Proclaim to the World the GOOD NEWS OF THE WORLD TOMORROW
Box 111, Pasadena, Calif. 91109
Publishing: The PLAIN TRUTH a Magazine of UNDERSTANDING
July 29, 1968
Dear Co-Worker with Christ:
This WORK of the living CHRIST is becoming more exciting every month. MUCH has happened since I wrote you last month. As world events accelerate and worsen rapidly, EVEN SO Christ is SPEEDING UP this Work in ever-faster momentum!
I announced BIG LEAPS AHEAD a month ago. Now more and more powerful NEW DOORS are opened for us privileged to have a part with Christ to walk through!
World events are gaining momentum — speeding rapidly toward the END of this society man has developed — to the now IMMINENT coming of Christ in POWER to RULE the whole world. Even military heads, and scientists are beginning to use such terms as "Armageddon" — and "The END OF THE WORLD!"
Civil Rights leaders shouted "We want Negroes in higher political office." This is one of the rights the voters of Cleveland gave. They elected a Negro Mayor. But did that prevent RIOTING? This past week Cleveland has been the CENTER of racial VIOLENCE — police just passing by shot to death by snipers. Rioting, looting, destruction, murder, are the results in Cleveland!
What will happen at the mammoth Republican National Convention? It is to start a week from now in Miami Beach in Florida. So we await news of possible attempts to break up the convention by mass demonstrations, rioting and VIOLENCE. Plots are suggested of high-jacking planes carrying delegates to the convention, and to shanghai them off to Cuba. Some expect Castro to try this.
You NEVER lived in times like this!
It's no longer safe to walk along a sidewalk, in city or in town. Your HOME may be broken into if you are away overnight! Since I last wrote you MINE WAS! Los Angeles Chief of Police Reddin is warning all citizens to keep lights on all night in their homes — especially if they are away. His lieutenants are arranging a meeting between the Chief and myself, to see if we can work out arrangements to record a series of 1-minute color television warnings in the Ambassador College television studios — to be run as a public service by the leading TV stations — perhaps not only in Los Angeles, but nationwide.
I always leave outside lights on all night around my home, and also at least one light downstairs and one up, inside. In my cottage on our campus in England I do the same. My last letter was written from there. On returning to Pasadena, I was so hurried in leaving that I neglected to arrange to have someone turn on these lights every night. "I'll telex the instructions from Pasadena," I said to myself. But we stopped overnight on the return in Buffalo, New York. That night my cottage was broken into by breaking the glass in a side door, reaching in and unlocking the door. All my silverware was stolen. I was accompanied on my return trip by Mr. Charles Hunting, our Business Manager for Britain, and Mr. John Butterfield, manager of our printing plant at Watford, England. These men occupied two beds in the same hotel room that night. While they slept, the room was entered, their wallets removed from their clothes hanging in a closet, a few hundred dollars expense money stolen, beside passports and credit cards.
On arriving home, I was notified of another threat on my life. Normally, I would not take these things seriously — but again we must remember. THINGS ARE DIFFERENT NOW! But I know I have the prayers of many thousands — and also my son Garner Ted. Humans plotted to kill Jesus, the Son of God. They hated Him because of His teaching. They hate us because we proclaim that same teaching!
But this is the Work of the LIVING GOD — headed by Jesus Christ! We have very little time left to FINISH this Work. Soon — possibly not more than 3 1/2 more years — IT WILL BE TOO LATE! World events are moving now SO FAST, it appears there may not be more time than that! THEN will come THE GREAT TRIBULATION, which Jesus foretold (Matthew 24:21-22). It will mean the INVASION of America and Britain — and prophecies say OUR CITIES WILL BE DESTROYED — and that means HYDROGEN BOMBS!
But see how the living Christ is SPEEDING UP HIS WORK!
IN ADDITION to the BIG DOOR opened, to several editions of Reader's Digest, with two pages advertising The PLAIN TRUTH each issue, as I reported a month ago, LOOK WHAT HAS BEEN OPENED TO US SINCE!
Other editions of Reader's Digest: A second French language edition covering Belgium and western Switzerland; a second German language edition covering Austria and northern Switzerland; the Dutch language edition covering Holland — and now, for the first time, a new edition of The PLAIN TRUTH in the Dutch language! — the Canadian editions in both English and French languages, and the English and French editions in Barbados, Martinique, and other West Indies countries.
But MORE! A Reader's Digest-size magazine called DRIVE, published in London, with 4 MILLION copies circulation — two pages every issue; The London Sunday TIMES, half pages twice monthly — circulation 1 1/2 million copies; The London Sunday EXPRESS, half pages monthly, circulation over 4 million.
And NOW — hold your breath! — FULL PAGES in LIFE magazine in the U.S., in Ohio, western Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee; in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, and the regional markets around Kansas City and St. Louis; and the states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. At first our advertising will appear only in these areas — but we expect to be using full pages in the entire North American circulation — 7,200,000 copies. At present our ads will be printed in about l,800,000 copies of LIFE. The first ad will appear in the August 30th issue, and the second the very next week — thereafter about once a month!
In His famous Olivet prophecy, Jesus Christ said this fast-approaching Great Tribulation will be so terrible that NO HUMANS WOULD BE LEFT ALIVE, unless God cuts short those days (Matthew 24:21-22). There are prophecies that indicate (I don't say make certain) that this WORK OF GOD may have another 3 l/2 years to go — and THEN the Great Tribulation will strike!
But also it's possible God may cut this Work short SOONER THAN THAT! Just as Jesus said God will cut short the days of the Great Tribulation, so He tells us through the Apostle Paul He will CUT SHORT THIS WORK! Listen! Read it carefully! "For He will finish the Work, and CUT IT SHORT in righteousness: because a SHORT WORK will the Lord make upon the earth." (Romans 9:28.) It is a prophecy for NOW!
Co-Workers, WE NEED TO WAKE UP! It is FAR later than we think! There is precious little time left! We need to be stirred — to be frightened just enough to realize the SERIOUSNESS of the TIME — and the SERIOUSNESS of THIS WORK! This is GOD'S DOING! — not mine! YOU are privileged, as well as I, to have A PART in it! We need to dedicate ourselves to it, as the MOST IMPORTANT THING IN OUR LIVES, by far!
The tithes and offerings from our Co-Workers have not been holding up to quota the past two months. All this big campaign in advertising space is reaching between 50 and 60 MILLION people EVERY MONTH! In just the first two weeks — before most of these powerful ads got out to be read, IT INCREASED THE NUMBER OF NEW PLAIN TRUTH READERS BY 35 to 40 THOUSAND. The results are already O V E R W H E L M I N G ! !
This is the BIGGEST leap forward this Work has ever taken. This is a greater growth to the Work in SIX WEEKS than ever before in SIX years!
But — UNLESS our Co-Workers realize the seriousness — the URGENCY — and we all get our shoulders to the wheel, WE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO KEEP IT GOING! This advertising space was not open to us before! Now it has all OPENED UP SUDDENLY! I know it means the living Christ knows the time has come when this world must be HIT WITH HIS LAST MESSAGE WITH A WALLOP THAT WILL MAKE THE WHOLE WORLD SIT UP AND TAKE NOTICE! There is no time to lose, now! It's FULL POWER AHEAD — now, or NEVER!
This is the most EFFECTIVE — the LOWEST COST, per thousand people reached, of ANY means of getting out God's Message to the world! Yet it is SO BIG — and WORLDWIDE, in several languages — IT COSTS THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS A MONTH! This is IN ADDITION to expenses of the Work up to now. It means ADDITIONAL expenditures!
But LOOK AT THE POWER! It's reaching ALL OF EUROPE, except Communist countries — in four languages there! All of Britain, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand — all the English- speaking populations of Southeast ASIA, including JAPAN and INDIA. It means ALL OF CANADA — and new radio stations opening there now, too! Soon we will go ON THE AIR throughout all JAPAN, in the JAPANESE language! We now reach the Middle East — and soon we shall add the Scandinavian countries and all of South America. THAT'S THE WHOLE WORLD! It's MIGHTY! It's the MOST POWERFUL IMPACT ON THE WHOLE WORLD EVER MADE WITH CHRIST'S GOSPEL!
Gradually the powerful TELEVISION programs are going on more stations. Within two years we expect to have complete national coverage. My son Garner Ted is FAR more effective on television, even than on radio. Many who have viewed The TV WORLD TOMORROW — even professional television people — say he is more effective than the big network commentators. So be patient until these full-color TV programs are seen and heard where YOU live.
While Communists sacrifice, contribute, work to overthrow the governments of the FREE WORLD — to DESTROY — YOU are having a PART in CHANGING THE WHOLE WORLD — and preparing the way for CHRIST to come and to SAVE THE WHOLE WORLD!
CAN you neglect such a CHALLENGE? — SUCH A GRAVE RESPONSIBILITY? — such a PRIVILEGE that will bless you throughout ETERNITY?
The ONLY THING that has held up this Work this past month has been a very FEW unprecedented LARGE-SUM donations to this Work — larger than ever before. But this Work has never been carried on by a FEW really BIG amounts — almost NO ONE who is wealthy will LISTEN to the Message of his CREATOR, let alone contribute great amounts to support it.
This Work has grown big and worldwide by the WIDOWS' MITES, and the tithes and extra offerings, given at great sacrifice, by the common people — of moderate and even small incomes.
It's true — NEVER did large-sum contributions — or LOANS of larger sums, (where you are not free at this time to GIVE them as outright donations) — NEVER were they so NEEDED — NEVER so important. These sums are put to work where CHRIST is directing and working and blessing with overwhelming results.
But the BACKBONE of this Work is simply the sacrifices made by those in the poorer and middle class income brackets. So I have to ask you to PRAY — to put your heart into your prayers — to pray for ME, and Garner Ted personally — and for our protection. PRAY earnestly for God to PROSPER all our Co-Workers, and to LAY THIS BURDEN HEAVILY UPON THEIR HEARTS, that they will respond more generously!
Let's put our shoulders to the wheel as NEVER BEFORE! And we DO have God's richest blessing!
By the way — before closing, a happy thought comes to mind. Perhaps you would like to SEE some of these ads we are now using. Since they appear in other countries, and even the LIFE ads in certain areas of the United States, I will have a special brochure printed reproducing the first two or three of these ads that will be read by MANY MILLIONS all around the world. I'll be glad to send you one of these full-color brochures if you request it.
Sincerely, with love, in Jesus' name, Herbert W. Armstrong
Copyright © 2024 Herbert W Armstrong Library