Herbert W Armstrong

VOL. V.  Number 5.                         October 27, 1944

   THINK of it! The largest super-power radio stations in the United States are 50,000 watts. Most United States stations are licensed to use 250 up to 5,000 watts. But on the Mexican border, in Juarez, Mexico, just across from El Paso Texas, is a super-power station of 100,000 watts of power — double the power of America's strongest stations.

   Beginning last Sunday night, "The WORLD TOMORROW" program is being sent out over the North American continent by the tremendous power of station "XELO" 800 on your dial.

   Not only that! Almighty God miraculously opened up to us on that station of tremendous power the very best TIME of the whole week — the time when more people are listening than any other — 8 o'clock Sunday night! Never before have we been able to secure such a favorable and valuable time on any station. This is known in radio circles as the very BEST of the "A" time. For instance, the highest-priced radio time in America is station WABC, New York. Since few of our Co-Workers have any conception of the cost of radio time on these super-power stations, it will be interesting to read their rates, as published in "Radio Advertising Rates & Data Book" by Standard Rate & Data Service, used by all advertising agencies and large purchasers of radio time. "A" time is 6:30 to 10:30 PM on station WABC, Columbia's great key station in New York where so many CBS programs originate. A half hour on this station between these hours costs $810. Class "B" time, when check-ups prove fewer people are listening — 6 to 6:30 PM week-days and 12 noon to 6:30 PM Sundays, costs $600 for a half hour program.

   Still fewer people would be tuned in during Class "C" time, 9 AM to 6PM week-days, and 9AM to noon Sundays, and 10:30 to midnight daily, when the rate for 30 minutes is $405. Class "D" time, midnight to 1AM, and 6 to 9AM, costs $300 for 30 minutes, and Class "E" time, 1AM to 6AM, when most people are sleeping, costs $90.

   Of course a station like WOAI, San Antonio, which carries our program at 11:PM Sunday nights, altho it has the same power — 50,000 watts — charges much less because it is a smaller city and far less populated territory, altho at that hour of night because of its location near the center of the United States, it is heard over MORE TERRITORY than any New York station. But even there we could not afford the high-priced "A" or "B" time. The rate at 11:PM is only one-fourth as much as during the "A" time.

   But 8:PM is considered the very BEST of the most expensive "A" time, when the largest possible audience is listening. It seems it is just a MIRACLE that God has opened to us that best time — when probable ten times as many people will hear the Message as would hear it at 11:PM — on the most powerful station in, or on the border of the United States! Naturally this is costing us considerably more than we have ever paid before for time on any station — and yet the rate is exceedingly low for that time on a station of that tremendous power.

   Another wonderful thing about this time, it makes it SO EASY to remember both the TIME and the location of XELO on the dial. This station has an internationally-clear channel. By treaty between the U.S. and the Government of Mexico, no station in the United States can use that frequency — 800. This permits the super-power of XELO to send our Message all over the United States. And the TIME, and the number on the dial, are BOTH THE SAME NUMBER — 8:00 o'clock, at 800 on the radio dial!

   Frankly, when God opened this great opportunity, I could not see how we could accept it. Comparatively low as the rate offered us was, yet it is considerably more than we pay on any other station, and it seems that hardly enough money comes in now even to pay the stations we have been on. At just this time station KMA changed our time to an undesirable time, and had notified us of a substantial increase in rates to take effect very soon. So we dropped KMA in order to go on this great 100,000-watt station. However, we were only paying there about one-fourth as much as XELO is costing. SO IT ALL DEPENDS UPON A SUBSTANTIAL INCREASE IN TITHES AND OFFERINGS FROM OUR CO-WORKERS, WHETHER WE ARE ABLE TO HOLD THIS WEEK'S BEST TIME ON THE MOST POWERFUL STATION COVERING THE UNITED STATES. Write your friends and relatives everywhere to tune in — 800 on he dial, 8 o'clock Sunday nights (mountain time) — which is 7:PM on the Coast, and 9:PM in the middle-west. And please pray earnestly with us, that God will supply the need, that we may continue to follow where He has opened the way and led.

   Two other opportunities have recently come which I wish to mention to our Co-Workers. One is this: There has opened to me an opportunity to buy a certain station on the border, almost in the very MIDDLE of the North American continent near San Antonio, which could be increased to 200,000 watts of power, making it the most powerful station in the Western Hemisphere. A station with this vast power would come in just like a local station in almost every part of the United States. If God opened the way for us to OWN such a station I could use a half-hour or a full hour EVERY NIGHT, in a continuous nightly evangelistic campaign, where people in millions of homes in all 48 states could sit and hear the unfolding of the Great Story, in logical sequence, night after night. Think what Bible studies we could carry right into millions of homes! Think of the great harvest of souls that would result — NATION-WIDE! It would also cover all Canada, Alaska, and down into Central America and even South America! Now while it would take an amount running into six figures to buy it, this station can be bought, for cash, for a fraction of the amount it would take to buy any 50,000-watt station in the United States. And, aside from the time we would use daily with the GOSPEL program, time could be sold to reputable and clean commercial sponsors netting enough, above all expenses, to retire the entire capital invested inside of three years. After three years it would have cost us nothing. It would enable us to send out over America the MOST POWERFUL EVANGELISTIC CAMPAIGN IN THE HISTORY OF THE NATION! There never has been any- thing like this. The facilities for 200,000 watts power are already in this particular station, or available. With United States stations rapidly following the movement to throw religious broadcasts off the air in this country — well, perhaps this is God's way of opening to us the most powerful avenue of all, unaffected by what U.S. stations do! When Jesus said, "This Gospel of the KINGDOM shall be preached into all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come." He meant "SHALL" and all the powers of Satan cannot prevent! Now of course I do not have a cent with which to buy this station. But, since God has caused this offer to come to me, and since, in the near future, this might be the ONLY means of carrying out Christ's commission, He is able to have, among our Co-Workers, some one, or some two or more who could join together to make it possible for us to purchase this station. If so, God will impress the proper one, or ones, to get in touch with me about it immediately, when I can give further details which must for the present be kept in confidence. *** The other was an offer from a large advertising agency to conduct a daily 15-minute news-analysis over one of the large net-works Coast-to-Coast, for a nationally-known sponsor, at a salary of $1,500 to $2,000 per week. To accept this I would have to drop my radio ministry to which God has called me. All the material-reward in this world could not tempt me to do that. One soul converted is worth more than a year's salary at that figure. Mrs. Armstrong and I have dedicated our lives to Christ's service — our labor and services belong to HIM, and are not for sale to the world. Satan offered Christ the whole world. He refused the offer.

   Is it not possible that the Church — and those true Christians who compose the true Church — sometimes loses vision of what its work really is? Jesus, the Head of the Church, gave us our Commission — set us our example. Here is His first and great commission! "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every Creature." (Mark 16:15). When He was 12 years old, Jesus said "I must be about my Father's business." We, too, must be about our Father's business.

   What is God's business? It is the business Jesus started. He was sent from God bearing a MESSAGE (Acts 10:36). And so "after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD." Later He called His 12 disciples together, "And He sent them to preach THE KINGDOM OF GOD and to heal the sick." (Luke 9:1-2). Yes, the "law and the prophets" — the Old Testament ministry — was UNTIL JOHN, but since that time the GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD is preached (Luke 16:16). Another time, Jesus "appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before His face into every city and place whither He himself would come. Therefore He said unto them, ... heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, 'The KINGDOM OF GOD is come nigh unto you.'" (Luke 10:1-9). Then His final parting commission, as He was ascending into heaven after His resurrection, was "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel." That is GOD'S BUSINESS. Now Philip went out "preaching the things concerning the KINGDOM OF GOD" (Acts 8:12), Paul "went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading concerning the KINGDOM OF GOD" (Acts 19:8) and to Gentiles only Paul "dwelt two whole years in his own hired house (hall), ..preaching the KINGDOM OF GOD" (Acts 28:30-31). And Jesus said, of OUR day and generation, in this 20th century, "This GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end (of the age) come." (Mat. 24:14).

   BUT....Jesus gave another parting command: "Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry (remain) ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with POWER FROM ON HIGH." (Luke 24:49). And, "Ye shall receive POWER,..after that the Holy spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, ... and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." (Acts 1:8). Henry Ford could not carry on his business of building automobiles and tanks without men equipped with tools and with power. The early Church was a Spirit-filled Church — empowered with God's Spirit, which is His POWER for His business. Then came the lapse into the middle ages — BABYLON — carnality — darkness and error. Under Satan's sway, even the Protestant reformation is scattered into a babylon of hundreds of differing, disagreeing denominations, none of whom seems to have the full, pure, complete GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM — the pure original Faith once delivered! And NONE of whom seems to move with the POWER of the Almighty GOD! Now God's business can't be that of a single man. It takes the combined team-work of ALL — and all empowered by GOD'S SPIRIT! We may be few in numbers, but we can be MIGHTY in the POWER OF GOD! We must have a REAL BURDEN FOR THE JOB TO BE DONE — tremendously in earnest — this business must become the CONSUMING PASSION of our lives! We must then FAST and PRAY, long and earnestly and continuously, for wisdom, for guidance, for GOD'S POWER. The RECEIVING and continual inflowing and filling of God's Spirit is the POWER we need for His business. The GIFTS of the Spirit (I Cor. 12) are the TOOLS for accomplishing God's work. Study them. I am fasting and praying today. I do it often.