May 27, 1969  
May 27, 1969 - Brethren & Co-Workers Letter
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Herbert W Armstrong 

The PLAIN TRUTH a Magazine of Understanding
BOX 111, Pasadena, Calif. 91109

HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG, Editor

May 27, 1969

Dear PLAIN TRUTH Subscriber:

   I am writing personally to you as a subscriber. You may know — as our older subscribers do — it is my custom, twice annually, to answer the questions most asked by our readers.

   Since my last letter to our PLAIN TRUTH readers, November 25, we have received a quarter of a million additional subscriptions — an additional readership of probably a million. I think, too, it's interesting that at that time we had enjoyed the same increase in circulation — 225,000 subscriptions in the preceding 6 months — making an increase of A HALF MILLION in a year. Circulation increased from 1,225,000 at this time last year to 1,750,000 today — a phenomenal increase of 40% in a year!

   Readers of The PLAIN TRUTH — especially the many new subscribers — write in by the thousands asking questions.

   In the past 6 months these are the questions most asked: What IS Ambassador College? ** HOW is it organized? ** WHO is Herbert W. Armstrong? ** WHO is Garner Ted Armstrong? ** HOW is the college, the magazine and the broadcasting (and telecasting) financed? ** HOW can you publish and send out worldwide, a magazine of such high character, quality and interest, without advertising revenue and not allowing any subscriber to pay for his own subscription?

   No wonder new subscribers ask such questions! You never heard of anything like it before!

   I will answer some of those questions ln this letter. But BETTER YET, we have prepared a special new booklet that answers most of those questions more fully than I could in this letter — and well illustrated, besides. I hope YOU, and every subscriber to The PLAIN TRUTH, will request your free copy of this new booklet. We have needed such a booklet for a long time. And now, at last, it is published and ready for mailing.

   I do not want to send anything unwanted, so I will hold your copy ready for mailing as soon as you let me know it will be welcome. We never resort to any of the schemes and gimmicks so prevalent today. I suppose you, like myself, have been pestered with such tricks. I am sending back, today, two unwanted items the promoters tried to force on me, unasked. One is a book, the other a small piece of so-called sculpture "guaranteed" by an outfit I never heard of to be a copy of a sculptured work of a so-called noted sculptor I never heard of. (And I happen to know personally the two greatest sculptors in the world, Henry Moore and David Wynne of London.) In each case the promoters sent a bill asking me to remit money.

   There are so many of these "come-on" schemes to get your money that I know it seems hard to realize that when we offer you something of real value WITHOUT ANY CHARGE — and tell you we have nothing to sell — you are not going to be asked to buy anything, or join anything — it is THE TRUTH, and there are no tricks or deceptions or gimmicks!

   YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD OF ANY OPERATION LIKE OURS! It is utterly unique. And isn't it, after all, a refreshing experience to find something of vital value, with no such come-ons — something 100% aboveboard, honest and sincere?

   This new special booklet, "This is AMBASSADOR COLLEGE," answers these very questions. But, more than that, it is the intriguing story of supplying the MISSING DIMENSION in education, worldwide. It is the thrilling success story of something never done before — of a huge, major-scale educational operation worldwide, seemingly incredible, yet here it is, in fast- accelerating operation today!

   It explains WHAT that MISSING DIMENSION is. It gives you, in brief outline, the astonishing organizational pattern of this worldwide educational program. It explains not only what this MISSING DIMENSION is, but how it is missing in TWO VITAL SPHERES — the On-Campus sphere, and the Home and Family sphere. It shows the tragic NEED for right education IN THE HOME — adult education in the home! It gives you startling, eye-opening facts brought out in recent studies on the tragedy of broken homes. It brings you shocking FACTS resulting from researches, on the CAUSES for much of the tragic racial strife. It tells you HOW this entire educational operation started. It gives you a look into my personal early life, experiences and background. It will give you a NEW CONCEPT of education — of the vital importance of family life — of a strong FAMILY SYSTEM. It gives you the cause and statistics of CRIME.

   You are aware, of course, that education today is in the grip of an acute CRISIS! There seems no longer to be authority at the top. Read my personal page in the July PLAIN TRUTH, on WHO'S IN CHARGE in the colleges and universities. Moral standards have gone into the cesspool. Today we read of filthy, dirty-language shows in theaters, with actors in suggestive poses and actions, totally nude on the stage. There was even a documentary on nudism, showing both men and women totally nude in color on British television. Accidentally I saw it. I never dreamed I would live to see anything like that! On some college campuses, men and women students are allowed to remain all night in dormitories of the opposite sex, in outright fornication.

   These things are SIGNIFICANT. They set a definite TREND. They are leading to something! Do you know what? The END of our society — unless SOMETHING or SOMEBODY can stop this degeneration!

   Ambassador College recognizes the significant relationship between education and world conditions. And also the responsibility of education for those conditions. We ARE DOING OUR PART, in a way no one else is doing it! We are sounding the ALARM — and making it plain precisely what lies almost immediately ahead. We ARE going to be suddenly and rudely JERKED OUT OF THIS PRESENT DEGENERATE TREND! There is going to be a different and happier WORLD TOMORROW. But there are reasons and CAUSES for today's descent, as there shall be for tomorrow's wonderful world.

   Now in addition to this NEW booklet, "This is AMBASSADOR COLLEGE," there is something else absolutely NEW that I feel at least some of our subscribers will be enthusiastically interested in.

   In Ambassador College, at the Pasadena campus, there is the coeducational undergraduate School of Liberal Arts and Sciences — but there is also the School of Education on the graduate level, offering degrees of M.A., Ed.D., and Ph.D. And also the Graduate School of Theology, offering degrees of M.A. in Theology, and Th.D.

   Perhaps most subscribers will not be interested, but I think it well to mention that the Graduate School of Theology is beginning, with the June number, publication of a NEW and different MAGAZINE, called "TOMORROW'S WORLD."

   Being published by the Graduate School of Theology, it is a magazine of Biblical understanding. Not a religious magazine in the ordinary sense, for the world is full of many false religions. It is not a sentimental evangelical magazine, but as The PLAIN TRUTH is "A MAGAZINE OF UNDERSTANDING" in the world-news, human-experience, educational field, the new magazine is also "A MAGAZINE OF UNDERSTANDING" in the field of Biblical revelation. It does not seek to "interpret" the Bible. It has no new interpretations. The Bible ought not to be interpreted. It interprets itself. This new magazine will MAKE PLAIN vital questions answered in this Book of books — the world's largest seller among books.

   For example, it will answer such questions as: WHY does God HIDE HIMSELF? WHY did God let little Timmie die, when he ran out into the street and was struck by a speeding car? WHY does God allow WARS and so much human suffering? Some ask: If God is Good and Perfect, and all-loving, He wouldn't WANT people to suffer, would He? And if He is ALL-mighty, He could prevent it, couldn't He? Then, they ask, WHY DOESN'T HE? Thousands of clergymen and theologians cannot answer those questions. BECAUSE many have never found the answers, they have turned from all religious interest.

   The TOMORROW'S WORLD Magazine will GIVE YOU THE ANSWERS. Answers that MAKE SENSE!

   In the very first June number of TOMORROW'S WORLD, now off the press, is an article on "Just What Do You Mean ... The KINGDOM OF GOD? "Sub-titles: Is it the CHURCH? Is it something "set up in the hearts of men?" Is it the British Empire? Is it the good within you? Is it "the Millennium?" Each of these is widely taught. The answer made PLAIN without interpreting the Bible, may be astonishing — but it will be made PLAIN!

   Another article will be on the question of smoking. Is smoking hazardous to health? It reveals what are the odds of getting lung cancer or heart disease. It explains why MILLIONS smoke despite dire warnings.

   Another on the subject of prayer. Does anyone ever get direct answers to prayer? Is an actual divine Personage listening? Why do most never get answers to prayer? Another article on "Seven Rules to Right Decisions. " Life is a series of decisions leading to success or failure. This will show the way to make right decisions.

   Then, coming in the July number: "What Do You Mean — SALVATION?" Is it going to a PLACE, being given eternal life, or WHAT? Just the plain statements, without interpretation, of what the Bible SAYS. Few understand it. See if you do! Another, "Who — What — was Jesus Before His Human Birth? " Or did He exist prior to it? Puzzled theologians give a variety of answers. Avoiding denominational doctrines, ignoring human theological traditions, this article makes PLAIN exactly what the Bible SAYS, without any denominational or sectarian interpretation. Another, "Twelve Rules for Bible Study."

   This is just a sample, to give you an idea of what this magazine is like. I realize many PLAIN TRUTH subscribers may not be interested in something more Biblical. But I realize, too, that among the millions who now read The PLAIN TRUTH are many who DO want some of the "stronger spiritual meat."

   For those who do, however, I must warn you that it will be "STRONG meat" — not skim milk. It will make Biblical revelation PLAIN, just as it is — pulling no punches! You probably will be surprised to find that if you accept Biblical revelation as the Maker's INSTRUCTION BOOK to mankind, it actually contains definite instruction and teachings some of which may be new — and surprising — to you. Just as it is recorded that the people "WERE ASTONISHED" at the teaching of Jesus, so also many people are "ASTONISHED" at that same teaching, just as it is written, today. TOMORROW'S WORLD will make plain what is written, on a scholarly and high-character plane, without any watering down, and with no "science of mind" twist or metaphysical distortions or modernist compromising with supposed yet false science, or evolutionary approach.

   If you are one of those, who would like such a magazine — NOT a sectarian or denominational magazine — entirely NON-sectarian, written and edited by scholars and faculty, in the Graduate School of Theology, down-to-earth, factual, just as it is without any denominational bias, I would be glad to offer you an already-paid full year's subscription. Like The PLAIN TRUTH, you can't pay for your own — it's already paid.

   This new magazine is for those who ARE spiritually interested, who want the TRUTH of what the Bible reveals about the purpose of life, what it says the Creator living God has in store for us, WHAT is a Christian, and many other subjects.

   I'm not urging this new magazine on you — we won't send you a single copy UNLESS YOU WANT IT AND ASK FOR IT. But I felt that enough of our readers will want it that I should offer it. Frankly, I feel that people really NEED more of the practical principles of living, revealed in the Bible to help live more happy and rewarding lives.

   Also this new magazine, TOMORROW'S WORLD, will help PLAIN TRUTH readers better to understand world conditions today, the modern problems of society, and personal and family problems.

   I do hope YOU, and every PLAIN TRUTH subscriber, will ask for the attractive new booklet, "This is AMBASSADOR COLLEGE." It will answer most questions that are asked about us. And if you have any further questions at any time, do feel free to write me, and I will do my best to answer them.

THANK YOU for your interest, and allowing us to serve you.

Most sincerely,
Herbert W. Armstrong

Publication Date: May 27, 1969
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