December 02, 1964  
December 02, 1964 - 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

December 2, 1964

Dear Friend and PLAIN TRUTH subscriber:

   AT LAST! — the new book on sex and marriage, "GOD SPEAKS OUT on the New Morality," is printed, bound, and mailed out to those who have, to date, requested it.

   What an undertaking it was! Never before have we published and offered (free of course) a complete book — 340 pages, an inch thick. And the whole production, 250,000 copies, once written, was done in our own newly enlarged printing plant, except the biggest share of the binding had to be done outside.

   Comments on the book are just beginning to come in from those who have received it, and they show overwhelming appreciation. This enthusiastic reception is very gratifying indeed. Especially is it rewarding to know that already this book has done so much good — helped so many people.

   Several, married a number of years, have written me to say how much it has helped them — how it has straightened out problems causing serious trouble in their marriages — and saying how much difficulty, suffering and heartache it would have saved them, if only they could have had this knowledge before they were married

   One man, soon to be married, wrote me that he realizes now that his marriage might have been ruined if he had not received this book before the wedding. He wrote of how grateful he and his bride-to-be are, that now they look forward to that happy event with confidence and assurance — and with a complete new understanding of what marriage really means!

   A girl, 21, engaged soon to be married, said frankly that she had been looking forward to the wedding night with dread, fear, and misgivings. The book has answered many questions she would have been too embarrassed to ask about, and now she is looking forward to the marriage with eager anticipation and joy.

   A man in Louisiana writes: "I have just finished reading your new book. I am completely overwhelmed. Do you see what you have written in Chapter 9 of this book? This is the answer to all questions of why, what and who am I. This is the answer to the whole question of what is life. Who would have dared imagine it! Poor little man is to rule the universe! To be one with GOD! I am overcome with emotion. I had to re-read this many times before I could believe that my eyes had not deceived me in what I saw on these pages. I still cannot understand how I and millions of others like me have never seen this (in the Bible) before. It has been there in the Bible all the time! Please enroll me in your Bible Correspondence Course. I must learn more about this wondrous truth."

   A woman in Oregon writes: "I received the book last Tuesday. I finished reading it the first time on Sunday, but hope to go through it again more slowly. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all the time and effort you have put into this book to give us the knowledge we so badly needed, ...that all of us may benefit from it. I am very glad and thankful that our young people getting married can use it, and the older married people, too, can benefit that their lives will be blessed with truer happiness. Yes, Mr Armstrong, it is a book we have all needed. It also gives us the Gospel from an entirely different approach from Genesis to Revelation. I had tears at times during the reading of it."

   A woman in Arizona writes: "First of all, I was very impressed by the attractiveness of the book itself. The contents are absolutely invaluable. I wish I had received this knowledge before I was married. I was plain 'dumb.' Fortunately I was blessed with a very patient, understanding and loving husband. I can truly say our marriage of ten years has been happy, but I am looking forward to even more happiness in the years to come. Proper attitude is so wholly lacking in so many phases of our lives, and this book not only gives right direction of thought and education in the physical aspect, but the relationship of sex with the Gospel. And the history of these satanic attitudes is absolutely amazing! What a revelation!"

   A woman in Texas writes that she has two young daughters, and another child is expected. She had spent many perplexed and worried hours thinking about what was the best and most effective way to teach these girls about sex, about boys, dating, and how to properly handle themselves in any situation. "Now," she writes, "I have the answer, I feel, in this book."

   A Baptist minister writes that another minister shared his book with a group of pastors in a meeting on counselling, and this minister requested a copy for himself.

   Just to know the help this book has given to just these first few to report on having read it has been worth all the time, labor, and cost of producing this vital volume.

   One man came home from his office and found his nine- year-old daughter reading the book. To find whether she was old enough to grasp it, he asked her to continue from where she was, reading aloud to him. He was surprised to find that she was able to read and understand it. He encouraged her to continue reading it.

   At this writing, almost half of all subscribers to The PLAIN TRUTH have returned the card ordering a (FREE) copy of the book. About 200,000 request cards have been received so far — and they are still arriving by the hundreds daily.

   I wrote you, before, that we were printing 200,000 copies. But the orders for the book began flooding in in such volume additional paper stock was ordered immediately, and the first edition increased to 250,000 copies. THAT'S A QUARTER MILLION COPIES OF THIS BOOK! That's enough to completely fill, to the roof, almost FOUR LARGE FREIGHT-CARS just with this printing of the book!

   That will give you some idea of the magnitude of this undertaking. Did you ever hear of anyone GIVING AWAY, without any price, so much of anything so valuable?

   But then, if we were to put one single month's issue of The PLAIN TRUTH in freight cars, it would more than fill TWO WHOLE FREIGHT CARS! And there is no subscription price! And no follow- up requesting money or contributions!

   The only unrequested literature we ever send out — except where one without solicitation voluntarily desires to become a regular Co-Worker in God's Work — is a letter like this, once or twice a year, offering something we feel is both valuable and wanted by you, ABSOLUTELY FREE!

   Maybe you'd like to know just HOW we are able to do this — when no commercial corporation, or business, or interest or church denomination sponsors this Work of God. We have no money of our own. No one subsidizes this Work. I have been offered big financial sponsorship and backing — but I should have been required to COMPROMISE WITH GOD'S WORD AND HIS TRUTH! All such offers have been instantly declined. Never have we compromised with GOD'S WORD!

   But we have been persecuted. We have been falsely accused — called names — slandered, and evil spoken, against — just as Jesus was! But we have never answered back. Jesus didn't. We have always remained FREE and UNMUZZLED — free to thunder to the world GOD'S TRUTH, straight from the shoulder, never pulling our punches!

   I might take space just to tell you this much, in this letter.

   Over 31 years ago, I was employed in the ministry on a very small salary. The men who paid me the little salary demanded, in August 1933, that I preach and act contrary to God's Word. Immediately I rejected the salary. I had learned, then, that he who relies on MEN for salary, or financial backing, must serve those MEN! Whoever pays one money to work for him always demands that he be served AS HE DICTATES!

   If I am to serve God faithfully," I said to my wife, "I shall have to look to GOD, in faith — and not to MAN — to supply every physical need!" I was serving the living God — the God who demands not only obedience, but who DOES THINGS FOR those who serve Him and rely on Him!

   Likewise, I realized, if GOD supplies the material need, then HE will demand that I serve Him faithfully, as HE dictates, or HE will withdraw His support!

   A month or so later, I was walking down a graveled country road west of Eugene, Oregon, to preach in a one-room country school house. I had no automobile. I had to walk. A resident of that neighborhood who had heard me preach stopped me along the roadside, and said, "You'll never get far, Mr. Armstrong."

   "I won't? Why?" I asked.

   "Because you're preaching the straight truth of the Bible — that's why! The Bible's like a sharp two-edged sword — it cuts both ways. Your preaching makes people realize how wrong they are — you show them their sins — and people don't want to be told they're wrong! No Sir-ee! That straight BIBLE preaching makes people uncomfortable. It hurts! No one dares preach the BIBLE, full strength, any more. People won't support it! You can't keep going without support. People won't support you!"

   "I'm not looking to PEOPLE for support," I replied. "I know — and the living GOD knows — that PEOPLE won't pay to be criticized, reproved and rebuked, and shown their sins. Yet God commands me to CRY ALOUD, and show the people their sins! Christ's ministers are commissioned to 'Preach the Word' — the BIBLE — 'keep at it in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all patience and doctrine' (II Timothy 4:2). And this same Word of God PROMISES: 'my God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus' (Phil. 4:19). If I can't believe that and rely on it, I can't believe ANY of the Bible. I'll go just as far as the living JESUS CHRIST wants me to go, for He has called me as His instrument."

   That was over 31 years ago. Yes, God then let me walk because I didn't have a car. But later, when a car became a NEED for His Work, He supplied me with a 5-year-old second-hand car. And when it became a need to drive weekly from Eugene, Oregon, to Seattle to broadcast and to preach, He supplied me with a better car that would get me there.

   Jesus Christ started this great Work of broadcasting and publishing almost immediately after that. It started, like the grain of mustard seed, the smallest possible. An opportunity to speak on the air for the first time in my life came that October. It was only 15 minutes for one week. But it cost me nothing. The mail response caused the radio station owner to suggest I start a half-hour broadcast every Sunday.

   Mr. Frank Hill, owner of the 100-watt KORE, Eugene, knew I didn't have the money — so he fixed the cost for the time at only $2.50 per week. A few personal friends pledged a little over half of that. I took the opportunity ON FAITH, trusting God to supply the other half. God supplied it. He never failed us. A few times we came up to a half-hour before broadcast time without the money, which I was then required to pay in advance each Sunday morning. Once, just as Mrs. Armstrong and I were starting for the radio station (we walked), with no money, a man we scarcely knew stopped on a motorcycle in front of our house, and handed me a ten- dollar bill. God does, of course, work through humans, whose hearts are yielded to Him and His Work.

   In that same manner, on sheer faith relying on the living Jesus Christ, this Work has grown gradually but steadily for 31 years.

   On the very first half-hour broadcast — the first Sunday in 1934 — I announced the publication of a new magazine — The PLAIN TRUTH. The very first issue came out February 1, 1934. Looking back, I think I had a lot of nerve calling it a "magazine." It was mimeographed on a borrowed typewriter, and borrowed mimeograph. But it was read. And its circulation began to GROW. There was NO SUBSCRIPTION PRICE — never has been! Always the living GOD has provided, so that, without compromising with His Word, we could always GIVE His Truth without price.

   Now suppose that, instead of TRUSTING GOD ALONE for support, I had done as so many do — accepted the sponsorship and backing of organized denominations. During that very first year, 1934, a man was sent to our house representing certain local denominations, with a proposition. They wanted me to team up with an evangelist of some little reputation — at least more reputation than I had. He said prominent business men assured adequate financial support. But there were CONDITIONS, of course! I would have to be muzzled. I could preach nothing any one of the endorsing denominations did not accept. I invited the gentleman to leave my house.

   "But, Mr. Armstrong," he protested, "stop and think a moment. Without these people back of you — without financial support — what can you do? NOTHING! Suppose you can't be free to preach everything you feel you should. Isn't lt better to be able to preach what you will be allowed, than NOTHING? No man is free to preach everything he feels he ought, today!"

   That's the way most ministers and evangelists figure, I guess. If I, today, had the backing and endorsement of several of the largest fundamentalist denominations, I would not be allowed to preach anything except that which all of these disagreeing denominations approve!

   I said I would preach what GOD approved, not what I might be told to preach by men. Yes, of course the living God has carried on HIS WORK not only through me alone — but HE has backed and financed it through those whose hearts HE has made willing, and voluntarily on their part. WE NEVER SOLICIT THE PUBLIC FOR FINANCIAL HELP OR SUPPORT. Jesus Christ never did. Neither Peter nor Paul ever did. They did not have the backing or endorsement of the religious denominations of that day. They had their opposition and persecution.

   The power of God is greater than men — or groups or organizations of men. Gradually, steadily, continually, God Almighty prospered His Work. He has made it possible for His servants to GIVE His Gospel and His TRUTH without money and without price. We have always refused to put a PRICE on it — to sell it like merchandise! IT'S TOO PRECIOUS.

   But if you'd like more facts about this Work, just write for our FREE booklet, "The Inside Story of the WORLD TOMORROW Broadcast."

   I sincerely hope YOU have received your free copy of this new book, "GOD SPEAKS OUT on the New Morality." If you care to write me what you think of it, I would be grateful. Perhaps you might suggest questions we didn't think to answer in this first edition, which could be included in a future second edition.

   But if you overlooked, neglected, put off, or for any reason failed to send in the card enclosed in my former letter, ordering your free copy, why not do it RIGHT NOW, while it's on your mind?

   And I should like to offer you, once again, our free booklet on "The Plain Truth About Christmas. If ever there was a surprising, eye-opening booklet, it is this one! If you have not read it, you'll be somewhat shocked to learn what the Bible says about the Christmas tree — to learn the true historic FACTS about where Christmas came from. It is an amazing TRUTH, and it is vital to your own ETERNITY!

   Right now the annual Christmas shopping season is on full blast — greater this year than ever! People suppose they are following the example of the wise men who gave gifts to the Christ child. But did you ever stop to realize that they did not exchange their gifts among themselves — they GAVE THEIR GIFTS TO CHRIST! And it was NOT His birthday, but many days after! Their gifts were not birthday presents — they were following an old eastern custom of presenting a gift to a KING when one visited the king.

   The one season of the year when most people UTTERLY NEGLECT to give gifts to CHRIST for HIS WORK is this very Christmas season, when they trade gifts back and forth, neglecting Christ's Work. If, truly, they really intended to present a gift to CHRIST, it would seem, wouldn't it, that they would give it to HIM? Of course Jesus was not born on December 25th, nor even at this time of the year! It is shocking, I know — but it is merely an old pagan custom, practiced by pagans long before Christianity. And — believe it or not — condemned in the Bible! But why not write in for that free booklet? It's real intriguing — AND IMPORTANT!

   If you neglected to order the new book on sex and marriage, and for any reason have misplaced or lost the order-card we sent you, write in immediately for another. For your convenience in requesting that or the other booklets herein mentioned, or your comments on the book, we enclose a self- addressed reply envelope.

   THANK YOU, from the heart, for your interest in God's TRUTH, and the real, original, and only true Gospel of Jesus Christ.

With love, in His name,
Herbert W. Armstrong

Publication Date: December 02, 1964
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