April 7 1947 Co-Worker Letter - Herbert W Armstrong
Takes Cruise Ship to Europe - Pleas for Money

 

"The WORLD TOMORROW" A NATION-WIDE BROADCAST

HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG Analyses Today's News, with the Prophesies of THE WORLD TOMORROW

Publishing Box 111, Eugene, Oregon PLAINTRUTH Magazine of UNDERSTANDING April 7, 1947

Friend and Co-Worker:

Mrs Armstrong and I have returned from a most necessary and fruitful trip to Europe, where we not only laid the foundation for the establishment of the European unit of AMBASSADOR COLLEGE, but also laid the foundation for carrying God's last warning Message, and the true GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM to Britain and to all Europe.

God Himself brought about circumstances making a quick, hurry-up trip over there necessary. On the way over, and on the way back He performed miracle after miracle for us. The thrilling, amazing account of this will appear in the "Heart-to-Heart Talk" in the next PLAIN TRUTH. TIME IS SHORT! World events are moving at a terrific pace. Already the movement has started and is well under way in Europe that will bring the prophetic "BEAST" of the Revelation out of "the bottomless pit." We have much that must be done BEFORE that time! God says it WILL be done. He has given us the vision, it is opening and preparing the way before us. We have just a very few years at most---not one year to delay! The time has come when this work of God must expand into other nations.

Jesus' commission was: "Go ye therefore and teach ALL NATIONS." "Go ye into ALL THE WORLD and preach the GOSPEL to every creature." And prophetically of our time, NOW, in this mid- twentieth century, Jesus said: "This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness UNTO ALL NATIONS; and then shall the end come."

He was speaking of the END of this AGE---the END of this CIVILIZATION---the END of all these human-formed government of man- kind! Friends, Brethren, Co-Workers, you must realize we are only a few years now from that END! No man knows how many---but both prophecy and world events indicate somewhere between five and twenty-five, and most probably between seven and fifteen. We must lay our plans to be prepared to carry out this grave world-wide commission WITHIN FIVE TO SEVEN YEARS! God Himself will make it possible for the commission to be accomplished in time, if we set ourselves with full submission to Him with purpose and determination, and in FAITH, to do our utmost at ANY SACRIFICE, as He makes possible. It is a huge accomplishment! Ministers and evangelists must be trained, prepared, taught the languages of foreign nations. They must learn these languages, and the customs and ways of the people WHERE these people live!

At Columbia University in New York, at the University of London, and other places, they told me we have set out to do some- thing never before done in the world of education---to establish a European branch of a college, where students study part of the time in America, part abroad. Everywhere educators are AMAZED, and say it is a WONDERFUL idea. We were interviewed by reporters of daily newspapers in London, where this was regarded as NEWS! The Gospel cannot be carried to Britain and Europe and other parts of the world IN THE SAME WAY we do it here. There we shall not have the facilities of radio. But God is showing us HOW, and the people of those nations WILL BE WARNED, and they WILL BE REACHED WITH GOD'S MESSAGE! Yes, powerfully, and effectively! God is showing as HOW.

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.

Herbert W. Armstrong