OUR Co-Workers
BULLETIN
VOL. V Number 2 March 9, 1944
Published every little while, by your radio- pastor editor Herbert W. Armstrong, Box 111, Eugene, Ore., to bring spiritual edification and encouragement to our little family of Co-Workers who make possible the RADIO CHURCH OF GOD and The PLAIN TRUTH.
The WAR OUTLOOK, at the MOMENT!
A decisive moment in the war now lies just ahead. Perhaps only hours ahead. It might be several more weeks.
At the moment, we are in the comparative lull before the BIG storm of the Spring and Summer campaigns. And that means, this year, the long awaited INVASION of Europe across the English Channel.
This may well prove to be the fiercest, most terrible battle of all history. The fury of this battle undoubtedly will mount to an intensity of slaughter that will stagger the mind of man! More and bigger guns, more planes, more tanks, will be engaged per mile of front than any battle this world has known.
The turning-point in the trend of the war occurred when Montgomery turned Rommel on his heels within sight of Alexandria, and the Russians stalled Hitler's legions at Stalingrad and started pushing them back the other way. Since, the offensive has been ours!
But that offensive, so far, has been slow and indecisive. Few realize that fact. We are a nation of optimists. Our public has been indulging in the rather dangerous pastime of magnifying minor victories -- assuming final victory is now within sight. But the stern truth is, for US all the BIG battles lie ahead. All that has happened so far, since the turn in the trend, has been preparatory to it. For months allied forces have plodded at a snail's pace in Italy. In a miniature preview of the coming invasion across the English Channel, the Allied strategy in the recent landing south of Rome backfired. Even in the Russian advance, the hard cold facts behind all these daily newspaper headlines are that for many months past Russian advance has plodded along at a rate of only about a mile a day. They are still a long, LONG way from Berlin! And latest authentic reports from observers are that there are no signs of any cracking of morale in Germany -- either in the army or among civilians!
It's time we were SOBERED, and came to look the TRUTH in the face! Believing the war about won, most Americans appear to feel there's little cause to be longer concerned. I've talked in the past few days with army and navy officers who have returned from theatres of action, and they are appalled at the public indifference! Many of our people are making more money than ever before in their lives, and the war, for them, provides only the problem of how to spend it! GOD HELP US!
Our people now bask in the blissful sunshine of an imagined military victory lying just around the corner. We are very complacent -- very confident -- AND VERY INDIFFERENT TO ALMIGHTY GOD, AND HIS WARNINGS OF OUR INCREASING SINS, AND OF OUR NEED OF HIM JUST NOW!
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!
Never was any people so spiritually ASLEEP! Nor in such grave and imminent danger of divine JUDGMENT!
There's far more serious chance than our people realize of losing this war, even yet! I have to keep informed, in conducting the broadcasts of the progress of the war and its underlying conditions, as well as understanding the prophesies concerning this time. And personally, I want to tell you, my dear fellow Co- Workers, I am SOBERED -- I almost SHUDDER -- at the grave probabilities I see ahead!
God has called you and me, as co-workers together for Him, to WARN OUR PEOPLE, in the hope of waking this slumbering nation!
It is ALMIGHTY GOD who determines the outcome of wars! He brings to nothing what whole nations plan. He could change the present trend of this war suddenly -- overnight! He can (see Joel 1), send drought and FAMINE upon us, which would prove about as serious as to take away from us all bullets, shells, torpedoes! And there is serious possibility that THIS might be the year when it happens!
There is but ONE sure and certain way to victory for American and Britain in this war; -- and that's the way of repentance, and turning to the true Creator GOD! When we, as co-workers together for Christ, shout this WARNING to all America, WE ARE PLAYING A MOST IMPORTANT PART IN THE WAR-EFFORT! It might prove the most important part! Final victory depends much more upon GOD than upon General Marshall, General Eisenhower, President Roosevelt, the army, the navy, or the marines, or upon all of them put together! And what GOD does in this war depends entirely upon what OUR PEOPLE do in their relationship with HIM!
God helping us, I know of none other who is WARNING the nation of this thing -- warning of prophesied DEFEAT and CAPTIVITY (ultimately, tho not necessarily in this present phase of the world-struggle) unless we make up, repent, turn to and seek GOD! This battle-cry must now be greatly MAGNIFIED -- INTENSIFIED! It must go this year, over more and more powerful radio stations! The warning must be given in such mighty POWER that people will HEAR, and HEED!
Our calling, as Co-Workers in God's Work, is THE MOST SERIOUS RESPONSIBILITY IN THIS WORLD! Let's not shirk it! Let's WAKE UP, ourselves! Millions of human lives and souls are at stake. DARE we neglect it? I know you'll continue to stand with me in this holy battle, the mission of the Eternal God!
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A REPORT TO OUR CO-WORKERS ON THE STATE OF GOD'S WORK
The President issues, at stated intervals, a report to the nation on the state of the Union. To the stockholders who finance the business, the managing executive of any business corporation issues frequent reports on the state and condition of the business -- telling the stockholders the problems, the future plans.
And so a primary purpose of Our CO-WORKERS' BULLETIN is to inform our Co-workers who finance the most important business on earth -- GOD'S business -- of the progress, problems, future plans for this great and glorious and fast-growing work.
So with this issue I want to give you an over-all summary of the state of his great work to which God has called us -- you and me mutually as co-laborers for HIM.
Those called to Christ's ministry are commanded to "Preach THE WORD" -- not human philosophy, -- "THE WORD!" We are commanded to keep at it, in season and out, without let-up. The command is to "REPROVE, REBUKE," with all patience and doctrine! There's very little of that kind of preaching today!
The true Message of God has never been popular with men. At the beginning of the nation Israel, God prepared Moses in a special way for the mission of that time. But from the first the people turned against the man God had called and prepared to lead them out of bondage! Thru the years Israel persecuted, stoned or killed every prophet God sent with His warning Message! Finally, God sent His own Son, as the Messenger bringing the NEW Testament Gospel Message from God to man. But He, too, (was) rejected and crucified.
His true disciples, as He had commanded them, went forth boldly proclaiming His Message -- the GOOD NEWS of the coming KINGDOM OF GOD. But almost immediately Peter and John were thrown into prison, threatened, warned not to preach the name of Jesus Christ nor His Gospel. But did they falter and wilt under this organized effort to stop them? Not much! Rather, they joined their brethren, got to their knees, sought a greater infilling of God's Holy Spirit, asked God for more boldness and POWER for proclaiming the Gospel of His Kingdom. (Read Acts 3 and 4).
Soon Stephen was being used of God with great power in proclaiming the Good News of God's KINGDOM. But no sooner had his power become evident than the sectarian leaders had Stephen stoned and killed. God had prepared Paul in a special way, also by an unusual worldly education -- then struck him down with blindness, opened his understanding, converted him, and sent the Apostle Paul forth to carry the Message to the Gentiles. But every effort was made to block Paul. He was thrown in prison, flogged with forty stripes, beaten with rods, stoned. It is supposed that every one of the original apostles were martyred to silence their tongues.
But the true Gospel of the Kingdom did go out to all the world of that time. Then the great Apostasy all but snuffed out the true Gospel. Paganism took on the outward garb of Christianity, cloaked itself in Christian names for pagan ways and customs. Satan organized religion, and the whole world was deceived -- turned away from the TRUTH and induced to accept FABLES. Another Jesus was preached -- a different Gospel -- just as Paul foretold in II Cor. 11.
But today, dear friends and Co-Workers, we are at the time of the END! The time when 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!
We learn, in Luke 1:20, that God's words are fulfilled in their season. God's true ministers are to give meat "in due season." So what is the season -- where are we, NOW? We have reached the "TIME OF THE END" -- the CRISIS AT THE CLOSE" (Dan. 8:17, 19; 12:9 -- Moffatt translation). We are the last generation of this age. A generation destined to live in TWO AGES! What a time to live! What a responsibility as Messengers delivering GOD'S MESSAGE!
Consequently there is a very special prophetic Gospel Message -- the most in due season -- which MUST GO NOW! This is the time when Jesus said the true Gospel He brought and preached -- the GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM -- tho side-tracked and rejected by the popular denominations -- MUST ONCE AGAIN GO FORWARD IN GREAT AND MIGHTY POWER TO THE WHOLE WORLD!
This is the "TIME OF THE END" when knowledge is to increase -- when we have been destined to come to learn our true identity as the so-called lost HOUSE OF ISRAEL. And now, thru prophecies from one end of the Bible to the other, comes the solemn and grim revelation that, unless our people Israel will REPENT and turn from our paganized ways and customs so contrary to God's law, and in contrite broken-hearted earnestness SEEK the Lord our God, this nation in our generation (whether in the present phase of the war, or after another brief armistice) shall be INVADED by a foreign army, conquered, and our proud people scattered as slaves throughout the world; in such humbled condition we shall at last come to our senses and seek our God and His righteous ways; and from which condition we shall be rescued and delivered only by THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST!
And so, THERE'S A SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR TODAY -- a Message almost none seem to be sounding. Time is short, and IT must go quickly, and fast, and in tremendous power. For this latter-day, end-time Message -- the Message of the true original GOSPEL of Jesus Christ -- the WARNING of impending invasion and defeat in war regardless of physical appearances at the moment -- the warning of God's coming JUDGMENTS -- the PLAGUES of the DAY OF THE LORD -- the proclamation of the soon-coming return of Jesus Christ as KING of kings to establish the KINGDOM OF GOD as the new divine order on earth -- for this vital, timely Message of this hour, we find facilities existing today which make it possible to reach hundreds of thousands and millions where the early evangelists were able to reach merely scores and hundreds. But already the opposition is organizing. As of old, Satan will block this modern super-power thundering of God's Message if he can!
As an agency for fulfilling this vital end-time mission, God started this work to which He has called US -- as all things started by God thru human agencies always have started -- from the smallest possible beginning. God's principles and ways of rating never change! As Moses was prepared by being educated "in all the culture of the Egyptians" (Acts 7:22 Moffatt); as Paul was prepared for a special mission by being educated at the feet of Gamaliel, a Pharisee of the Sanhedrin; so, I realize now, I was specially prepared for the present task by an unusual, tho worldly training, in the advertising, selling, publishing profession -- both magazines and newspapers. Perhaps others God is using today were prepared and trained for God's purpose in similar worldly manner -- then struck down in one manner or another by the Almighty, humbled, converted, given a revelation of God's TRUTH and started out on God's mission.
This present work started in a little one-room country schoolhouse eight miles west of Eugene. There was not even enough money, at the time, to print hand-bills. But from that humble beginning our labors have been abundantly blessed of God. Continuously souls have been converted, lives changed, the Message proclaimed to an ever-multiplying audience. Always there has been opposition, persecution, trial, test, discouragement. But always God has delivered us from every trouble, supplied every need, blessed every effort! The radio program started on a little 100-watt radio station, at a cost of $2.50 per week. And it took just as much FAITH then to continuously receive that $2.50 per week as it takes now when our radio time costs more than a hundred times that much. The first issue of The PLAIN TRUTH I printed myself on a borrowed mimeograph. Total cost, including paper, ink, stencils, and stamps, was $5.00. Now it costs over $1,000.00 per issue. But today we send out 35,000 copies into every state and province, and today upwards of a million people hear the radio program every Sunday!
From the first we have preached the WORD, and conducted God's work GOD'S WAY! God's way is the way of GIVING, not getting! The Gospel must be GIVEN, FREE -- without money and without price! You never hear me beg for money over the air. It is not so much as mentioned or even hinted at! There is no subscription price on The PLAIN TRUTH, or any literature we send out -- NEVER WILL BE! The broadcasts -- The PLAIN TRUTH and other literature -- carry THE GOSPEL to the UNconverted. There must be no charge -- no HINT of appeal for money. That's GOD'S WAY! This is a WORK OF FAITH!
But of course God provides for His work thru His OWN PEOPLE. To THEM God's instruction is to GIVE -- of tithes and offerings -- liberally, cheerfully -- in order that God's ministers may GIVE the Gospel without begging!
Do you know how it came about that YOU are receiving this BULLETIN? In the Bible I read that where your treasure is, there your heart is also. YOU are one who has voluntarily, and without solicitation, sent an offering or your tithe for this work. Therefore we accept that, as our only way of knowing, that your heart is with us in this glorious cause, and we have considered you as a co-worker with us for Christ. Only those who have been placed on our special "Co-Worker" mailing list ever receive this BULLETIN. In it, as Moses sent out proclamations asking Israel for special offerings for special needs -- as Paul asked the New Testament churches for tithes and offerings to carry on God's work -- I frankly state the need when it arises and ask OUR CO-WORKER FAMILY to respond. This is GOD'S WAY! But I do want our CO-WORKERS to understand that of the 35,000 names on our mailing list who receive The PLAIN TRUTH absolutely free, nearly 33,000 of them have never received this BULLETIN, or any HINT of a request for funds, in any form whatsoever!
God has blessed this work because it is a plant planted BY HIM! Therefore it has grown, and grown, and grown! It has been blessed beyond our dreams! The nation is being WARNED! But today there are powerful interests -- a combine of the big money-interests and the powerful organized religious interests -- exerting every pressure to STOP the preaching of God's true WORD -- Christ's true GOSPEL -- the last minute timely WARNING of impending judgments -- over the air. The last of the four great Coast-to-Coast net-work chains has now closed its doors to pure Gospel preaching and all religious programs will be thrown off that net-work during the present year.
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!
Satan can't stop the work of the Almighty God! There still are hundreds of individual stations all over this country who will sell us the use of their powerful facilities for shouting God's Message. Scarce as paper is, God continues to hear our prayers and supply the paper needed for The PLAIN TRUTH! We can continue to send recorded programs to more and more radio stations. I can continue to send out occasional LIVE broadcasts, by personal visit to each station. And so finally, here's our program for this year:
1) Add more and more radio stations. 2) Publish The PLAIN TRUTH regularly, and more often, as funds permit. 3) Print the most fascinating and valuable series of articles opening up fundamental Bible subjects to UNDERSTANDING -- from simplest subjects to "strongest meat". Those will soon be announced in The PLAIN TRUTH. 4) Publish, later, another magazine called "The GOOD NEWS," just for truly-converted Christians, containing the deeper spiritual food. 5) Publish, regularly the "Bible Study Quarterly" for those who wish it. 6) Publish another reprinting of 25,000 copies, AT ONCE, of the special booklet "The UNITED STATES IN PROPHECY."
I feel I ought to apologize to all who have requested a copy, or another copy, of the special booklet "The UNITED STATES IN PROPHECY," for the long delay. We have TEN THOUSAND envelopes actually addressed to TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE who are waiting for a copy. It should have been printed months ago. We simply didn't have the money. The PLAIN TRUTH ought to be coming out more often and more regularly. But supplying the money is not my part in this work--God has not provided me with that, to give. But I have been giving to the UTMOST of my time, energy, interest, knowledge -- my prayers.
Nevertheless Mrs. Armstrong and I have actually grieved over our inability to get these precious messages out, in print, to the many thousands of people all over the country who have requested them. Some have even sent us rather impatient and criticizing letters because they haven't received them sooner.
And so I feel I ought to tell you how we have managed it that another reprinting of 25,000 more copies of "The UNITED STATES IN PROPHECY" is on the press -- and another issue of The PLAIN TRUTH ready in just a few days for the press. As we have straggled along with this growing work, Mrs. Armstrong and I for the past eight years have been buying a modest home. Payments have been less than rent. Nevertheless, over the past eight years we have built up some little equity. Well, we have recently sold our home. And we have placed every cent we received into God's work -- into the radio and publishing fund. It was the only way we could tide this work over the present financial crisis, and be able to send out this literature. We can stay on a few more months in the same home -- then we shall simply have to trust God to provide us a place to live.
Personally I take no salary or income whatsoever from the radio work. Over the past ten years our personal evangelistic efforts combined with the radio programs have resulted in a few small congregations being established in the Pacific Northwest -- in Eugene, Cottage Grove, Jefferson, and Portland, Oregon, Vancouver, and Everett, Washington. Our personal income is received from the tithes and offerings of these brethren and largely made up of those converted under our ministry. And this past year we have placed HALF of this personal income into the radio work. So we have simply given our ALL -- our last penny, as well as our time and energy and our very lives -- to this work God has called us to do.
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 you 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!
Finally, my brethren, and co-working friends, let me tell you that I'm doing my best to get out the next PLAIN TRUTH within the next week or so; -- I expect, now at last, to have another reprinting of "The UNITED STATES IN PROPHECY" booklet off the press any day -- 25,000 copies this time; -- and, as something a little special for all who would like to receive it, I am having the office staff mimeograph a reprinting of a recent broadcast on the subject "What is Faith?" This is different from the former mimeographed article on "What is SAVING Faith?" It tells, in simple, plain and interesting language what FAITH really IS -- why so few people have the faith to receive an ANSWER to their prayers -- how this faith may be acquired and increased. I think it will help many of you. You may have a copy, free of course, just for the asking, but it will be sent only upon special request.
I wish you could sit in my office and look over my shoulder and read the hundreds of letters that pour in from listeners! You'd know then what tremendous good is being accomplished -- how worthwhile and vitally necessary is this program! I hope in the next BULLETIN to reprint excerpts from some of them.
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!
HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
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