RADIO
CHURCH OF GOD
World
Headquarters
Pasadena
California, 91109
Herbert
W. Armstrong
President
and Pastor
March
2, 1967
Dear
Brethren, and Co-Heirs of GOD:
This
is the MOST IMPORTANT letter I have ever written to YOU—and it is to go
to all members of GOD'S CHURCH, worldwide!
I'm
sure most of you have heard, by now, of the very critical
illness
of Mrs. Armstrong—the wife of my youth whom God gave me, fifty years
ago (lacking a few months) to be my help.
There
are, in some kinds of illness, some things we can, and should, do for
ourselves. But our GOD can HEAL. We left no stone unturned, but we came
to the place, more than a week ago, where there was nothing more we
could, or OUGHT to do without assuming to ourselves the prerogative of
GOD. Like the children of Israel at The Red Sea, we were helpless. We
had to do, as Moses said to them, "STAND STILL, and see the
salvation of the ETERNAL!" We committed her wholly into God's hands
for healing.
Do
you realize that, actually, God started His Church of this
"Philadelphia era through Mrs. Armstrong? First, He opened her mind
to His Law and His TRUTH. Then, through her, He brought me to Him and to
His TRUTH. Then He used us together as a TEAM.
God
says it is not good that a man should be alone. He made a help for Adam.
He gave Mrs. Armstrong to me for my help. After He used her for the
first starting of His great Work—now becoming powerful and
worldwide—and for starting His Church for this era, He has used
her ever since as my loyal, faithful, loving, and very helpful
PARTNER. Our ministry has been as a TEAM—together. She is a vital HALF
of that team! Most of our members know that!
And
now, dear Brethren of GOD'S CHURCH, He is using her to start a
direly needed spiritual REAWAKENING—a tragically needed spiritual
REJUVENATION in God's whole Church-and in His Work.
It
has begun with those ministers God has placed at the top level
responsibilities in His great Work, right here at Headquarters. This
ordeal has rudely SHOCKED us into a realization that we were becoming
sluggish spiritually-AND WE WERE UNAWARE OF IT!
It
has begun with me! I didn't realize it! I seemed to have a heart
condition, so that I felt I had to slow down—and even a two or
three-block walk brought pains in my lungs, associated with my heart.
There was high blood pressure. Brethren, I have been frankly STARTLED to
find that even I, whom God is using as your human leader, was bogging
down—Just barely crawling along, so to speak, on this narrow, rutty,
difficult ROAD that leads to God's Kingdom and everlasting life! I have
been greatly slowed down. I was coasting on past momentum. In this sore
TRIAL of faith, I had to wake up, to realize I was losing
faith—it had been dwindling. I had to humble myself before God. I had
to FAST and pray in deadly earnest. I had to realize my faith was not
sufficient. I had to begin confessing my sin, repenting of this
spiritual lethargy, crying out to God in tears to forgive, have mercy,
RENEW the inflowing and outflowing of His Holy Spirit in me, RESTORE me
to a close walk and fellowship and contact with HIM and with the living
CHRIST my Saviour, my SUPERIOR and HEAD in this Work—and to GIVE ME, by
His grace, more and more of the FAITH of Jesus Christ!
Brethren,
I had not realized I was letting down spiritually. My responsibilities
require that I spend much time in conferences planning big and important
projects—yes, even involving millions of dollars—with not only some of
our leading ministers and executives in God's Work, but with
businessmen, architects, contractors, bankers, radio station executives,
advertising agency executives—important men of the world. Jesus
commissioned us to GO INTO the world to proclaim HIS Gospel. I have had
to DEAL WITH the world—but Jesus warned us we must not be OF this
world. God has guided me in making wise decisions. The living Christ has
GUIDED this Work—often in spite of me—often with and through me. He
has given me the needed wisdom. I felt the Work was going along pretty
well—DID NOT REALIZE THAT I WAS SLOWING, spiritually!
What
I have said of my own reawakening is pretty much the story of what has
happened to all of those ministers at Headquarters God has placed in the
top positions of authority and responsibility under me. They, too, have
been SHAKEN UP, drastically, severely. They, too, have humbled themselves,
come to see and confess failings and slippings spiritually. They, too,
have repented, from the heart.
Three
times, now, I have gotten these evangelists of God out of bed early in
the morning, and had them dress quickly and come to my home where
we have assembled in my study and prayer room. I want to tell you there
has been deep and merciless SOUL-SEARCHING! We have had sessions of
fervent, heartrending PRAYER together.
From
these leading ministers, this reawakening is acting like a CHAIN
REACTION right on down to the other ministers, the student body, and the
entire membership of the Headquarters CHURCH, and the Churches around
the world.
From
all parts of the world I am receiving letters and telegrams saying God's
people have been SHAKEN, MOVED, made to see lukewarmness, their
spiritual lethargy and letdown! There is a MIGHTY REAWAKENING being
injected by God's Spirit into the hearts and minds of God's Church that
is spreading WORLDWIDE!
Nothing
but the power of God's mighty Holy Spirit could have produced this! My
dear wife did not produce it—the HOLY SPIRIT did—but God has used her,
and her suffering, to GENERATE it! When news of this reawakening reaches
her, she smiles, and says that if God has granted that she could have
been used by him as a means by which God has STIRRED UP His Church to
its
PITIFUL, SHAMEFUL, spiritual lassitude,
she is glad.
The
ministers at the European headquarters, at the college in Britain, are
meeting together for these same sessions of confessing their failings
and praying together. Also at the Texas campus, in Australia, in our
offices around the world—Canada, the Philippines, Geneva, Dusseldorf,
Johannesburg. In all the Churches, the ministers are calling the members
to REPENTANCE, to HUMBLING themselves before God—to REPENTANCE—and to
spiritual REAWAKENING!
But
now, WHY?
And
WHY at this time?
HERE
is why! God's great worldwide Work is right now on the threshold of the
GREATEST LEAP FORWARD in multiplied POWER it has ever experienced. All
the years of this Work up to now have been the PREPARATORY years,
preparing us—training us by experience—developing the organization—building the financial resources—equipping us with the POWER
to now
launch forth on the REAL JOLT TO THE WORLD that will SHAKE THIS
WORLD TO ITS FOUNDATIONS!
And
WE—from myself and the evangelists and pastors and elders on down to
the FLOCK AS A WHOLE—had allowed ourselves to come to a place of almost
spiritual stagnation!
Brethren,
God could not USE this Church, in our lethargic, complacent condition,
as His instrument to launch this final mighty PUSH that is going to MAKE
THIS WORLD CONSCIOUS of the LIVING GOD—of His coming KINGDOM—of its SINS—of Christ's soon-coming as KING over all nations!
Sure,
we were going along—the Work was going along—it has been expanding
each year—but we were going on past MOMENTUM—IN A RUT!
God
has had to WAKE US UP! Either that, or
reject us,
spew us out of His mouth, and RAISE UP A CHURCH HE COULD USE!
THANK
GOD for this experience. I PRAISE Him for this chastening!
Brethren,
I have suffered as perhaps never before, with my wife lying there—with
a bowel blockage that held locked inside of her putrid human waste—knowing that unless God grants her continued life by a MIRACLE of
healing, I would have to go on alone, without her! I NEED HER DESPERATELY!
But I need her CLEANSED and HEALED—PHYSICALLY!
But
Brethren—up there in heaven, at the right hand of GOD on the throne of
the universe, sits JESUS CHRIST, looking down here at US—HIS WIFE (He
is MARRIED to Israel—and we are Israel begotten by His Spirit,
affianced to MARRY Him (again) at His coming). Yes, WE, Brethren, are HIS
WIFE And the living Jesus has beheld HIS wife filled with SPIRITUAL
putridness—SPIRITUAL sickness, that is UNTO DEATH, unless it is PURGED
OUT OF US!
Jesus
GAVE HIMSELF for His CHURCH—that He might present it to himself—at
His coming—a GLORIOUS CHURCH, not having spiritual spot, or wrinkle, or
any such thing, but that it should be HOLY, and WITHOUT BLEMISH!
(Ephesians 5:25-27.)
Yes,
he paid the SUPREME PRICE that we might be HOLY, and WITHOUT spiritual
blemish! And Jesus has looked down upon His beloved wife, whom HE loves,
as I so deeply love my wife. And as I have seen my wife about to
die unless purged of this physical poison, so JESUS sees His
wife—OUR CHURCH—about to die for eternity,
unless WE are purged of our SPIRITUAL
poison!
Brethren,
Jesus has been giving me a little bit of understanding of HOW HE
FEELS! We have been GRIEVING him! Yes, He has been GRIEVED because of
us! I wonder if He is not shedding spiritual tears! He LOVES us.
We are His WIFE! We are so PRECIOUS to him!
WHY
has Almighty God DELAYED the miracle that will heal my wife? She would
have died about two weeks ago, had not God already performed MIRACLES.
After ten days or more of complete stoppage both at top and bottom—unable to hold nourishment or even water on her stomach—every few
minutes sipping a little water, and also dissolving chopped ice in her
mouth—then throwing it up again—after so many DAYS of that, and
cramps and pains of agony over her abdomen—suddenly she was able to
hold liquids in her stomach. She has since been able to take small
amounts of homemade grape juice, carrot juice, even some straight beef
juice,—though it is very weak, for
she has had no food for almost a month.
The
last two days God has given us a few very small evidences of ENCOURAGEMENT.
God
KNOWS how seriously she is needed, now, in this final GREAT PUSH
of his great Work. We KNOW it is His will to save her. He started His
Work with and through her—STARTED the Work that has resulted in
bringing YOU into His Church—God says He WILL NOT STOP THE WORK
HE HAS BEGUN! "The Eternal intervenes on my behalf. . . Thou wilt
not drop the Work thou hast begun." (Psalm 138:6—Moffat
Translation.)
God
used Zerubbabel as His human instrument in charge of the building of the
temple at Jerusalem, in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. That temple was a
TYPE of the BUILDING that is HIS church today.
God
said to Zerubbabel, as lie makes very plain to ME, whom—with MY
WIFE—He has used to build THIS BUILDING which is His church of this era
—"Not
by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit saith the ETERNAL of
hosts." (Zech. 4:6.) Today this Work is well organized. It has
reached a status of some financial and material POWER. But all this
physical power is as NOTHING! The Work can go forward ONLY BY THE POWER
OF GOD'S SPIRIT That is GOD'S
MESSAGE
TO US. Zerubbabel is the TYPE! The message is for US!
Continue:
"Who art thou, O great mountain?" (verse 7—speaking
of the coming "Beast" in Europe), "before Zerubbabel thou
shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the Headstone thereof
with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it." That Head Stone
(Eph. 2:20) Is CHRIST, the HEAD STONE, rejected by the builders, but
HEAD of His CHURCH.
Continue:
"Moreover the Word of the Eternal came unto me saying, hands of
Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this HOUSE; his hands shall also
finish it."
Now
compare that with Ephesians 2:19-21: "Now therefore ye are fellow
citizens with the saints, and of the Household of GOD. And are built
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself
being the chief CORNER STONE; in whom all the building (CHURCH) fitly
framed together groweth unto an holy TEMPLE in the Lord."
I
do not mean at all that Zerubbabel was a type of me. But this does
show that it is God's PRINCIPLE by which He works—which is His WAY—His
WILL—that when a MAN was used to START that building,
it was God's will
to FINISH IT by that same man. But in this case it is not a man
ALONE—but a MAN-AND-WIFE TEAM TOGETHER. For that temple WAS a type of
God's CHURCH, called a TEMPLE (for the Holy Spirit) in Ephesians 2:21.
When
King Hezekiah had reached the time to die, he turned and prayed to God
in tears, and God spared his life and added 15 years. Every time any
man, in recorded Bible experience, ever HUMBLED himself and turned to
God for mercy, GOD HAS GRANTED IT—HEARD, and ANSWERED!
Even
the wicked King Ahab whom Elijah contended with, one of the most evil
men pictured in the Bible, HUMBLED himself when Elijah told him the
terrible END God had pronounced on him. (I Kings 21:17-27.)
Did
God hear even that wicked man—who apparently DID NOT repent, but
humbled himself and fasted BECAUSE of FRIGHT at what he had heard was to
happen? HE DID." And the word of the ETERNAL came to Elijah . . .
saying, Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he
humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but
in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house." (Verses
28-29.)
God's
ministers here all feel God has shown us that He WILL heal Mrs.
Armstrong. That blockage is still there. But the past two days God has
given us a tow small signs of His intervention for our encouragement.
God is GIVING us more and more of CHRIST'S faith. He is drawing us
closer to Him by the day.
We
have HUMBLED ourselves before Him—we have CONFESSED our shortcomings
and our sins—we have REPENTED! I have changed my entire DAILY
ROUTINE—my entire life. The FASTING and PRAYER has resulted in almost
completely REMOVING all signs of the heart condition or high blood
pressure. For four years I have had to live,
knowing
I could drop dead
at any second Now pounds have been taken off. Now I can take longer,
more vigorous walks. Now I am taking them, three times a day—REGARDLESS
of circumstances which might try to prevent! Now, no matter how many
conferences are scheduled, no matter how pressing some urgent executive
responsibility, I am going THREE TIMES or more a day to my prayer room
God has blessed me with, there to commune with Him, and keep closer to
him! My life from now WILL BE FAR MORE ACTIVE—and that new routine is
already in effect and becoming well established. I am crying out to God
to PURGE from me all that hinders—to GIVE more of His Spirit, His Power,
his FAITH. I am asking him
to put
special HEALING
GIFTS in His Church—special
and more than before!
Brethren,
THERE HAS TO BE AN ABOUT-FACE!
I am not ashamed to lead off in this.
I am not ashamed to set you the
EXAMPLE! I
am HAPPY and REJOICING in God's chastening He has given me and doing my
utmost to respond to it.
WILL
YOU DO THE SAME?
Now
DON'T fast for Mrs. Armstrong! But
I feel pretty sure that EVERY
ONE OF YOU do seriously NEED to FAST for YOUR OWN SELF!—to
help you draw closer to GOD! To search down deeply into your OWN soul!
To find what YOU need to repent of—what YOU need to confess,
acknowledge, and turn from.
It
may be that God is STILL WAITING for this spiritual AWAKENING to spread
through the WHOLE CHURCH—on down to the LAST MEMBER—even YOU!—before my dear wife can be delivered, and completely HEALED and restored
to active, vigorous HEALTH.
And
let me REMIND all of you—or INFORM you if you had not heard—TWO of our
other ministers' wives are CRITICALLY ILL—and facing death unless GOD
INTERVENES! Their lives, too,
may depend on YOUR PRAYERS
OF
FAITH!
One
is Mrs. Harold Jackson. He is a pastor in God's Church. He needs his
wife, as I need mine. She, too, is a consecrated, loyal, competent HELP
to Mr. Jackson who carries heavy responsibilities. A week ago she would
have died, had not God performed a miracle. At my last report she is
still living—but in CRITICAL condition!
The
other is Mrs. Glen White; Mr. White, a preaching elder, is pastor of
God's
Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. I understand she has cancer. But
GOD
CAN HEAL CANCER—has healed cancer a number of times by my prayers and
those of other of God's ministers! Her life, too,
may depend on YOUR
prayer of FAITH!
Brethren,
pray for these ministers, too—I know how THEY have suffered because of
their wives' suffering!
Are we SELF-centered,
not caring about these women? Or DO we have real OUTGOING CONCERN—deep
concern—over them? When ONE part of the BODY of CHRIST suffers, do we
ALL suffer—do we have this LOVE—this OUTGOING CONCERN—for others in the
Church? "By this," said Jesus, "shall all men KNOW that ye are my
disciples—IF ye have LOVE one for another."
REMEMBER
these women, so necessary to the ministry of their husbands, as well as
Mrs. Armstrong!
Brethren,
my wife and I are, as most of you know, past 70. But WE ARE NOT
"OLD PEOPLE!" We are more like middle age or younger.
We don't act or think like "OLD folks." God can RENEW OUR
YOUTH—(see Isaiah 40:28-31). Read it! The first part of this wonderful
chapter refers DIRECTLY as a prophecy for THIS WORK. And in it is
a prophecy NOW BEING FULFILLED!
Brethren,
I am terribly DISTRESSED and sick at heart at the reports
from all over, that MANY of our members are LUKEWARM, or entirely
LETHARGIC, spiritually. If YOU are one of those,
I have to warn
you—you may not be on the way to God's Kingdom—but on the way to your
END in the LAKE OF FIRE!
Reports come to me of MANY of you, who are like some described in
Daniel's prophecy of the 11th chapter of Daniel. Speaking of God's
CHURCH, this was FORETOLD: " . . . but many shall cleave to them—flatteries.
And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge,
and to make them white, even to the TIME OF THE END." (Verses
34-35). That is a prophecy for this Church, NOW!
Reports
indicate that many have "come in" to God's Church in this
manner:
They
have come to really SEE and KNOW that this is, truly, GOD'S
Church. They know there is terrible WORLD TROUBLE just ahead. They have
heard how God's Church is to be taken to a
PLACE OF SAFETY. (And HOW God
is working that out is a PART of the sensational ANNOUNCEMENT I hope
very soon to announce!) So these people come in,
selfishly, for a sort
of spiritual and physical SECURITY—to assure PROTECTION when
the Great Tribulation bursts upon the world! But they are NOT themselves
"on fire for GOD!" They are spiritual DRONES! And God will
not give them protection!
Many
professing to be Church MEMBERS say, when a Co-Worker letter arrives, in
a grumbling, complaining disgust: "Oh,
that's another of Mr. Armstrong's REQUESTS for MONEY,"
and many don't even read the letter!
Are
YOU one of those? If so,
LET ME BURN YOUR EARS before the
Almighty GOD burns YOU in the Lake of FIRE! If that has been YOUR
attitude—if YOU are only on the GETTING side, and SHUN helping,
and giving to the cause of GOD, then I say to you ON AUTHORITY OF JESUS
CHRIST, if you don't REPENT and QUICKLY, and change that
hostile, despicable, detestable attitude, you DO NOT BELONG in GOD'S
CHURCH. You are some of the ROTTEN, PUTRID, spiritual WASTE that
has been PLUGGED UP INSIDE OF THE SPIRITUAL BODY OF CHRIST'S
WIFE. Just as physical waste is plugged up in my dear wife's body! And
the living Jesus is just as able to EXPEL YOU from the spiritual Body of
HIS WIFE as HE is to expel this physical waste from my wife's body!
And if THAT doesn't make your ears tingle, and AWAKEN you, then Jesus
Christ says to YOU through me,
YOU are in danger of the Lake of FIRE!
God's
people must be on the GIVING side—not the GETTING! Unless you are, with
a whole heart, you ought to
GET OUT of God's Church, for you are a
hindrance and a liability!
Did
you ever read of Gideon's experience in choosing men for battle? There
were 32,000 men. There are about 32,000 actual BAPTIZED adult members
(or professing members) in the Church of God today! God had Gideon
proclaim to them: "Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him return
and depart early from Mount Gilead. And there returned of the people
22,000; and there remained 10,000." Then God put them to a TEST,
and, finally, ONLY 300 out of that 32,000 were chosen by the
living ETERNAL!
Oh
Brethren! MUST it be that way with God's CHURCH today—the very BODY of
the living CHRIST? The very BRIDE of Christ—already His Wife, and to be
again MARRIED to him at His second coming? Is JESUS CHRIST going through
a spiritual TRAUMA, as I have a physical and mental one, because HIS
WIFE is all plugged up with
SPIRITUAL FILTH? Is HE weeping spiritual
tears over YOU?
I
call on all members to SEARCH YOUR HEARTS! Will YOU follow my
example???
Now
Brethren, before I close, I said this great Work is right on the
doorstep of TREMENDOUS THINGS! I hope that, any day now, I may be able
to make the most SENSATIONAL ANNOUNCEMENT since this Work began.
Yes,
MORE than one—TREMENDOUS announcements. I cannot, even to the Church
membership, tell you what it is until contracts are
signed—otherwise it would tip off the hand of enemies.
One
thing I CAN say now—my son Garner Ted Armstrong is now being TELEVISED
daily, as he puts on the daily broadcast—Just by our own
closed-circuit television here within the library building where our
radio studio is located. We are now placing orders for at least two
fully professional T.V. cameras. When they arrive, we will begin
producing programs TO BE PUT ON THE AIR. We are working closely with a
local television station—a small UHF station—not a big listening
audience—but it will be a START—to help us "get our feet
wet" in it, as it were. Then, SOON, The WORLD TOMORROW will start
to GROW from one to more and more stations on T.V., across the United
States—and then, wherever we may be able to have the program
accepted—around the world!
But
I have an even BIGGER announcement—as soon as it is official so I am
free to announce it!
But
GOD'S CHURCH has not been filled with the SPIRITUAL POWER and VITALITY
of God's HOLY SPIRIT to the full extent we NEED to be to respond to what
God is now opening up before us. It is B I G! It is a TREMENDOUS
increase in the POWER of this Work.
And
now, finally, here is ONE IMPORTANT WAY in which God's Church has been
FALLING DOWN ON THE JOB!
You
all KNOW WELL that this great WORK never was able to grow UNTIL God
raised up Ambassador College, to train consecrated and called ministers
to HELP.
The
Work was little. The Church, when the college started, consisted of
about 30 members at Eugene, Oregon, and some 18 or so at Portland. TODAY
it is more than 40,000—or, as most Protestant denominations would
count members, about 250,000! (Counting all Co-Workers and their
families, children, etc.) Then we were on five or six radio stations—today 304 stations, including MANY of the greatest PRESTIGE
SUPER-POWER stations of the world—and the greatest of all now opening
its doors!
You
KNOW WELL that the WORK of this Church cannot grow UNLESS THE COLLEGES
GROW. And the colleges cannot grow unless we build more
for students to sleep in, eat in, study in, and go to class in—and
unless there are buildings and offices for the large and growing STAFF
to receive the MAIL, answer it, print the magazines, mail out the
literature.
You can REALIZE how great STATE UNIVERSITIES need great new buildings by
the hundreds to teach students EVOLUTION, ATHEISM, false knowledge. But
some of you can't understand why GOD'S COLLEGES ought to have facilities
in which to do GOD'S WORK! Brethren,
with some of you, GOD IS ASHAMED!
I am speaking
PLAINLY this time! If your feelings get hurt, you don't belong in God's
Church—unless or until you CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE AND REPENT!
You
KNOW that we are on a SEVEN YEAR (or longer) building program,
that began less than four years ago, and has three or more years yet to
go. And yet YOU BRETHREN, who call yourselves GOD'S PEOPLE, have
dwindled down to about HALF the amount of SPECIAL OFFERINGS for the
BUILDING FUND you were sending in a year ago—though there are 30% more
of us!
THINK
OF IT! How ASHAMED God must be with this, His Church! There are
about 30% more of us than a year ago! Yet we are FORSAKING
God's program which the living CHRIST—the HEAD of our Church—is
planning through us whom HE has chosen and placed in executive position
directly UNDER HIM!
That
is as much a NECESSARY PART of GOD'S WORK—His GOSPEL WORK—of getting
His Gospel to the WORLD—as more radio stations, or going on television.
Right
now God is OPENING TREMENDOUS new doors I hope in a matter of
DAYS to be able to announce! I tell you, for those of us who KNOW of
this, IT TAKES OUR BREATH! It is MIRACULOUS! We should have
thought it IMPOSSIBLE.
God is actually moving a number of national
GOVERNMENTS to seek us out and offer us staggering, amazing,
breathtaking FACILITIES! Six weeks ago I would have laughed at such a
suggestion as IMPOSSIBLE! But ALL THINGS are possible with our
miracle-working GOD!
These
new doors are going to rapidly INCREASE the requests for The PLAIN TRUTH
—for new BOOKLETS—for personal replies and answers. Our mail will
soon skyrocket upward. WE ABSOLUTELY CANNOT HANDLE IT, unless we accept
larger enrollments of students this fall! We MUST HAVE MORE TRAINED
PERSONNEL! We cannot accept more students until we can build more
buildings for them to WORK in, STUDY in, go to CLASS in, LIVE in, EAT
in.
Can
you Brethren see that this BUILDING PROGRAM into which CHRIST has led us
must precede walking through the new DOORS He is opening
before us?
We
have FALLEN SHORT in two ways: 1.) We have lagged spiritually-we have
bogged down—we have gotten our minds and hearts and interests on
MATERIAL WORLDLY PLEASURES AND INTERESTS, and taken them more and more
OFF OF God's great and glorious WORK! God's WIFE—His CHURCH—has
allowed spiritual PUTRIDNESS to accumulate within this BODY OF CHRIST!
God have mercy on us and CLEANSE US of this SIN! 2) We have grown
careless, and LET DOWN on Christ's vitally-important BUILDING program.
This, too, is clogging up, slowing down, tending to STOP THE WORK!
And
WHY?
I
know well enough why! Let me hasten to say I realize the many NEW
members may not have KNOWN about this dire need—because I have not
gotten out much about it in any of the letters. But you who were sending
in almost DOUBLE the present amount a year ago—YOU knew about it! Also
I hasten to add that SOME of you—perhaps HALF—have remained FAITHFUL.
Many of you have continued sending in these EXTRA, special, additional
offerings for the BUILDING fund.
It is the OTHER HALF who have lagged,
or LAIN DOWN ON THE JOB and QUIT, who have caused this Serious
emergency.
Unless
the total income for the Work continues, year by year, to INCREASE by
30%—or, a little more precisely 27% —per year, WE SHALL HAVE FAILED TO
FINISH THE WORK OF GOD by the time we must be taken to a
PLACE OF SAFETY!
So
now LISTEN! Listen carefully! For the month of February, just ended,
gain was only about 12.5%. LESS THAN HALF the needed gain! Do you know
WHY? Primarily because the PROPERTY FUND—or BUILDING FUND, as perhaps
we ought to call it—has had NO increase, but
a great big DECREASE. The
income of tithes and offerings increased 28.2%. That is satisfactory.
But the OTHER INCOME—a very large PART of the TOTAL income to finance
this Work—actually DECREASED!
I
want you to realize how serious this is!
So WHY?
WHY have so many of you let down?
Well,
perhaps you'll say it is my fault. I have been so burdened down with
other duties that have so filled my time that I was not able to get
around to sending you a letter to JOG YOU UP—to URGE YOU ON—to PROD you,
to PUSH you into
doing it!
I didn't send the annual STATEMENT OF INTENTION card for you to sign for
another year!
Was
it, after all, MY fault? Was it, now?
LISTEN,
Brethren—and listen HARD!
Learn a LESSON that may save you from
the Lake of Fire.
Learn a basic TRUTH about how you are to develop character and GROW
spiritually to INHERIT GOD'S KINGDOM! Learn a GREAT TRUTH!
Learn what may
mean your ETERNITY!
Read
this two or three times! UNDERSTAND IT!
Some of you do not GO FORWARD spiritually with Christ, UNLESS I or YOUR
LOCAL PASTOR, or SOME ONE
PUSHES YOU!
But our PUSHING will never get you into God's Kingdom. Our pushing will
never get you to the
PLACE OF SAFETY, for the Great Tribulation about five years from now
(if our figuring is correct).
HERE'S
WHY! Here's a most IMPORTANT spiritual LESSON!
GOD
HIMSELF DOES NOT EITHER PULL, OR PUSH, OR DRIVE us! Understand this!
Read it in the article coming in the APRIL PLAIN TRUTH,—on what is the
Unpardonable SIN!2
You
are not converted—begotten of God—a real CHRISTIAN—unless or until
you have GOD'S Holy SPIRIT DWELLING IN YOU. On real repentance and
believing, God PROMISES to give you His Spirit. It begets you as HIS
CHILD. It opens your mind to UNDERSTAND His Word. As a Christian, you
start out on a different WAY—a different ROAD—leading to everlasting
life I God's Spirit opens your understanding, to know how to live
by every Word of the Bible. It is THE WAY of GOD'S LAW. It takes a
divine love to fulfill HIS Law—that is, to WALK that WAY toward
God's Kingdom. God's Spirit is GOD'S LOVE. So God SUPPLIES you with the
spiritual LOVE to fulfill His Law. His Spirit GIVES you Christ's FAITH,
necessary to walk that road. It supplies you with spiritual POWER to
walk that road. God gives you all the SPIRITUAL EQUIPMENT to walk that
road.
B
U T—here's the LESSON—BE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND THIS: God's Spirit
which He gives you WILL NOT PULL YOU His way—will not PUSH
you—will not FORCE you! God GIVES, by His loving grace, the
SPIRITUAL EQUIPMENT so you CAN walk His WAY! But God will not DRIVE you
or PULL you. You, yourself, must make the decisions to GO
God's way—and you yourself must SET YOUR WILL to GO that way.
B
U T—and
understand this as well: your old carnal SELF—your HUMAN NATURE
will PULL you the other way! The world—your worldly
friends—worldly cares, interests, pleasures—THESE, TOO, will PULL
you—they will tug HARD at you, to pull you OFF OF God's road! And so
will SATAN!
So,
what do you face? THREE STRONG PULLS, all pulling you AWAY from
Christ—pulling to get you OFF of God's WAY-trying to PULL you AWAY from
the road that leads to everlasting LIFE in God's Kingdom.
But
what about MANY of YOU?
Unless I PUSH you—PULL at you—REMIND you to act in this DUTY TO GOD AND
HIS WORK, you don't go along on God's road—you lie down and QUIT—you
QUIT
sending in your SPECIAL offerings, over and above tithes and regular
offerings for the GOSPEL! You let the PULLS of carnal, worldly interest
or pleasure. Take that money which ought to go to GOD'S cause!
And
then, if I DO remind you, some of you become OFFENDED—and
you
gripe and complain, and some of you refuse to read the letters! No, not
some—I am informed from our men all over that
MANY do! In Jesus' name,
I say, SHAME ON YOU! You who are guilty of that!
Now
let me bring you up to date on the Building Expansion Program.
By
July last year—1966—architect's plans were complete for the new
men's dormitory building on the Pasadena campus. But because you members
were letting down on the PROPERTY FUND, and it was too far depleted the
building had to be canceled. By October, we decided the building program—SO
VITAL to the Work—had to proceed. BUT, by that time the
need for new CLASSROOMS had become so critical, it had to take priority
over the dormitory. So we speeded up the architects on plans for the new
ACADEMIC QUADRANGLE, with twin two-story buildings, one on each side,
between Ambassador Hall and the fabulous formal Italian Sunken Garden,
which Mr. Merritt built before that property came to us. One will be the
Life Science Hall, and the other the Fine Arts Building. These
we MUST
HAVE before we can accept additional students. Ground breaking is to
take place in a week or two—and construction will be underway on a big
scale. These buildings are to be completed very shortly after college
starts again next fall.
Meanwhile,
the need for our Administration Building has grown to an acute CRISIS.
In Mr. Portune's Business Department, they are having to set desks out
in HALLS—three and four desks in a small room—many offices in old
houses we have bought or other buildings, two, three or five blocks
AWAY—when they ought to be next door, in the SAME BUILDING. God's Work
just cannot be carried on like that.
So
we have commissioned the architects to start, full speed ahead, with
plans for the Administration Office Building. We hope to start
construction by JULY.
And
we have commissioned another firm of architects to begin plans at once
for the new HOUSE OF GOD—to be the HEADQUARTERS CHURCH Auditorium for
the whole world—the House I have wanted to build for GOD—on the
Pasadena campus.
Brethren,
we have already postponed this building more than three years. This must
be a comparatively FINE building—not a cheap one or of inferior
materials. God says if we BUILD (our character) of gold, silver, and
precious stones, our building will be accepted—but if we build with
wood. straw and stubble, it will be BURNED
in Gehenna FIRE! When God
gave David the plans for GOD'S TEMPLE which Solomon was to build at
Jerusalem, it was replete with GOLD, SILVER, PRECIOUS STONES. That
building was SO COSTLY that even the United States GOVERNMENT could not
afford to build such a building today! It cost the equivalent, in
today's dollar value, of more than TEN THOUSAND MILLION dollars! It cost
more than St. Peter's at the Vatican!
Now
we have no intention of trying to build anything like THAT!
God would
not want anything too costly under present conditions, in Pasadena. We
know that. But it must be of relatively GOOD quality, as buildings
generally are built today. This is the building, to rise up seven
stories high, with giant 72-foot fluted pillars rising up all around out
of an artificial lake. The lake will be a block long, and over half a
block wide.
It will not be overcostly at all—but it MUST BE A FINE
BUILDING, in keeping with proper economy. We expect it to take about a
year and a half to complete architectural design and plans. We have
already shown you—about three years or more ago—a rough
architectural drawing of it. We hope to begin construction in about a
year and a hall.
On
the English campus, they have come to DIRE need, and are now starting
construction of the new girls' dormitory. Unless that is completed, or
at least one of the two units of it, by September, we cannot accept
additional girls there for the next school year. They, too, are just
about as hard pressed for an Administration Building—in British
terminology called the "Faculty Building"—as we here in
Pasadena. So plans are being rushed to completion.
On
the Texas campus, we recently finished the new Dining Hall—built INSIDE
the shell of the big "Tabernacle" building. This saved a great
deal of money, and still provided a beautiful Dining Hall, They are
still using temporary portable classroom buildings—each building being
just one single classroom. Four additional smaller dormitory buildings—housing 36 students each—were completed last September. No more
building is immediately projected for that campus—although they will
soon NEED a new Administration Building, and the new three-level
classroom building, and the Fine Arts classroom building. Those will
have to be delayed for the present.
Now
Brethren, GOD'S WORK MUST LEAP FORWARD!
We must have these buildings!
We MUST have a spiritual AWAKENING! We MUST every one of us either SPEND
MORE TIME ON OUR KNEES with God in PRAYER, or stagnate, and
be in danger of
GEHENNA FIRE!
FINALLY,
as I wrote you over a year ago, we realize some of our members are
UNABLE to make an
additional SPECIAL and EXTRA offering each month for
this PROPERTY FUND. I do not expect such people to return the enclosed
card! God bless you—WE UNDERSTAND!
And
all others—IF for any reason your income stops or is reduced, and you
are PREVENTED from continuing this amount indicated on the card, YOU ARE
NOT BOUND! It is NOT an all-binding PLEDGE! It is NOT a vow! We
don't want you to make vows!
Those
who are UNABLE to send this special EXTRA monthly offering for the
special PROPERTY FUND can at least PRAY for the Building Program—and a
lot more often than once a month!
Also, if you are in your THIRD TITHE YEAR, and are UNABLE to send
any-thing for the PROPERTY FUND, please realize
we don't expect
what you are UNABLE to do.
But as soon as
your third tithe year is over, then you should resume contributing to
this special fund.
Brethren,
LET YOUR RESPONSE SHOW OUR LIVING SAVIOUR THAT GOD'S CHURCH IS NOT
DEAD OR DYING—that we have come to the Throne of Grace in heartrending,
deeply prevailing PRAYER—that we have allowed HIM to CLEAN OUT from
this spiritual BODY of Christ, which is HIS Wife, the spiritual putridness
and waste
which we have allowed to clog us up!
I
started this letter yesterday. It is long. This morning I can report to
you that last evening God actually BEGAN cleaning out this stopped-up
waste in Mrs. Armstrong. It is only a tiny start—but a real START—and
it gives us great encouragement and REJOICING! We are PRAISING GOD!
In
my next letter—I hope SOON—I hope and believe by FAITH that I may be
able to report to you not only Mrs. Armstrong's complete healing, and
again beginning to rebuild lost weight and strength by solid food—but
also the big ANNOUNCEMENTS.
Remember,
equally with Mrs. Armstrong in your prayers, Mrs. Harold Jackson, and
Mrs. Glen White—wives of two of God's important ministers. Remember
the whole church in your prayers! Pray for the HEALING OF THE WHOLE
CHURCH!! Pray earnestly and constantly for the WORK. And please pray for
me and ALL GOD'S MINISTERS!
God
be WITH you Brethren. WE are the LIGHT OF THE WORLD, and if we let our
light die out, what a dark world it would be. BUT WE WON'T! PRAY—as
you never prayed before—and KEEP IT UP!
THANK
You, and God be with you and bless you.
With
deep love, in Jesus' name,
Herbert
W. Armstrong
Footnotes by ESN:
1 Herbert W. Armstrong
claimed many times that he was God's Apostle (a.k.a. "Christ's apostle"):
Notice just a few quotes from him (bolding ours): "The
author, Christ's apostle, can say emphatically that the apostles,
evangelists, pastors and elders could not carry on the work of God
without the loyal backing and continued encouragement of the lay
members." (Mystery
of the Ages,
Herbert W. Armstrong, p. 267) "And finally, Christ's apostle sends out monthly a mimeographed
Co-Worker letter to all members and co-workers reporting on progress in
the work, current activities and needs." (Ibid., p. 269) "And
please state in your letter, in your own words, that this money is your
endorsement of my apostleship, and the money is to be used for
defending God's Work as I, Christ's Apostle, deem best." (January
14, 1979 Dear Brethren letter) "Naturally, it is incumbent on me as
God's Apostle, to protect His 'sheepfold' He has placed under my
care." (July 31, 1978 Dear Brethren letter) "I call upon all of
you in the name of Jesus Christ, as God's Apostle, and your
Minister, be careful!" (March 29, 1957 Dear Brethren letter)
2 There is no unpardonable sin today.
Read: Can I commit the unpardonable
sin? (Q&A)
| "There is no fear in
love; but perfect love casteth out fear; because fear hath
torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. ~ I John
4:18 |
Richard Armstrong and the
Automobile Accident (Includes the
Co-Worker letter)
How Did
Worldwide Church of God Instruct Ministers to Deal With "Health and
Medical Problems"? (These policies
were taught to the ministers to "avoid prosecution" and show the
main reason why WCG changed the healing doctrine.)
Back to Questioning Herbert
W. Armstrong (was he who he said he was?)
|