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The Myth and the Man:
Documentation regarding the history of the ministry of
Herbert W. ArmstrongThis information about the ministry of Herbert W. Armstrong is part of the Field Guide profile Herbert W. Armstrong -- The Myth and the Man.
The following is from a list of questions regarding Armstrong's ministry. To see the other questions on the list, click on the link at the end of this page.
Q. 9 In spite of whatever foibles he may have had, wasn’t Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA) a great man of Faith, who trusted God for finances to do what he called "The Work"?
Please Note: Red highlighting has been added to some sections of the following to call attention to significant comments. CAPITALIZATION for emphasis was in the original documents.
"Sacrifice as never before ... before ... before ... before ... before … "
Excerpts from Herbert W. Armstrong's "Co-Worker letters" 1934-1970
[This collection of mostly short excerpts from 35 different letters by HWA to his supporters is only a small representation of many, many more letters which used similar wording. Only by perusing such an extensive sample can someone who was never exposed to this barrage of financial badgering and pleading and threatening comprehend just how much HWA depended on this method to "finance" what he called "The Work." ]
December 20, 1934
Will GOD'S PEOPLE be willing now to GIVE TILL IT HURTS—to GIVE UP THINGS—to SACRIFICE—that many may be saved for eternity? The night is far spent! Jesus is SOON COMING! The MILLIONS are not awake! We must WARN THEM! Dear friend, are you WILLING! Will you HELP?
But if we are to grasp this wonderful opportunity, we must act at once! Unless enough money is pledged BEFORE JANUARY 1st, to cover the expense of this great radio program for THE ENTIRE YEAR, we cannot go on the air in Portland…
If these scores of thousands are WARNED of their sin—of the coming PLAGUES—of the soon coming JESUS—whether or not they heed, we shall have acquitted ourselves before God. And SOME of them will heed and be saved. BUT— if we FAIL our Lord in this hour of crisis, HE SAYS HE WILL REQUIRE THEIR BLOOD AT YOUR HAND AND MINE!
Dear friend, let us be fellow-servants of God, together. Alone I am helpless and powerless. YOUR help is just as important—will receive just as much blessing from God—as my part of the work. Think, now, of some of the material things you plan to buy. Then think of the "stars in your crown" that God will add FOR ETERNITY if you will sacrifice it and use that money to GET THE PURE GOSPEL TRUTH TO THIS VAST MULTITUDE! Upwards of a QUARTER MILLION PEOPLE! IT means ALL ETERNITY for them! SOULS are at stake for ALL ETERNITY! The things you may have to sacrifice to help, or make a larger pledge, you will never miss WHEN JESUS COMES—and HE IS COMING SOON! We must act QUICKLY! And so I ask you to help with your means, even to the point of sacrificing. And above all I ask you to pray! pray! PRAY!!! Your prayers are as necessary as your money!
I must have $50 per month subscribed and PLEDGED, to be sent the first of each month for the entire year 1935, if this wonderful campaign for Jesus is to go with the LOUD VOICE of the radio! The pledges must be in my hands BEFORE JANUARY 1st! Remember, this is entirely a WORK OF FAITH! Every CENT must come from you who receive this letter, and quickly, or we fail. Some will be able to contribute only 25 cents or 50 cents a month. God will bless it, if you cannot send more. But the number who subscribe will necessarily be SMALL—so that unless everyone who possibly can subscribe MORE than a dollar a month—say $5, or $10—this wonderful campaign for God will fail. Subscribe the very largest offering you can give. We cannot, will not, go contrary to God's Word by BEGGING FOR MONEY OVER THE AIR! The whole cost must be pledged IN ADVANCE from God's own believing children, that it may go FREE, WITHOUT BEGGING, over the air to the vast throng. So I ask you to pledge the very largest amount you can. And PRAY EARNESTLY that God will cause enough others to respond. We stand or fall on the result of this one letter!
Now, further, we are considerably behind in current bills, and must have $50 AT ONCE to clear them up, keep God's work out of reproach, and going. I have been preaching NINE TIMES A WEEK, besides editing and printing The Plain Truth, praying for the sick, giving private Bible studies. I am giving of my time and strength to the very limit for God. WILL YOU STAND WITH ME? Will you HELP NOW? By return mail! Send an offering, as large as you can. Send also the money for your first month's pledge now, if you can. Now before you lay this letter down, fill out the pledge below for the largest amount you can, enclose an offering to help pay current bills if possible, and MAIL IT IN THE ENCLOSED ADDRESSED ENVELOPE right now! Before it leaves your mind! God will bless you. And I thank you sincerely.
March, 1935
We praise God for the harvest He has given in the Eugene sector, where three new churches have been raised up, nearly altogether of new members, during the past eighteen months.
Under the three-point campaign started by the editor the first of last year— including the radio campaign, the Plain Truth magazine, and the evangelistic campaigns, this work continues to progress.
We have received about as many letters at the radio studio, from listeners, during the first three months of this year as were received all of last year. This mail indicates the radio audience has almost doubled since last Summer, and now about 8,000 to 10,000 people are in the large invisible audience every Sunday. For the past seven weeks we have been preaching on God's Holy Law.
The current issue of The Plain Truth is the largest ever issued, and goes out to about 200 new homes.
The editor plans to open a new evangelistic campaign within a few days, in either Springfield, where we have a large radio following, or at Clear Lake school house, near Alvadore. Please PRAY, very earnestly, for this campaign. Tithes and offerings to keep this big campaign, now reaching many thousands, going, have slowed up considerably the past two months, and this whole campaign will have to stop unless the brethren come quickly to the rescue. GOD HAS BLESSED THIS WORK with the largest harvest ever experienced in Oregon. Shall we let a work thus approved of God stop?
February 14, 1941
SPECIAL —AND VERY URGENT!
TO MY CO-WORKERS:
Again I find it necessary to acquaint you with the problems that now confront us in this great and fast-growing work. Since the November-December PLAIN TRUTH was issued, a number of NEW readers, listeners to the SEATTLE broadcast, have sent in offerings, thus becoming part of our Co-worker family—ust as I knew by faith, they would. However, we still are in the "in-between" period, when our special fund for the Seattle broadcast is exhausted, and the number of new Co-workers from the Seattle broadcast, and the amount being received, is still far short of making the new station self-supporting. As our new listeners get to know us better, learn more of the glorious TRUTH God has called us to proclaim, they will make the Seattle broadcast more than self-sustaining, helping us add other stations. But this will take another six weeks or two months.
I want to start the LOS ANGELES broadcast within two or three months—did want to start it by this time. But FIRST I find another preparation must be made. In order to handle the increasing correspondence, the growing circulation of The PLAIN TRUTH (now 4,000 copies), issue tracts and booklets on needed subjects, publish Bible-study Quarterlies, etc., we must immediately increase our facilities here in the office. We are very seriously handicapped by lack of office equipment. We even had to get along with card-board filing cabinets. I have no secretary or stenographer. Mrs. Armstrong and I have been working almost night and day trying to keep up this whole vast job ourselves without needed help or equipment. It has now grown beyond our capacity to handle it. Correspondence is having to be sadly neglected. Radio listeners are becoming offended because letters are not answered. We are doing our very best, but now, before adding another station and increasing the office work still more, we must add office equipment and hire at least one stenographer. We have no money on hand for this purpose.
People already are writing in asking why they are not receiving the next PLAIN TRUTH. There is no money on hand to print it. I never turn a line of copy over to the printers until making an advance payment to apply on the printing cost, and the printing bill is always paid in full before we accept the printed copies. WE RUN NO BILLS.
So we need IMMEDIATELY $50 for office equipment, $135 to publish and mail the next PLAIN TRUTH, besides enough added weekly income to hire a stenographer in addition to the present week-to- week expenses. And, besides this, we need now to begin raising a special fund of at least $750 to start and establish the LOS ANGELES broadcast.
This seems like a large need. But our God knows the need. It is for HIS work, and He has promised to supply every need. Dear Co-Workers, He is able to supply every cent of this need—and He WILL, if you join me in BELIEVING EARNEST PRAYER, and each does his VERY UTMOST, sending the largest offering you possibly can, even at great sacrifice. Our work is God's work. We must not slacken or let down. We must press forward harder now than ever! TIME IS SHORT! We are near the END! Soon the true Gospel will be BARRED from the air. Millions are offering to sacrifice their very lives for Hitler, or a worldly government that is DOOMED, and shall soon be replaced by THE KINGDOM OF GOD at Christ's coming. Are WE sacrificing, striving as hard in GOD's cause, as they for a doomed worldly cause? Let us press on with MORE zeal than worldly politicians and soldiers. Let us throw ourselves at this task as INSPIRED people -- inspired of the Spirit and Power of the living God!
There have been very few of the larger offerings of $25, $50, $100 lately. While the larger number of smaller offerings are the backbone of this work, and even the smallest offering helps more than the giver may realize, yet it is these larger offerings which really meet these emergencies and give the work the impetus to push it over every obstacle. The need now is serious and URGENT. The work must not stop or let down -- it must leap ahead! With your HELP, and your PRAYERS, under God's power IT WILL! Won't you send the largest amount you possibly can, even by giving up something you had planned, by return mail? God bless you, I know you will!
July 15,1942
When I last wrote you, thru the BULLETIN, on June 1st, we had just added a second station in Southern California, KFMB of San Diego, in addition to KMTR in Hollywood. The way had just opened for me to speak 30 minutes EVERY DAY over KMTR for four weeks thru the month of June.
It was the greatest test of faith, so far as financial needs are concerned, we had ever been called upon to face. All this meant an added expense, on top of all previous expenses which must be kept up, of more than $200 per WEEK. Where it was all to come from, I could see. Humanly, it appeared utterly impossible. But after much prayer, and discussing it with Mrs. Armstrong over long distance telephone we both felt sure God Himself had opened the way, and it was His will for us to go ahead, TRUSTING HIM ALONE. All I could do was just SHUT MY EYES to that great need of added money, trust God blindly for that, and keep my own efforts centered on doing the job He had laid out for me to do.
And what an experience it was. As I look back on it, I can't understand it, even now. I don't need to. It is enough that God led,—He opened the way,—we followed in full faith, trusting Him to supply the need according to His promises -- and from somewhere—how I can't yet understand,—every dime of that need came! Not only did we continue thru the entire four weeks, but by the fourth week hundreds of letters were pouring in demanding I remain on at least another week, and over long distance my wife said I would simply have to stay on another week in compliance with all those requests which had poured in at Eugene. So the week-day evening broadcasts continued on for five full weeks. And never once did we go on the air that the time had not been paid in advance! …
To you who have NOT been doing your very utmost, I appeal to you now in Jesus' name, begin this minute to DO IT! THE DAY OF RECKONING IS HERE! There will be NO PROTECTION in the days ahead except that of Almighty God. You can't of course BUY His protection by putting His tithes and your offerings into this, His work—but to be slack in this, or an unfaithful steward in this crisis hour might PREVENT some of us from receiving it. Nothing short of our UTMOST is enough, now, whether that utmost be a dime or several thousands of dollars. We could easily use a million dollars during the next six months in sounding this warning; to America in a manner that would shake and rock this whole nation. No amount is now too large—and none is ever too small. Just do your utmost, whatever that is.
March 9, 1944
As our people revel in high war-time wages, they hit the toboggan-slide in lax morals. Sins are increasing as never before in our history. Juvenile authorities are reporting actually wholesale prostitution among young 12 to 15 year old girls of Junior High School age! Women are taking over men's jobs, donning men's apparel (which God's Word says is an ABOMINATION—Deut. 22:5), apparently trying in every way to make men of themselves. Homes are broken up—either by BOTH parents holding jobs away from home, or by divorce. And this, more than anything else, is the cause of the alarming rise in juvenile delinquency! People are bent on luxury, entertainment, pleasure! And in this giddy war- time whirl there is little time for GOD! Oh, yes, there is an increased interest in religion—but, I happen to be in the position to KNOW, about 95% of it is pure curiosity and superstition combined with a certain war-time fear, and not a real soul-hungry earnest effort to find CHRIST—to find GOD'S WAY, and to LIVE it!…
So, my friends and Co-Workers, WHAT SHALL WE DO? Grow weak and timid and afraid, and permit the forces of greed and evil to STOP the preaching of God's MESSAGE? Shall we grow weary with well-doing, slacken our efforts, let God's work drop in this crisis-hour of earth's history? Shall we forsake the Saviour who said He'd never forsake us -- become DESERTERS in the righteous army of God!
Or shall we, as Peter and John and the early apostles did, get to our knees, and ask God for a renewal of His Holy Spirit—for renewed courage, greater POWER—that our efforts now may be REDOUBLED! It is vital to THIS NATION that "The WORLD TOMORROW" program continue shouting this message over the air! The time is coming when NO MAN can work—when it shall be NIGHT—when there shall be a famine of hearing the Words of God! That time is just ahead—but it is not here YET! It will not come until GOD'S MISSION has BEEN PERFORMED—until our nation has been WARNED —until the Gospel of the Kingdom has gone to the world in tremendous POWER! …
I have no right to ask our Co-Workers to make any sacrifice for this work I am not willing to make myself. Certainly I would never think of asking any of you to sell the home you live in and put the entire proceeds in this work—or to put HALF your income into it. But frankly I was happy—more than words can express—that Mrs. Armstrong was MORE than willing to make this sacrifice with me, the minute I suggested it. She was far more anxious that those ten thousand people who have requested "The UNITED STATES IN PROPHECY" and the 35,000 who are waiting for another issue of The PLAIN TRUTH be given these precious truths than that we have a place to live. But God will provide for us, as He always has.
Well, brethren—Friends—Co-workers, this work, just now, is in a serious crisis! Its one great need just now is more funds to carry on—to keep it GROWING in power and scope, as it has always grown up to now. I have done all I can do—and in implicit faith. From here on the whole of the financing depends upon YOU.
I know well that MOST of our Co-Workers simply do not have large amounts to GIVE for God's work. Many of you are already giving, regularly, you very UTMOST, as I've given mine. To all of you who have, PLEASE try to understand that I know and realize God does not expect more of you—and neither do I. Rather, I am GRATEFUL to you with a heart more full than words can make you understand, and I just pray, "GOD BLESS YOU!" God does not expect any to give beyond what he is able.
But on the other hand many will receive this BULLETIN who are not now giving all they are able—who could invest MORE in this precious, glorious soul-saving work—and perhaps send it in MORE OFTEN. Many of you could send two dollars where you now send one. Several could send a hundred or five hundred where you now send ten or twenty. And among the several hundred co-workers are SOME—perhaps not more than one or two—who could, if God makes your heart willing, even at sacrifice, put a thousand or several thousand dollars into God's work—the most vital and important work in this world today!
Some could sell property or other investments you are holding as financial SECURITY for the future (I don't mean your home, or business) and which you do not actually NEED. Of course it's human always to THINK we need such things, and such security—but you'll have far GREATER security if you invest it in the bank of HEAVEN! The Almighty PROMISES to provide and take care of His own! And He's the ALL-MIGHTY—and He never breaks His promise! It's the only REAL security in this world!
Money or property is no real security. We MAY have a run-away inflation in another couple years or so, and then your MONEY would become worthless! On the other hand, we MAY get into another DEPRESSION—more terrible than any that has come yet. And then your property or other investments will tumble down in value. YOU HAVE NO REAL SECURITY BUT GOD! No man knows what lies immediately ahead!
When we place our TITHE, or liberal offerings into God's glorious work, as He has commanded us, we are laying up treasure in HEAVEN—a bank that can never fail! "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break thru and steal: But lay up for yourselves TREASURES IN HEAVEN, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break thru and steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also -- Take no thought (anxious worry) for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on ... but SEEK YE FIRST the KINGDOM OF GOD, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." That's a PROMISE! God can't break it! It's REAL SECURITY! …
Good bye for now—I KNOW you'll come to the rescue—by return mail if possible, and help me now RE-DOUBLE our efforts in this ALL-OUT BATTLE ON THE FIRING LINE FOR GOD, IN THE GREATEST CRISIS HOUR OF EARTH'S HISTORY! God bless you!
January 23, 1945
Where are we, now, in the prophetic unfolding of God's PLAN? We are already IN the very crisis at the close of this age, spoken of by Daniel the prophet. We are in that period portrayed by the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—of the Book of Revelation. Jesus explained these in His Olivet prophecy (Mat. 24). The false prophets representing a false, counterfeit Christ, have appeared. We are now in the midst of the final age-end WORLD-WAR—nation against nation; kingdom against kingdom! We are in the beginning of the famine and pestilence to follow in the wake of world-war!
"All these," said Jesus, "are the beginning of sorrows!" Not the end, with world PEACE just ahead—the beginning of SORROWS! He prophesied these conditions would be followed by a great martyrdom of saints -- Great TRIBULATION—then by such fearsome signs in the heavens—in the sun, moon and stars—that men will run screaming in frantic terror! After this will come the supernatural PLAGUES of the "Day of the Lord"—God's judgments upon this Babylonish world! And,—the final grand climax of all—the SECOND COMING OF CHRIST! Then, and not until then, shall the nations learn the way to WORLD PEACE!…
But now let me tell you that while our vast present listening audience has DOUBLED in three months, expenses at the same time have increased 50%! I am now carrying, BY SHEER FAITH, a very heavy burden. God willing, I expect in four weeks to open a great campaign of DAILY broadcasts on a great super-power Chicago station, AGAIN doubling our audience! This year we hope, God willing, to add super-power 50,000-watt WHAS, Louisville, and KWKH, Shreveport, and a New York station! Expenses are mounting past $1,000 weekly. So PRAY! Respond, by return AIRMAIL with the largest offering you can. It's URGENT! We can't falter! God bless you for standing by me!
April 5, 1945
Now as stated in the last BULLETIN I had planned on going to Chicago, about three weeks from now, to go on the nation's most powerful independent station DAILY for six or eight weeks, thereafter continuing just the regular Sunday program. This would reach a VAST audience thru Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa. Then the opportunity came to go on another Mexican station, recently increased to 150,000 watts power. The time, 9:PM Central war time Sunday nights—best time of the week—and the most expensive. It is more than I can obligate myself to on my personal responsibility.
In the last BULLETIN I asked for pledges. Well, many pledges have come in, but it is ONLY HALF ENOUGH. Others now want that time. By long distance the managers have just agreed to hold off ten more days for us. So I now ask MORE OF YOU to send in pledges, (as God makes possible) for weekly or monthly offerings over and above your REGULAR offerings, or tithes, for the rest of the work in general. We MUST not let this wonderful opportunity slip. This station would give us around an added million listeners in Illinois, Ind., Ohio, Mich., Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, West Va., Ky., and Tenn., Mo., Ark., La., Miss.,Texas, Ga., and Kansas. It would almost DOUBLE the present listening audience. It is my personal responsibility if we start, and I cannot undertake it without reasonable assurance of that much increase in offerings received. Many letters have come from those states, especially Pennsylvania and Eastern states, joyful over the prospects of getting to hear the program PLAINLY, and earlier, on that station. They say they get it plainly and strong. As it is now, I cannot go on that station and also the one in Chicago, without additional pledges. These pledges to be conditioned on your continued ability, as God provides, of course. You would not be in any way bound by it if circumstances change. ALSO I MUST TELL YOU WE HAVE RUN ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS SHORT OF REGULAR EXPENSES THE PAST THREE OR FOUR WEEKS. Even to keep the regular established work going, we MUST now have a quick, liberal response from our faithful co-workers! It is our solemn responsibility before God, laid on us by HIM! We must not fail Him! Whether you can only send a dollar, or are able to send $50, $100., or $1,000 for the work -- or a larger sum for the Mexican station —I know you'll send AT ONCE the largest amount you can, and GOD BLESS YOU for your loyalty and sacrifice for the GREATEST WORK ON EARTH!
August 23, 1945
I have sufficient faith in God to believe this BULLETIN will be read by someone—perhaps only ONE—who has the ability, if God makes the heart willing, to supply for this purpose a sum of between one and two hundred thousand dollars. And perhaps one or two others able to put in $35,000 to $50,000. I believe there will be a few more who can manage to place at our disposal from $1,000 to $5,000. There are, I'm sure, still more who can, if willing, find a way to contribute sums of $100, $250, or $500. And this unprecedented great and glorious opportunity will be realized, I know ONLY if each one who has ability to supply such sums does so, to the very LIMIT of his ability. A very large portion of our dear Co-Workers are poor people who are able to give only the "widow's mite." To raise any such sum as a quarter million dollars means, undoubtedly, that some one, or two, or three persons of large ability must make this possible, or the opportunity God has opened must fail. Let us pray as never before that any one, or small FEW, of such ability will not fail our God in this crisis hour of earth's history! I might mention that I have every faith, based upon the facts as I know them, that every dime of the original investment could be retired within some two years or less—but that is a matter for private explanation. As mentioned above, Dr. Brinkley, with exactly the same power, did take a net profit of $500,000 a year. I am not personally interested in any manner whatsoever in establishing this as a commercial enterprise for the purpose of making profits, however—but solely as a POWER FOR GOD, and sending forth HIS MESSAGE with the LOUD VOICE His prophecies say it is yet to go.
What I Ask YOU to Do
Now, dear Co-Workers for Christ, this is a most SOLEMN and serious matter—and there is no time to lose. I ask each of you, first, to go to a private place, get down on your knees before God, and PRAY! Even FAST and Pray! Pray earnestly. Ask God, if it is His will to place within our hands this tremendous power for proclaiming His Message to the world, to lay the burden SO DEFINITELY upon the hearts of those He chooses to use for supplying such a large sum, that they will be unable to resist! Ask God, please, to give ME wisdom and guidance, for I need it now as never before. And ask Him to guide YOU, and to show you what He would have YOU do about it.
Then after praying very earnestly and sincerely over it, write me AT ONCE, and tell me how much you, yourself, will be able to put into this great purpose, provided of course, (1st) after hearing all the additional details about it you still approve it and feel led to contribute this sum, and (2nd) enough money is pledged BY OTHERS to make up, WITH YOURS, the total needed amount. In that way, I will be able to know in a very few days WHETHER enough others have responded to make this tremendous opportunity a glorious REALITY, I can then notify you what OTHERS are able to do, and if there is enough, each one can then send the money.
Now it IS vitally necessary that I know, BY RETURN AIR MAIL—and a telegram or even long-distance telephone call is quicker—what each one will be able to do, subject to the above two conditions—in other words, whether it is going to be possible. Many I have learned, would have been willing to have put in a considerable sum for this very purpose when I wrote you of the former possibilities, only they didn't know whether enough OTHERS were responding to make up the total sum, and so they just did and said nothing. Now I can let YOU know what all the others are able to do ONLY if you let me know at once what YOU are able to do. So, whether you can send only an extra dollar or two, or $100, or $150,000, or even supply the entire amount yourself, LET ME KNOW IMMEDIATELY, either by air-mail letter, by telegraph, or long- distance telephone.
PRAY OVER THIS FIRST! Do not delay, please! And may God bless and guide you in making your decisions as to YOUR part! And join me in PRAYING EARNESTLY that God will guide, and move upon, to lead us in this. It is really a TREMENDOUS MATTER! It may mean the ETERNITY of countless precious souls. The money required is SO TRIVIAL by comparison! Time is short. They will give us only two or three weeks, and it may take the first week of that period to get this longer than usual BULLETIN printed and mailed to you Co-Workers. We must work WHILE IT IS DAY! -- while there is STILL time and opportunity. God has mercifully granted US the victory in World War II,—perhaps as much for the very purpose of giving us this opportunity to proclaim HIS MESSAGE to a lost and rapidly-dying world with such POWER as to shake this nation and all our Israelitish people to ITS VERY FOUNDATIONS, as for any other purpose. I know, from prophecy, our nation's LIFE is at stake. Souls are at stake for ETERNITY!
This is now, dear Co-Workers, YOUR solemn responsibility before GOD! As this BULLETIN goes out, I can only PRAY and trust Him to lay the burden on each one. PRAY, and may God lead, guide, and bless you! …
It has been a tight squeeze to get thru the difficult summer months. Money always falls off thru the summer. We have reduced expenses somewhat this summer, but still it's been difficult to meet. The long delay in getting out The PLAIN TRUTH, and the BULLETIN, has resulted in a big falling off. RESULT: WE NEED AND MUST HAVE TWO OR THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS EXTRA FOR THE REGULAR WORK WITHIN THE NEXT WEEK OR TWO. Again, that means, in addition to the ever-faithful "widow's mites" for which we are SO grateful, we shall have to depend upon those of larger ability to send in larger offerings of from $35 to $500 for the regular current work, by return mail. It seems there are SO FEW willing to sacrifice for GOD'S WORK that every one of us must continually respond to the very LIMIT of our ability -- whether a dollar or several hundred—in order to keep this great and glorious work going—and growing!
Now please go to some private place and PRAY -- very earnestly, for this work, won't you? Then in the enclosed envelope send the very largest sum you possibly can for the regular work, and also write me, or telegraph or telephone, how large a SPECIAL OFFERING, anywhere from a dollar to $250,000, you can put a little later into the purchase of our own station in Mexico, subject to the conditions mentioned. But please do not neglect to send, by return mail, all you possibly can for the regular work which must KEEP GOING! God bless you, I know you won't fail me—or our GOD! We are at a sobering period of history. God is giving us the opportunity—yes, the COMMISSION—to play a very IMPORTANT PART IN IT. May he bless each one, and help us not to fail.
November 20, 1945
As always, we are proceeding on PURE FAITH! God has led, opened the opportunity. What God starts He is able to maintain, and finish! I am reminded in this sober hour of the inspired words God caused David to write: "The Eternal intervenes on my behalf: Eternal One, thy kindness never fails, THOU WILT NOT DROP THE WORK THOU HAST BEGUN!" (Psalms 136:8, Moffatt Translation).
But we are not to "tempt God" by acting impulsively without due caution and sound reason. We must not on an impulse run up a crippling debt, get ourselves into a hopeless hole, and then expect God to pull us out.
When this EVERY-NIGHT campaign was opened to us, I knew instantly what a marvelous opportunity it was. But I knew, too, it meant an EXPENSE almost THREE TIMES present expenses—which means also three times as much as we now have coming in! But by past experience I know, too, that listeners voluntarily respond with tithes and offerings much more liberally when hearing the program SIX times a week than when they hear it only ONCE! And, too, such an intensive campaign adds NEW Co-workers. I know, too, by experience, it will take from two to four weeks before this increased sum in offerings is received.
So God graciously provided a way for us to use this highly valuable time EVERY NIGHT without taking chances of getting into a financial hole. I will go no farther, at any time, than we are able to pay! But I want our Co-Workers to realize fully exactly what this means! It means that if, by the end of the first two weeks of every-night broadcasting on XELO only, the financial response is not increasing sufficiently to pay the added cost, I shall have to CANCEL the every-night program forthwith and instantly, BEFORE I become entangled in a financial obligation I can't pay.
Remember, dear Co-Worker, while my entire time is devoted to the conduct and management of this work instead of in EARNING MONEY, and MY PART in the work is to conduct it, do the preaching and writing—and while YOUR PART in the work is to provide the financial means to keep it going,—yet by the very nature of the work it is I, not you co-workers, who must sign the contracts, and assume ALL THE FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS! Providing the money is not MY PART, yet I alone and personally must and do assume the full and sole financial obligation as my own personal responsibility!
So this campaign has all been planned and arranged, as worked out and made possible by our heavenly Father Himself, so I do not have to go farther than we shall be able to pay. The first two weeks of daily broadcasting on this one station, XELO, I can assume, and that much I know we can pay for. Therefore we shall start, and go that far. But, unless you Co-Workers dig down deep, sacrifice, and respond now AS NEVER BEFORE, and unless NEW Co-Workers join us during these two weeks, I shall have to cancel it suddenly at the end of the first two weeks, and the daily programs will never be even STARTED on XEG! …
I know all you Co-Workers will want this frank and candid statement of the situation. NEVER have we had such an opportunity! NEVER did this old world NEED the Message as NOW! NEVER was this world in such a CRISIS HOUR! And NEVER have we faced such a sober financial responsibility! I have written all contracts for this time, subject to almost immediate cancellation! I know you won't let me down, or fail our God in this great crisis! It mean much MORE than the material things of this world you probably had planned on getting for yourself. We have to sacrifice and GIVE UP things we want very badly sometimes, if we are to serve our God in these very LAST DAYS! Most of us have been laboring together in Christ's vineyard for one to ten years. You can't know what an inspiration it is to me to know from OUR long experience together as Co-Workers for Christ, that our Co-Workers will rise with me to this emergency, put forth a supreme EXTRA EFFORT, sacrifice as never before, and PRAY as never before—and together, with God's help, we shall carry forth in this greatest campaign of our experience!…
We must do it WHILE WE MAY! Let me remind you again, the NIGHT is coming, when no man can work! Soon will come the FAMINE of hearing God's Word preached. It's OUR RESPONSIBILITY—NOW! Co-Workers, I have to appeal to you now—this greatly-multiplied program is NOW GOING OUT—we need the widow's mites IN LARGE NUMBER now as never before—from many who may not be able to send in more, and have sent nothing for some time! We need, and MUST have, in addition, larger offerings from all who possibly can, from one, on up to several hundred dollars. And if ever there was a time when GOD'S WORK needs one or two of you who are able to make a real sacrifice and place into His active work special gifts of one or several thousand dollars, that time is NOW!
I have given MY ALL! I am putting into it MY VERY BEST! The REST, dear friends, God must supply THRU YOU! The fate of this work depends upon the response of this urgent appeal! I rest it now in YOUR HANDS -- and GOD BLESS YOU!
May 17, 1946
A NEW EMERGENCY! URGENT! Now before closing, I have to tell you the receipt of money to carry on his great work has been falling off alarmingly the last two weeks. Again it has brought the work into a CRISIS—a very serious emergency! … God's PLAN for financing His Work is thru the tithes and offerings of His people. This is THEIR sacrifice—their happy, joyful way of GIVING, in order that thru this great work God has raised up, the GOSPEL may be GIVEN to millions. And God loves the CHEERFUL GIVE… THINK OF IT! Is there anything else you can do with a single dollar that is as important, or doing as much good, or making it spread so far, as carrying God's vital last-minute Gospel Message to TWO THOUSAND PEOPLE?…
Friends, Co-Workers, OUR TIME IS SHORT! It is LATER THAN WE THINK! This lull in between World War II, and the final great ATOMIC WAR now acknowledged by leading observers in Washington as a definite possibility within FIVE YEARS, is the most dangerous time of our history!… Soon it is prophesied, THERE WILL BE A FAMINE OF EVEN HEARING THE WORD OF GOD PREACHED! We cannot delay. We dare not let down! This is by far the most important business in this world. WHAT an opportunity, NOW! Soon that opportunity will be GONE -- TOO LATE! Think of it! TWO THOUSAND precious souls reached with every dollar you put into this vital, glorious work!
HOW MANY of those dollars are you able to send, now, in this present emergency? Some of you just don't have enough to send in more than one—and sometimes you apologize for you "widow's mite!" Oh, dear co-workers, don't apologize for doing the best you can do! God knows your heart—He doesn't expect you to give what you have not got. If one single dollar is all you are able to give to this glorious cause, just remember that single dollar will reach TWO THOUSAND precious souls! It isn't little—IT'S MUCH! God bless you for it!
BUT, most of you are ABLE to send much more! And if those who are ABLE would do proportionately anywhere NEAR as much in God's work as those so poor in his world's goods—many of whom actually live on a monthly income of $16 to $50, and still spare two to five dollars of it for God's work—then we would be able to shake this whole world to its foundations with the power at our disposal! For some of you, one to several thousand dollars would not be as great a sacrifice as the "widow's mite" given by many of our precious co-workers! Just now God's work sorely NEEDS many of the larger, more generous offerings which many are able to give, if they will let God make their hearts willing—offerings of $25, $50, $100, a thousand or several thousand dollars. "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for GOD LOVETH A CHEERFUL GIVER." (II Cor. 9:7) Please pray over it earnestly, won't you, and then use the enclosed reply-envelope in sending what you feel God would have you send. And please continue to pray diligently for me, for all our staff, and for God's Work! This work needs your prayers! God bless you!
April 7, 1947
The ground-work is laid. But TIME IS SHORT. Soon it will be too late. The day is here, but the "night" is coming when NO MAN CAN WORK for God.
But now LISTEN CAREFULLY! We have returned from this most important, vital, fruitful trip to find the work here in a financial crisis that threatens its very life! It is in the most serious and critical emergency it ever has faced. It is a LIFE- AND-DEATH test!
I have to tell you candidly and frankly, that every APPEARANCE—every visible circumstance—says the work is doomed, and we will be shut off the air on our two most powerful and important stations, XEG, and XERB, by the 15th of this month, April! In fact, there is no visible hope that anything can now save the work. GOD MUST PERFORM A MIRACLE!
But LISTEN! Our God whom we are serving is a miracle- working God. Nothing is too difficult—nothing is impossible, with God. Circumstances, appearances, have absolutely nothing to do with FAITH, or the working of God. And God has PROMISED He will not stop, but will finish the work He has begun. He has PROMISED to supply all our need. He has PROMISED He will never leave us nor forsake us. And HE CANNOT BREAK A PROMISE!
I don't know how it happened. We left here with everything in good financial condition, the outlook excellent. God opened the way for us with actual miracles repeatedly at every turn—was with us throughout our entire journey. I've come back with just what I needed for the broadcasts -- for future articles in The PLAIN TRUTH.
Yet, before we had hardly boarded the ship it seems our co- workers— most of them (perhaps not YOU, but most of them)—seemed to delay or forget to send in their tithes and offerings. This delayed the mailing of The PLAIN TRUTH. And, for the first time, our office staff was unable to pay the heavy radio bills. I returned to find two months piled up. Such a situation never has existed—ought not to exist—CANNOT continue, because the radio stations will not keep the program on the air unless they are paid up completely by the 10th or 15th of this month. For several weeks money almost stopped coming in. This has grown to a great work, costing thousands of dollars a week. And a slump of four or five weeks like this puts the work in a DESPERATE condition! Now, we MUST have an added $15,000 within the next ten days, or this vital program will be taken off the air—right when I have the MOST SERIOUS, IMPORTANT THINGS TO SAY WHICH I LEARNED ON OUR TRIP ABROAD!
Co-Workers, I have to ask you to sacrifice as never before. If you could see what we saw in Europe—how people shiver and go cold, how HUNGRY they are, how thread-bare their clothes—how TERRIBLE is their plight—you'd realize that ANY sacrifice you make for GOD'S CAUSE is as NOTHING compared to what has been laid on them! We and we alone in all this world bask in the sunshine of PLENTY—of LUXURY! We, too, can go without some things we had planned to get. It won't hurt us as much as we think. GOD'S WORK IS AT STAKE! Now, as never before, the work needs generous offerings from some who can—if their heart is yielded to God and made willing—put five or ten thousand dollars into GOD'S WORK. We need many offerings of a hundred dollars or more. But—most important—those of you who do not have such amounts, DON'T THINK THAT BECAUSE OF THE GREAT NEED THE WIDOW'S MITES WILL DO NO GOOD—there must be a quick, air-mail SHOWER of WIDOW'S MITES if this need is to be met. Just send QUICKLY -- by air-mail—and if a larger sum, by WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH, the largest sum YOU can, whether a dollar or ten thousand. And then JOIN ME IN EARNEST, BELIEVING, PREVAILING PRAYER, that God will move on those who are able to send in QUICKLY enough to meet this vital emergency and save this most important work in this world! Nothing but believing PRAYER for a MIRACLE, and utmost generous sacrifice on the part of each one can save the work now. It MUST be saved! God is able, and WILL—if we do our utmost.
God bless you, in this deepest crisis I know you won't fail.
June 9, 1947
This is the most solemn, serious, URGENT message I have ever written you. Read it carefully. Read every word.
Amazing things are happening! Miracle after miracle has been performed by the Almighty for His work, in breath-taking rapidity. I have many really thrilling things to tell you.
And now comes the greatest development of all! It is SO IMPORTANT it will be difficult for us to realize its great and far-reaching significance. But NOTHING is impossible with our God!
But there is a REASON why God is now moving so SWIFTLY in opening before us unbelievable opportunities, performing miracles one on top of the other to speed the work ahead. And so first, before I tell you the astonishing things that have happened,—the tremendous developments now opening before us—let me try briefly to MAKE CLEAR to you WHY—why God is now moving so swiftly, placing such important facilities in our hands miraculously, one after another with a speed that takes our breath!
TIME IS SHORT!
Repeatedly I've reminded you, TIME IS SHORT! It's later than we think! This world is about DONE! Everybody's now talking about World War III—how soon will it strike?—where will it start?—who will be guilty of starting it?
Just this morning Mrs. Armstrong overheard three people talking about it—just taking the next war for granted, as everyone now does. One said he felt like he wanted to run and hide in a thick woods someplace. Another said, "Well, this sure is a sorry world, when people are so scared they feel like running in fear!" Yes, this is a sorry world! It's man's world, operated in defiance of God's laws, under sway of Satan the invisible god of this world! It's allotted time has almost run out! The KINGDOM OF GOD is soon now to appear, to save humanity from itself!
And TIME IS SHORT! There is SO little time left for the tremendous world-wide commission to which we have been called! But it's still DAY—we still are privileged to work, tho the night when NO MAN CAN WORK for God draws swiftly down upon us!…
Breath-taking though it is, it will take ONE MILLION DOLLARS CASH to take full advantage of the present amazing opportunities. On that amount, we could purchase both radio stations, developing one to the full honest maximum of power for which it is both licensed and equipped, ON A CLEAR CHANNEL (some of these Mexican stations are not using all the power they are supposed to, in actual fact),—we could pay off HALF the purchase-price on Ambassador College property in Pasadena, pay a full HALF on the Switzerland property and thus obtain a very large cut in the principal price, and retain an ample cash surplus in the bank to fortify this work against the occasional crisis we have had to weather thru ever since the work started.
The amount needed is so large that for MOST of you, I can only ask you. JOIN ME IN BELIEVING PRAYER! Ask God to REVEAL His will, and to ACT for us ACCORDING TO HIS WILL! If this is, as I frankly feel, opened by the Eternal then He is able to lay this heavily on the heart of some one or a few people of means who are able to supply this great and immediate need. Yes, GOD IS ABLE!…
Beside outright GIFTS, and generous OFFERINGS, and tithes, there is now another way open for many to help very materially in God's work. Since the work is incorporated, it is now possible for persons having life-savings of some sizeable sum to live off those savings, or partly so, as the case may be, while at the same time they put the money to work in GOD'S SERVICE. About two years ago one of our co-workers offered to send in for the work such a sum of money -- I don't remember now the exact amount, perhaps a couple thousand or five thousand dollars—with the arrangement that we in turn send them a monthly check of a certain small percent, for them to live on, as long as they lived. At the time we were not incorporated, and our attorney advised against accepting it. Now, however, the work is in position to receive such sums, both for the Gospel work, and for the College.
Also the work now is in position to receive deeds to property, or to be bequeathed property of money in wills. Many would rather have their money go into God's work in the event of their death, or a portion of it.
Then, also, we need SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS, and LOAN FUNDS for the college, to be used in assisting worthy and qualified students unable fully to pay their own way. As the work develops and expands, the NEED grows. Every Co-Worker has a SERIOUS RESPONSIBILITY—and supplying YOUR PART of this great and growing need is YOUR PART in this work. That's the part I cannot do. Remember, NONE of it goes to me personally. And remember, too, EVERY DOLLAR placed in this work carries the true GOSPEL out to TWO THOUSAND PRECIOUS SOULS! Already we are reaching millions every week with the TRUTH -- but now the work must expand till it's WORLD WIDE!
FINALLY! AND MOST URGENT!
Finally, Brethren, Friends, Co-Workers, LISTEN! Two months ago we found this work in a life-and-death crisis. Suddenly it had gone thousands of dollars behind, because some of our Co-Workers had grown lax and careless. I sent out a very special emergency letter. The response was splendid, and in three weeks two thirds of that indebtedness was paid. But then tithes and offerings began to fall off again. The last BULLETIN helped a little, but we have been just barely holding our own with week-to-week expenses.
And now, the past week, it has begun to drop off again. That portion of the indebtedness into which the work was plunged two months ago still hangs heavily over our heads—AND IT IS GETTING SERIOUS AND DESPERATE!
It CAN'T BE PUT OFF LONGER! We have had to delay publishing The PLAIN TRUTH that should have been out in March or April, and people are writing in by the thousands asking for it! It's mostly written—a dynamic article giving you the BIBLE TRUTH on our greatest national evil -- DIVORCE AND RE-MARRIAGE; a thrilling article on the PALESTINE QUESTION, for which I have gone to San Francisco, New York, London, to interview personally the men in whose hands the fate of Palestine rests; a most revealing article on European and world conditions—as I found them, as they are, and in the light of PROPHECY. Many other vital and interesting things—hundreds of thousands of people HUNGRY for these truths, waiting impatiently for that PLAIN TRUTH. My part is almost ready. Co-Workers, won't you strain to EXTRA sacrifice to hurry along YOUR PART? We are still way behind with one of the great super-powered radio stations, and the broadcast may be shut off unless there is an IMMEDIATE and a MOST GENEROUS RESPONSE.
I know that, while MOST of our Co-Workers are in poor economic circumstances and can send only the "widow's MITES" —notice it was "MITES," not just one "mite,"—and while it is these many small amounts of a couple dollars, or a five or ten, that are the very BACKBONE OF THIS WORK—(and every single dollar takes the TRUTH to two thousand people, so don't think a single dollar is too little to send in)—yet I know that out of all our Co-Worker family all over the United States are actually SEVERAL who could, if they would let God have His way in their hearts and lives and pocket- books, send in generous offerings of more than a thousand dollars each—some for SEVERAL thousand!
And yet, dear friends, the largest single contribution to this work so far STILL remains, aside from the one Mrs. Armstrong and I put in ourselves when we sold our home, an offering of $1,000. My wife and I gave more than that when we sold our home—we gave our ALL—and for the past year and a half we have been living part time in two rented upstairs bedrooms in another family's home, and part time in auto cabins, unable to have a real family life with our two high school sons, and forced to eat out all the time at restaurants. Now don't think for a moment I mention that to grumble at the hardship, or take credit for the gift—but rather to encourage you and as an example to you of how God works. We knew it wasn't God's will for us to have our home broken up, and be unable to live as a family in a home, and that in due time He would give us another home. Well, now, I think before closing I'll reveal to you one more of the miracles God has recently performed—this time for us personally! Suddenly, unexpectedly, not of our own seeking at all, a home came to us just the other day. It's not pretentious, but modest and plain and neat—but it is a home of refinement and character—just a CHARMING place, and ample in size and of most substantial construction. It came to us with no down- payment except just three monthly payments in advance, and on monthly payments which just equal what we have had to spend in restaurants for food—with NO INTEREST—and the title and deed to the property have been signed over to us. We are to move in July 1st. You may know Mrs. Armstrong, the boys and I are happy over it, not for the home alone, but for this one more evidence of how God takes care of His own. We gave the home we had to Him. Now He has given us the nicest home we ever had, and without any capital outlay whatever! I have found by experience that one never LOSES by being generous with GOD! "GIVE, and it shall be GIVEN UNTO YOU," said Jesus. Yes, and God loves a CHEERFUL giver—and a GENEROUS giver. It's more blessed to GIVE than to receive.
Now dear Co-Workers, THE FATE OF GOD'S WORK IS IN YOUR HANDS! We must have an IMMEDIATE response from thousands of you, and of the most generous amounts you can send. I don't ask any to OVER-give, and God doesn't expect it —but most of you UNDER-give, and God's work suffers. Give liberally, generously—AND GREAT SHALL BE YOUR REWARD! God never lets His own go unrewarded! He PROSPERS His servants that serve Him with their whole heart! Use the enclosed reply-envelope, —SEND THE LARGEST POSSIBLE CHECK, MONEY ORDER OR BILL YOU CAN SEND, IMMEDIATELY FOR THE WORK—AND KEEP SENDING AS OFTEN AS IS POSSIBLE.
Then, if you can arrange some larger gift, or endowment, or fund for the college, be sure to write me IMMEDIATELY. I have letters from many students wanting to attend AMBASSADOR COLLEGE who lack funds, and want to earn their way, but need help. Don't let some fine deserving young man or woman be deprived of this wonderful education because you might be negligent.
And, in addition, if you are in position to place at our disposal some really large sum toward the purchase of these great radio stations, and some of this vitally-needed property -- whether a half million dollars, a hundred thousand, a few thousand, or only fifty or a hundred, in addition to your liberal and generous offerings for the regular work, then write me at once, and I will correspond privately giving all details, or even, if necessary, make it possible for a personal interview. And if you are NOT in position to make such a large contribution, then, PLEASE, go to some private place alone with God, and go to your knees, and PRAY EARNESTLY, AND IN FAITH, agreeing with me that God will supply every need, and continue to guide and direct His Work! I need your prayers as much as your money.
PLEASE RUSH THIS! We are not yet out of the life-and-death crisis—the need is still MOST URGENT! We MUST NOT be thrown off the air—The PLAIN TRUTH must be put on the presses without further delay.
Send it AIR-MAIL! and God bless you!
August 4, 1947
Some of you dear co-workers are so VERY FAITHFUL—GOD BLESS YOU!—and without you this mighty work of God could not have continued to now. But also, on the other hand, MANY OF YOU who will read this Bulletin have been letting down—NEGLECTING this so great salvation which we must carry to the millions of others, as well as work out in ourselves. Too many of you let the faithful FEW take these messages to heart and carry the whole burden at too great sacrifice, while you let down and do little or nothing. And to those of you guilty of this neglect, for your own sake, I plead in the name of Jesus Christ, DON'T let this negligence drop you by the wayside, to be cast aside by the soon-coming Master as an unprofitable servant! HAPPY is he who heeds this message, and does HIS FULL PART in this unselfish work of carrying GOOD TO OTHERS! The ONLY true happiness comes from DOING GOOD to OTHERS, and that is the purpose for which God raised up this work. Those few who try to excuse their neglect by fault-finding and criticism will never find true peace and happiness in so doing. And so, let every one of you in this solemn crisis hour EXAMINE HIMSELF, and CONSECRATE and DEDICATE HIMSELF ANEW to the glorious work and cause of Christ! It's not yet too late, but time is fast running out on us!…
Co-Workers, the work of God stands AT THE CROSS-ROADS! It is in it's greatest crisis. The fate of Ambassador College hangs in the balance. We have not more than TEN DAYS to get STARTED on the structural changes, or it will be TOO LATE to start the college this year. The crisis is NOW! We are all going to answer in the judgment for what WE do, each of us, as OUR part in this crisis, NOW! God surely blesses those who serve Him well! NEVER has this work so direly needed large and generous offerings of $1,000 and up to MANY thousand dollars. Several of you are ABLE, if you permit God to make your hearts willing. Lay up treasure in heaven, while you may, and see how God blesses you for it! And, again, NEVER has the need been so great so that the widows' mites will help so much as now. Let each give as God has prospered and made possible, generously, even at sacrifice, as you are able—and PLEASE RUSH IT AIR-MAIL, in the enclosed envelope!
October 29,1947
FIRST, we must finish working our way out of this immediate crisis.
Now, remember, we must immediately pay off $9,000 still due on this last weeks bill for the reconstruction of the college. I have met and paid $3,000 MORE than the largest estimate given me to raise for this purpose. This extra $9,000 was totally unforeseen and unforeseeable. We also must raise several thousand dollars within a week or two to bring our large radio stations up to date, OR BE THROWN OFF THE AIR!
These obligations are immediate and PRESSING—the emergency is DESPERATE! It MUST BE MET! And all beside the regular expenses of conducting this great work, and the college—several thousand dollars a month!
This means EVERY SINGLE CO-WORKER MUST NOW STRETCH TO THE VERY LIMIT OF SACRIFICE AND SELF-DENIAL, in a supreme effort, with me, to raise this money at once. We must ALL pitch in, to the limit of our ability! I must now ask YOU, and EVERY single co-worker, to rise to the supreme effort to send in the very largest sum you possibly can, as a very special emergency gift for this great work at this time. It's WORTH sacrificing for! This world is marching on at a faster and faster pace toward IT'S DOOM! Scientists say it's a matter of a few years only, until the new weapons now discovered will blast human life from this earth, unless some means can be found to prevent. NO HUMAN MEANS CAN PREVENT IT NOW! The world's ONLY HOPE is CHRIST! Your money—your property—won't be worth anything IF, and WHEN this happens! OUR COMMISSION IS TO WARN THIS NATION AND THE WORLD, before it is everlastingly TOO LATE. You, dear co-worker, SHARE IN THIS RESPONSIBILITY WITH ME, and will be called to account in the judgment for what you do now, the same as I.
Now, even at greatest sacrifice by all, I realize that we are not going to be able to raise all this money quickly enough by tithes, offerings, and gifts. A few of our co-workers have helped us up to now by LOANING us money they have felt they could not GIVE. Some have said they may never need to take the money back, but in case they do need it, they have our note and guarantee it will be promptly repaid. One or two had money saved up they may need a year or two from now, and they have placed this money at our disposal to help us over this terrible emergency, letting their money WORK FOR GOD now, to be repaid to them, if, and when they will need it, later. One has borrowed money on some property he owned, and we are making the payments to him to pay his bank, as the payments and interest come due. Some have sold bonds, or securities, and loaned us the cash, to be paid back in the manner that fits the needs of each one in each case. We need now to borrow several thousand dollars more on this basis. In each case I give the lender a note, binding the Radio Church of God, incorporated, to repay on whatever terms are agreed upon, as fit the need of the lender. Some need it back in large sums—$300 per month, or even in sums of $500. Some on a basis of $25, or $50, or $100 per month, or a stated sum each quarter. To assure our ability to repay all such loans when due, we have established, and are building on God's tithing plan (tithing 10% of the income of this work, for the time being, and until a sufficient sum is thus accumulated), a special cash surplus fund, which is kept in a special and separate bank account, and this surplus fund is being kept at sufficient size to guarantee our ability to meet all such commitments we have been forced to make in this emergency. Now understand, we do not expect to have to repay these loans out of this surplus fund, but out of regular income of this work, later. But we are establishing this surplus fund as an extra safety precaution to protect our co-workers who loan money to this work, and to GUARANTEE that if we are not at the time able to repay the money out of regular funds, we have this surplus from which to draw. Later, we expect to be able to write annuities to those who will place sums in the college, as most colleges and universities do—but for that we must be specially licensed, and so for the present we are accepting all sums loaned on a straight loan basis, giving a plain note therefor.
Dear Co-Worker, Mrs. Armstrong and I have had to suffer more than I can describe thru this crisis. A mother suffers that her child may be born. We have SUFFERED, as you will never realize, that this fine and splendid college might be born. There is great JOY in the success of meeting this emergency—and both the work, and the college, are LIVING, and proceeding on, and growing! But the terrible pressure is still on me, as never before.
So now I must ask EVERY ONE OF YOU to take this matter IMMEDIATELY to your heavenly Father in earnest, heart-yielding PRAYER! Ask God what He would have YOU do! Some of you have not sent in ONE CENT for this work for six months, or a year. If every one of you who have not helped for that long a time will now send only one or two dollars, each, it will help more than you'll ever know! Many of you, on the other hand, have done your very UTMOST—and I must ask you NOT TO LET UP NOW, but to still stand by me, loyally, faithfully, to the very limit. Even the widow's mites are needed now, as never before!
If you can LOAN the work anywhere from one to ten thousand dollars—or even $500 or less, please SEND THE MONEY AT ONCE AIR- MAIL, stating in your letter how you wish to be repaid—whether beginning now, or a year or two or more from now—whether by the month, or quarter, or how—and in what amounts each payment. If you want interest, tell me what rate. As a minister of Jesus Christ I must say to you that God, in His Word, forbids Christians to receive interest from Christians—the whole interest and usury system is condemned in the Bible. But Israel was permitted to PAY interest, and even to RECEIVE it from Gentiles, so a Christian can PAY it if demanded, or receive it from a non-Christian, if he deems that circumstances warrant. I could never RECEIVE interest from any of you, but God does permit me to PAY it if you, after I have mentioned this Bible teaching, desire it—so just state your own wishes in the matter. So if you can borrow money FOR us on some security you have—on property, or on securities or other investments—or if you have bonds to sell, or savings you can put to work for God, getting it back, if and when you need it, please send the money at once by return mail, stating how you want it repaid, and I will immediately make out a note binding our corporation to repay it on whatever terms you state, and mail it to you. And WITH it, send the largest offering you can GIVE.
And all others, please RUSH your tithes, and most liberal offerings, by return air-mail. Use the enclosed reply envelope. This situation is DESPERATE!
And REMEMBER—WE HAVE MOVED TO PASADENA! Send all mail hereafter to Box 111 (same box number), PASADENA, CALIFORNIA. Please rush it—the emergency is the most serious we ever faced—and may GOD BLESS YOU for your great part in His work. Remember Christ is coming QUICKLY—and HIS REWARD IS WITH HIM, to give to every servant ACCORDING AS HIS WORK SHALL BE! God bless you!
With AMBASSADOR COLLEGE now a reality—with the best radio season here again, with facilities for issuing The PLAIN TRUTH regularly at last, at a saving of over $1,000 per issue in printing costs, this work now TAKES ON VIGOROUS NEW LIFE—it now is ready to take a new leap ahead! Let's all get together, now, and see God's work go forward!
December 8, 1947
GREETINGS! in Jesus' name: TIME is running out! This world is moving swiftly to its destruction! Yet there is still time—and just barely enough time—to finish the work of God for this present age. THERE IS NO TIME TO LOSE. But the work of God is progressing on schedule—amid handicaps, thru obstacles and trials that try our souls, our patience, and our faith to the limit—under the divine direction of God, and as a result of MIRACLES performed by him in our behalf…
YOU, dear Co-Worker, are not going to be permitted to enjoy your home, your freedom, your present privileges and pursuits, many more years. Just a few more years—perhaps six or seven—perhaps twelve or fifteen—and a re-united Fascist-Nazi Europe will STRIKE—America's great cities will be blown out of existence in one night without warning—we shall see such tremendous atomic destruction as the world has never even dreamed—more than 40 MILLION Americans will perish in the horrifying blasts! At the same time drought and famine will strike dead another THIRD of our entire population—men, women, and children—thru starvation and disease! And our second great commission—our divine calling from Almighty God—is to WARN our beloved nation, and other Israelitish nations, before it is too late! Every individual who HEEDS this warning, turns to God, is WATCHING and PRAYING ALWAYS, being filled with God's Spirit, living by every Word of God, with a life consecrated to Him, will be given special divine protection—taken beforehand to a place of SAFETY—preserved thru the final horrifying tribulation, time of plagues and human anguish soon to visit this earth!
But if we to whom God has revealed this terrible future thru His divine prophecies fail to heed it—if we fail to each play his or her full part in WARNING this nation and the world, now, while we may—then God says we shall not escape, but He will require the blood of this entire people at our hands!…
Listen, dear Co-Worker! To set your heart, your mind and interest now in the pursuits of THIS WORLD, or THIS LIFE,—to ignore this appeal, and this PRIVILEGE, to HELP TO YOUR VERY UTMOST in the closing work of God—to figure that you can't afford to spare anything now for God's cause because of OTHER worldly interests—is to enjoy a fool's paradise, and find yourself suddenly, when least expected, in just a few years, caught in the snare of this on-coming DESTRUCTION!
I tell you, ON THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS CHRIST, IT IS COMING! Many of you NOW, are in financial condition to DO A LOT MORE than you are doing for GOD'S CAUSE—to help me get out this Message over the air, and in print—to help me train and prepare talented, able, consecrated young men and women for THEIR part in soon carrying this vital message to THE ENTIRE WORLD—into EVERY NATION!
One consecrated co-worker and his wife are mortgaging their home in order to place a few more thousand dollars in this mighty work that more millions may be warned! At first I shrank from accepting money under such conditions—but when we remember that in a few years NONE OF US will be living in our present homes—EVERYTHING material we possess now will be swept away from us, and we shall then be either in that haven of safety under God's divine protection, or else dead or in slavery worse than death—and when we consider further that this brother and his wife are not deprived of their home, but merely PUTTING IT TO WORK FOR GOD'S GREAT CAUSE, while they enjoy it and live in it, too—then it appeared in a different light, and we could do nothing but accept it, to use it for God's honor and glory. WHO KNOWS? perhaps this one sacrifice on the part of this one man and wife may be the means to bringing MANY precious souls not only under God's divine protection in the TIME OF TROUBLE TO COME, but also into ETERNAL LIFE in God's Kingdom FOREVER!
TIME IS SHORT! It is fast running out! Soon we shall come to the time of the prophesied FAMINE OF HEARING THE WORD OF THE ETERNAL—the time when world forces will no longer PERMIT the preaching of God's Truth!
No man can know exactly how long. This much we DO KNOW—it is now NEAR, even at the very doors, according to prophecy—it will strike DURING THIS PRESENT GENERATION—it cannot now be more than A FEW YEARS;—yet, on the other hand, we may KNOW that God will not permit this time of national disaster and world destruction to fall UNTIL our nations HAVE BEEN WARNED (and no other voice is warning them), and UNTIL "this Gospel of the KINGDOM shall be preached in ALL THE WORLD for a witness UNTO ALL NATIONS, and then shall the END COME!" BE SURE THERE IS ENOUGH TIME, if we set ourselves full pressure to the task, and do our very utmost, at any sacrifice. But there is no more than enough—not one single day to waste…
I want to tell you of its progress—of the state of this work. BUT DON'T LOSE SIGHT OF THE FACT WE HAVE BEEN PLUNGED INTO A GREAT CRISIS IN THIS WORK, WHICH WE HAVE NOT YET PASSED, ALTHOUGH GOD HAS MERCIFULLY KEPT THE WORK ALIVE AND PROGRESSING WITH INCREASING MOMENTUM AND POWER. This work needs your greatest sacrifice—it needs all you and every other co-worker can give. It needs MORE than you can give—it still needs the LOANS from many who are in position to put money they may need later INTO GOD'S WORK where it can be WORKING FOR GOD until needed, when we can pay it back. Especially do we need more LONG-TERM, and LARGE loans—that is, of from one to ten thousand dollars—even more, over a long period, not to be paid back for two, three, five years or more. A few loans for a period of only a few months have helped greatly. More of these will help—but the greater need is for larger, and longer-term loans from those who are able…
Brethren, Co-Workers! Shall we have gone thru all we have had to suffer thru, at this tremendous sacrifice these past several months, have opened and started this fine college, only to have it all STOPPED just when it is going ahead so nicely? That's exactly what will happen, UNLESS OUR CO-WORKERS COME TO OUR AID WITH ENOUGH MONEY TO FINISH THE JOB IN THE NEXT TWO OR THREE WEEKS!! …
But I simply have to tell you, I am a human being like yourself, and this terrible punishment I have had to live thru has all but unfit me for my most vital work, and many, many times I have been SIMPLY UNABLE to get before a microphone and send out a fresh broadcast. THAT is why you have had to hear so many old programs repeated by transcription! And that very fact, it seems, almost crushes the heart and life out of me. Yes, I've suffered these past months as I never knew a man could suffer. I have to tell you, dear Co-workers, I HAVE DONE MY VERY BEST—and that's all any man can do. I have given MY ALL, and tho the temptation has been strong at times, to just quit and drop this crushing load, I have remained determined, and refused to quit, and just committed this heavy burden to God, and TRUSTED HIM. And He has mercifully kept the entire work ALIVE—He made it possible to actually START the college, to GET IT GOING, and it has been kept alive.
Even that is a miracle. I am thankful—more grateful than words can express. Several of you, dear co-workers, have made great sacrifices with me—some of you have given one or two thousand dollars—some of you have LOANED us from $500 to $3,000, and this, in addition to the regular tithes and offerings of smaller amounts down to a dollar, has kept the work alive.
But we are far from out of this crisis. It seems we get out of one phase of it, and into another. At this moment I am struggling to keep the program on the air, and keep the college alive.
I HAVE to ask every one of you to SACRIFICE, and to HELP to your very LIMIT. If you cannot GIVE large sums for this all- important cause, then I must ask more of you to LET GOD'S WORK HAVE THE USE of some of your money you may not need until later—especially those of you who could let us have the use of sums of $1,000 up to $10,000 for three years or more. But even if for only a short time, it would help now and MIGHT SAVE THE LIFE OF THIS WORK. About four people let us have money totalling around $3,000 two or three months ago, which we must pay back in the next week or two. So perhaps some of our other co-workers can NOW let us have the use of this sum to pay them back, and keep holding this great work alive.
This is, TRULY, the MOST important work on earth today! It is the work of GOD! And that's the very reason it is meeting every obstacle and difficulty!
TIME IS SHORT— TIME IS RUNNING OUT ON US! We have a herculean task yet to perform. We have hardly started! I want SO badly to start publishing The PLAIN TRUTH every month—but it now costs a few thousand dollars every issue, and we must catch up with these other emergencies first.
But REMEMBER! as certainly as the sun rises and sets, the ATOMIC WORLD WAR III is ON THE WAY—it is coming SWIFTLY! Invasion, destruction of our nation, THE GREAT TRIBULATION—the PLAGUES of the "DAY OF THE LORD"—these horrible things are approaching SWIFTLY! You won't be living in your home many more years! Our homes will all be taken from us.
This AGE is closing FAST! We must WARN the nations, before it is too late! NO ONE ELSE IS SOUNDING THIS WARNING! Can you realize that? A NEW AGE will soon dawn, with the COMING OF CHRIST! The GOOD NEWS of that must be proclaimed in great power to the WHOLE WORLD! I am fighting with every ounce of strength in me to build and prepare this work for that great COMMISSION—the commission to which we have been called BY JESUS CHRIST!
NOTHING ELSE MATTERS today! Our nation is in an artificial, stimulated, inflated "prosperity". Our people are living in a fool's paradise! YOU WON'T BE LIVING IN YOUR HOME MUCH LONGER—you won't be doing what you are now doing much LONGER! NOTHING ELSE MATTERS TODAY! We must WARN the people, NOW. We must preach and publish the GOOD NEWS of the coming Kingdom while there is time. The night is coming swiftly when no man can work, for God.
I am still fighting—doing my very utmost. I NEED YOUR HELP—to your very utmost. Nothing else MATTERS, today!
GOD BLESS those of you who have helped so nobly, and at such sacrifice—some of you with just the widow's mites, who have nevertheless given as MUCH, in proportion to what you have—and some of you with one, two, or three thousand dollars! God has USED YOU TO preserve this, HIS WORK! He will reward you, and GREAT shall be your reward in the Kingdom. Nothing MATTERS any more, in this world!
By immediate return mail if possible—otherwise, at the very earliest possible moment, please send the largest offering you can, in addition to God's tithe. And, if you cannot give a large amount, but can LOAN it for the use of God's work, SEND THE MONEY by return mail or as soon as you can get it, and a letter stating when, and in what amounts, you may need to have it returned, and I will send you our NOTE for it. And remember, we are maintaining a cash reserve fund to guarantee repayment of all such loans.
Once again, I leave the issue in your hands. I know you won't fail me, or our God. THANK YOU, and GOD BLESS YOU! And PLEASE remember above all, KEEP PRAYING EARNESTLY, and IN FAITH for God to deliver us, and keep this great work going.
January 29, 1948
And we sleep on, heedless, bent on pleasures and working for a future that WILL NEVER COME! Co-Workers, THE ONLY THING THAT IS IMPORTANT NOW IS TO SOUND GOD'S WARNING TO THIS NATION -- TO PREACH AND PUBLISH WITH GREAT POWER THE TRUE GOSPEL TO THE ENTIRE WORLD BEFORE THIS ATOMIC-DAY COMES! Frankly, I do not believe it will actually come in five years -- but it COULD! But I do believe we have not more than seven or nine years to finish the work God has commissioned us to do! Just BARELY enough time, and NO MORE! That is why AMBASSADOR COLLEGE had to start without a year's delay. That's why God performed MIRACLES to open the way that it might start. Sober, serious young men and women are being thoroughly TRAINED to carry this work now INTO EVERY NATION. Every student, by hard application, is proving to be an ALL-A student! Final exams for the first semester are being held this week!…
Listen, dear Co-Worker! As I've said before, YOU won't be living where you are -- AS you are, enjoying what you are now, MUCH LONGER! DOOM is hurling surely and relentlessly down UPON OUR ENTIRE NATION! General Arnold sees it. All great scientists know it! They tell us they are frankly FRIGHTENED! You may be sure General Eisenhower, President Truman, Secretary Marshall all realize it! Yes, they all know more than they dare tell! GOD foresees it, and WARNS US!
TIME IS SHORT and swiftly running out on us! We STILL have time, and just BARELY time, to fulfill the Great Commission, before it's forever TOO LATE! We can't stop, falter, slacken our efforts now!
And yet SOME FEW of our co-workers continue to write in after every urgent appeal I'm forced to sent out! "Why is the work always in an emergency? Why must it always need more money?"
Oh, dear Co-workers, LISTEN! Let's all realize JUST WHERE WE STAND! We are in the very LAST DAYS! The only thing on earth that COUNTS, now, is THIS GREAT WORK OF GOD! It isn't MY personal work—it is YOURS as much as mine—it's GOD'S work, to which He has called YOU and me. I can speak in front of a microphone. But unless YOUR MONEY makes that microphone LIVE,—carries what is spoken into it, out over many radio stations of super-power to MILLIONS OF PEOPLE, I would be talking into a dead piece of metal in an empty room—just talking to myself! Often, when I speak to you, there is not another soul in the room with me. Usually Mrs. Armstrong is there by my side, and sometimes visitors, but not always. You see, of myself I CAN DO NOTHING. Without YOUR part, this great work would be as dead as the proverbial door-nail. I need—fully realize the need—and am sure I have, the help and power of GOD. I have to plead for His help, guidance, inspiration, and power daily—He has promised it, and He gives it. But without YOU CO-WORKERS, this work would fold up and STOP DEAD in less than ten days' time! I can write articles, and booklets. But unless YOU send the money for paper, printing, and postage, not a hundred people would probably ever see the Message God has given me. I can teach the marvelous, amazing, precious TRUTHS God has revealed to me to the Bible class at AMBASSADOR COLLEGE, and other professors can teach the other things these students need to prepare them for God's service—ONLY if YOU send in the money to keep the college operating!
And this work has been developed and organized SO EFFICIENTLY, under God's inspiration and guidance, that EVERY SINGLE DOLLAR you send carries the precious vital Message to TWO THOUSAND PRECIOUS SOULS, who will not hear it if you do not send that dollar—or as MANY dollars as you can!
Yes, this work ONCE AGAIN is in a LIFE-AND-DEATH CRISIS! I've explained before how we had no possible way to anticipate the $30,000 reconstruction job unexpectedly thrust upon us. We HAD to meet it. But it is not paid yet—and it forced us to get behind with our large super-power radio stations, and I have had to give notes in LARGE AMOUNTS, due monthly, which will keep this terrible crisis on us for THREE MORE MONTHS at least. We are not yet out of this dire emergency, and WON'T BE for another three months at least! But I am happy to report to you that we are rapidly getting this work out of debt—and are committed to a stiff schedule that will rid us entirely of the reproach of debt after another three months. Rapid, almost miraculous strides have been made—but we must put our shoulders to the wheel until the job's finished!
Some of our co-workers are doing FAR MORE than their share—God bless them! Some have made tremendous sacrifice—giving one, two, three thousand dollars—some LOANING us, until they need it, money they cannot give, that this money may at least be USED during this present emergency in this most important work on earth! I must ask OTHERS now to give, or loan us large sums to meet all the heavy obligations and keep this work alive, and GROWING. But some—as I said, only a VERY FEW—seem to take offense, and write me criticizing letters because this emergency is still on. Oh, dear Co-Workers, can't you realize that every bit of it is, financially, my PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY?—that it is I, not you, whom the building contractor, the radio stations, and others, threaten and pressure! It is I they make feel like a dishonest dead-beat or a criminal of some kind, when YOU fail to send in enough money! It is I who must endure all this, often unable to sleep nights, and still must try to keep up my morale and good spirits so I can talk cheerfully and encouragingly over the air to help millions of people—who must try to encourage and inspire our office staff, our professors and students at the college, and KEEP THE WHEELS TURNING, no matter how heavy the responsibility reposes on my shoulders! Now of course I realize, since this is God's work, that there is no cause for worry or fear—and I DO have perfect FAITH, born of long experience. I do always KNOW God will see to it that everything comes out all right, in due time—as He always has, does, and will! But dear Co-Workers, I am a human mortal just like you, not a great super-man—subject to all human feelings, temptations, weaknesses and everything else just like YOU. And being human, even tho my faith is strong and unwavering, and there is NO QUESTION in my mind of the outcome, yet these things are terrible ORDEALS which cause SUFFERING you can never know unless you should be in my place, have this frightfully heavy load of responsibility on YOUR shoulders, and know by experience! And yet some of our dear co-workers have written me that when they get a BULLETIN or some of my letters since this crisis has been on, they feel it so deeply they just can't sleep—so I know many of you feel a big share in this responsibility with me!—GOD BLESS YOU!
Well, here's the situation of the moment! Today I have to meet the regular heavy monthly payment on the college property. By drawing some from our reserve fund, I have enough to meet it—I'm sure God will never let us lose it! But a note for more than $2,000 is a couple days PAST DUE, another one for another $2,000 will be due in three days, the heavy monthly pay-roll is also due then, beside many first-of-the-month bills! Once again, I MUST get in not less than SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS WITHIN A WEEK! For the present we must keep BORROWING as many thousand dollars as some of our good co-workers, who are not in position to give it, can let us USE in God's work temporarily—for as long as you can spare it—preferably two or three years, but even for two or three months if longer time is impossible. I must send out again the urgent call for LARGE GIFTS, of sums of $500, $1,000, and up to several thousand dollars! Again I must ask you, and in Jesus' name, and for His cause, for all the widow's mites—and please try to DOUBLE even the small offerings if possible. We must have MANY offerings in amounts of $25, $50, and $100. God does not expect any to give what he has not got, but He does expect each one to TITHE faithfully, ONE-TENTH OF INCOME, and to give in addition generous, liberal offerings, ACCORDING TO ABILITY.
NOWHERE else can this money do so much good, or reach so many people! Except ALMIGHTY GOD interferes, this world faces certain DOOM—utter annihilation of human life on this globe by atomic destruction at the hand of man! The glorious GOOD NEWS of the coming KINGDOM OF GOD, and the SECOND COMING OF CHRIST to at last straighten everything out for us and bring a blinded and deceived humanity understanding, peace, and joyful salvation—the true GOSPEL of Jesus Christ—must now be shouted in great power to the entire world. Soon it will be TOO LATE. NOW is the time! YOU have your part, just as I have mine. I'm doing my very best—will YOU do ALL that YOU CAN? Please rush your offering, as large as possible, as soon as possible -- air-mail (now only 5 cents) or even by telegraph.
God bless you—SOMEHOW I know we will be carried through, and this great work will survive and continue on, TO THE END!
February 11, 1949
It has been two months or more since I have written most of our Co-Workers. Tremendous things have happened in that time, of world importance.
Yes, and what has happened to this work is destined to be of world importance! We will all see that a little later.
PROPHECY is being rapidly fulfilled. The whole world is swirling in the vortex toward the end of this world, into the WORLD TOMORROW! And what is happening to this work which God has committed to you and to me is a most important part of these prophesied events!…
Brethren, Co-Workers, LISTEN! This is as much YOUR call and commission—YOUR responsibility, as mine. Together we must sacrifice for it. It must become the CHIEF INTEREST, CONCERN, AND PURPOSE in your life as well as it already is in mine, if God's purpose is to be fulfilled. Remember, the "harvest is plenteous, but THE LABORERS ARE FEW," and we do not have a vast number of co-workers to help, and to supply the vast financial need. So, YOU must be willing to sacrifice —to put this great Mission FIRST in your life and in the expenditures of your pocket-book. ONLY A FEW YEARS OF THE PRESENT ORDER—THE PRESENT CIVILIZATION—THE PRESENT WORLD, remain. After all, your money is not going to be worth any- thing anywhere ELSE, in a very few short years. If any of our co-workers start to think, "My Lord delayeth His coming," and shall allow their interest to become absorbed in this world's pleasures, or in the CARES OF THIS WORLD—earning a living, laying up for self and for the future—so that GOD'S WORK becomes second in interest, "the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for Him, ... and will cut him in sunder." But to YOU, dear Co-worker, Jesus says: "Seek not ye"—that is, set not FIRST in your interest—"what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after .... But rather seek ye THE KINGDOM OF GOD; and all these things shall be added unto you. ... Sell what you have, and give alms; provide yourselves ... treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. ... BLESSED is that servant, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find so doing." (Luke 12:45-46; 29-34; 43.)
And where does the glorious work of God stand at this hour? We had a serious LET-DOWN in money received from co-workers for carrying on the work, in January—a relapse after the miraculous response in December. Your pastor and editor is much fatigued of mind and body from the intense strain of overwork and the heavy responsibilities he carries and MUST get away for another rest. And now The PLAIN TRUTH has DOUBLED in circulation these past 60 days, and also DOUBLED IN SIZE, now to be 16 pages every month. I HOPE YOU LIKE IT! The need for funds—another downpour of widow's mites, and also for generous larger offerings up into the thousand-dollar figures—is again URGENT. Don't let this wonderful work relapse into another crisis! We must never become weary with WELL-doing, but keep everlastingly at it, diligently, with zeal and fervor, putting our HEARTS—and our money—into GOD'S WORK FIRST! GOD BLESS YOU -- I know you'll never let down or fail us! And THANK YOU, from the bottom of my heart.
July 14, 1949
HOW MUCH IS YOUR SALVATION WORTH TO YOU? HOW MUCH IS A SINGLE SOUL WORTH? God is using us in this great work of His to reach some seven million people every week with HIS MESSAGE. Two thousand are reached with every dollar you send in for this work! ISN'T THAT WORTH SACRIFICE? But listen! While GOD has been blessing this work so—showing His endorsement and approval; while we have been straining every nerve to DO OUR VERY UTMOST—while the work has grown so—yet half or more of our Co-Workers have been shirking, or forgetting, or putting off —and WE FIND GOD'S WORK SUFFERING REPROACH, WITHOUT ENOUGH MONEY TO MEET EXPENSES, AND THREATENED WITH BEING PUT OFF THE AIR! Yesterday I received a telegram saying we will be put off the air unless money is sent immediately. We pay as we go, in advance, and if we don't have it, THE WORK WILL STOP! The past few weeks we have fallen several thousand dollars behind! Co-Workers, HOW MUCH IS A SOUL WORTH? Do you have a more important use for God's money? Surely EVERYONE can send the widow's two mites—and many of you can send from a hundred to a few thousand dollars each. Couldn't you, at least just this time, send ten dollars instead of two—or fifty instead of five—or still more generous offering for God's great work? GOD BLESS YOU, I know you'll respond once again LIBERALLY -- and REMEMBER! We have to pay radio and other bills WEEKLY -- so try to send your contributions weekly, if possible.
WE ARE IN AN URGENT CRISIS AGAIN! Please RUSH! GOD BLESS YOU!!!
November 11, 1949
I wrote you co-workers a year ago today. Again it is "ARMISTICE DAY." A tragedy is happening, and I have to write you again. You must help me prevent it.
t seems foolish to celebrate the armistice of World War I. Today we are in the midst of the second armistice. AND THERE IS A REAL REASON FOR THIS PRESENT ARMISTICE! Everyone knows it's only another "recess!" Everyone knows ANOTHER WORLD WAR IS COMING!…
Nevertheless, while the ACTIVITIES of this work, and the RESULTS accomplished, and the BLESSING FROM GOD, have steadily increased thru this year, our co-workers have at the same time STEADILY LET DOWN!
Gradually, we have been heading toward a severe crisis. On and on it has crept, and NOW THE SITUATION IS DESPERATELY ALARMING!
LISTEN, dear Co-Workers! This means we are heading straight and rapidly toward the DEATH of this work! We do, —AND MUST—pay our big radio stations AS WE GO. We cannot go on the air UNLESS THE TIME IS PAID FOR! And when enough money does not come in, all I can do is STOP! Once again we shall be cut off XEG and other powerful stations UNLESS THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS ARE RUSHED TO US IMMEDIATELY!
Co-Workers, it is MOST embarrassing for me to have to tell you again, that unless you RALLY—unless you immediately send in to this work money you had planned for something else,—THIS VOICE YOU HAVE HEARD PROCLAIMING THE TRUE GOSPEL THAT JESUS BROUGHT TO THE WORLD WILL BE STILLED!—and this time, at this season of the year, out time will be sold to others and we probably will NEVER get it back!
God's work must owe no man anything! It cannot continue on in debt! Our policy is to pay in advance, or as we go. This indebtedness was forced on us by factors outside our control. WE MUST NOW UNITEDLY SET OURSELVES TO PUT GOD'S WORK ON SOLID GROUND FINANCIALLY—out of debt, and with a reasonable cash surplus to tide over temporary slumps or unexpected emergencies. We here at Pasadena are SET TO THAT POLICY, and that is now our one major goal—BUT WE MUST HAVE YOUR HELP, AND IT MEANS REAL SACRIFICE ON YOUR PART!
This is the most important work and activity on earth today! WE ARE IN A TIME OF PEACE FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF ALLOWING ME TO PROCLAIM THIS MESSAGE TO THE WORLD! In a few years YOUR MONEY, YOUR PROPERTY, will be worthless, or blown to bits. Present so-called "peace" won't last! We are near the end of this world -- this age -- this civilization! ONLY THE WORK OF GOD COUNTS NOW!
CO-WORKERS, RALLY TO THIS EMERGENCY AS YOU NEVER DID BEFORE! Never yet has anyone given a single contribution to this work as large as $5,000. ONE OF YOU CAN! Will you? One man and his wife borrowed $5,000, mortgaging their home, and loaned it to us to pay off the last of the college reconstruction cost. Two months ago, when the bank unexpectedly demanded the remaining $3,000 of that loan be paid immediately, six months sooner than originally arranged, we were able to pay only $1,500, obtaining an extension until December for the remaining $1,500. It must be paid then. Of course we will not let these dear co-workers lose their home. But we now have only thirty days to raise this in addition to these other crying needs. And somewhere among you co-workers is one who can send this amount.
Co-Workers, would you let the broadcast stop, because of your neglect? Would you let The PLAIN TRUTH stop? This year The PLAIN TRUTH has grown to 16 pages every issue—its circulation has grown much more than in any previous year.
Yet at this very moment thousands of copies of the November number, all addressed, and in mail sacks, have been lying on our office floor for days because of lack of money for postage. I have the December number half written and set in type—BUT THE PLAIN TRUTH IS HELD UP FOR LACK OF MONEY! Ambassador College sorely needs $5,000 for library books which we cannot now afford, and will not, until the work as a whole is "out of the red" and in currently sound financial shape.
CO-WORKERS, all of you—we must now remove this reproach from God's work! THE WORK SORELY NEEDS A GIFT OF $5,000 OR MORE! But if you can't send that, or a thousand, or a hundred or more—or even $50 or $20—at least EVERY ONE OF YOU can send the widow's two mites! And another downpour now of widow's mites would lift this work out of this DANGER. Remember every dollar carries the true Gospel to TWO THOUSAND SOULS! Can you use it otherwise, and then face God in the judgment?
Now is the time for financial sacrifice as you never did before! WILL YOU JOIN ME IN EARNEST PRAYER OVER IT? The condition this minute is DESPERATE! Please PRAY, and ask God to move on the hearts of co-workers so compellingly they will respond over- whelmingly and SAVE THE WONDERFUL WORK OF GOD. Rush the largest, most generous amount you possibly can, AIR-MAIL -- and get it into the enclosed envelope NOW,—immediately—or the first moment you can get the money. THANK YOU, and GOD BLESS YOU!
JUNE 24, 1952
I feel that the response on SPECIAL contributions for the purchase of these properties was very fine, considering I had only sent out the one letter about it. That is, it started off splendidly, the first three weeks. But since it has dropped to a tiny trickle, and we have a third or fourth of what we shall need. I was especially pleased that our Co-workers from all over the United States, even up and down the Pacific Coast who will probably never go to Gladewater or benefit personally from it, put in special contributions for this purpose. Most of this came in small amounts, which showed how much it counts up when a large number of people get back of a thing, even with small offerings. Of course several sent in $100.00 or more but I believe only one as much as $200.00—.
To date, about $4,000.00 has come in for this project. WE MUST RAISE THE REST OF IT WITHIN 60 DAYS. Surely there are at least two or three among all our Co-workers who can put contributions of $1,000.00 or more into this great project. Right now is when it's needed— for CASH MONEY TALKS—and if I have the cash money on hand to deal with, I can manage a far better deal than when I have to ask for time and terms, which puts me on the defensive and allows others to start trying to take advantage. I may still be in this section, making final decision on the site and closing the deal, by the time this letter reaches you. If you are one who can put a large amount into this project as an added and special contribution, PLEASE SEND A TELEGRAM TO THE OFFICE IN PASADENA TELLING WHAT YOU ARE SENDING, and they will forward your telegram to me. Don't wire the money—let it follow by airmail.
However, the regular work must not suffer because of this special project. Don't put any money into it you would have put into the Gospel Work. Be sure that whatever you send for this project is an extra, special, additional contribution, over and above your tithe and regular offerings. But the need is URGENT, and IMMEDIATE! I must raise several thousand dollars more within 60 days. I shall proceed on faith, and if and when I find the right deal and know it is the place God has chosen, I shall close it, and rely on God in faith to move enough of our Co-Workers to meet the balance in time. If you can't send a large sum send what you can—whether only a dollar or two, or thirty, forty, or a hundred. Every bit counts. I do THANK everyone of you, who have contributed so far, from the bottom of my heart, and I know that you co-workers will see that the full amount is sent in, within 60 days.
I verily believe that NOTHING ON EARTH is growing as dynamically and rapidly as GOD'S GREAT WORK, today! But it does take money—EVERY SINGLE DAY! It will take money to keep these two baptizing teams going this summer. THIS SUMMER WE ARE REAPING BY FAR THE LARGEST HARVEST OF SOULS FOR GOD'S KINGDOM of any year so far! That's the thing that counts MOST! How wonderful it is! It's difficult to keep the precious work alive through the summers. Radio reception is not good. Not nearly as many hear the broadcast, and fewer send in money. Yet we are under HEAVY EXPENSES this summer. KEEP GOD'S GREAT WORK ALIVE AND GOING! Try to send in tithes and offerings more frequently—and larger offerings if possible. You are having a very important part AND RESPONSIBILITY in the greatest work on earth.
God bless you—I know you'll do your very best, and remain faithful to the end. THANK YOU for all you've done for the work before. And try to keep a SPECIAL contribution coming in EVERY MONTH for this big Texas project!
September 9, 1953
The Festival is just TWO WEEKS AWAY—we are UNDER PRESSURE—it is now the FINAL, URGENT CRISIS—We simply HAVE to raise this money! I know many of you have done almost more than you could. But somehow we now simply MUST make one last MIGHTY SACRIFICE to put this over the top. Some whom I feel sure would have sent in two or three thousand dollars or more each have had reverses and had their incomes cut in two this year, and simply could not do it. IS THERE NOT SOMEONE ELSE WHO COULD PUT IN A REALLY BIG SUM—one, two, or five thousand dollars? It is now a dire need. GOD WILL BLESS YOU for your sacrifice and generosity. And ALL THE REST OF YOU—send in a SHOWER of offerings—if only one or two dollars, or ten or thirty or a hundred—just whatever you are able. Every single dollar counts BIG just now. Single dollars alone would build it IF THERE WERE ENOUGH OF THEM. Don't think any amount is too small—SEND IT. But if you can send more, do so! …
FINALLY: Remember, now, the URGENT CRISIS upon us. We must raise $10,000 in seven days, two or three of which will pass before you receive this letter. SEND ALL YOU CAN—nothing too small, nothing too large—IN ENCLOSED ENVELOPE BY RETURN AIR-MAIL. Let EVERYONE rally to this great cause. We can do it if EVERYONE will do the best he can.
AND KEEP REGULAR TITHES AND OFFERINGS COMING! As I write this, it is hanging in the balance whether we shall be on XEG at all this fall and winter. PRAY FOR IT, earnestly, everybody! Depending upon acceptance at New York, the AMERICAN BROADCASTING COMPANY has opened to us a half hour, 5 to 5:30 Sunday evenings for the entire 16 stations of the California net-work on ABC -- that's California only. Time has been cleared on KVOD, Denver, and KGER, Los Angeles. Broadcast times to be announced later. TWO broad- casts now on Radio LUXEMBOURG to all Europe and Britain. PRAY for GOD'S WORK AS NEVER BEFORE. RUSH THE OFFERING!
January 15, 1954
Here is BIG NEWS! It may mean the end of this present world is much nearer than even we had supposed!…
Here is the BIG NEWS! The second largest nation on earth, in number of human lives, is India. India has 364,000,000 people—as compared to 160,000,000 in the United States. Beginning February 16, "this Gospel of the Kingdom of God" will be broadcast for the first time in all history to all of India! And at very slight cost to us! I have just been offered this tremendous opportunity and closed the contract in New York City…
Finally two important things I have to say.
1) This very important Ceylon broadcast program costs so little it does not add a noticeable expense—only about 1 percent of present expenses of God's great work.
2) But, on the other hand, there has been a sudden dropping off of money received for the work this week, so that the very life of the work is again threatened.
Week by week, more and more letters are being received from new listeners from the ABC network, now indicating more than a million listeners every week. Already a few of them are joining you as co-workers. We must hold on, dear co-workers, a few more months and then there will be enough new co-workers to pay the network costs.
Again the need is URGENT! It takes money every day and every week, to operate this greatest work on earth.
The two or three who sent in large offerings this past month saved the great work of God. If more of you would send in more widow's mites more often, these larger sums would not be so desperately needed—but every dollar—and every thousand dollars—is a DESPERATE NEED RIGHT NOW!
Stand with me, co-workers! Think how God is moving to lead the way for His work. He expects you, as well as me, to do OUR PART, without letting up.
January 19, 1956
But HOW are we to go on TV daily? There will be some reduction in cost per program, but still it will cost almost FIVE TIMES as much as once a week, and we have had the tightest of tight squeezes in holding on to TV only once a week!
That, dear Co-Workers, is the problem I've had to face squarely. God has shown me the ANSWER—and opened the WAY—but you Co-Workers will have to BACK me in this tremendous undertaking as NEVER BEFORE! Never before have I had to call on you for such sacrifice—such intensive and earnest and continuous prevailing PRAYER as now! But if you'll stand solidly back of me—WE CAN GO ON TELEVISION DAILY, this very year!
I have taken the proverbial "bull by the horns," and set out on a breath-taking, daring new policy. In order to go on TV daily we have to first raise a definite fund for that purpose. As of now, we do not have the money to do it. But we CAN raise it. There is only one way. God showed me that way. It took COURAGE, but I have done it.
In order to raise this necessary fund for EVERY-DAY television, I have sent thru cancellation orders to all stations in the United States, cancelling the once-a-week programs as of January 29th. I have given a firm order to our business office to put the money that we would have spent on once-a-week-ONLY Television in a special fund in the bank—a fund that cannot be checked on, or withdrawn, UNTIL we have enough to start us on TV daily. But even this will not be enough. We shall have to raise MORE money than that.
I am now planning, GOD WILLING, to start the daily TV programs next September. A definite fund must be raised by that date.
But even as I write you the announcement of this new policy, we already have 5% of that needed fund in the bank. That's a good start! But it's only a start. We must add to that fund DAILY. If we let down or falter, we will not make it, and then we might NEVER get back on TV again.
But also, this presents us an opportunity to get God's work completely out of debt—out of this rut of being just a little behind in paying current obligations—and to enable us to have the financial responsibility, and the credit standing that the world will (recognize). This, in itself, will open up whole new worlds of opportunities! …
I want to THANK all you dear, loyal, self-sacrificing Co- Workers from the very bottom of my heart for the way you have responded this past year—especially this past month or six weeks. With your help, your sacrifice and your PRAYERS, we have been able to get the work almost out of debt and arrears on all current accounts—tho there are still some back ones we must pay off. God's work is now on the way to a most sound financial footing.
I KNOW you dear Co-Workers don't want me to have to keep writing you all the time that we are behind—that the situation is desperate—that the work may be forced to stop unless you rush to my assistance. IF you'll respond, now, generously, and KEEP IT UP, week after week and month after month, we can now quickly get the work out of that unhappy predicament. THIS is the very WORK OF GOD ALMIGHTY. God is blessing this work—prospering it—blessing it with precious FRUIT for His Kingdom—guiding it, causing it to grow constantly.
Brethren and Co-Workers, THIS is our one great opportunity to lift HIGH the head of the Eternal's work—and to carry it this year to a GLORIOUS harvest far greater than ever before.
So BE FAITHFUL in putting the full TITHE of your income—GOD'S TENTH, which is not yours, but GOD'S—into His work—and also generous offerings, as God blesses and makes possible. YOU WILL BE DOUBLY AND TRIPLY BLESSED!
We KNOW—because the FRUITS declare it—that THIS is the VERY work of God. Yet we have had to be running behind financially. This made me feel ashamed. It really HURT! It sent me immediately to my prayer room. I knelt, and with tears asked God to show me WHY—to show me HOW to get out of this disgraceful situation. I said to God, that surely He is able to remove this reproach, and to provide EVERY NEED for His work, as He has promised, and I asked him boldly to DO IT!
He is answering that prayer! From that very day, somehow you Co-Workers began to respond as never before! Immediately God revealed this way to create the cash fund to get the work on DAILY television—to give it the imperative cash working balance it MUST have to operate on its present scale of world-wide power and influence. Now I ask you to join me in that prayer—and to KEEP IT UP, with all your heart and all your might, through this whole year,—and the NEXT—and the NEXT—until finally our great Commission is completed, and we may all hear Christ say to us, at His coming, "WELL DONE, good and faithful servant—come, enter into the JOYS of God's everlasting KINGDOM!"
I'm going to plunge into God's work harder than ever toward that end -- and if victory is achieved, YOU will have to do the same, and be willing to make real and continuous sacrifices that the needs of God's work may be supplied. God bless you —I'm sure you will! GREAT things are ahead for us this year!
November 20, 1957
This is a quick and short EMERGENCY S.O.S.!!!
This whole world has suddenly hit a stupendous CRISIS. At the same time, the most important activity on earth—GOD'S WORK—faces a crucial emergency.
WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THIS WORLD? Can your mind really grasp it? In 1944 we were in the fast-moving Machine Age. In 1945 we entered the frightful and faster-moving Atomic Age! And now, 1957, we have been plummeted into the terrifying 18,000 m.p.h. (five miles per second) SPACE AGE!!!
Think of it! It used to take thousands of years to pass through just ONE AGE. The DESTRUCTIVENESS of MAN'S INGENUITY has now speeded up at such incredible accelerated pace that we have just passed through THREE AGES in twelve short years!!
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? It means far more than soaring of Russian prestige and shrinking of the United States prestige in world opinion. It means far more than the fact that the story of history is the story of the rise and fall of great nations —that always when a nation becomes rich, proud, and basking in the sunshine of luxury as America is doing today, a poorly clothed and fed but tough, high spirited and strong barbarian adversary conquers and destroys it. It means far more than the handwriting on the wall for AMERICA—that this nation now faces the DOOM that is prophesied and which it MONTHLY refuses to realize. IT MEANS THE DOOM OF ALL CIVILIZATION is descending down upon us, as rapidly as this new SPACE AGE is rocketing Sputniks and missiles up into outer space at 300 miles per minute and faster!! It means that, as God said at the Tower of Babel, now NOTHING will be restrained from MAN until he has blasted all human life from off this planet —UNLESS GOD QUICKLY STEPS IN AND STOPS THE HELLISH ADVANCE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY TOWARD WORLD OBLIVION!!
IT MEANS OUR TIME IS SHORT—far shorter than we knew!! In such a crazed doom-bent world, ONE URGENT MISSION STANDS OUT AS OF FIRST IMPORTANCE OVER EVERY ACTIVITY ON EARTH—far in importance above this feverish Science-Activity for which President Eisenhower now calls. That is to THUNDER GOD'S LAST WARNING GOSPEL MESSAGE TO ALL THE WORLD AS A WITNESS TO ALL NATIONS!!
God Almighty must step in and save this world from itself until this mission is completed! (Matt. 24:14). The ETERNAL GOD has sent us, dear Co-Workers, as His instruments in completing HIS WORK ON EARTH IN THIS PRESENT WORLD. No one else is shouting this WARNING! No one else is proclaiming the living PROPHECIES of that entire third of the Bible devoted to prophecy, to WARN this world in advance, before they happen, of the catastrophic events now soon to SHAKE this world into final submission to GOD! Two years ago we told you a NEW EPIDEMIC would strike America in two years. IT'S HERE! No one else warned this nation!! No one else is telling what PROPHECY says Germany and Fascism in Europe are starting under cover. You'll soon see it—THE UNITED STATES of EUROPE—THE RESURRECTED ROMAN EMPIRE!! No one else is thundering out to the whole world the very same Gospel CHRIST preached—the Message GOD sent to mankind by Jesus as Messenger!! The worldly evangelists preach their own gospel ABOUT the person of Christ—but Christ's own GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD is going to the world solely and only through this work of which GOD HAS MADE YOU A VITAL PART, AS WELL AS ME!!! …
Our business office tells me they have had to drop two weeks behind in payment for time on our great American stations this month. After the recent trouble caused by our former advertising agency, THIS WILL MEAN SUDDENLY GOING OFF THE AIR ON MANY SUPER- POWER STATIONS, UNLESS THESE PAYMENTS ARE MET IMMEDIATELY, AND THEY ARE PAID PROMPTLY ON TIME HEREAFTER!!
This means this WORK OF GOD—most important activity on earth—is in another crisis—just as we face the most difficult time of the year—the Christmas shopping-spree season, when most people FORGET ALL ABOUT ANY GIFT FOR CHRIST AND HIS WORK, thinking only of exchanging presents among themselves!! Those who participate in this NON-Scriptural Christmas custom (see article in December PLAIN TRUTH), surely ought to send their one biggest, most GENEROUS gift for CHRIST and HIS WORK—and more, to be really consistent, if this were a true Christian custom, the WHOLE of their Christmas-giving should go into one BIGGEST-OF-THE-YEAR GIFT FOR CHRIST, for His work!!!
What does this new WORLD CRISIS mean? It means God's work MUST speed up, even as hell-bent Science and Technology are SPEEDING UP toward world-destruction. It means that this great work of God must SPEND MORE MONEY THAN BEFORE! IT MEANS the expenses of this work are speeding up—and so must the income!!!
A great world scientist, head of one of the two greatest institutions of technology in the United States, says this plunging suddenly into the SPACE AGE means an intellectual and scientific PEARL HARBOR!! He says it means THE WHOLE WORLD IS JOLTED INTO ACTION!!—Yes, action toward the DESTRUCTION of all life upon earth!!! He calls for mobilization of minds for "scientific purpose"—which means DESTRUCTIVE PURPOSE!!!
Co-Workers, I come to you now in more solemnity and URGENCY than ever before. The time for complacency is PAST!! The time for thinking of pleasures, the things we can buy to enjoy, the things we'd like to do that take money, IS PAST, if we're AWAKE to the FACTS and URGENCY of the hour!
The WORLD is being JOLTED into ACTION to hasten the DESTRUCTION of your home—your family—your town or city—YOUR NATION—THIS ENTIRE WORLD!!! WHAT DOES THIS TURN IN HISTORY MEAN TO YOU? DOES IT JOLT YOU INTO ACTION ON THE FIRING LINE FOR GOD—FOR CHRIST AND HIS GOSPEL—FOR FINISHING THE ALL-IMPORTANT WORK OF GOD, THAT CHRIST MAY COME AND SAVE THIS WORLD FROM ITSELF, AND BRING IT PEACE?
God's work needs increased offerings as well as honest tithes from all, according as God has made you able! That means one or several thousand dollars from some—widows' mites from others less able—but the work direly needs INCREASED offerings, and MORE OFTEN, if God has made that possible. And now, as NEVER BEFORE, dear Co-Workers, GET ON YOUR KNEES AND PRAY—PRAY FOR THIS WORK AND ME!!
January 10, 1958
GREETINGS, in Jesus' name. Here we are, in 1958! Time is running out on us. Apparently, as we have said before, God is giving us two 19-year cycles to finish HIS WORK which HE has assigned to His Church to do. He first opened the mighty door of radio and the printing press for mass-evangelization of the whole world with HIS GOSPEL the first week in January, 1934. ..
But brethren in God's Church today, here is the IMPORTANT thing to shake us out of our lethargy and WAKE US UP! If it is true that God has allotted to us, as He did to the church 19 centuries ago, just TWO 19-year time cycles to complete His work, FIVE OF OUR LAST 19 YEARS HAVE ALREADY SPED BY! Only 14 more short years remain! We have now passed the 24th anniversary of the MASS EVANGELISM CAMPAIGN OF THE CHURCH…
BUT SPECIAL OFFERINGS FOR THE BUILDING FUND HAVE FALLEN OFF TO A MERE TRICKLE! We have to start sending the construction company several thousand dollars a month, beginning NOW!
Brethren, WHAT ARE WE TO DO? We can't go ahead with this Tabernacle unless YOU MEMBERS SEND IN THE MONEY! We cannot take regular tithes and offerings away from the GOSPEL WORK around the world—WE CAN'T STOP GOD'S GREAT GOSPEL WORK—and put that money into the Tabernacle.
WHY, dear brethren, is it that unless I send out urgent appeals, most of you forget all about this great need, and QUIT DOING YOUR PART? W H Y ? Don't you realize that GOD is noting all we do—or fail to do? Don't you know we are to be rewarded according to our works?
WE MUST WAKE UP! We must raise from $8,000 to $10,000 every month, by SPECIAL and extra offerings, over and above all regular tithes and offerings, OR ELSE WE CANNOT BUILD THIS TABERNACLE!
Now it's true, we still have in the bank the $27,000-plus raised at the last Feast of Tabernacles for this purpose, and some more beside that we have laid aside in this special PROPERTY FUND. But I don't want to take out more than a tenth of that each month, so as to spread it over a ten months' period, and not have this reserve fund depleted at the very start. We still need to raise close to $10,000 a month additional, as we go—BEGINNING NOW. Only a very tiny fraction of that has been coming in.
LET US EVERY ONE RE-DEDICATE OUR LIVES TO GOD'S WORK! Time is SHORT, and growing shorter FAST. We simply can't hold the Feast of Tabernacles next fall unless we complete this new Tabernacle. GOD COMMANDS US TO HOLD IT! I cannot ask Co-Workers who are not yet members for special offerings for this tabernacle. WE WHO ARE MEMBERS MUST RAISE IT—MONTH BY MONTH! Please PRAY about it!
With love in Jesus' name,
Herbert W. Armstrong
January 12, 1958
P.S. -- Even since the above was set in type, I must add this IMPORTANT P.S. At the local church here yesterday, I was moved to pledge a special, additional $100 per month to this building fund which Mrs. Armstrong and I had planned to be able, at last, after all these years, to lay aside for any future "rainy day" in our own lives or those of our children. We have never yet been able to lay aside any personal savings for ourselves. Our home is all we have in this world. If God took my life there would be nothing for Mrs. Armstrong, except what she herself could earn.
The visiting ministers are all here. Mr. Kenneth Swisher, pastor of the churches at Gladewater tabernacle and at Minden, La., preached. In relation to this Tabernacle fund, he told of his experience in the war. His company was told to dig foxholes.
Their officer instructed them the foxholes must be narrow and deep enough so that when an enemy tank rolled over them, the men in the foxholes would not be mangled and crushed to death. "And," snapped out the officer, "to test your foxholes, we are going to drive our own tank over them, with you in them."
The boys didn't take this threatened test seriously. The ground was mostly rock,—very difficult digging. They "griped", loafed on the job.
Suddenly they looked up and saw the tanks coming! Frantically they began to dig down deeper! BRETHREN, not only the enemy tanks, but HYDROGEN BOMBS are coming OUR WAY mighty soon. Our only protection is GOD! And God says now to us: "DIG DOWN DEEPER—AND FAST—and KEEP IT UP! ! !"
December 8, 1959
… As world conditions step up toward the grand-smash CLIMAX of world VIOLENCE, and the END of this world, God is stepping up the power of HIS WORK! He is simultaneously blessing His people—CHRIST'S CO-WORKERS—with financial prosperity. AND HE EXPECTS US ALL TO GIVE, GENEROUSLY, FOR HIS WORK ACCORDING AS HE HAS BLESSED AND PROSPERED US—beside paying our honest TITHES which BELONG TO HIM!
Co-Workers, let us dedicate ourselves right now as Co-Workers together with CHRIST, as never before—for OUR PART in His work! Let each of us dedicate ourselves to sacrifice other things this coming year—to put the WORK OF CHRIST FIRST in our hearts and in our finances, not only RIGHT NOW in this difficult month, but throughout the coming year. It must be a still more successful year than 1959!
I need your immediate HELP—remember the widow's mites count up, and help greatly, when that is all one has. But God's work also desperately needs the larger amounts into the hundreds and thousands from those whom God has blest so as to make such generous offerings possible. AND I NEED YOUR CONSTANT, HEART- RENDING, PREVAILING PRAYERS! I need your prayer for personal guidance, wisdom, health, and protection. Satan would destroy me in a second —if God allowed. I need your prayers personally—and constantly! We all need the continual prayers of one another. So, as I pray continually for YOU, remember to pray not only for me, but for all our fellow Co-Workers with Christ!
THANK YOU! I know God is blessing you!
December 9, 1962
GREETINGS in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Once again I have to write you about a SERIOUS EMERGENCY. It is MOST URGENT!
I am writing this Sunday morning. Friday evening, just before the Sabbath came on, I stopped in the office of our head bookkeeper a moment. I was startled—almost horrified—to learn that the special offerings for the PROPERTY FUND had suddenly dropped off alarmingly the past two months. Then at Church yesterday, Mr. Mauck gave me the explanation:—in my letter of October 16, last year, I had asked pledges for one year—and for most of you, that year expired in late October or early November. I had forgotten it was for ONE YEAR—although I did make plain that the need would continue right on…
BRETHREN! God's Work is growing. The regular operating expenditures automatically keep increasing 30% a year. The income keeps increasing 30% a year—but that goes for OPERATIONAL EXPENDITURES—and for PREACHING THE GOSPEL TO THE WORLD! It does not provide for these imperative new building operations. WE MUST PROVIDE FOR THESE BY THIS SPECIAL BUILDING FUND.
That means extra special offerings, OVER AND ABOVE tithes and regular offerings for operational expenses and the Gospel Work.
This is going to have to continue for some years to come. If we are, truly, GOD'S PEOPLE, we will make whatever sacrifice is necessary, tighten our belt, and FILL THIS QUOTA!
Last year in October I asked for $35,000 a month in special offerings for this fund. We fell more than $10,000 per month short. This year, if we do as well as we did five years ago—with four times as many of us -- we can provide $72,000 per month just as easily as we then put in $18,000 per month.
Brethren, I have no alternative than to ASK YOU TO DO JUST THAT! We must set our goal for $72,000 per month for 1963—and then still more during 1964, because then there will be still more of us!
I know some of you balked and rebelled against the idea of a pledge. I explained it was NOT a vow—but a conditioned pledge. Nevertheless, I won't even use the word "pledge" this year. But I do have to ask you for a STATEMENT OF INTENTION...
REMEMBER, what I wrote a year ago. If 1963 is your third tithe year, please explain that on your card which is enclosed. If this leaves you unable to contribute anything during this third tithe year, please explain this. Or, if you can undertake to send in a smaller amount, give us your statement of intention, and EXPLAIN it is your third tithe year. But those of you who had a third tithe year last year ought to be able to contribute more generously in 1963 to this special fund.
October 29, 1967
Co-Workers, it may be LATER THAN WE THINK!
These are startling possibilities! We may have no more than FOUR MORE YEARS in which to complete the great Mission which the living Christ is performing through us!
This world operates on MONEY. Our mission is to carry the true Gospel to the world. Jesus Christ has OPENED THE DOOR of MASS communication—RADIO, TELEVISION, the PRINTING PRESS. But these are facilities operated and owned by THE WORLD. We have to pay MONEY to USE these tremendous facilities—BY WHICH MORE THAN 45 MILLION PEOPLE LISTEN TO AND READ THE MESSAGE EVERY WEEK—WORLDWIDE!
We must now SPEED UP the great Work!
Unless there is a marked and immediate INCREASE in receipt of tithes and offerings, we shall have to virtually SHELVE our new TELEVISION program for at least a year. We are now on about four TV stations—in a preliminary and experimental way. Garner Ted Armstrong is TREMENDOUSLY effective on television. Many who have seen the program say he is more effective than any of the nationally known Network newscasters, commentators, or documentary personalities.
It has been a difficult transition from radio to television. He has had to adapt himself to something quite different. But he is mastering it with God's help in a tremendously effective way. I know you'll want to see him on TV. But we can proceed ONLY if our Co-Workers will now sacrifice some other things, and try to INCREASE their offerings in addition to tithes.
Co-Workers—Brethren in Christ—WE ARE ON THE FINAL "GUN-LAP." The "chips are down!" We must give this great work a mighty additional PUSH! The time is short—and it is VITAL. IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN OUR LIVES RIGHT NOW! Soon our money will not help us!
Here is what GOD says soon will happen: As the DAY OF THE LORD approaches: "They shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the ETERNAL, and for the glory of His Majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth. In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the ETERNAL, and for the glory of His Majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth." (Isaiah 2:19-21.)
Never was the need so urgent.
Never were sizeable loans more needed—if you have cash not now being used, but which you are not free to GIVE. If you are not able to GIVE it outright at this time, it will help greatly if you PUT IT TO WORK, as a loan, WHERE THE LIVING CHRIST IS WORKING, AND DIRECTING, AND BLESSING! Remember, we do maintain a separate reserve fund to guarantee repayment of such loans IF you should have to ask for it—or a part of it—to be repaid. But if you do find, later, that you are able to turn it into a contribution to God's Work, then you may deduct it on your income tax—for this Work is fully recognized—both as a College, and as a Church—by the Internal Revenue Bureau.
Let all of us TRY HARDER to GIVE MORE FOR GOD'S WORK—and even more OFTEN! Especially try to send in something EXTRA during the last half of each month, when the income for the Work slacks off.
And above all, PRAY as never before, for the protection, the guidance, and the progress of this great WORK OF GOD! There's nothing else like it on earth. Please pray for me, personally—and for Garner Ted Armstrong—and for all our active full-time staff—and for all other Co-Workers! Please PUT YOUR HEART INTO YOUR PRAYERS— in dead earnest!
God IS abundantly blessing His Work—and His Co-Workers in it! We NEED HIS BLESSINGS—and if we are faithful and diligent, WE KNOW WE HAVE HIS HELP AND PROTECTION!
THANK YOU—and I know God is blessing you!
March 30, 1969
THANK YOU—THANK YOU—for responding to my last letter. In the last thirty days we have made a GOOD START on the way back up in God's Work—but only a good start. Now we must KEEP things ROLLING!…
I wonder if you would not like to read excerpts from some of the letters I received from some of the Co-Workers, after reading my last letter of a month ago?
A Co-Worker in Arizona wrote: "When I heard the terrible news of God's Work going backward, it cut me like a knife. It is just too terrible to put into words. I know I can't do very much, but I did send in a loan and had to use part of it" (which we paid back on request) "but paid part of that back. Now I would like to turn that loan into an offering. If enough of us will give all we have, maybe those radio stations can stay on the air."
A Kansas City Co-Worker writes: "I have to write this letter with mixed emotions. The feeling is that of great sadness; that I and my fellow Co-Workers would be so weak and lax as to let a letter come out from Mr. Armstrong stating the Work would have to go backward unless we as Co-Workers wake up and do our part. For this I have wept and prayed that some way may be opened up that this great Work may not slack off, but GROW in power to warn this world. I personally have only my tithes and offerings which I am sure mean so little alone. I do, however, have a place I am trying to sell. God willing, I will be able to at least put most of it in God's Work. Please Brethren, you of Headquarters, pray that God will open our eyes that we may better see how we too, may serve and bear our share of the load."
Letters like that rend our hearts here, and I hope they serve as an inspiration and encouragement to all Co-Workers!
A Florida Co-Worker writes: "Having just received your Co-Worker letter of February 27, this small amount is sent as an offering to help in holding open the doors which Jesus Christ has opened. Mr. Armstrong, you have an awesome responsibility, and we pray for you and that Christ will give you strength and wisdom."
Remember that even the widow's mites HELP GREATLY in this Work.
A woman in California writes: "My tithes are from the ironings I take in and also what allowances my husband gives me. To me it's the greatest Work on this earth and the most important. It's the only money that I feel is worth spending. I pray every day for this great Work and for His servant's wisdom, guidance, and good sound judgment."
Your earnest PRAYERS are as needed as money offerings! A Tennessee Co-Worker writes: "As I read your letter I was stricken with the dire necessity of keeping the Work going and I, having no money, asked God to let me have $5 or $10 to send. It then occurred to me that I had not balanced our bank statement received yesterday, so I sat down and went to work on it. What did I find but an error in our favor -- in the amount of $10! The power of prayer is indeed awesome!"
That reminds me of the time, when Garner Ted was a few months old and hungry and we were out of both milk and money—and I went into the bathroom, closed the door knelt beside the tub, and asked God to please send a dime for a quart of milk—and within the minute it came! At another time, when Ted was two years and five months old, and had been dumb -- unable to talk—he was stricken with pneumonia. My wife called me. I rushed to his side, knelt with her beside his bed, asked God to heal him—and then it occurred to me to ask God to give him the power of speech. The fever left quickly. The next day he was able to say a number of words. In three days he was talking in sentences! The power of prayer is, indeed, AWESOME! YOUR prayers—believing prayers—are needed!
From Spokane, Washington, a Co-Worker writes: "God has shown me that I have too much money invested in the farm for the amount of return. So I have decided, or I should say 'WE' (my wife and I) have decided to sell the farm. After certain obligations are met, we plan to give the rest to God. We certainly hope and pray that our brethren together with us, will be able to scrape enough money together so that you will not have to cut back on the broadcast and advertising, or any other phase of the Work. We also hope that the new job that I have decided to accept will enable us to send much more to God's Work than we have been able to give in the past."
A comment on that. I was asked, some time ago, whether I would recommend that farmers sell their farms, get a job on salary, and put the proceeds from the sale into the Work. I canNOT make such a recommendation because the advisability would depend entirely on individual circumstances. The man whose letter is reproduced above, evidently will be BETTER OFF himself doing so, as well as helping the Work. In such cases, IF you can better your own position and that of your family, then it helps both you and the Work, I think the answer is obvious. But I certainly do not urge any to just sell all you have, leaving you destitute and without income, and give "all" to the Work. God BLESSES His people—prospers them—He is the GIVER of all good, not the TAKER. His way is not to take from you what you have, but to guide you and prosper you so you have more to GIVE to His Work WHILE YOU BETTER YOUR OWN FAMILY POSITION AT THE SAME TIME. If you have such a problem, PRAY for wisdom and guidance.
One more short letter, from Oklahoma: "Just a few lines to let you know I am still on the job. Your letter received yesterday. If you sold your home and put into this Work of God, surely I can give another hundred. God bless you for your generosity."
I don't think I ever quoted a number of letters from other Co-Workers for you to read in my letter to you, but I thought it might be helpful and inspiring to know how other Co-Workers—in this Work with YOU, and with CHRIST—really feel. Their hearts are IN THIS WORK! That's one of the reasons why this Work grows in POWER, and has such impact on the whole world today!
For the Work to constantly EXPAND its power for doing GOOD to so many millions of people worldwide, has required constant SACRIFICE on the part of all of us together who are Co-Workers with Christ. Even in the conduct of the Work, we here in the offices of top responsibility have to constantly cut back on the budget, watch our spending for the Work very carefully, postpone or give up entirely things that we would like to have for the Work. And if all you Co-Workers would FOLLOW our example in our direction of the Work, being willing to GIVE UP wants and desires that are not an absolute necessity, we WILL accomplish more in the next three years than in the past 35!
I do not mean that each Co-Worker should contribute more in the next three years than the past 35 (assuming we are speaking of Co-Workers who have been Co-Workers for 35 years). But pray that God will ADD MORE AND MORE CO-WORKERS EACH MONTH -- so that there will be MORE AND MORE OF US!
Let me, finally, summarize this recent crisis problem:
Not only were receipt of tithes and offerings falling short of the needed annual increase, but the LOAN situation became acute. Many Co-Workers, thinking that dollars LOANED to the Work would be doing as much good as dollars GIVEN, began sending their offerings as loans. The thought, of course, came to mind that this way they could get it back someday if needed or desired. But we had to show it on our books as "DEMAND loans." It became top- heavy. We foresaw that our next financial statement would APPEAR to be unsound. Now WE knew, from years of experience, that only about 20% of these loans would be demanded for repayment—80% eventually would be converted to donations. But a banker examining our financial statement would not know that. Actually, we maintained a 20% cash reserve to back up these loans. Actually our practice was TWICE AS SAFE as bank practice. But we cannot afford to have it LOOK unsound. God's Work MUST NOT BE BROUGHT INTO DISCREDIT by any act or oversight of ours!
So I have had to ask all of you who can to cancel out your loans by converting them into donations or freewill offerings. And, if you simply CANNOT do that at this time, to convert them into FIVE-YEAR loans instead of demand loans—that is, we would not be legally bound to repay more than 20% in any one year. I have explained that, IF an unexpected emergency should arise and you should seriously need more than 20% at any time, we would try to accommodate you and do the best we could, at our own discretion—but without legal obligation. And I feel sure you can trust the men the living CHRIST has chosen and placed in the top responsibilities of His Work!
YOU CAN GREATLY HELP THE WORK BY DOING THIS!
The last report from our business office shows we are making A GOOD START in solving this loan dilemma. Of course, additional loans have been sent in and accepted by us—but from January l through March 21, even with the new loans added, our total loans on the books have been reduced by 22%. However, 19% of the amount of loans remaining on the books have been converted to 5-year loans. Thus the total DEMAND loans have so far been reduced by 36.4% since the first of the year.
That is a GOOD START! I want most sincerely to THANK all who have turned loans to freewill offerings, as well as those changing loans to the 5-year plan. But I feel we must at least DOUBLE that reduction before June 30th. Please pray over it—those of you who still have demand loans on our books—and see whether you cannot convert them to offerings, or, if unable to do that, at least change to a 20% a year basis.
Also, since January 1st, we have been called on to repay a little more than 4% of the total loans on our books. Let's all pull together—each do all you possibly can for the Work of God!
I feel hopeful, now, that we shall be able to show a good sound financial statement by June 30th. Mr. Portune, Controller, head of the Business Department, smilingly says he feels he has at least three more black hairs (replacing some gray ones he was getting around the temples). Let's help him get rid of the gray ones!
The Work is on the home stretch! From here on out it is going to require sacrifice, foregoing things we would like, HEARTRENDING EARNEST BELIEVING PRAYER!
Soon our LIVING Head of God's Work, Jesus Christ, will return to earth in supreme POWER and GLORY, to restore PEACE and HAPPINESS, and to SAVE THE WORLD, giving us His Gift of ETERNAL LIFE! It's a supreme GLORIOUS future just ahead. He is using US to prepare the way.
YOU are helping to CHANGE the world—and, soon, to SAVE the whole world!
The need is still MOST URGENT, and will continue to be! But we are making GOOD PROGRESS! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!! Let's keep this Work MOVING—and I believe soon we can restore what had to be cancelled, and then go on to reach additional MILLIONS with Christ's Gospel!
The following, final letter in this collection, represents one of the most manipulative methods HWA ever used. In this one, he doesn't ask for people to loan the WCG money, or even sell some property and give the money to the WCG. This time he actually asks people to take out a personal loan, and go into long-term personal debt to be paid back in monthly payments, in order to have money to send for the latest "crisis." And, in fact, he even suggests subtly that they might lie, if necessary, to the bank from which they request the loan about the purpose for the loan! And, as always, all this is to be done with money "above and beyond" regular tithes and offerings.
Complete copy of letter:
March 30, 1970
Dear Brethren in God's Church:
I am forced to write you with a very heavy heart. For more than a year our nation has been in a financial recession. No one wanted to call it that. There are signs that an upturn is already started, and it may soon be over. Most bankers and businessmen have called it a "tight money situation" instead of using the term "recession," or the more frightening term "depression."
It has hurt the Work of God SERIOUSLY! I have not wanted to tell you. Up to now we have weathered the storm by wise business management, and several times last year, and twice already this year, making cuts in our budget that looked as if they would be sufficient.
But now I have to come to you with the frank statement that drastic action must be taken. About ten days ago I took drastic action—but it was not enough. I started at the top. I made a 20% cut in salary of all top-salaried officials, including evangelist-rank ministers, and a 15% cut in all pastor-rank ministers. Because this would have put several pastor-rank ministers lower than some preaching elders, certain adjustments had to be made in that. I put our airplanes up for immediate sale.
However, this very recession has slowed purchase of planes to a standstill and selling may be difficult.
Next, I have had to reduce publication of The PLAIN TRUTH, TOMORROW'S WORLD, and The GOOD NEWS to every-other-month. Next, I have had to cancel off entirely several radio stations, and to reduce most of the rest to one broadcast a week until October.
BUT THOSE CUT-BACKS WERE NOT ENOUGH. And in the long run they will hurt the Work. We received another very substantial reduction in our cash outgo the other day when our bank further showed their confidence in us by agreeing to let us reduce our monthly payments which remain on our recent building program by cutting the payments IN HALF.
But that still is not enough. We are making reductions in operating expenses in every department of this Work where it is possible. We now (with these reductions being made) have reduced our budget to a point even with income.
But that still is not enough. The BIG immediate need is extra cash funds—NOW—IMMEDIATE!
For this I am going to ask all of God's people to do one thing, and all who can and are willing to do one other thing.
The first is, that I am calling for a full day of FASTING AND PRAYER FOR THIS WORK FOR THIS SABBATH, April 4th. That, Brethren, can do more to help this situation than anything else—IF we really take this seriously to heart, and PUT OUR HEARTS INTO OUR PRAYERS in real earnest, and in FAITH BELIEVING!
The second I ask of all who can and are willing. This was suggested this afternoon by Mr. Stanley Rader, our legal counsel and financial adviser. It is that those in position to do so, if willing to do your part for God's Work in this immediate crisis, go to your local bank and borrow whatever you are able—from $100 to $1,000. Some will be able to borrow no more than $100. Many will not be able to borrow that. If not, please don't think you need to write in explaining why—we here at Headquarters UNDERSTAND many are unable—and we do not expect those unable to do it. But that is all the more reason why those of us who ARE ABLE will, I hope, be willing to borrow whatever you can—some can borrow $200, some $500, some $1,000.
Most bankers will ask why you want it. There could be many needs at this season—income tax payments coming up—you are short of funds temporarily -- or just tell him you want to make a special donation to your Church. For those who can and will do this, borrow merely on your signature—don't mortgage anything—whatever you are able, to be paid back monthly. And you should not obligate yourself to monthly payments except what you will be able to pay OVER AND ABOVE tithes and offerings for the Work—so that it does not lower the income for the Work through the rest of the year. IF you can pay only $5 to $8 per month to the bank repaying the loan, you should be able to borrow around $100. If you can pay $10 or $15 per month in repayments, then you could borrow $200, etc.
Mr. Rader, Mr. Portune and I were discussing this crisis at lunch, and Mr. Rader said he would go to his bank and borrow $5,000 to start this plan going. I felt I was the one to set the example, so immediately this afternoon I beat him to it.
I know that many of our members do, from time to time, buy such things as a new TV set, or dishwasher, on monthly payments. Perhaps some will want to put off such a purchase and let those monthly payments go to repay a loan at the bank that will supply God's Work with IMMEDIATE CASH, which is the serious IMMEDIATE NEED.
If some of you feel you are not in a position to take part in this plan for IMMEDIATE extra cash to the Work, or feel you don't want to, there's no need to explain—I do not expect it unless you really want to and are able. I'm not "high pressuring" you to do this. But I recognize Mr. Rader's suggestion as a plan that I feel will give the immediate financial "shot in the arm" that GOD'S WORK SERIOUSLY NEEDS right now. And I have participated to the best of my ability, and Mr. Portune will, and all of God's leading ministers and executives here at Headquarters.
We felt many of you Brethren would be willing and glad to make this sacrifice of borrowing whatever you are able, giving it to the Work, and paying it back monthly yourself—IN ADDITION to continuing to send in your tithes and offerings.
Brethren, TOGETHER we can really do WONDERS. Through the power of earnest and believing PRAYER with fasting, especially.
Please REMEMBER the immediate serious NEED of God's Work by FASTING AND PRAYER! For this IS serious -- the MOST serious crisis since 1947 and 1948. A number of Brethren came to the aid of the Work then with from $1,000 to several thousand each. There are a thousand times as many of us today. Can we do as well proportionately today?
This is the greatest Work on earth today. MILLIONS listen to the broadcast; MILLIONS read The PLAIN TRUTH -- and more than a half million now read the deepest, MOST POWERFUL spiritual and Biblical articles ever written in TOMORROW'S WORLD.
Our new expansion program for The PLAIN TRUTH and TOMORROW'S WORLD are working wonderfully. We are reaching many HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS we could never have reached before. THE LIVING CHRIST IS BLESSING IT GREATLY.
How much are WE willing to do to HELP IT, and KEEP IT GROWING?
With love, in Jesus' name,
Herbert W. Armstrong
Note the date on the letter above: 3/30/1970.
Now notice the date of the activity reported in the following account: 2/18/1970
Thus the event described below was barely six weeks before the frantic letter above was sent to members.
[Excerpt from John Trechak, Ambassador Report 1977 magazine edition, p. 59]
It was February 18, 1970. A small group of ministerial students were spending an evening with Herbert W. Armstrong, the founder of the Worldwide Church of God. Those of us who had been invited were given a glimpse of a life-style which in today's world only a very few are able to afford. At his home, a small mansion on Pasadena's South Orange Grove Boulevard (once nick-named "millionaire row"), we were surrounded by rare antiques, expensive paintings, and Steuben crystal. The carpets were luxuriant; a Steinway grand [piano] stood in the corner of the drawing room.
The gourmet cuisine served at dinner was excellent as were the European wines--all four of them. We had been shown a large number of expensive paintings and objets d’art and, as was his custom, Herbert would relate what he paid for each and what they were now worth. That theme carried over into the conversation at dinner. Then, as the servants began to clear the table, he turned to one of the guests and said, "What do you think all of these beautiful things on the table are worth?" Of course, none of us had even the slightest idea. And so, he was able to proudly proclaim, "Over $125,000!"
He was quick to point out, however, that art objects of this quality were so rare that they were in fact "priceless." The sculptured, foot-high, solid gold saltcellars were, for instance, the only known copies of those once owned by Louis XIV. (They had been specially made for Herbert by Harrod’s of London.) The crystal goblets were identical to those found on Queen Elizabeth’s table. The supremely crafted cutlery was of solid gold. The tablecloth was made of the finest Belgian lace. The gold-covered china was of the finest craftsmanship and formerly belonged to Czar Nicholas II of Russia.
"As we sat there sipping our four different wines and eating off the czar’s china, I couldn’t help but think of the incredible contrast all this presented to the meager existence of so many members of Herbert’s church, the very ones who were, through their tithes and offerings, making all this possible…
Yes... so many who sacrificed over and over "as never before ... before ... before ... before ... before. "
Unless otherwise noted, all original material on this Field Guide website
is © 2001-2006 by Pam Dewey.Careful effort has been made to give credit as clearly as possible to any specific material quoted or ideas extensively adapted from any one resource. Corrections and clarifications regarding citations for any source material are welcome, and will be promptly added to any sections which are found to be inadequately documented as to source.
Pam Dewey
Pam Dewey
Pam Dewey
