TEN Reasons Why Christ MUST RETURN!
Plain Truth Magazine
December 1963
Volume: Vol XXVIII, No.12
Issue:
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TEN Reasons Why Christ MUST RETURN!

The true God is beginning NOW to intervene in human affairs! Events are swiftly building to a CLIMAX. Read here the absolute NEED of DIVINE INTERVENTION in world events!

   DON'T KID YOURSELF! God is soon going to intervene in human affairs and change this whole world!
   Whether or not you are "religious" has NOTHING to do with it! Whether or not you "look at" it that way has EVEN LESS to do with it. It is GOING TO HAPPEN! You might as well wake up and FACE FACTS! The world you live in won't be here 15 years from now!

Handwriting on the Wall

   We are now seeing the HANDWRITING ON THE WALL for this entire generation. And many top leaders and scientists agree!
   Sir Philip Noel-Baker, the British authority on world disarmament, told a roomful of congressmen at Washington: ' I believe that within ten years we will all be dead and the earth will be an incinerated relic."
   Former Secretary of State Dean Acheson, in an address delivered at Goucher College; Baltimore, stated: "I assure you that I know nothing which is classified, but I know enough of what is going on to assure you that, in fifteen years from today, this world is going to be too dangerous to live in... Americans just don't believe that the future exists. The future is only important to us when it becomes the present. We can be told all sorts of things are going to happen. We never believe it until it's happened. Then it's TOO LATE to deal with." (Emphasis ours throughout article)

You Need to FACE FACTS

   The above quotes from a top world scientist and a former Secretary of State in the U.S. Government ought to sober any thinking person. But, as Mr. Acheson stated, most refuse to wake up until it is TOO LATE!
   Perhaps you never have heard the ten reasons which demand the intervention of God to save humanity from self-destruction. Even new readers and normally skeptical persons ought to be moved to REALIZE the definite prophesied events that lie ahead. We ought to be willing to take it from the Bible alone. But most people have not really PROVED the Bible is the Word of God.
   These TEN major issues involved reveal the definite NEED of divine intervention in human affairs NOW.
   IF THERE IS A REAL GOD IN HEAVEN — and that God is concerned about humanity, then NOW is the time when He certainly should and indeed MUST intervene in the affairs of His creatures here below to save us all from WORLD SUICIDE!
   Remember, this is not a "religious" topic or approach. Men on the HIGHEST levels of our society and culture acknowledge the same thing even though they may not necessarily be seeking GOD'S solution to the problem. For instance, notice what General Thomas D. White, USAF, Ret., Newsweek Contributing Editor, recently stated: "Nuclear weapons have given man the ability to destroy civilization. Are we wise enough to control warfare and save ourselves?
   "Little in the past suggests that wars can be abolished... Every rational person... must applaud the search for honorable alternatives for nuclear war. But many knowledgeable and intelligent people believe that there are none. In my view we must nonetheless make continuous efforts to find a solution which is of less risk to us than the status quo and its foreseeable projections. The process may be long; and it may FAIL — it always has. In the meantime we must have the guts, the wisdom, and the forces to survive. But in the long run mankind has to find another answer."

REASON I — The TERRIFIC Increase in Man's Destructiveness

   Notice this Associated Press report from San Diego, California: "The former Director General of the World Health Organization warned here in a speech that any small nation with scientific know-how could knock out the United States overnight. Dr. Brock Chisholm said all that it would take is one biochemist, a handful of technicians and a delivery system... 'For the first time in history we must recognize that we cannot survive at the cost of other groups. We must survive as a human race or not at all."
   And remember, as stated in the above quote from General Thomas White, "little in the past suggests that wars can be abolished."
   A United Press release reported: "Dr. Linus Pauling, professor of chemistry at CalTech, Nobel laureate, and one of the world's leading scientists, says revised estimates indicate the United States now has 100,000 atomic weapons to Russia's 50,000. However, Pauling told a Chicago audience, a mere 4,000 of the weapons could DESTROY THE HUMAN RACE."
   Notice the statistics given here! According to Dr. Pauling's statement, the United States has twenty-five times as many atomic bombs as are needed to annihilate all life off this planet. And our archenemy, the Soviet Union, has twelve and one half times as many atomic weapons as are needed to blast human life out of existence!
   Frightening?
   Most people don't seem to think so, really. Because they would rather watch television, hit the cocktail party circuit or "escape" by some other means. The "END OF THE WORLD" talk and idea seems "unpleasant" to most of them — so they simply Ignore IT.
   Intelligent?
   As applied to nearly any other subject, most people would say that this is a RIDICULOUS approach or rather "escape" from life and reality — a form of mental sickness, actually. But, as applied to today's terrifying world events, it is becoming a rather common thing and most people seem to take it for granted. Very few seem to realize that these events were directly prophesied in the pages of their own Bibles, and the EXACT FUTURE is laid bare IN ADVANCE by Jesus Christ Himself for all to read, to understand and to find therein the ONLY way of escape.

Foretold in Advance

   Although it is little realized in this day of religious confusion, modernism and maudlin sentiment, the Christ of your Bible was in actual fact the greatest PROPHET of future events who ever lived! In Matthew 24, His disciples asked Jesus: "Tell us, when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" (Verse 3)
   Then Jesus proceeded to answer and to state, in order, several MAJOR EVENTS which would lead up to and climax in His second coming to this earth as King of kings and Lord of lords.
   First, He said to beware of false prophets who would come preaching in His name and deceive THE MANY — not just the few (Verse 5). Then He described an increase of wars leading to WORLD WARS (Verses 6-7).
   After this, He prophesied definite and terrible FAMINES and PESTILENCES or disease epidemics and increasing EARTHQUAKES in various places around the earth (Verse 7).
   Next, He prophesied a time of TERRIBLE religious persecution (Verses 9-13).
   Jesus Christ stated that these coming events will be the most awesome and DANGEROUS in all human history and would result in HUMAN ANNIHILATION unless Almighty God intervened! "For then shall be GREAT TRIBULATION, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should NO FLESH BE SAVED: but for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened (Verses 21-22).
   Here Jesus clearly describes the time when all human life would be BLASTED off this planet unless God intervened for the sake of His "elect"!

This Is Tomorrow's NEWS

   In plain language, Jesus Christ was just about 2000 years ahead of time as a newscaster commenting on major world events that are REALLY GOING PTO HAPPEN! For He said that unless the real GOD — the God that most people do not acknowledge and certainly do not know — intervened in human affairs, the threat of HUMAN ANNIHILATION would become a stark reality!
   You need to realize that there are presently MANY ways by which this might come about. Notice this news release: "Eight ounces of a substance developed by bacteriological warfare experts could wipe out ALL LIFE on earth, British scientist Sir Robert Watson-Watt says. The developer of radar said he was making, this disclosure because, 'I am not optimistic the human race will survive another ten years.' He said there are now THREE WAYS in which the world's population could be WIPED OUT in a few hours. The FIRST is the HYDROGEN BOMB, which with the initial explosion and fallout could destroy man. He said the SECOND method was through BIOLOGICAL SUBSTANCES and the most deadly of these was the half pound of toxin which can be produced by the organism botulinus. It would take only a half pound to kill the animal and human population of the world. He said it was easily produced, was well-known and with a well-trained group could be distributed easily to make it lethal. Sir Robert said the THIRD METHOD of destroying man was 'through NERVE GASES, which have long been known.' "
   Our first real, factual REASON why Christ MUST return now is the literally TERRIFYING increase in man's destructive capacity.

REASON II — Greatest DROUGHT, FAMINE and STARVATION in Human History

   The June 17, 1963, issue of Newsweek magazine presented some arresting facts regarding the increase in conditions leading to STARVATION in many areas of the earth.
   This respected news magazine reported that every day of the week some 10,000 people will DIE of malnutrition or starvation — more than at any time in history. They stated that more than HALF of the world's 3 billion people live in perpetual HUNGER. In India alone, 50 MILLION children will die of malnutrition in the next ten years!
   Appalling?
   Yes, it is. But it is even MORE appalling to realize that this is JUST THE BEGINNING!
   For around this entire earth a veritable POPULATION EXPLOSION is taking place and — at the present rate of increase in human kind — there will be 4 billion people on earth within 17 years and 6 billion within 37 more years! Viewing these facts, the world famous British historian Arnold J. Toynbee recently told the World Food Congress: "Today, mankind's future is at stake in a formidable race between population growth and FAMINE."
   Yet, as recently reported by U.S. News and World Report magazine, this same body was told by its secretary general that: "No sizable reduction of population through birth control is in sight within the next 15 to 20 years."
   U.S. News summarized their article on this terrible problem as follows: "Result: the world over, fear grows of population pressures building up in 'have not' nations. Those pressures, in times ahead, are seen as bringing the world closer to the 'solutions' of the past — war, pestilence or famine."
   Undoubtedly, U.S. News did not realize it was almost QUOTING VERBATIM from Matthew 24:7! "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be FAMINES and PESTILENCES, and EARTHQUAKES, in diverse places."
   The only difference is that Jesus Christ "scooped" this world news item by getting it into print TWO THOUSAND YEARS AHEAD OF TIME!

Drought and Famine Directly Prophesied

   This same Jesus Christ — as the "Word" or Spokesman of the Old Testament — prophesied in specific detail of these events as they were to affect modern-day America and Britain — the descendants of the "House of Israel." (If you do not understand this vital key to Bible prophecy, read our free booklet, The United States and British Commonwealth in Prophecy!)
   Speaking of events to befall Israel (America and Britain) in the very last generation of man's human society, God said: "Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten" (Joel 1:3-4).
   Notice Verse 10: "The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth." In these verses, God is obviously speaking of a latter day DROUGHT and insect plagues which would obviously lead to conditions of famine and STARVATION in America and Britain.
   Verse 15 gives the time setting: "Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a DESTRUCTION from the Almighty shall it come." This prophesied "Day of the Lord" is speaking of God's intervention in human affairs at the TIME OF THE END — just before Christ RETURNS BODILY to rule this earth as King of kings and Lord of lords. This exact time is described specifically in over thirty places in your Bible! It is a time just ahead of us — NOW!
   Speaking to us, God says: "How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. 0 Lord, to thee will I cry: for the FIRE hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the FLAME bath burned all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are DRIED UP, and the FIRE bath devoured the pastures of the wilderness" (Verses 18-20).
   Unless you really STUDY Bible prophecy and sincerely and humbly ask for understanding, it may seem strange to you to apply these verses to modern United States and Britain NOW. But you can absolutely PROVE this by reading the booklet mentioned above, plus Mr. Armstrong's additional free booklet, "1975 In Prophecy" — a fully illustrated booklet dramatically portraying in plain language the prophesied events just ahead of us leading up to the coming of Jesus Christ.

Prophesied Events NOW Beginning to Occur

   But THINK! The events described here in Joel are actually HAPPENING at this time, aren't they? For God said that pastures would dry up, the cattle and other stock animals would SUFFER, and terrible FIRES would break out and devour the fields and the pastures and the forests!
   Just a few days ago, United Press International reported: "An Indian summer drought Tuesday triggered open burning bands in tinder-dry Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
   "The DROUGHT dried up crops and precious water supplies from New England to the Great Plains, encour aged a spat of forest and prairie FIRES in at least eight states and left the Susquehantia River at an ALL-TIME LOW LEVEL. More than SIXTY FOREST FIRES blazed in New York State. Scattered fires burned in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, Tennessee, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa.
   "No real relief was in sight. Mayor Robert F. Wagner warned that New York City faces a SERIOUS WATER SHORTAGE if the drought continues."
   And this very same week, newspapers headlined the news of the terrible DROUGHT CRISIS facing the city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil! The Los Angeles Times reported: "This city of three million people may be without drinking water if it does not rain here within the next two weeks. The WORST DROUGHT OF THIS CENTURY also brought about the curtailment of electric power that brought back memories of World War II.
   "Every industry, commercial enterprise and household is having electricity cut off for six hours daily on a staggered time and area basis which started Friday. The gravity of the crisis, replacing politics for now as Brazil's major immediate concern, was reflected in one bold, black newspaper headline which said: 'Only God Can Give Water to Guanabara.' Guanabara State includes the city of Rio.
   "The drought comes at a time when TORRENTIAL RAINS in the southern most state of Rio Grande do Sul are causing FLOODS of almost unprecedented proportions."

GOD Controls the Weather

   Yes, some day everyone is going to realize that, "only GOD can give water to Guanabara."
   And it is interesting and vital to realize that the drought conditions will often be alternated — strangely enough — with FLOODS whose waters will run off the land so quickly as to do little good and only cause damage as a whole — just as is happening in another area of Brazil at the same time Rio de Janeiro is facing its drought crisis.
   Notice God's description of how this very condition will increase in America and Britain within the next few years: "And I also have given you cleanness of teeth [not from some kind of tooth paste, but from hunger] in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. And I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered" (Amos 4:6-7).
   Then God states in Verse 9: "I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord."
   Thus you can see that the rains to be sent upon some cities will cause FLOODS and MILDEW of fruits and crops, and the lack of rain in other areas will cause terrible conditions of DROUGHT leading to famine and HUNGER.
   You need to realize that not only is drought currently affecting the East Coast areas, but even worse and more long-standing drought conditions are affecting millions of acres of farm and pasture land throughout the Midwest, the Plains States and the entire West Coast! Thousands of farmers and ranchers are dipping into their life savings in order to keep going, and hundreds are now GOING BROKE. In Eastern Colorado, State Agriculture Commissioner Paul Swisher said, "If we don't get some rain out here pretty quick, we'll be in a real mess." "The topsoil," Swisher said, "is getting pretty dry and ready to move. We're as near to the critical stage as we can get. Disaster will follow if we don't get moisture."

Upset Weather Spells DISASTER

   At the same time, unprecedented FOREST FIRES are raging in many areas of the East and Midwest! Do you think that these conditions of drought, floods and forest fires have nothing to do with your future? Well, you don't have long to find out!
   For the God of heaven speaks to modern America and Britain: "When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of FAMINE, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the FAMINE upon you, and will break your staff of bread: so will I send upon you famine and evil beasts and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the Lord have spoken it" (Ezek. 5:16-17).
   In this same prophecy — written well over one hundred years after Israel's former captivity, and definitely speaking of a FUTURE punishment and captivity in our day — God states: "Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, by the FAMINE, and by the pestilence" (Ezek. 6:11).
   Yes, the alternating cycles of devastating FLOODS on the one hand with terrible DROUGHT and FOREST FIRES on the other are destined to bring about a condition of unprecedented FAMINE even here in the United States of America!
   Meanwhile, around the world, the handwriting is clearly on the wall as a veritable POPULATION EXPLOSION takes place and the stark reality of HUNGER and STARVATION closes in on millions of additional human beings every single year! Almighty God is letting most of humanity go its own way and write its own lessons for this first six thousand years of recorded human history. But He is a merciful God and a Father — and He will soon intervene through Jesus Christ to save hundreds of millions of people made in His image from STARVING TO DEATH!

REASON III — Horrifying DISEASE EPIDEMICS to Occur

   Regardless of the hopes and claims of modern medical practitioners, the GOD OF HEAVEN clearly reveals that ravaging DISEASE EPIDEMICS are soon going to strike this entire earth — and America and the British Commonwealth nations in particular! This is because we have been callously BREAKING God's physical and spiritual laws. Then we have tried to have these transgressions "forgiven" by treating the "symptoms" — the results — instead of getting at and correcting the real CAUSE.
   Frankly, the average layman only hears a FRACTION of the real facts about burgeoning disease epidemics and future PLAGUES which many eminent scientists and medical men know are coming. This is because most newspapers and magazines don't wish to emphasize "unpleasant" items which might prove unpopular with public opinion, and because of organized medical pressure groups which SUPPRESS the facts in many instances.
   Nevertheless, because modern man is polluting his water supply with the refuse of factories in entire cities, because he is wrecking the real nutritive value of his soil through the use of artificial chemical fertilizers and poisonous sprays, because he is poisoning the very crops themselves through sprays and artificial treatments, because he is removing the wheat germ from the wheat, chemically "treating" most other food products and thereby producing what are in actual fact "foodless foods" — for these and many other reasons he is bringing upon himself horrifying DISEASE EPIDEMICS which are destined to strike within the next five to ten years!
   Also, as stated above, when individuals do become sick the medical men rush to treat the symptom instead of the cause — quite often by injecting the POISON PUS of animals into the human blood stream in ever-increasing quantities!

Eminent Medical Testing

   A noted British physician and surgeon says that modern drugs are NINETY-NINE PER CENT USELESS." Dr. Harry Lilly stated in an interview: "Drugs patch up the symptoms, NOT THE CAUSES. When I first qualified, I thought the use of drugs I'd learned at the university was just the thing. But I'd never go back to that now.
   "The medical profession on both sides of the Atlantic is being run and dictated by the pharmaceutical houses. We have only to see the racket going on with drugs — the only way you can describe their cost is disgraceful. We'd be better doing the same with drugs as we do with atomic waste: DUMPING THEM INTO THE SEA."
   Dr. Lilly expects a "WORLD EPIDEMIC" of the worst virus yet within the next ten years. It will be the result of the world-wide use of penicillin and antibiotics which, Dr. Lilly says, upsets the bacterial balance of the body.
   Some British doctors are blaming the abuse of penicillin for the serious outbreak of polio in Britain, Dr. Lilly says. He agrees, and states regarding the coming virus epidemic: "In my opinion, this danger completely overshadows any threat of nuclear war."
   Mankind needs to WAKE UP to the fact that poisonous drugs, processed foods, chemical fertilizers and poisonous sprays used on plants is simply courting DISASTER! We need to realize that the absolute POLLUTION of our air and water, and the increasing use of CHEMICAL POISONS in agriculture and industry, is going to bring a sickening RESULT if we don't quit breaking God's physical laws!
   A few years ago, Dr. David E. Price, Assistant Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service asked this question: "Is man becoming OBSOLETE?"
   Then this eminent physician began to list a number of TERRIFYING dangers to human life which could lead to the EXTINCTION of the human race. He referred to man-made contamination of the air, the increasing use of chemical poisons in agriculture and industry. Dr. Price said there was, "growing public concern that, even if we escape destruction by war, something else, probably subtle, insidious, and gradual, may eventually cause us to become a 'HAS BEEN' SPECIES."

DANGER in Modern Farming Methods

   Notice the following important quote regarding the DANGERS of "modern" methods of farming: "Whole species of Britain's birds will be wiped out by POISON CHEMICALS used on farmlands, a conference of wildlife experts warned yesterday.
   "One question left unanswered at the conference came from the Earl of Aylesford, a Warwickshire landowner. After the warnings of bird poisoning he asked: 'Can we say whether humans will follow?" (From the London Daily Herald, March 4, 1963)
   In a basic prophecy for modern Israel — the peoples of America and the British Commonwealth nations who are the physical descendants of the ancient, tentribed, supposedly "lost" House of Israel — God states: "And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it" (Lev. 26:15-16).
   Note these plagues which God says He will send: consumption or tuberculosis; fevers such as measles and meningitis which can settle in the eyes causing impaired vision or blindness; general weakening or languishing of physical strength — then foreign enemies attacking our land.
   After warning that He will "break the pride" of our power (verse 19) — which God is ALREADY DOING to America and the fast diminishing British "Commonwealth" — God states: "And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me (even after these early punishments); I will bring seven times MORE PLAGUES upon you according to your sins" (Verse 21).
   Yes, we are destined to have pestilences, disease epidemics — PLAGUES which God will permit to descend upon us in terrifying intensity because of physical and spiritual SIN.
   In man's lust and GREED for excessive profits, the pharmaceutical houses and medical men have poured BILLIONS of dollars of DRUGS and veritable POISONS into the blood streams of hundreds of millions of human beings! The industrial captains — instead of using their minds and money to devise a safer way — are emptying billions of tons of industrial POLLUTANTS into the air we breathe and the water we drink! Even the farmers are caught up in the habit of using chemical fertilizers, and poisonous sprays on the very FOOD we eat!
   God help us to WAKE UP!
   Unless we REPENT of this entire vicious cycle and turn to God and His WAY of health and healing, we will begin to experience such horrifying DISEASE EPIDEMICS as will make necessary the DIVINE INTERVENTION of Jesus Christ to save us from ourselves!

REASON IV — Earth's DESOLATION through Atomic Fallout and Radioactivity

   Even though the human race may not eradicate itself in a future hydrogen war, the aftermath of such a war would hardly be a more enviable fate. This is the opinion of six leading geneticists given at the first International Radiation Research Congress.
   Dr. H. J. Muller of Indiana University says that although the extinction of humanity in a nuclear war was unlikely, it would take the race ONE THOUSAND YEARS to get back where it is today!
   He foresaw: immediate death for MILLIONS from blast and heat, then death from DISEASE for other millions weakened by shock and radiation. Death by STARVATION for others. Then would come the longer range effects: human beings STERILIZED so they could not beget children. Others capable of siring only DEFECTIVE OFFSPRING that would die without children of their own.
   Notice! Even IF man does not succeed in destroying himself in a future war, the RESULT would leave a wretched remnant of SICK and DYING and STERILE human beings for generations to come! A United Press report states: "A geneticist said today an H-Bomb war would damage the genes of surviving Americans so severely that between SEVENTEEN MILLION and ONE BILLION of their descendants might die prematurely or be defective over the next thirty generations." This report was given by Dr. James V. Neal, Chairman of the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Michigan, to a Congressional Atomic Energy Sub-Committee.
   But many scientists are concerned not only about the possibilities in a future war — but the present DANGER to human life and progeny from the hydrogen and atomic tests which have ALREADY been carried out — and which will undoubtedly CONTINUE to be carried out by many nations from time to time in spite of the temporary Test Ban Treaty which SOME of the leading nations have signed.
   The June 4, 1963, issue of the Los Angeles Times disclosed that animals in the Arctic living off plants are piling up heavy concentrations of radioactivity and "scientists are getting worried about it." A study revealed that the "safe" level for radioactive strontium contamination in man was about seventeen strontium units. Yet caribou bones have been found recently showing from ONE HUNDRED to TWO HUNDRED UNITS!

Scientists Admit "Safe Limit" Is Now Exceeded

   Dr. William O. Pruitt, Jr., biologist who cooperated with the Canadian Wildlife Service in a study of this caribou problem, has become seriously concerned. Dr. Pruitt states: "Behind all the reassuring announcements about nuclear explosions since the beginning of the atomic age there has lurked the specter of the time when the so-called 'safe limits' would be exceeded.
   "It is clear that for a great area of the earth's surface THAT TIME HAS NOW COME."
   Even though the results of this atomic testing are bad enough, your Bible definitely prophesies a FUTURE HYDROGEN BOMB WAR! The resulting STERILITY of human beings, the genetic DEFECTS which would continue in the human family for hundreds of years IF many survived, and the wretched CONTORTED BODIES of human beings made in His image — these call for the DIVINE INTERVENTION of a loving God by sending His Son Jesus Christ back to this earth SOON — before it is too late!

REASON V — GIGANTIC Earthquakes, Hurricanes and Weather Upheavals Soon to Come!

   Mankind is soon going to learn that GOD CONTROLS THE WEATHER!
   As we have seen, Jesus Christ prophesied: "There shall be famines, and pestilences, and EARTHQUAKES, in diverse places" (Mat. 24:7).
   In Luke's inspired account of these same events leading up to the second coming of Christ, Jesus stated: "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the SEA and the WAVES ROARING; men's hearts failing them for FEAR, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of the heavens shall be SHAKEN" (Luke 21:25-26).
   In the very next few years, through earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes and tidal waves — God is going to SHAKE this earth like a rag doll! Men are going to learn that Almighty God is VERY "real"!
   The June 19, 1960, issue of This Week magazine reported that the worst decade in United States history for natural disasters was "THE PAST TEN YEARS"! UNBELIEVABLE?
   Not when you understand Bible prophecy! For this is just the BEGINNING of vicious weather cycles which spell serious TROUBLE for America, Britain and much of the Western world. The recent EARTHQUAKE which destroyed Skoplje and the terrifying HURRICANE CARLA which devastated Haiti and Cuba are only a mild portent of what is SOON TO COME!
   So far, the worst earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions and tornadoes have struck more thinly populated areas of the earth as a whole. But the time is coming — and. soon — when they will begin to devastate the big metropolitan areas in the major cities of this earth.
   Even the power of our latest hydrogen bombs is dwarfed into insignificance in comparison with the destructive capacity of EARTHQUAKES. It would take the combined force of TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND atomic bombs of the Hiroshima class to begin to release the equivalent energy of only ONE of the major shocks in the recent earthquake which struck Skopije, Yugoslavia!
   "The city is an awful sight,' the Belgrade newspaper Politica said in a special edition. 'More than two hundred thousand citizens are in the streets. The screams of the trapped and those who have lost relatives can be heard all over. In the wreckage of the railway station the screams of trapped persons can still be heard. The question is whether rescue teams can reach them in time.' " This item was contained in a recent United Press release reporting on the earth quake in Skoplje, Yuogslavia.

Heed God's WARNING

   If you have not yet done so, read our exciting, fully documented free booklet, "Truth About Earthquakes." Here you will see the full proof that earthquake activity is INCREASING around this earth and is destined to reach GIGANTIC proportions within the next few years.
   Also, read again or send for the recent article contained in the June PLAIN TRUTH on "Volcanic Disaster — A Prophetic Reality." This free article vividly describes the increasing activity of supposedly "extinct" volcanoes around this earth — including the volcano Mt. Agung which erupted in the latter part of March and took over ELEVEN THOUSAND lives and left more than two hundred thousand others homeless!
   Read Christ's description of what lies just ahead: "And 1 beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a GREAT EARTHQUAKE; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood... and EVERY MOUNTAIN and ISLAND were moved out of their places" (Rev. 6:12-14).
   Because of REBELLION against God and His physical and spiritual LAWS men have to be literally SHAKEN to their senses! But in His mercy, God is going to CUT SHORT the days of this terrible punishment so that CHRIST may come as King of kings to teach man how to live by God's physical and spiritual laws before mankind becomes any more DEPRAVED than it already is!
   Someday soon — within the next ten years or less — when your city, your home, your little "world" is suddenly SHAKEN by a devastating HURRICANE, volcanic ERUPTION, or EARTHQUAKE you will begin to see a real NEED for Jesus Christ's second coming to SAVE man from the results of SIN against his Maker!

REASON VI — Man's "Last Hope for Peace" Has FAILED!

   Even while the guns were still firing and men were dying on the battlefields of Europe and Asia, the "United Nations Conference" assembled in San Francisco in the spring of 1945 to found an international political entity to preserve PEACE. Men and women of many races and colors were there from fifty-four nations — representing the majority of human beings living on the earth.
   As the conference opened, General Jan Smuts of South Africa declared:
   "If San Francisco fails, then I see nothing but STARK DISASTER before mankind."
   "It is no exaggeration to say," said Anthony Eden, "that the work on which we are making a start here may be THE WORLD'S LAST CHANCE....
   Remember?
   Yes, those were the words we were hearing and reading back in 1945 from the acknowledged LEADERS of modern human civilization! But go back even further. Recall that even the League of Nations — formed after World War I — was basically the same type of setup and formed for the same basic purpose. It, too, was called "man's last hope for peace"!
   As all the world knows since World War II began, the League of Nations miserably FAILED!
   Why?
   The real ANSWER is contained in the Word of God. The book of James reveals part of it: "From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye FIGHT and WAR, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your LUSTS" (Jas. 4:1-3).
   Human nature is basically hateful, resentful, competitive and SELFISH. Until HUMAN NATURE is changed, we will have war!
   Describing under God's inspiration all the peoples of the earth — both Jew and Gentile — the Apostle Paul states: "Their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they NOT KNOWN: there is no fear of God before their eyes" (Rom. 3:15-18).
   Frankly, the world as a whole does NOT KNOW GOD — and it certainly does not know HIS WAY of peace!

The United Nations Is "Doomed to Failure"

   Therefore, the United Nations is absolutely and positively DOOMED to failure! And it is already, in actual fact, FAILING to keep any semblance of real peace among the nations of this earth.
   Even three years ago, a member of the British Parliament, Anthony Fell, stated: "For we must not delude ourselves or the world any longer that the United Nations has any useful purpose to serve, either in the advancement of democracy and freedom or in the prevention of war. The United Nations HAS FAILED. It was our creature, and it has failed us. Not because of lack of good intentions, but because it is an organization that is DOOMED TO FAILURE."
   General Mark W. Clark, former United Nations commander in Korea, stated that this country should withdraw from the United Nations because "no useful purpose is served by the United States being a member." He stated: "Nothing good will happen in the United Nations. I've seen them meet time after time on very grave questions that affect the well-being of the whole world and NEVER have they solved any of them except by a slap on the wrist or some weak action." What every thinking person knows: the United Nations is failing and. WILL. FAIL to preserve peace in our LUSTFUL, fighting, warring, topsy-turvy human "civilization."
   Only Jesus Christ — at His second coming as King of kings — can and WILL save man from human annihilation!

REASON VII — Soon-Coming SLAVERY for God's Birthright Peoples

   Because of our national godlessness, decadence and SIN, the God of heaven prophesies that the birthright peoples of Britain and America are going to be punished with the GREATEST NATIONAL SLAVERY in the history of mankind!
   The God of your Bible prophesied that the descendants of Israel would become a great "nation and a company of nations (Gen. 35:11). Although the spiritual promise of bringing forth the Messiah — called "the scepter" promise — went to Judah or the Jewish peoples, the BIRTHRIGHT or promise of physical blessings went to the descendants of Joseph (Gen. 48:16).
   Through his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph's descendants were to become a great nation and "company," "multitude," or COMMONWEALTH of nations dominating a large part of this earth and having TREMENDOUS national and physical blessings! In "the last days," the descendants of Joseph were to have "blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: the blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors [Jacob said] unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of JOSEPH" (Gen. 49:1, 25-46).
   In these "last days," TODAY, very obviously and definitely to anyone with a really OPEN mind, the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh stand revealed as the peoples of the British Commonwealth and the United States of America! For — as God prophesied through Jacob — we have become in the "last days" the GREATEST single nation and "company" or COMMONWEALTH of nations that has ever existed on the face of the earth.
   To fully understand this VITAL key to Bible prophecy, be sure to read and study — with an OPEN MIND — Mr. Armstrong's exciting free booklet, "The United States and British Commonwealth in Prophecy." It contains the important TRUTH that our peoples are definitely the descendants of Joseph through Ephraim and Manasseh, and in Bible prophecy bear the NAME of "Israel"! For as God said clearly through Jacob (Gen. 48:16): "Let my NAME (Israel) be named on THEM (Ephraim and Manasseh)."
   Thus, when the Bible speaks of the end-time peoples of "Israel," it does NOT mean merely the Jewish peoples — although they are sometimes included as a small part of such a prophecy since they were once ONE of the twelve tribes of Israel. But the "House of Israel" — not Judah, which became a separate nation and often warred with Israelis represented by the United States and British Commonwealth nations today.
   When God speaks of something happening to "Israel" in the latter days, He means our peoples! He is speaking to YOU and ME! This stands PROVED as a demonstrated FACT and the events prophesied for our peoples — we can now say — are not merely "going to happen," but they ARE HAPPENING!
   So wake up and LISTEN!

What WILL Happen

   In a prophecy for America and Britain in the "latter days" (verse 24), written well over one hundred years AFTER Israel's first and only captivity and prophesying a FUTURE punishment and captivity, God speaks to our peoples in Jeremiah 30 of events that will strike our nations SOON.
   "And these are the words that the Lord spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah [BOTH peoples are involved here!]. For thus saith the Lord; We have heard a voice of trembling, of FEAR, and not of peace... Alas! for that day is GREAT, so that NONE IS LIKE IT: it is even the time of JACOB'S TROUBLE; but he shall be saved out of it" (verses 4-7).
   Here is a time of terrible national trouble — the GREATEST national trouble that has ever hit the peoples of Israel! Men are so TERRIFIED that their stomachs knot up in sickening FEAR as they bend over like a woman in travail (verse 6). A national "yoke" of SLAVERY will be put on their necks which will remain UNTIL the second coming of Jesus Christ as King of kings (verses 8-9).
   As indicated, it is the time of the RESURRECTION from the dead for David will be "raised up" to be the king over the nation of Israel during the Millennium as prophesied also in Ezekiel 37: 24 and other prophecies.
   Notice verse 10. God says He will "save" our peoples from the "land of their CAPTIVITY." So very obviously we are destined for national SLAVERY until we are released from this by Christ's second coming.
   WHY?
   The answer is contained in Verse 14 as well as many other places: "All thy lovers (our heathen 'allies' that we have relied upon instead of God) have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity because thy SINS were increased."
   There is certainly ample REASON for the Living God to intervene and PUNISH His birthright peoples through the invasion of a foreign enemy and a terrible national CAPTIVITY. Our SINS are certainly "increasing" and only a violent, national whipping will make us REPENT and return to the Living God of Israel!

What J. Edgar Hoover and Others State

   Notice this recent United Press release: "FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover said today 'a massive avalanche' of crime has placed the man-in-the-street in greater DANGER than in any other time in the nation's history... Admitting there was no single remedy to the problem, Hoover said the crime wave will not abate 'as long as there is wholesale disrespect for law and order in the nation.' "
   Here is what Senator John McClellan recently stated, "the internal threat of crime exceeds any immediate danger of infiltration or subversion by the Communist international conspiracy... It is a MAJOR THREAT to our national security."
   Yes, as God stated through Jeremiah's prophecy, our national SINS are certainly INCREASED!
   In addition to our growing preoccupation with sex and filth, our skyrocketing divorce rate now breaking up about one out of three American marriages, we now seem headed on a national scale toward outright PERVERSION and utter degradation. After citing film after film which dealt with rape, incest, nymphomania, homosexuality or other PERVERSIONS, LIFE magazine summarized a report on this current tendency: 'These motion pictures reflect a preoccupation with sex — and: particularly its aberrations — that is unprecedented in the U.S."
   Now notice this shocking quote from the Chicago Daily News: "'It has to be said — and I'm willing to say it.' With this preface, the Health Department's new consultant in venereal disease disclosed what has been an open secret in Chicago. The disturbing rise in venereal disease cases is due largely to HOMOSEXUALS — white males who are not necessarily in the low income class."
   Obviously, some of our future disease epidemics will stem directly from sexual PERVERSIONS. For we are a PERVERSE SOCIETY and we are going to have to be PUNISHED by the righteous God of heaven!

A "Voice in the Wilderness"

   As The WORLD TOMORROW broadcast and The PLAIN TRUTH magazine have prophesied now for some thirty years, America and Britain are going to be PUNISHED by the Living God not only through drought, famine, disease epidemics and the other punishments mentioned in this article — but through NATIONAL CAPTIVITY and SLAVERY! In specific detail, The PLAIN TRUTH magazine has for three decades described a coming United States of Europe which will soon be dominated by revived FASCISM and directly influenced and guided by a powerful religious system having unprecedented prestige and POWER in modern times.
   This union of nations in Europe — called prophetically the "Beast" in Revelation 17 — will eventually be comprised of EXACTLY ten nations or groups of nations having exactly ten heads of state or "kings" (verse 12). This revived Roman Empire will attack and CONQUER predominately Protestant America and Britain and subject our peoples to the GREATEST national degradation and captivity of any nations in modern times. As all our long-time PLAIN TRUTH readers know, we have been WARNING of the development of this system LONG BEFORE it began to develop and appear in Europe!
   For the detailed prophecies of what will happen in this national slavery, and how Jesus will RETURN to this earth to SAVE His birthright peoples of Israel from utter extinction, read Mr. Armstrong's free booklet, "1975 In Prophecy." And read Mr. Ted Armstrong's stirring article on page 3 entitled: "Germany — Friend or Frankenstein?"
   A tremendous REASON for Jesus Christ's return to this earth is to save God's birthright peoples of America and Britain from our imminent national SLAVERY and possible EXTINCTION in the concentration camps of Europe. This punishment is certainly coming because our SINS are increased!
   Notice what Los Angeles Police Chief Parker recently warned: "Unless the nation's citizens begin now to exhibit a greater respect for law and order, America's vaunted civilization faces almost certain decay and EXTINCTION."
   The handwriting is on the wall — NOW!

REASON VIII — Frightful RACE WAR Is Coming

   "Unless America is willing to come to grips with the problem of liberty and justice for all, there is the grave possibility that BLOOD WILL FLOW in the streets of our cities like it has not since the Civil War." Thus spoke Dr. E. Franklin Jackson, President of the Washington Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, earlier this year. He and others have expressed great fear of RACE WAR if the goals of Negro leaders are not quickly attained.
   Prominent Negro Congressman Adam Clayton Powell recently forecast "One of the worst race riots in the history of America" unless the causes of racial tension are promptly removed.
   In Detroit, a Negro newspaperman worried aloud: "that 'look how much we've gained in the last 50 years' stuff — that sours on the Negroes' stomach... We're going to see VIOLENCE."
   An important point to remember is that not only in America, but AROUND THE WORLD there is increasing tension between the races.
   In Africa, the Blacks have the Whites on the run in Congo and Kenya — and they are crying out against White rule in South Africa and Portuguese Angola.
   In Asia, the Chinese are seeking to rally Colored races of the world to their side in their battle with Russia for leadership of the World Communist Movement. In Russia, the Yellow and Black races are being held down systematically — and Negro students from Africa have been attacked by Whites in the Soviet bloc.
   After terrible RACE RIOTS, Great Britain has cut down drastically on immigration of Black and Brown people. Civil War is looming in British Guiana between Negroes and persons whose ancestors came from India.
   Nearly everywhere, racial feelings are being whipped up to the breaking point by scattered incidents in nearly every major nation of the earth. Apart from God, the growing suspicion, resentment, and open HATRED which is now mushrooming among the races of the earth creates nightmarish FEAR — and the possibility of HUMAN ANNIHILATION — unless Almighty God intervenes.
   Airing his feelings against the White "liberal" leaders, radical Negro leader Malcolm X. recently stated: "The Black man is fed up with the inability of White liberals to solve racial problems in America. Unless something is done soon, I am afraid we will have a racial explosion — and a racial explosion is more DEADLY than an ATOMIC EXPLOSION."
   Read the August and October issues of The PLAIN TRUTH for a full understanding of the current race crisis. We are NOT going to enter into human politics and try to humanly "solve" the race problem. But we are GOD'S ambassadors to warn America, Britain and the rest of the world of what WILL happen and WHY. The only real SOLUTION will be the second coming of Jesus Christ to SAVE US from a horrifying RACE WAR!
   That is another REASON why He must return soon as King of kings.

REASON IX — The Appalling Increase in MENTAL Sickness

   According to the National Association of Mental Health, more people are in the hospitals for MENTAL illness than for polio, cancer, heart disease, tuberculosis and all other diseases combined. An estimated EIGHTEEN MILLION Americans are suffering from some form of mental illness that needs treatment.
   One of the most common mental disorders is "schizophrenia" — splitting of the mind. Very few of the schizophrenics are ever pronounced truly "cured" and therefore about half of the hospitalized schizophrenics have been in the hospital longer than ten years!
   According to The Chicago Tribune magazine: "Under the circumstances, schizophrenia ranks as one of our GRAVEST health-problems, not only in the United States but throughout the world, and its maddening mysteries are still unsolved..."
   A vitally important article on mental illness appeared in the October, 1963, issue of The Ladies' Home Journal. It disclosed that one out of six Americans uses a pill bottle to change his mental attitudes and perceptions. It stated: "Drug overuse is destroying the physical and emotional well-being of uncounted men, women and children of all ages and social backgrounds. Indeed, it threatens almost EVERY ASPECT of American life, school, job, marriage."
   This authoritative article states: "Our generation is willfully exposing itself to unknown DANGERS from drugs. Inevitably, DEATH occurs in some of these tragic cases."
   Again: "We known that many of these drugs can cause temporary physical and emotional impairment, even permanent disability leading to DEATH."
   The above illustrations and facts are a direct fulfillment of God's warning to modern America and Britain of what would happen if we forsook Him and turned to our own ways: "The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, VEXATION, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed.... The Lord shall smite thee with MADNESS, and with blindness, and astonishment of heart" (Deut. 28: 20, 28).
   Not only disease epidemics, then, but mental sickness or MADNESS were prophesied for our peoples thousands of years ago by the God of heaven! And in recent testimonies before a Senate Sub-Committee it was revealed that more than ONE HUNDRED MILLION PRESCRIPTIONS are written in the U.S. each year for tranquilizers and other drugs affecting mental health! Commenting on this, Dr. Fritz A. Freyhan, an expert of the National Institute of Mental Health, predicted, "Things will get WORSE before they get better."
   Our Father in heaven looks down with compassion on the growing frustrations, anxieties and utter WRETCHEDNESS involved in mental sickness and suffering which cause untold MILLIONS of human beings in His image around the world to exist in a veritable "living hell." As this situation mushrooms, it becomes a mighty important REASON for the second coming of Jesus Christ to bring PEACE not only between nations — but "the PEACE of God, which passeth all understanding" (Phil. 4:7)

REASON X — Satan's FULL WRATH Must Be Stopped!

   Soon now, within a very few years, coming upon us suddenly before we quite realize what is happening, very strange and "weird" and HORRIFYING events will begin to take place between nations and individuals.
   This will NOT be the "normal" wars, competitions and hates of the past. This will be DIFFERENT.
   There will be more "strange," unexplainable murders, rapes, and sadistic attacks upon young children and other helpless victims. There will be more WILD, uncontrolled bursts of HATE and VIOLENCE between many different types of individuals and groups. In the coming invasion and national SLAVERY of our peoples, more senseless, perverted TORTURES and "brain-cleansing" and brain torturing activities will take place. Military and religious leaders will seem to have gone MAD!
   In addition, unusual "miracles" will be performed by the authoritative religious leaders cooperating with the "Beast" power which will take out peoples into slavery. They will NOT be the type of plain, loving and HELPFUL miracles which Jesus and His apostles performed. For there will be more of an accent on "strange phenomena" — shining crosses and crucifixes, weeping dolls, strange incantations to "expel demons," and even bringing what appears to be FIRE down from the heaven!
   The REASON?
   If you will humbly study it and come to understanding, your Bible reveals the answer in Revelation 12. It describes Satan the Devil trying to destroy Jesus Christ at His birth (verse 4), His ascension to heaven (verse 5), the true Church fleeing into the wilderness for 1260 years during the Middle Ages from the bounds of the persecuting Roman Empire (verse 6).
   Then, in verse 7, the time setting moves to the end of the age, and there is "war" in heaven as Satan the Devil and his DEMONS try once again — as they did in Isaiah 14:12-14 — to ascend to heaven and TAKE OVER from God Almighty! But they are overcome and cast down for the LAST TIME (verse 10).
   Then, the peoples of this earth are warned: "WOE to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having GREAT WRATH, because he knoweth that be bath but a short time" (verse 12).
   When this occurs, the activities of Satan and his demons will be VIOLENT. They will seek desperately — in rebellion against God and His plan for humanity — to DESTROY not only God's true Church which "keeps the commandments of God" (verse 17), but in their utter frustration will turn their wrath against ALL humanity!

Demon-inspired FIENDS

   Drunkards, dope addicts, people who let their minds "wander" — all these and others will suddenly find that their human brains have been taken over by DEMONS! They will suddenly break out into WILD — weird — FIENDISH behavior which will seem totally unexplainable to their former friends and associates.
   People will be SHOCKED!
   Headlines will SCREAM the news of "unaccountable" beatings, murders, rapes and sadistic activities. People worshipping "spirits" and engaging in "witchcraft" will suddenly sense a new POWERFUL PRESENCE in their midst! It will seem exciting — and many will yield to it!
   In the religious sphere, a great FALSE PROPHET will arise in the midst of the revived Roman Empire. "And he doeth GREAT WONDERS, so that he maketh FIRE come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and DECEIVETH them that dwell on the earth by means of those MIRACLES which he had power to do in the sight of the beast" (Rev. 13:13-14).
   Strange impulses leading to the most violent WAR in human history will suddenly grip military and religious leaders: "And I saw three UNCLEAN SPIRITS like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon (the Devil), and out of the mouth of the beast (the coming Hitler), and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of DEVILS, working MIRACLES which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty" (Rev. 16:13-14).
   This "great day of God Almighty" is the prophesied time of God's intervention in human affairs mentioned in over thirty places in Bible prophecy! It is the time mentioned in Matthew 24:22: "And except those days should be shortened, there should NO FLESH BE SAVED: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened."
   Satan's full WRATH will be vented against the world — and against God's true Church and His birthright peoples Israel in particular. Individual and international MADNESS will seize the world in a manner unprecedented in human history!

Learn to Face REALITY

   This is REAL — and it is REALLY going to happen! Very frankly, the ideas and imaginations of science fiction writers are going to seem TAME in many ways by comparison with the literal events that lie ahead before the living CHRIST of your Bible returns to RULE this rebellious world with a rod of iron!
   But He IS COMING — and before it is too late!
   "And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall RULE them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS" (Rev. 19:15-16).
   In this article, you have been given TEN MAJOR REASONS for the soon-coming of this tremendous and wonderful event. If God has given you eyes to see and ears to hear, then THINK — PROVE these things — and ACT on the very real present TRUTH you have received!
   What kind of "witness" do you want? How much more definite and specific can we get in these PLAIN TRUTH articles?
   Will God have to take You, personally, by the nape of the neck and chastise you personally before you will believe that HE EXISTS, that He ACTS and MOVES in world affairs, and that He has a SPECIFIC plan which He is revealing to you through this magazine as His "watchman"?
   We are God's servants to serve and help YOU. But we can do no more than lay the facts before you, appeal to you to act, and PRAY that you will make the right decision.
   The rest is up to you!

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Plain Truth MagazineDecember 1963Vol XXVIII, No.12