, beginning with the MAY number, it will ALSO begin including the same type of Bible-expounding articles you have been getting in TOMORROW'S WORLD. With The PLAIN TRUTH circulation now past 2,100,000 copies, and TOMORROW'S WORLD circulation in excess of 800,000 copies, we now will begin putting the more Biblical type of articles before almost THREE TIMES the present TOMORROW'S WORLD readership — or a total readership of six to seven million people.

   I believe we have now prepared The PLAIN TRUTH readership, in the main, to accept this NEW PLAIN TRUTH policy. And now, by COMBINING the two magazines into the one NEW PLAIN TRUTH, we will reduce the expenditure for our publishing operations by a considerable sum. This is so, even though we MAY find it advisable to increase the size of The PLAIN TRUTH from the present 52 pages (including cover), to 68 pages. It will save not only on the paper and printing, but on postage, maintenance of separate subscription lists, etc.

   I feel that this merger of the two magazines into one will actually REVITALIZE The PLAIN TRUTH, adding zest and inspiration to its contents. We will not put as many strictly Biblically- oriented articles into The PLAIN TRUTH the first few months as later, but the number of Biblically-oriented articles will gradually increase.

   You need to realize that today The PLAIN TRUTH is read by many important people — business executives, professional people, and also many who are high in governments of many nations around the world — and that includes the U.S. Government at Washington, D.C. A number of copies go into the White House every month. I believe this new merger, by which WORLD PROBLEMS will be explained by actual Biblically-oriented articles, will be an IMPORTANT means of getting THE MESSAGE FOR THIS VERY HOUR directly into the hands of leaders in governments of many important nations around the world!

   I feel sure you will REJOICE WITH US that situations have developed in such a way that this step may now be taken! Had The PLAIN TRUTH continued on as it once was — as a strictly RELIGIOUS- SOUNDING magazine, it would never have reached either the quantity or the quality of readership it now has! I think we can see that the living GOD has guided His Work and blessed it! This new policy is another BIG LEAP AHEAD in the most important activity on earth today. It will start with the MAY number.

Most sincerely, in Christ's name,
Herbert W. Armstrong

Publication Date: March 24, 1972
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