Published every little while by your radio-pastor editor, Herbert W. Armstrong, Box 111, Eugene, Ore., to bring spiritual edification and encouragement to our little family of Co-workers who make possible the RADIO CHURCH OF GOD and The PLAIN TRUTH.
M O R E S T A T I O N S A D D E D !
POWERFUL STATIONS AND NETWORKS NOW OPEN TO US
GREETINGS, Co-Workers:
Again I am writing to you on the train, enroute from Des Moines and San Antonio to Los Angeles. My heart is full. I have learned things on this trip which surely would OPEN YOUR EYES if you could see and fully realize what I have seen! I simply must write and tell all our Co-workers the situation at once.
First, however, on this trip two new stations were added, starting a new and very important network.
Sunday night, August 22nd, I conducted the first "WORLD TOMORROW" broadcast over the Iowa broadcasting Company from the studios of KRNT, Des Moines. We have started off with only two stations, KRNT, and KMA, Shenandoah, Iowa. Both are 3,000 watts, very strong and popular stations.
I was fortunate in getting a splendid time — late enough to come under the low rate (half the cost of earlier evening time) yet nearly an hour earlier than our time has been in the middle west over WHO and WOAI, which in this farm-belt, should give us nearly double the audience within the territory covered. The new time is 10:15 PM Central War Time.
At that hour KRNT covers central Iowa like a local station, and can be heard over the entire state; while KMA reaches out even farther, and gives us the strongest and most effective listening audience of any station in the western half of Iowa and Missouri, the eastern populous half of Nebraska, and north-eastern Kansas. It gets into Omaha, Des Moines, and St. Joseph like a local station, and has a large farmer audience in this section. It is the station I had planned to use over a year ago, before going with WHO. There are other stations on this network, all strong 5,000 watt stations, covering South Dakota, North-eastern Nebraska, South-western Minnesota, North-western and Eastern Iowa, and portions of Wisconsin and Illinois. They may be added later.
I have made a thorough survey of the situation all over the country on this trip, and I want to tell you frankly just what it is.
A number of super-power stations, and strong sectional networks are open to us. However, most of the super-power stations with nationally-clear channels (stations which can be heard over North America) are now closed to religious broadcasts. On this trip I contacted personally the sales managers of nearly all these stations, except a few I had contacted before. Of these great stations, only five are open for religious programs, and possibly sixth, WHAS, Louisville, Kentucky, may be opened to us because of the different type of program. All the others now are definitely CLOSED to the broadcasting of the true Gospel.
A station I am very anxious to use as soon as possible, because of its low cost at late night-time, is WRVA, Richmond Va. It is 50,000 watts, national-cleared channel after sunset. Philadelphia's great super-power exclusive-channel station WCAU, is open to us for late night-time, at a very reasonable cost. In New York City 50,000-watt clear-channel station WHN will give us a Sunday morning time, but when we are ready for a New York station we probably shall use a smaller station, WOV, which offered me a desirable night-time, at one-fourth the cost.
We are fortunate, indeed, that even that number of the nation's most powerful exclusive-channel stations are still open to us. In addition, there are a number of other 50,000-watt stations (not on exclusive channels), open to us which will give us large regional audiences. Among these are KWKH, Shreveport, La., WCKY, Cincinnati, and WLAC, Nashville, Tennessee.
Avenues are open to us, still, by which we may send God's last vital Message out over this country with great power and intensity into every PART of the country. WE MUST TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS OPPORTUNITY BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE! Because, on the other hand, the TREND with radio Stations, especially the larger ones, is to shut all Gospel preaching OFF THE AIR! On this trip I visited many, many radio stations — I went personally to MOST of this station's super-power 50,000-watt EXCLUSIVE-channel stations. And in station after station the door was unalterably CLOSED! The fact I preached the Gospel — preach out of the BIBLE — in "The WORLD TOMORROW" program is an absolute BAR on most of the nation's great super-power stations.
I spent two days in New York City, thoroughly taking up the matter of this policy with the executives there at Radio City, Rockefeller Center, who CONTROL the policies in this regard for these super-power stations owned and managed by NBC. These men were courteous, willing to talk with me and to hear my side of the story, and my arguments as to why they should NOT throw God's Truth off the air "IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST," as they claim to be doing — but it made no difference. I could see their hands were tied from somewhere higher up — where, I could not learn. I have my ideas, and it points to one of the world's vast financial interests.
There are powerful interests at work to put all true gospel preaching OFF THE AIR — that much I know. Our great opportunity lies in the fact it will take them yet some little time before they can eliminate Gospel broadcasts that tell the TRUTH from the independent stations, and all the smaller stations, which can be used by many sectional networks all over the country. We STILL CAN GET THE TRUTH TO THE PEOPLE — but we must HURRY — there's NO TIME TO LOSE — and OUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED!
OUR NEW POLICY
In view of what I have learned on this trip, I have decided upon a radical change of policy. Incidentally, I heard in New York, though I have not yet had opportunity to verify it from Hollywood, that the local network is now closed to any more religious programs, and even that network, heretofore open to religious programs, is now falling in line with the policy of the other networks and larger stations. Too bad, isn't it, that these stations will consider half-crazy slap-stick, wise-cracking, slang programs designed to induce more millions of our young boys and GIRLS to smoke cigarettes as "IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST," while they claim that is "IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST" they are eliminating Gospel programs! Can God Almighty bless such a nation?
The new policy is this: FIRST, above all, heretofore I have been stressing the broadcasts and adding of more stations at the expense of The PLAIN TRUTH, and consequently have had to some what neglect The PLAIN TRUTH. We have been unable to get it out often as I wish. It has never been a monthly magazine, but I do feel that it should come out at least bi-monthly now, and, as soon as possible, EVERY MONTH.
I want our co-workers to understand it is utterly IMPOSSIBLE to get out the PLAIN TRUTH every month at present. We have never yet had the funds for this. It is now costing over $1,000 per issue. The present number is consuming A TON AND A HALF of paper! The postage alone, on our special permit rate, will cost $330.00. It is a huge task.
I'm sure not one in a hundred of our co-workers even DREAMS how MUCH we have been accomplishing with HOW LITTLE. We have had to make a little money go a long ways — reach a lot of people — do a great amount of good. Mrs. Armstrong and I have had to work almost day and night without let-up for ten years. I'm sure we'd have much more money with which to conduct this work if I would only consent to COMMERCIALIZE this work by ASKING FOR MONEY over the air — and ASKING for it in The PLAIN TRUTH. I never do either and I never shall, because it is not God's way. When I make the needs of God's work known to you in the BULLETIN, and impress upon you your solemn DUTY before God to sacrifice to the utmost for His work, I am addressing that appeal ONLY to those who have voluntarily of their own accord and free will, started having a part in this work by sending voluntary offerings, or tithes. You are among the limited and precious number, or you would not be receiving and now reading this BULLETIN.
No one can know how disappointed I have been not to have been able to get out The PLAIN TRUTH more often. I have just done the best I could. I have done my utmost. I have tried to do a LOT with a LITTLE.
God has now provided for this work two men, specially trained, fully prepared in ability, in experience, and in under- standing of the TRUTH and in true Spirit-led Christian experience. I need these two men badly, to devote full time in the office in this work. The work MUST have them if The PLAIN TRUTH is to come out monthly, as it should. But we simply do not as yet have sufficient income to add these valuable men to the staff.
Point number 1 in our new policy is that regardless of all handicaps, The PLAIN TRUTH must, from now on, come out oftener — at least every 60 days. I intend with God's help to see that the material is prepared, the articles written — that all my part of it is done. It's going to take the greatest, most determined effort of my life, because it will be a TASK. I am trying to carry a far heavier load than our Co-workers have realized. But with God all things are possible, and I shall look to Him for added strength and He will not fail me — He never has!
The rest of it depends upon YOU — our co-workers. It means The PLAIN TRUTH expense, alone, will now run about $600 a month — and it is rapidly GROWING all the time — in addition to the very heavy cost of broadcasting over nine powerful stations, and the necessary office expense (which, as I mentioned, is about a third of what any commercial business magazine would spend for publishing the magazine alone). I intend to devote myself more than ever before to The PLAIN TRUTH.
Point number 2 in our new policy: Since the trend seems to be to discontinue broadcasting religious programs on the larger stations and networks, it follows that even if we were able to put the program on more super-power stations now, it is only a matter of time until they would cancel or refuse to renew a contract. I shall now work toward adding a larger number of medium-powered stations — stations of from 1,000 to 5,000 watts of power, in the proper population centers — and to do this through a system of sectional networks, as described above. There is one exception to this policy. In developing the work to greater national power, I feel we should add, just as quickly as possible, more of the 50,000 watt clear-channel stations now open to us, and then from there to fill in with the more intense local coverage of a larger number of regional network stations.
Point number 3 in our policy will be to issue, just as soon as I can find time to write the material, seven series of special Bible-study articles, consisting of seven lessons, or articles, to each series. These will carry those interested through a complete course of Bible study and understanding. They will bring you the TRUTH on most of the important subjects of the Bible. Rather than prepare these lessons in the usual dry STUDY- form, I wish to write them in an interesting, plain and simple article form, like articles in The PLAIN TRUTH. These will not be announced over the air, but only in The PLAIN TRUTH.
Now may I have your fullest co-operation in this great new program? The Devil is working feverishly to close the doors to God's Truth, and is succeeding in some directions. But God is still keeping OTHER doors open. His work must go marching ON! We cannot lay down and quit — the work must grow and multiply by leaps and bounds from here on! Our time is SHORT!
I am telling you — and I have reason to KNOW, both by conditions I have SEEN are shaping and partly already exist, and prophecy — that in a short time any MONEY you may have will be utterly WORTHLESS to you. In the terrible times that lie ahead of us now, MONEY will be no security. Your only security will be the protection of GOD. That can't be bought with money, but certainly God will reward the FAITHFUL STEWARD, and the unfaithful surely will be CUT OFF from God! This is not my work — it isn't even OUR work — it is GOD'S precious work. It must not fail! It's in DIRE NEED — and it is YOUR responsibility, before God, to SUPPLY THAT NEED, by ANY SACRIFICE POSSIBLE! Please PRAY over it! I'm doing my very utmost. Are you doing YOURS?
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES ON THE TRIP
May I now tell you of just a few personal experiences of this trip.
When I arrived in Minneapolis, on the way East among the letters forwarded from our office in Eugene was one from a young man in a city I was scheduled to pass through. He wants above all else to be a real Spirit-led Christian. He was so determined to have my help he had planned to come clear to the Coast, to Eugene if necessary, to see me. I believe we found the source of his trouble, and the cure. What a privilege and blessing to be of any service.
In Providence, Rhode Island, is a little group of God's sincere people with whom we have had contact for several years. Learning I would be in the East, they invited me by mail to stop and have a service with them, saying they longed to see and have fellowship with one for whom they have prayed daily for so long. We had a wonderful meeting and fellowship together, starting at lunch and lasting through the afternoon. It was a very great privilege, and proved inspiration to me. God bless the "little flock" scattered abroad!
Among the many letters received recently from listeners asking help in finding the way to Christ and becoming Christians, was one from a man near Hutchinson, Kansas. His letter showed he had given his heart not only, but his life, over to God — that he was one of the truly CALLED, and wanted to be baptized. I only wish it were possible to visit personally EVERYONE who writes such a letter. Ordinarily it is simply impossible, but in this case I happened to be passing very close to Hutchinson, at a time when I could spare a half-day on my schedule. So I wrote that I would come and when. I was met at the train late in the afternoon, and driven out to the farm home of this brother. We opened our Bibles, and I answered his and his wife's questions, and explained many subjects until near midnight. Next morning early we found a spot in the rather shallow Arkansas river deep enough for baptism, and both of them were baptized, after which they drove me to Wichita in time to catch the streamliner for San Antonio and Los Angeles.
These experiences have enriched this trip. I wish I could meet, and see, and visit, and study the Bible with ALL of our co-workers and interested listeners. Most of us, perhaps, can never meet in this world and this life. But we can have fellowship together through Christ, just the same as we can WORK TOGETHER, and PRAY FOR ONE ANOTHER.
*****
The PLAIN TRUTH UNAVOIDABLY DELAYED
The PLAIN TRUTH was almost ready for the press when I had to leave on this trip. Before leaving I made arrangements for having this number and all others from now on, mailed by professional mailers from Portland — so the entire edition can be mailed within three or four days after delivery IF we have the $330.00 on hand to pay Uncle Sam for postage.
I'll simply have to ask all our Co-workers to UNDERSTAND and to bear with me, and uphold my hands, and to respond IMMEDIATELY again, and GENEROUSLY, with the largest offerings you can possibly sacrifice to send, to keep this great and growing work GOING, and insure this PLAIN TRUTH being mailed promptly as soon as the printer can deliver the finished copies. With God's blessing, and your help you ought to receive your copy within about two weeks from the time you receive this BULLETIN.
The big order of paper is all paid for, and delivered, a full ton and a half of paper. We saved $85.00 by using a slightly thinner paper this time, and by paying spot cash in advance for a special deal offered us. BUT THERE WILL BE TWO PAGES MORE in this issue than the last.
HEART TO HEART TALK
Never before did I realize so fully how the prophesied general conditions of the end-time, just prior to Christ's return, are being fulfilled. More than ever I have been impressed that whatever work we are to do for Christ and the Kingdom of God must be done quickly — which means WE MUST TAKE GOD'S WORK SERIOUSLY — must make greater sacrifices for it — must redouble our efforts. This whole world — including our country, and the very community in which YOU, and each of us lives, is in far more grave and serious condition than we have had any conception.
If you could just see the trend, as I've come to see it over the entire country, Coast to Coast, and could thus, with the certain knowledge of prophecy applied to this present trend look from two to five or ten years into the future, I'm quite sure you'd be FRIGHTENED! Few realize where we are headed! We are putting everything else FIRST in our lives, most of us — people are making more money then ever before, and trying to enjoy the spending of it, and seeking pleasure and luxury in this time of war and world chaos. But if you could really SEE what is going on — where we are headed — what will happen to us these next two to five years — you'd certainly put THE KINGDOM OF GOD, and His Righteousness, FIRST above all else in your life from this minute on. If only ALL our co-workers could realize this serious solemn truth, God's work surely would not have to struggle along, crippled by insufficient funds to carry it forth in great power. Instead, it would LEAP ahead, with ample of everything it might need!
Dear Co-workers, have we been asleep? Have we been thinking of OURSELVES too much? Have we been begrudging God what little has been trickling into His work — feeling that God's work ought not to need our "charity" all the time? God doesn't need your money, but you certainly NEED HIM, and we can't have His blessings and His protection in the hard and perilous days just ahead if we are unfaithful toward Him in the stewardship of material things He has placed in our hands! It's certainly time we took this very seriously.
I have found that powerful forces are at work, far more than I realized before, bent on destroying God's TRUTH so far as facilities for proclaiming it by radio and in print are concerned. They are engineered, without realizing it, by Satan the Devil. He is not asleep! HE is not indifferent! HE knows full well that he has but a SHORT TIME — and he is multiplying HIS efforts furiously to STOP the preaching of TRUTH which God says shall be preached, NOW!
Yet, we shall not be shut off until we have had full opportunity to accomplish God's mission and purpose commissioned to us to perform! Satan is ruler of his world — he directs powerful forces. BUT, God still reigns in high Heaven, and rules the universe and what God wants done Satan shall be restrained from preventing! He cannot stop us until God's mission through us is completed! But there is no time to lose! The time has come for us to WAKE UP, fully. To take this more seriously than we ever took anything in our lives. It's more important than our very lives.
U R G E N T
Again, I find that money is slacking off, and far less coming in daily again now, than our daily expense for this work. And while we already have advanced a few hundred dollars toward the printing bill, the printing and mailing will take nearly another thousand.
Radio station bills must be paid every week. The members of our staff in the office work hard, and must be paid their salary every week. The servant is worthy of his hire. It costs money to conduct so large a work, carrying the Gospel to nearly a million people every week! This has become a GREAT work — a work of national and international influence and power.
WE DARE NO LET DOWN — even for one week. The situation is again critically SERIOUS. Let us not become weary with well-doing.
If we stop the work stops. WE CANNOT STOP!
I feel sure that many of our co-workers can sacrifice a great deal more than has been done — if only we realize how SERIOUS is this time and this situation — how URGENT is the need — how VITAL that we do not fail God in this most critical hour of all earth's history.
Think of the thousands and millions who sacrifice their LIVES, their HOMES, their ALL — for their government in this world and its greatest war. HOW MUCH MORE ought WE, who knows God's precious TRUTH, who are privileged to carry on HIS WORK, to sacrifice generously and without stint, for HIS GREAT CAUSE, and for the COMING KINGDOM OF GOD — for the salvation of PRECIOUS SOULS for the COMING KINGDOM OF GOD — for the salvation of PRECIOUS SOULS for ALL ETERNITY?
Let us not grumble about it. Let us not criticize and complain. Let us just DO OUR UTMOST! Some of you have money or property you do not really need, which you are keeping as an investment. Soon it will be worth NOTHING to you. But God's Kingdom is for ETERNITY! How much MORE important to put ALL YOU CAN into God's work now, while there's time and opportunity! There are among those who will read these lines some who could put in $1,000 or even $10,000 or more, that God's Message might go in mighty power to many thousands of souls who will never hear it if you hang onto that money or property for yourself.
Some of you have already been doing your very UTMOST, and God knows all about it, and will BLESS YOU. He doesn't expect any to give beyond their means. But I feel that MANY of our co-workers could easily double what they have been doing — and some could send really large amounts. Will you take it to God in serious, solemn prayer? God help, and bless you.
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