February 25, 1955  
February 25, 1955 - Brethren & Co-Workers Letter
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Herbert W Armstrong 

The WORLD TOMORROW
A WORLDWIDE BROADCAST

HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG

Proclaim to the World the GOOD NEWS OF THE WORLD TOMORROW

BOX 111, Pasadena, California

Publishing: The PLAIN TRUTH a Magazine of UNDERSTANDING

February 25, 1955

GREETINGS! Dear Co-Workers:

   A most critical situation has overtaken us! Right now we are in the CLIMAX of our second "tight squeeze." It's the turning point of the whole great work,

   LISTEN! I wonder if you really understand WHY the very work of GOD should be in such a life-and-death struggle, financially — WHY we seem to come to crisis after crisis — WHY it's still a struggle of desperation? Once again the situation is ALARMING but WHY?

   Let me tell you why. Let me tell you something you may not quite understand about God, and the way God works in, and thru and with us. Of course God could just rain down money from heaven for us. WHY DOESN'T HE? God could give us easy going financially. Some who do not understand God's PURPOSE, or His ways, may suppose that the true work of GOD should never meet a crisis — that His true called Minister should never have to send out letters reminding God's people and Christ's Co-Workers of their responsibility, and the work's need. Some not understanding, may think that a work of FAITH ought never to have to ASK God's people for money — but that it would somehow just come — abundantly and easily — that our FAITH should never be tried or tested.

   GOD DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY! God is working out a purpose here below. You Co-Workers and I have been specially called by the very GOD OF HEAVEN, for a most important part in that purpose. God is working out a very special purpose in you and in me — as CO-WORKERS — as HIS INSTRUMENTS thru whom HE, the very ETERNAL, carries out HIS work.

   But LISTEN! God has never intended our lives, yielded to Him for His service, to be a proverbial soft "bed of roses." God has not intended our Christian lives in His service to run smooth and easy, with no problems, no concerns. God intended — ORDAINED — that we should be confronted with continual problems, difficulties, troubles — that we should have to make constant SACRIFICES, learning to give up our own ways and wants — even some of our money, and the things we WANT to buy with it!

   You know that Jesus said that it is the road that leads to DESTRUCTION that is the EASY road, entered thru the WIDE gate. But narrow is the gate, and hard, rutty, full of pit-falls, trials, troubles, is the road that leads to LIFE, and FEW, said Jesus, are able to find it and continue thereon. It is only those that ENDURE unto the END, said Jesus, who shall be saved. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous," says God, "but the Eternal delivers him out of them all." (Psalm 34:19). Yes, God's work has encountered many desperate situations — but repeatedly God has delivered us out of them all!

   WHY does God set before us a constant struggle? Because it is for OUR GOOD! Because this is the very training ground of FAITH, and of PATIENCE, and of ENDURANCE, and of strength of character! WHY do I have to continually write you Co-Workers, and literally PREACH to you about your duty to God's work in these letters? Because so many of our Co-Workers forget, put off, or let down in their part in God's work. Because of this negligence by so many, (maybe not you) God's minister has to remind God's people. That is GOD'S WAY. Always God's ministers have been charged with the duty of continually preaching God's WAY to His people — of reproving, rebuking, admonishing, instructing the people in their duty. (See II Tim. 4:1-2, and many other Scriptures.) Moses had to ask God's people of that day for their liberal contributions. The Apostle Paul had to ask God's people of his day, and instruct them in tithing and in GIVING. I can assure you, dear brethren and Co-Workers, it is not a pleasant duty for ME — but I have to do it. Would you like to be in my place?

   By its very nature, God's work must keep on growing! Like the grain of mustard seed it started as perhaps the smallest religious work on earth today. All works of religion are not GOD'S work. But this work has proved, by its fruits, to be the very work of GOD! It's the most important activity on earth today.

   Jesus said this Gospel of GOD'S KINGDOM shall be preached unto the world as a witness to ALL NATIONS before the END OF THIS WORLD. Already it reaches around the world — but we are still FAR from reaching every nation.

   Now let me explain our present TURNING POINT!

   No other nation on earth today could finance such a huge undertaking, except the United States. I want you to understand this. WHY do you suppose God raised up His work here in America? The ancient BIRTHRIGHT went to Ephraim and Manasseh jointly at first, but primarily to Ephraim. We are actually Manasseh today — the British are the BIRTHRIGHT nation, Ephraim. (If you don't understand this, by all means write in immediately for our free booklet, "United States in Prophecy.")

   Now WHY didn't God raise up His great work for these last days over in England? There is one very practical REASON. God KEPT His great unconditional Birthright promise — He MADE Britain and America the wealthiest, richest nations of all earth's history. But today we are very near the END of this age. Already the British — who came up to world dominance and economic prosperity first, — have reached and passed their zenith of national prosperity. Now the British are on the decline, both in world power and in economic dominance. Today the British are in such financial difficulties that their government does not allow their people to send money outside their nation!

   Today the British are not prosperous enough so that their people could, by God's system of tithes and voluntary free-will offerings, finance such a powerful world-wide campaign as God's Work must become today. And even those people in Britain who are able to make modest contributions ARE FORBIDDEN to let their money leave their own nation! BRITISH MONEY CANNOT CARRY THE GOSPEL TO OTHER NATIONS AROUND THE WORLD — it would be illegal!

   But today America has just reached the very PINNACLE of its tremendous world power, and is soaring at the very height of economic prosperity — the greatest height ever enjoyed by ANY nation of ANY time or generation! Co-Workers, do you suppose this is all just circumstance? OF COURSE NOT! This is no accident! It's by GOD'S DESIGN!

   YOU are far more prosperous today than you would be, if this great nation of ours were not in such a wave of prosperity. You Co-Workers are not the rich or the wealthy, I know. God's people seldom are. Usually they are among the more poor. But LISTEN! God has made this nation SO PROSPEROUS that even WE PEOPLE, whom God has called as Co-Workers together in his work, have far more money than we could have except for this NATIONAL prosperity which no other nation enjoys now, or ever did possess in all history!

   DO YOU GRASP WHAT THIS MEANS? God has worked things out so that YOU CO-WORKERS do have enough money to PREACH AND PUBLISH JESUS' GOSPEL IN EVERY NATION! This EXTRA money you have, because of our national prosperity, was put in your hands FOR THIS PURPOSE — and not just to enjoy temporary luxuries or things you would like to buy with that money, now. Of course it means SACRIFICE! God's PURPOSE is not to give us soft and easy going — but to toughen us for the terrible ordeals prophesied soon to come on the whole world — to DEVELOP GODLY CHARACTER in us.

   Today WE are the richest, most prosperous nation on earth, or in all world history. Today OUR government allows us to send as much money to any part of the world as we are able, for spreading Christ's Gospel. TODAY WE ARE THE ONLY NATION on earth whose God- fearing people could be able to finance this work of God INTO ALL NATIONS. God has seen to it that we are both ABLE, and FREE to do it!

   But there still ARE NOT ENOUGH OF US! And so, just as the Apostle Paul, after God had opened the DOOR for him to carry the Gospel to EUROPE, found he had to go back where he had started and build up the work there further, before he could finish the work in Europe, — so WE, after God opened the door two years ago to carry the Gospel to Europe, have had to come back and INTENSIFY the work right here in America, BEFORE we can have the necessary funds to carry the Gospel into EVERY NATION.

   Until we did this, we were reaching only those areas where about HALF the people of the U.S. live — tho it was MOST of the geographical area. A year ago October God opened another "door" — the ABC Network. This opened up many radio stations in the densely-populated EAST — the middle and north Atlantic states, and the eastern part of the middle-west.

   However, it takes a LONG TIME, when people hear the program once a week only, before we have enough Co-Workers even to pay for the broadcast time. IT IS THE EVERY-NIGHT BROADCASTS that get the TRUE Message over to people so forcibly, and SO OFTEN, that new Co-WorKers are brought in faster. So, this past December, God opened still another mighty "door," — EVERY-night broadcasts on the super-power northern and eastern stations WLS, and WWVA.

   THIS MEANS that the hundreds of thousands of NEW listeners attracted by the Sunday program on the Network NOW can hear the EVERY-DAY program as well. Those in the east, and the north and middle-Atlantic states can hear it on WWVA. They CANNOT hear XEG or XELO in that most populous territory. Those in the middle-west, and all over the country, can hear WLS.

   BUT, — and LISTEN! — these two stations EVERY NIGHT (except Saturday) cost two thirds as much as the entire network. Actually, in terms of money to be RECEIVED from NEW CO-WORKERS, to help us finance this great work, they will produce a great deal more — and do it in one-fourth the time! THE ONE THING THAT WILL BUILD THIS WORK QUICKEST AND BIGGEST IN AMERICA IS EVERY-NIGHT BROADCASTING!

   Now, temporarily, THAT means ANOTHER TIGHT SQUEEZE for the present. But, my dear fellow-workers for Christ, it is the only way that we can build up our family of Co-Workers large enough to carry out Jesus' divine Commission — to take His Message to ALL NATIONS.

   Once again the receipt of tithes and offerings is dropping off ALARMINGLY! Once again I have to tell you the situation is serious — yes, DESPERATE! Once again I have to ask you to dig down deeper — to sacrifice further — to rally to the cause — to send the very LARGEST sum you can in the very first possible mail!

   REMEMBER! — if you are one of the many who do not have large sums to send, even the widows' mites are of tremendous help. Don't ever get to thinking that if a dollar or two is all you have to send, it is too small.

   UNDERSTAND THIS: Without these "widows' mites" there would not be enough of the larger amounts to carry on this great work! Many, I know, even in prosperous America, are unable to send more, because you don't have more. Don't ever think it is too small! Without these amounts of $20, $50, or $75 coming in regularly from those in fairly moderate circumstances, THIS WORK WOULD SOON STOP. And, without those much fewer amounts of $100 to $500, we could not carry on. And, last but far from least, without the occasional sums of $1,000, $3,000 or more from those few who are able, there never seem to be enough of the smaller amounts to carry on God's great work.

   You see, IT TAKES ALL Of US! Whatever our circumstances, God expects us to tithe, and to GIVE, as HE has prospered and made possible. A person, living perhaps on a small pension with no other income (there are MANY such Co-Workers), who makes real sacrifice to put a dollar, two dollars, or five dollars into God's work, is doing just as much, proportionately, as the person of larger means and income who lays up treasure in heaven by putting a $5,000 sum into the work. Yes, it TAKES US ALL — of whatever financial means. THIS IS AMERICA — God's own people — and that's the way it is in America! We need, now, another heavy SHOWER of widows' mites from those unable to send more. We need, now, DESPERATELY, some offerings of $1,000 or more — and the work cannot survive unless there is also a deluge of amounts in between — whatever God has made possible for YOU!

   ABOVE ALL — I need PRAYER CO-WORKERS, most desperately right now. Especially you who are able to send only small sums of money — YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE GREAT AMOUNTS OF PRAYER, that God will move on the hearts of others of greater means to do THEIR part! It's a day-to-day struggle to keep this work alive and growing. TIME IS GROWING SHORTER! The work again is in DANGER! RALLY TO THE GREAT CAUSE! PRAY!! GIVE!!! HURRY! and KEEP IT UP!

   THANK YOU, dear Co-Workers, sincerely, from the bottom of my heart!

In Jesus' name,
Herbert W. Armstrong

P.S. — Again, we've had to combine February and March issues of The PLAIN TRUTH as one issue — again skipping an issue — because of lack of funds! Please PRAY, and HELP ME, that this need not happen again.

Publication Date: February 25, 1955
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