Dear Brethren, and Co-Heirs of GOD:
This is the MOST IMPORTANT letter I have ever written to YOU -- and it is to
go to all members of GOD'S CHURCH, worldwide!
I'M sure most of you have heard, by now, of the very critical illness of Mrs.
Armstrong -- the wife of my youth whom God gave me, fifty years ago (lacking a
few months) to be my help.
There are, in some kinds of illness, some things we can, and should, do for
ourselves. But only GOD can HEAL. We left no stone unturned, but we came to
the place, more than a week ago, where there was nothing more we could, or
OUGHT to do without assuming to ourselves the prerogative of GOD. Like the
children of Israel at the Red Sea, we were helpless. We had to do, as Moses
said to them, "STAND STILL, and see the salvation of the ETERNAL!"
We committed her wholly into God's hands for healing.
Do you realize that, actually, God started His Church of this
"Philadelphia era" through Mrs. Armstrong? First, He opened her mind
to His Law and His TRUTH. Then, through her, He brought me to Him and to His
TRUTH. Then He used us together as a TEAM.
God says it is not good that a man should be alone. He made a help for Adam.
He gave Mrs. Armstrong to me for my help. After He used her for the first
starting of His great Work -- now becoming powerful and worldwide -- and for starting
His Church for this era,
He has used her ever since as my loyal, faithful, loving, and very helpful
PARTNER. Our ministry has been as a TEAM --
together. She is a vital HALF of that team! Most of our members know that!
And now, dear Brethren of GOD'S CHURCH, He is using her to start a direly
needed spiritual REAWAKENING -- a tragically needed spiritual REJUVENATION in
God's whole Church -- and in His Work.
It has begun with those ministers God has placed at the top level
responsibilities in His great Work, right here at Headquarters. This ordeal
has rudely SHOCKED us into a realization that we were becoming sluggish
spiritually -- AND WE WERE UNAWARE OF IT!...
...From all parts of the world I
am receiving letters and telegrams saying God's people have been SHAKEN,
MOVED, made to see their lukewarmness, their spiritual lethargy and letdown!
There is
a MIGHTY REAWAKENING being injected by God's Spirit into the hearts and minds
of God's Church that is spreading WORLDWIDE!
Nothing but the power of God's mighty Holy Spirit could have produced this! My
dear wife did not produce it -- the HOLY SPIRIT did -- but God has used her,
and her suffering, to GENERATE
it! When news of this reawakening reaches her, she smiles, and says that if
God has granted that she could have been used by Him as a means by which God
has STIRRED UP His Church to its PITIFUL, SHAMEFUL, spiritual lassitude, she
is glad.
The ministers at the European headquarters, at the college in Britain, are
meeting together for these same sessions of confessing their failings and
praying together. Also at the Texas campus, in Australia, in our offices
around the world -- Canada, the Philippines, Geneva, Dusseldorf, Johannesburg.
In all the Churches, the ministers are calling the members to REPENTANCE, to
HUMBLING themselves before God -- to REPENTANCE -- and to spiritual
REAWAKENING!
But now, WHY?
And WHY at this time?
HERE is why! God's great worldwide Work is right now on the threshold of the
GREATEST LEAP FORWARD in multiplied POWER it has ever experienced. All the
years of this Work up to now have been the PREPARATORY years, preparing us --
training us by experience -- developing the organization -- building the
financial resources -- equipping us with the POWER to now launch forth on the
REAL JOLT TO THE WORLD that will SHAKE THIS WORLD TO ITS
FOUNDATIONS!
And WE -- from myself and the evangelists and pastors and elders on down to
the FLOCK AS A WHOLE -- had allowed ourselves to come to a place of almost
spiritual stagnation!
Brethren, God could not USE this Church, in our lethargic, complacent
condition, as His instrument to launch this final mighty PUSH that is going to
MAKE THIS WORLD CONSCIOUS of the LIVING GOD - of
His coming KINGDOM -- of its SINS -- of Christ's soon-coming as KING over all
nations!
Sure, we were going along -- the Work was going along -- it has been expanding
each year -- but we were going on past MOMENTUM -- IN A RUT! God has had to
WAKE US UP! Either that, or reject us, spew us out of His mouth, and RAISE UP
A CHURCH HE COULD USE!
THANK GOD for this experience! PRAISE Him for this chastening!
Brethren, I have suffered as perhaps never before, with my wife lying there --
with a bowel blockage that held locked inside of her putrid human waste --
knowing that unless God grants her continued life by a MIRACLE of healing, I
would have to go on alone, without her! I NEED HER DESPERATELY! But I need her
CLEANSED and HEALED -- PHYSICALLY!
But Brethren -- up there ln heaven, at the right hand of GOD on the throne of
the universe, sits JESUS CHRIST, looking down here at US -- HIS WIFE (He is
MARRIED to Israel -- and we are Israel begotten by His Spirit, affianced to
MARRY Him [again] at His coming). Yes, WE, Brethren, are HIS WIFE. And the
living Jesus has beheld HIS wife filled with SPIRITUAL putridness -- SPIRITUAL
sickness, that is UNTO DEATH, unless it is PURGED OUT OF US!
Jesus GAVE HIMSELF for His CHURCH -- that He might present it to Himself -- at
His coming -- a GLORIOUS CHURCH, not having spiritual spot, or wrinkle, or any
such thing, but that it should be HOLY, and WITHOUT BLEMISH! (Ephesians
5:25-27.)
Yes, He paid the SUPREME PRICE that we might be HOLY, and WITHOUT spiritual
blemish! And Jesus has looked down upon HIS beloved wife, whom HE loves, as I
so deeply love my wife. And as I have seen my wife about to die unless purged
of this physical poison, so JESUS sees HIS wife -- OUR CHURCH -- about to die
for eternity, unless WE are purged of our SPIRITUAL poison!
Brethren, Jesus has been giving me a little bit of understanding of HOW HE
FEELS! We have been GRIEVING Him! Yes, He has been GRIEVED because of us! I
wonder if He is not shedding
spiritual tears! He LOVES us. We are His WIFE! We are so PRECIOUS to Him!
WHY has Almighty God DELAYED the miracle that will heal my wife? She would
have died about two weeks ago, had not God already performed MIRACLES. After
ten days or more of complete stoppage both at top and bottom -- unable to hold
nourishment or even water on her stomach -- every few minutes sipping a little
water, and also dissolving chopped ice in her mouth -- then throwing it up
again -- after so many DAYS of that, and cramps and pains of agony over her
abdomen -- suddenly she was able to hold liquids in her stomach. She has since
been able to take small amounts of homemade grape juice, carrot juice, even
some straight beef juice, gelatin, etc. This has tended to keep up her
strength and energy to some extent -- though it is very weak, for she has had
no food for almost a month...
...God's ministers here all feel
God has shown us that He WILL heal Mrs. Armstrong. That blockage is still
there. But the past two days God has given us a few small signs of His
intervention for our encouragement. God is GIVING us more and more of CHRIST'S
faith. He is drawing us closer to Him by the day.
We have HUMBLED ourselves before Him -- we have CONFESSED our short-comings
and our sins -- we have REPENTED! I have changed my entire DAILY ROUTINE -- my
entire life. The FASTING and PRAYER has resulted in almost completely REMOVING
all signs of the heart condition or high blood pressure. For four years I have
had to live, knowing I could drop dead at any second! Now pounds have been
taken off. Now I can take longer, more vigorous walks. Now I am taking them,
three times a day -- REGARDLESS of circumstances which might try to prevent!
Now, no matter how many conferences are scheduled, no matter how pressing some
urgent executive responsibility, I am going THREE TIMES or more a day to my
prayer room God has blessed me with, there to commune with Him, and keep
closer to Him! My life from now WILL BE FAR MORE ACTIVE -- and that new
routine is already in effect and becoming well established. I am crying out to
God to PURGE from me all that hinders -- to GIVE more of His Spirit, His
Power, His FAITH. I am asking Him to put special HEALING GIFTS in His Church
-- special and more than before!
Brethren, THERE HAS TO BE AN ABOUT-FACE!
I am not ashamed to lead off in this. I am not ashamed to set you the EXAMPLE!
I am HAPPY and REJOICING in God's chastening He has given me, and dong my
utmost to respond to it.
WILL YOU DO THE SAME?
Now DON'T fast for Mrs. Armstrong! But I feel pretty sure that EVERY ONE OF
YOU do seriously NEED to FAST for YOUR OWN SELF! -- to help you draw closer to
GOD! To search down deeply into your OWN soul! To find what YOU need to repent
of -- what YOU need to confess, acknowledge, and turn from.
It may be that God is STILL WAITING for this spiritual AWAKENING to spread
through the WHOLE CHURCH -- on down to the LAST MEMBER -- even YOU! -- before
my dear wife can be delivered, and completely HEALED and restored to active,
vigorous HEALTH....
...Brethren, I am terribly DISTRESSED and sick at heart at the reports from
all over, that MANY of our members are LUKEWARM, or entirely LETHARGIC,
spiritually. If YOU are one of those, I have to warn you -- you may not be on
the way to God's Kingdom -- but on the way to your END in the LAKE OF FIRE!
Reports come to me of MANY of you, who are like some described in Daniel's
prophecy of the 11th chapter of Daniel. Speaking of God's CHURCH, this was
FORETOLD: "... but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. And some of
them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them
white, even to the TIME OF THE END." (Verses 34-35). That is a prophecy
for this Church, NOW!
Reports
indicate that many have "come in" to God's Church in this manner:
They have come to really SEE and KNOW that this is, truly, GOD'S Church. They
know there is terrible WORLD TROUBLE just ahead. They have heard how God's
Church is to be taken to a PLACE OF SAFETY. (And HOW God is working that out
is a PART of the sensational ANNOUNCEMENT I hope very soon to announce!) So
these people come in, selfishly, for a sort of spiritual and physical SECURITY
-- to assure PROTECTION when the Great Tribulation bursts upon the world! But
they are NOT themselves "on fire for GOD!" They are spiritual
DRONES! And God will not give them protection!
Many professing to be Church MEMBERS say, when a Co-Worker letter arrives, in
a grumbling, complaining disgust: "Oh, that's another of Mr. Armstrong's
REQUESTS for MONEY," and many don't even read the letter!
Are YOU one of those? If so, LET ME BURN YOUR EARS before the Almighty GOD burns
YOU in the Lake of FIRE! If that has been YOUR attitude -- if YOU are only on the GETTING
side, and SHUN helping, and giving to the cause of GOD, then I say to you ON AUTHORITY
OF JESUS CHRIST, if you don't REPENT and QUICKLY, and change that hostile, despicable,
detestable attitude, you DO NOT BELONG in GOD'S CHURCH! You are some of the
ROTTEN, PUTRID, spiritual WASTE that has been PLUGGED UP INSIDE OF THE
SPIRITUAL BODY OF CHRIST'S WIFE, just as physical waste is plugged up in my dear wife's
body! And the living Jesus is just as able to EXPEL YOU from the spiritual Body of HIS WIFE
as He is to expel this physical waste from my wife's body!
And if THAT doesn't make your ears tingle, and AWAKEN you, then Jesus Christ says to YOU
through me, YOU are in danger of the Lake of FIRE!...
...And now, finally, here is ONE IMPORTANT WAY in which God's Church has been
FALLING DOWN ON THE JOB!
You all KNOW WELL that this great WORK never was able to grow UNTIL God raised
up Ambassador College, to train consecrated and called ministers to HELP.
The Work was little. The Church, when the college started, consisted of about 30 members at
Eugene, Oregon, and some 18 or so at Portland. TODAY it is more than 40,000 -- or, as most
Protestant denominations would count members, about 250,000! (Counting all Co-Workers and
their families, children, etc.) Then we were on five or six radio stations -- today 304 stations,
including MANY of the greatest PRESTIGE SUPER-POWER stations of the world -- and the
greatest of all now opening its doors!
You KNOW WELL that the WORK of this Church cannot grow UNLESS THE COLLEGES
GROW. And the colleges cannot grow unless we build more buildings for students to sleep in, eat
in, study in, and go to class in -- and unless there are buildings and offices for the large and
growing STAFF to receive the MAIL, answer it, print the magazines, mail out the literature.
You can REALIZE how great STATE UNIVERSITIES need great new buildings by the
hundreds to teach students EVOLUTION, ATHEISM, false knowledge. But some of you can't
understand why GOD'S COLLEGES ought to have facilities in which to do GOD'S WORK!
Brethren, with some of you, GOD IS ASHAMED! I am speaking PLAINLY this time! If your
feelings get hurt, you don't belong in God's Church -- unless or until you CHANGE YOUR
ATTITUDE AND REPENT!
You KNOW that we are on a SEVEN YEAR (or longer)
building program, that began less than four years ago, and has three or more
years yet to go. And yet YOU BRETHREN, who call yourselves GOD'S PEOPLE, have
dwindled down to about HALF the amount of SPECIAL
OFFERINGS for the BUILDING FUND you were sending in a year ago -- though there
are 30% more of us!
THINK OF IT! How ASHAMED God must be with this, His Church! There are about
30% more of us than a year ago! Yet we are FORSAKING God's program which the
living CHRIST -- the HEAD of our Church -- is planning through us whom HE has
chosen and placed in executive position directly UNDER HIM!
That is as much a NECESSARY PART
of GOD'S WORK -- His GOSPEL WORK -- of getting His Gospel to the WORLD -- as
more radio stations, or going on television.
Right now God is OPENING TREMENDOUS new doors I hope in a matter of DAYS to be
able to announce! I tell you, for those of us who KNOW of this, IT TAKES OUR
BREATH! It is MIRACULOUS! We should have thought it IMPOSSIBLE. God is
actually moving a number of national GOVERNMENTS to seek us out and offer us
staggering, amazing, breathtaking FACILITIES! Six weeks ago I would have
laughed at such a suggestion as IMPOSSIBLE! But ALL THINGS are possible with
our miracle-working GOD!
These new doors are going to rapidly INCREASE the requests for The PLAIN TRUTH
-- for new BOOKLETS -- for personal replies and answers. Our mail will soon
skyrocket upward. WE ABSOLUTELY CANNOT HANDLE IT, unless we accept larger
enrollments of students this fall! We MUST HAVE MORE TRAINED PERSONNEL! We
cannot accept more students until we can build more buildings for them to WORK in, STUDY in,
go to CLASS in, LIVE in, EAT in.
Can you Brethren see that this BUILDING PROGRAM into which CHRIST has led us must
precede walking through the new DOORS He is opening before us?
We have FALLEN SHORT in two ways: 1) We have lagged
spiritually -- we have bogged down -- we have gotten our minds and hearts and interests on
MATERIAL WORLDLY PLEASURES AND INTERESTS, and taken them more and
more OFF OF God's great and glorious WORK!
God's WIFE -- His CHURCH -- has allowed spiritual PUTRIDNESS to accumulate within this
BODY OF CHRIST! God have mercy on us and CLEANSE US of THIS SIN! 2) We have
grown careless, and LET DOWN on Christ's vitally-important BUILDING program. This, too,
is
clogging up, slowing down, tending to STOP THE WORK!
And WHY?
I know well enough why! Let me hasten to say I realize the many NEW members may not have
KNOWN about this dire need -- because I have not gotten out much about it in any of the letters.
But you who were sending in almost DOUBLE the present amount a year ago -- YOU knew
about it! Also I hasten to add that SOME of you -- perhaps HALF -- have remained FAITHFUL.
Many of you have continued sending in these EXTRA, special, additional offerings for the
BUILDING fund. It is the OTHER HALF who have lagged, or LAIN DOWN ON THE JOB and
QUIT, who have caused this serious emergency.
Unless income for the Work continues, year by year, to INCREASE by 30% -- or,
a little more precisely 27.7% -- per year, WE SHALL HAVE FAILED TO FINISH THE
WORK OF GOD by the time we must be taken to a PLACE OF SAFETY!
So now LISTEN! Listen carefully! For the month of February, just ended, our gain was only
about 12.5%. LESS THAN HALF the needed gain! Do you know WHY? Primarily because
the
PROPERTY FUND -- or BUILDING FUND, as perhaps we ought to call it -- has had NO
increase, but a great big DECREASE. The income of tithes and offerings increased 28.2%. That
is satisfactory. But the OTHER INCOME -- a very large PART of the TOTAL income to finance
this Work -- actually DECREASED!
I want you to realize just how serious this is!
So WHY? WHY have so many of you let down?
Well, perhaps you'll say it is my fault. I have been so burdened down with
other duties that have so filled my time that I was not able to get around to
sending you a letter to JOG YOU UP -- to URGE YOU ON -- to PROD you, to PUSH
you into doing it! I didn't send the annual STATEMENT OF INTENTION card for
you to sign for another year!
Was it, after all, MY fault? Was it, now?
LISTEN, Brethren -- and listen HARD! Learn a LESSON that may save you from the Lake of
Fire. Learn a basic TRUTH about how you are to develop character and GROW spiritually to
INHERIT GOD'S KINGDOM! Learn a GREAT TRUTH! Learn what may mean your
ETERNITY!
Read this two or three times! UNDERSTAND IT!
Some of you do not GO FORWARD spiritually with Christ, UNLESS I or YOUR LOCAL
PASTOR, or SOME ONE P U S H E S Y O U ! But our PUSHING will never get you into
God's Kingdom. Our pushing will never get you to the PLACE OF SAFETY for the Great
Tribulation about five years from now (if our figuring is correct).
HERE'S WHY! Here's a most IMPORTANT spiritual LESSON!
GOD HIMSELF DOES NOT EITHER PULL, OR PUSH, OR DRIVE us! Understand this! Read
it in the article coming in the APRIL PLAIN TRUTH, on what is the Unpardonable
SIN!
You are not converted -- begotten of God -- a real CHRISTIAN -- unless or until you have
GOD'S HOLY SPIRIT DWELLING IN YOU. On real repentance and believing, God
PROMISES to give you His Spirit. It begets you as HIS CHILD. It opens your mind to
UNDERSTAND His Word. As a Christian, you start out on a different WAY -- a different
ROAD -- leading to everlasting life! God's Spirit opens your understanding, to know how to live
by every Word of the Bible. It is THE WAY of GOD'S LAW. It takes a divine love to fulfill His
Law -- that is, to WALK that WAY toward God's Kingdom. God's Spirit is GOD'S LOVE. So
God SUPPLIES you with the spiritual LOVE to fulfill His Law. His Spirit GIVES you Christ's
FAITH, necessary to walk that road. It supplies you with spiritual POWER to walk that road.
God gives you all the SPIRITUAL EQUIPMENT to walk that road.
BUT -- here's the LESSON -- BE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND THIS: God's Spirit which He
gives you WILL NOT PULL YOU His way -- will not PUSH you -- will not FORCE you! God
GIVES, by His loving grace, the SPIRITUAL EQUIPMENT so you CAN walk His WAY! But
God will not DRIVE you or PULL you. You, yourself, must make the decisions to GO God's way
-- and you yourself must SET YOUR WILL to GO that way.
B U T -- and understand this as well: your old carnal SELF -- your HUMAN NATURE will
PULL you the other way! The world -- your worldly friends -- worldly cares, interests, pleasures
-- THESE, TOO, will PULL You -- they will tug HARD at you, to pull you OFF OF God's road!
And so will SATAN!
So, what do you face? THREE STRONG PULLS, all pulling you AWAY from Christ -- pulling
to get you OFF of God's WAY -- trying to PULL you AWAY from the road that leads to
everlasting LIFE in God's Kingdom.
But what about MANY of YOU?
Unless I PUSH you -- PULL at you -- REMIND you to act in this
DUTY TO GOD AND HIS WORK, you don't go along on God's road -- you lie down and QUIT
-- you QUIT sending in your SPECIAL offerings, over and above tithes and regular offerings for
the GOSPEL! You let the
PULLS of carnal, worldly interest or pleasures take that money which ought to go to GOD'S
cause!
And then, if I DO remind you, some of you become OFFENDED -- and you gripe and complain,
and some of you refuse to read the letters! No, not some -- I am informed from our men all over
that MANY do! In Jesus' name, I say, SHAME ON YOU! You who are guilty of that! Now let
me bring you up to date on the Building Expansion Program.
By July last year -- 1966 -- architect's plans were complete for the new men's dormitory building
on the Pasadena campus. But because you members were letting down on the PROPERTY
FUND, and it was too far depleted the building had to be cancelled. By October, we decided the
building program -- SO VITAL to the Work -- had to proceed. BUT, by that time the need for
new CLASSROOMS had become so critical, it had to take priority over the dormitory. So we
speeded up the architects on plans for the new ACADEMIC QUADRANGLE, with twin
two-story buildings, one on each side, between Ambassador Hall and the fabulous formal Italian
Sunken Garden, which Mr. Merritt built before that property came to us. One will be the Life
Science Hall, and the other the Fine Arts Building. These we MUST HAVE before we can accept
additional students. Ground breaking is to take place in a week or two -- and construction will be
underway on a big scale. These buildings are to be completed very shortly after college starts
again next fall.
Meanwhile, the need for our Administration Building has grown to an acute CRISIS. In Mr.
Portune's Business Department, they are having to set desks out in HALLS -- three and four
desks in a small room -- many offices in old houses we have bought or other buildings, two, three
or five blocks AWAY -- when they ought to be next door, in the SAME BUILDING. God's
Work just cannot be carried on like that.
So we have commissioned the architects to start, full speed ahead, with plans for the
Administration Office Building. We hope to start construction by JULY.
And we have commissioned another firm of architects to begin plans at once for the new HOUSE
OF GOD -- to be the HEADQUARTERS CHURCH Auditorium for the whole world -- the
House I have wanted to build for GOD -- on the Pasadena campus. Brethren, we have already
postponed this building more than three years. This must be a comparatively FINE building -- not
a cheap one or of inferior materials. God says if we BUILD (our character) of gold, silver, and
precious stones, our building will be accepted -- but if we build with wood, straw and stubble, it
will be BURNED in Gehenna FIRE! When God gave David the plans for GOD'S TEMPLE which
Solomon was to build at Jerusalem, it was replete with GOLD, SILVER, PRECIOUS STONES.
That building was SO COSTLY that even the United States GOVERNMENT could not afford to
build such a building today! It cost the equivalent, in today's dollar value, of more than TEN
THOUSAND MILLION dollars! It cost more than St. Peter's at the Vatican!
Now we have no intention of trying to build anything like THAT! God would not want anything
too costly under present conditions, in Pasadena. We know that. But it must be of relatively
GOOD quality, as buildings generally are built today. This is the building, to rise up seven stories
high, with giant 72-foot fluted pillars rising up all around out of an artificial lake. The lake will
be a block long, and over half a block wide. It will not be overcostly at all -- but it MUST BE A
FINE BUILDING, in keeping with proper economy. We expect it to take about a year and a half
to complete architectural design and plans. We have already shown you -- about three years or
more ago -- a rough architectural drawing of it. We hope to begin construction in about a year
and a half.
On the English campus, they have come to DIRE need, and are now starting construction of the
new girls' dormitory. Unless that is completed, or at least one of the two units of it, by September,
we cannot accept additional girls there for the next school year. They, too, are just about as hard
pressed for an Administration Building -- in British terminology called the "Faculty
Building" -- as we here in Pasadena. So plans are being rushed to completion.
On the Texas campus, we recently finished the new Dining Hall --
built INSIDE the shell of the big "Tabernacle" building. This saved a great deal of
money, and still provided a beautiful Dining Hall. They are still using temporary portable
classroom buildings -- each building being just one single classroom. Four additional smaller
dormitory buildings -- housing 36 students each -- were completed last September. No more
building is immediately projected for that campus -- although they will soon NEED a new
Administration Building, and the new three-level class-room building, and the Fine Arts classroom
building. Those will have to be delayed for the present.
Now Brethren, GOD'S WORK MUST LEAP FORWARD!
We must have these buildings! We MUST have a spiritual
AWAKENING! We MUST every one of us either SPEND MORE TIME ON OUR
KNEES with God in PRAYER, or stagnate, and be in danger of GEHENNA
FIRE!
FINALLY, as I wrote you over a year ago, we realize some of our members are UNABLE to
make an additional SPECIAL and EXTRA offering each month for this PROPERTY FUND. I do
not expect such people to return the enclosed card! God bless you -- WE UNDERSTAND!
And all others -- IF for any reason your income stops or is reduced, and you are PREVENTED
from continuing this amount indicated on the card, YOU ARE NOT BOUND! It is NOT an
all-binding PLEDGE! It is NOT a vow! We don't want you to make vows!
Those who are UNABLE to send this special EXTRA monthly offering for the special
PROPERTY FUND can at least PRAY for the Building Program -- and a lot more often than
once a month!
Also, if you are in your THIRD TITHE YEAR, and are UNABLE to send anything for the
PROPERTY FUND, please realize we don't expect what you are UNABLE to do. But as soon as
your third tithe year is over, then you should resume contributing to this special fund.
Brethren, LET YOUR RESPONSE SHOW OUR LIVING SAVIOR
THAT HIS CHURCH IS NOT DEAD OR Dying -- that we have come to His Throne of Grace in
heartrending, deeply prevailing PRAYER -- that we have allowed HIM to CLEAN OUT from this
spiritual BODY of Christ, which is HIS Wife, the spiritual putridness and waste which we have
allowed to clog us up!
I started this letter yesterday. It is long. This morning I can report to you that last evening God
actually BEGAN cleaning out this stopped-up waste in Mrs. Armstrong. It is only a tiny start --
but a real START -- and it gives us great encouragement and REJOICING! We are PRAISING
GOD!
In my next letter -- I hope SOON -- I hope and believe by FAITH that I may be able to report to
you not only Mrs. Armstrong's complete healing, and again beginning to rebuild lost weight and
strength by solid food -- but also the big ANNOUNCEMENTS.
Remember, equally with Mrs. Armstrong in your prayers, Mrs. Harold Jackson, and Mrs. Glen
White -- wives of two of God's important ministers. Remember the whole CHURCH in your
prayers! Pray for the HEALING OF THE WHOLE CHURCH! Pray earnestly and constantly for
the WORK. And please pray for me and ALL GOD'S MINISTERS!
God be WITH you Brethren. WE are the LIGHT OF THE WORLD, and if we let our light die
out, what a dark world it would be. BUT WE WON'T! PRAY -- as you never prayed before --
and KEEP IT UP!
THANK you, and God be with you and bless you.
With deep love, in Jesus' name,
Herbert W. Armstrong