February 19, 1947 Co-Worker Letter. Communism to Cause Europe to Give Rise to Beast Power Within 7 Years

OUR Co-Workers’ BULLETIN

Published every little while, to keep our Co-Workers informed of the progress, the problems and future plans for carrying on God’s Work in these closing days of this age; —broadcasting “The WORLD TOMORROW;” publishing The PLAIN TRUTH, and other Gospel literature. HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG, Box 111, Eugene, Ore.

VOLUME VIII. Number 1. February 19, 1947

The NEXT SEVEN YEARS — WHAT’S AHEAD!

GREETINGS! Dear Friends and Co-Workers:

Do you know you are just one day from Jerusalem!

But Moscow, Berlin, Rome, are even closer! More and more distances are shrinking—the earth becomes smaller and smaller— in this fast-moving era of the airplane!

The next seven years are destined to be the most momentous years of America’s history—of all earth’s history! They will see World War III shaping—perhaps even striking within that time!

What are Russia’s real aims? Can two philosophies of how this world ought to be run, how its business ought to be conducted, and its society regulated, and its religion exercised, as opposite as the poles, live together in a war-shrunken world!

“RED TIDE PERILS VAST U.S. SUPPLIES IN EUROPE,” shouts a newspaper headline over a dispatch from Karl H. von Weigand, dean of American correspondents. From Rome, he wrote: “Months ago I warned in cables that the Red Tide may soon be lapping at the foot of the Pyrenees. Now, THE RED TIDE IS THERE! There remains in the west only Spain and Portugal. . . Now Switzerland sees herself the one last truly democratic citadel on the European continent, surrounded on all sides by a Red Sea of Communism.”

“RED PERIL SEEN IN FRENCH VOTE,” comes another dispatch from Washington. “RUSSIA STILL ON WAR BASIS,” is the headline over a dispatch from London.

“DOES EUROPE FACE HOLY WAR?” is the large-type headline of an article in LIFE magazine, describing the dynamic new political movement called “Christian Socialism” springing up all over Western Europe like a prairie-fire, as a counter-fire to put out the Red Flame of COMMUNISM. The opening sentence of the article says: “Western Europe is moving fast toward a showdown with Communism.” A few terse, to-the-point sentences thru the article: “Recent elections suggest that the showdown will likely be BETWEEN CHRISTIANS AND COMMUNISTS.” “Such is the view taken by the pope. There are few more astute observers of European politics.” “European Protestantism may not yet have declared open war on Communism as the pope has, but it is moving toward battle stations.”

UNEXPECTED TURN OF EVENTS IN EUROPE, PROPHESIED FOR IMMEDIATE FUTURE!

For a year and a half I have been telling the vast radio audience the Red Flame of Communism would flare over Europe—that it would APPEAR to be completely consuming all Europe—and then, suddenly, when least expected, a dynamic new Fascist movement would spring up, as if from no-where, uniting with, and using the power and influence of the CHURCH to turn back the Crimson blaze, UNITE EUROPE, and RESTORE FASCIST NAZISM under Hitler’s successor, THE PROPHESIED “BEAST”—restoring the ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE, with CHURCH AND STATE ONCE MORE UNITED!

Well NOW, my friends and Co-workers, that prophesied event I have warned of is actually beginning in Europe. The forces are now emerging that will produce it, and moving inexorably toward that climax!

Indeed, I saw its first seeds sewn almost two years ago, at the San Francisco United Nations Conference! You didn’t read of it in the newspapers, but the most significant happening at that Conference was a solemn pontifical Roman Catholic Mass, attended by ten thousand, and a remarkable speech by their radio speaker, Bishop Hunt! That speech was fraught with tremendous prophetic significance, and time will prove it to have been a history-making declaration! It’s inner astonishing significance went unnoticed. Newspapers said little or nothing about it. BUT WE GRASPED INSTANTLY THE INNER PROPHETIC IMPORT OF WHAT WE THERE SAW AND HEARD!

Ever since, I have been awaiting the proper moment to DISCLOSE this startling occurrence and its sinister significance to prophecy. It was the planting of the very germ that is springing to dynamic life over western Europe today!

From here on, events will not go as newspaper men, diplomats, and the public suppose. AMAZING world events will take place soon that will leave the world aghast! Before many years we shall see, as Jesus foretold, men’s hearts failing them for FEAR, and for looking after those things coming upon the earth!

SOLEMN, TREMENDOUS IMPORT OF OUR MISSION

Co-Workers, we have come to the time when you must realize the overwhelming, solemn import of the mission to which God has called us, you and I, in His great work! For this is no ordinary religious work—but something entirely different!

TIME GROWS SHORT! We are nearing the END of this world! Not the end of the earth, but of this WORLD—this AGE—this CIVILIZATION! Time is fast running out! It’s LATER THAN WE THINK! Thank God, it is still DAY. We still can WORK—but the NIGHT draws swiftly near, when no man can work, for God!

The time has come when our co-workers, all a vital PART of this work, must realize that our calling is something vastly DIFFERENT—no ordinary church work—but the most serious, momentous, important work on earth today! We must all take it just that seriously—solemnly, reverently! God give us eyes to see! God grant us UNDERSTANDING, now!

ALL ORGANIZATIONS OF THIS WORLD—including all religious organizations, the businesses, the societies, the clubs—even the GOVERNMENTS—shall soon pass out of existence forever! They have but a few more years to live—perhaps seven, perhaps fifteen or twenty-five! They are plunging now toward a self-imposed DOOM! Organized society is committing SUICIDE! It has invented now at last the horrible unbelievable weapons and instrumentalities of destruction capable of blasting human life utterly from this earth!

But God Almighty will intervene, and save humanity from itself! Humanity will not be annihilated out of existence—but ORGANIZED society, business, religion, education, and government will! This is pictured in the prophecy of Daniel 2—the coming of CHRIST, and the KINGDOM OF GOD will smash all these governments and organizations of this world to bits, and it, GOD’S KINGDOM, and His ways, shall rule this earth forever!

Frankly, I’m afraid most of you have not fully and clearly recognized just what this work is—precisely what really IS our calling and our mission! We are called, and functioning, as the ADVANCE-AGENTS of the coming WORLD government—the Kingdom of God, which shall destroy all this world’s organizations and rule in their stead FOREVER! We are AMBASSADORS for Christ! Ambassadors of HIS coming government, working as strangers and pilgrims in a foreign land. This work to which God has called us is, therefore, a preliminary and advance function of the world-ruling, everlasting KINGDOM OF GOD.

And therefore, tho the time is shortly coming when this work will, we know, be temporarily SILENCED by the powers of darkness of this world, we shall continue on, forever, long after every government and organization of this world has been eternally destroyed!

And what is our tremendous mission! Do you know? Do you grasp it?

LISTEN! Our mission, first of all, is to preach CHRIST’S GOSPEL—the Message He brought to earth from God—the Message He commissioned all His true ministers to preach throughout this dispensation of grace—the VERY MESSAGE THE ORGANIZED CHURCH DENOMINATIONS REJECT!—the only TRUE Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Good News of the coming world-ruling KINGDOM OF GOD! THAT GOSPEL HAS NOT BEEN PREACHED TO THE WORLD SINCE THE EARLY NEW TESTAMENT DAYS! That true Gospel is not being preached by the Church organizations NOW! That sounds unbelievable, I know. But it’s true. And the time has come when the stark TRUTH must be realized —when we must comprehend the real mission to which God has called us! Jesus Christ said this GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM shall be preached in all the world for a witness UNTO ALL NATIONS, just before the end of this age. And the END approaches rapidly!

Our CALLING, too, is to WARN America, Britain, and the Democracies—modern ISRAEL—of the impending NATIONAL DESTRUCTION and CAPTIVITY to be visited upon our people, unless we heed the warning and REPENT—because we have strayed far from God and His laws and ways, and our sins are fast increasing! And deeply as I regret and deplore the fact, I know of no denomination, organization, movement, or person carrying this WARNING of invasion, destruction, and captivity to America and Britain, except this work and mission which God is carrying on, with constantly increasing POWER and blessing, thru us!—this work YOU CO-WORKERS ACTUALLY CARRY ON BY YOUR PRAYERS, TITHES, AND OFFERINGS.

Thru this work God is saving many precious souls—healing many who are physically sick—feeding THOUSANDS of His “flock” on the true spiritual manna, bringing greatly increased UNDERSTANDING of His Word, marvelous new light and TRUTH, helping thousands to grow in true KNOWLEDGE.

And THAT’S why I say, and believe with all my heart, this is the most important work on earth today. But it has ONLY STARTED!

NOW IT MUST GROW TO GREAT POWER!

Friends, Brethren, Co-Workers, listen! We have reached the time when this work must quickly launch out to carry this WARNING not only to the United States, but to Britain and those European nations who also, with us, are racially ISRAELITES! This includes the nations we call the Democracies of western Europe! Several of them speak different languages!

We have reached the time when preparations must be made, AND QUICKLY, to carry Christ’s Gospel Message as a witness into EVERY nation, in all the world!

God has plainly revealed that fact during recent months. The time has come when THERE CAN BE NO MORE DELAY! For this greatly enlarged task AMBASSADOR COLLEGE has been revealed to us as urgently NECESSARY! God has shown we must now move swiftly— that TIME IS SHORT—by Himself moving swiftly and suddenly to place within our hands the buildings, grounds, and facilities for AMBASSADOR COLLEGE, to train more AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST!

But just that, as announced in the January-February PLAIN TRUTH is NOT SUFFICIENT FOR THE FULL PURPOSE! We must train our AMBASSADORS in the fluent speaking of FOREIGN LANGUAGES—they must become experienced in FOREIGN TRAVEL,—in mixing with, meeting, and talking to people in other lands!

And this they cannot be adequately trained to do in the classrooms of an AMERICAN college alone! A student, for instance, who studies French in an American classroom three times a week, mixing with those who speak ENGLISH all the rest of the time, will find it almost impossible to understand the people over in France, or be understood by them, when he goes over there. The place to learn to speak foreign languages fluently, and AS they speak them in their native country, is IN the country where they are spoken.

Now it so happens that tiny little Switzerland is in the center of western Europe, surrounded by many nations speaking many languages. Consequently, nearly everyone in Switzerland speaks three to five languages. School children in Switzerland are taught several languages from childhood, just as American children are taught reading, writing, and arithmetic! SWITZERLAND, then, is the place to go to speak the largest number of foreign languages! One can learn more there in this field in six weeks than he could in six years in an American college! Not only that, the students we train, to be fitted and prepared for their most sober and ALL- IMPORTANT MISSION, need the EXPERIENCE of travel in Europe. This is vital for GOD’S WORK.

And, as I said, TIME IS SHORT, and swiftly growing shorter! MUCH must be done, and there’s little time in which to do it! ALREADY we see emerging in Europe the preliminary movement that will bring “THE BEAST” out of the “bottomless pit” in Europe! It may come to a head in six or seven years—in all probability before fifteen or twenty!

GOD MIRACULOUSLY OPENS ANOTHER AMAZING OPPORTUNITY

And now, almost immediately on the heels of opening to us so suddenly the opportunity to establish AMBASSADOR COLLEGE in Pasadena, God has opened before us still another breath-taking opportunity almost too fantastic to believe!

Yet it is not fantastic, nor impractical, but the most PRACTICAL, SENSIBLE, and NEEDFUL thing for God’s work at this time! Suddenly, “out of a clear sky,” has come a chain of almost unbelievable circumstances whereby a most lovely and adequate place may come into our hands to provide a EUROPEAN UNIT for AMBASSADOR COLLEGE, on beautiful scenic Lake Lugano, in southern Switzerland! It is, in fact, a very fine and splendid place—an exact replica of the smaller of the three buildings that constitute Versailles Palace, where the World War I Peace Treaty was signed —and almost new—built just shortly before World War II, some nine years ago!

Yet, if this offer is finally confirmed, this splendid property will come to AMBASSADOR COLLEGE at a ridiculous low figure, and at terms unimaginable for such a place; possible for us to handle!

I have consulted conservative bankers, lawyers, judges, educators. Unanimously they advise me to go ahead—declare it is a sound, sensible, most practical idea, and then, at the deal and the terms, they shake their heads in frank bewilderment, and say there surely must be a GOD who is working things out for us, for things like these—both the Pasadena opening and this one at Lugano in Switzerland—just don’t happen!

I presented this whole proposition in detail before all our little group of brethren in the Lord in Eugene. They were unanimously in favor of proceeding with the deal, if it works out as now indicated. Then I sent a special letter, presenting the matter and asking advice, to 1,000 of you co-workers, picked at random from our lists. I think only two of these advised against it, for reasons I will explain—but all others either were enthusiastically in favor of it, or, in the case of a few, felt God would lead me, and I would be better in position to decide then they, expressing confidence that whichever God led me to see would be right.

One or two felt it would be inadvisable because TIME IS TOO SHORT! But that, dear brethren and co-workers, IS EXACTLY THE REASON WE NEED IT!

That, I feel certain, is the VERY REASON God has so quickly, suddenly, opened this opportunity to us! TIME IS SHORT! There’s no time to lose! The true Gospel must go to ALL NATIONS, in DIFFERENT LANGUAGES, and there isn’t much time in which this may be accomplished!

True, many denominations have sent missionaries into many nations. But THEY HAVE NOT PREACHED THE GOSPEL JESUS CHRIST BROUGHT FROM GOD AND DECLARED TO MEN! His Gospel, which CHRIST preached, was the Gospel or Good News of the KINGDOM OF GOD! (Mark 1:14-15). Have the missionaries gone preaching to the heathen the GOOD NEWS that Christ is coming in all the power and glory of God, as KING of kings, and LORD of lords, to set up the world-ruling government, the KINGDOM OF GOD which will rule all nations, and bring peace to the earth, and salvation to those of all nations? Have they gone teaching that this glorious Kingdom will rule all nations ONE THOUSAND YEARS here on the earth?—and that those now converted, who grow in grace and knowledge, and OVERCOME, shall REIGN over the nations, with Christ, as kings and priests in the Kingdom of God? Do you know

ANYONE—ANY church or denomination —that has taken THIS one and only true Gospel of Jesus Christ to all the world? No, for it has not yet gone out! AND TIME IS GROWING SHORT!

Brethren and Co-Workers, the VERY FACT God has moved SO SWIFTLY—so MIRACULOUSLY to place these amazing facilities in our hands NOW, without any further delay, is in itself evidence that THERE IS NOT TIME to delay getting these vital steps in His work operating and moving!

There IS a time to learn to GO SLOW, and WAIT ON GOD. But also, there is a time to DELAY NO LONGER! And God Himself has shown us by miracles and wonders that WE HAVE REACHED THAT TIME!

Once again, I am writing you as I ride on the train. It is late, as I write—nearly midnight—but I must not sleep until this is finished. A few days ago I received a long-distance telephone call. This European opportunity has come to a head and developed to a point where I had to GO IMMEDIATELY to Switzerland to inspect it, have it appraised, and make a decision, or lose the opportunity. After the advice of hard-headed, practical, conservative bankers, lawyers and business men and educators— after the advice of so many brethren and co-workers—and with my own personal conviction that this definitely IS of God—I simply dare not drop it without inspecting it, getting all the facts I have so far not been able to obtain, and then making an intelligent decision, after much prayer for God’s guidance. As a result, Mrs. Armstrong and I are tonight speeding across Ohio and will arrive tomorrow morning in Washington, where we hope to obtain quick and emergency passports from the State Department, and we are tentatively booked for sailing for Europe within just a few days.

For over a year I had been planning a trip to inspect and learn of conditions in Europe first-hand, to report to our vast radio audience, anyway. Further, I need to confirm personally, ON THE GROUND, this emerging in Europe of the “BEAST” from the seed we saw planted in San Francisco! I’m sure I’ll have some thrilling and interesting things to report to you, in the broad- casts, and in the PLAIN TRUTH, when we return. We shall not be gone long—just a quick trip, and right back as soon as our mission is finished. At first I planned to go alone. But I have never made any important decision without the advice and counsel of my wife, who, as you all know, is heart and soul with me in God’s work, and God has used her many times to see things He wanted me to see, which I seemed unable to see alone. In multitude of counsellors there is safety—so says God’s Word. I have sought a multitude of counsel, but I need some over in Switzerland, on the spot, and so we decided Mrs. Armstrong should go—IF we can secure passage for her, which still is in doubt.

In the next number of The PLAIN TRUTH I hope to have for you the most sensational, startling revelations ever published— all the FACTS about what we saw at San Francisco, and what is now emerging from underground in EUROPE. I won’t be able to broadcast such an exposure of a plot to rule the world over the air. But I hope to get the remaining facts I need for that article on this trip—and also some inside information on the Palestine situation, now boiling all over the front pages, from contacts in the British Foreign office in London. I made a few valuable contacts at San Francisco, which I feel will be of help.

Now, brethren and co-workers, in conclusion, let me again impress upon you the TREMENDOUS IMPORTANCE and URGENCY of the work. God is literally performing miracles and wonders in our behalf. We are merely following where He leads! And the time has come when this work must take TREMENDOUS strides AHEAD! A MIGHTY work remains to be done. It all takes more and more money! The need grows greater and greater.

Yet our God is able to SUPPLY EVERY NEED, no matter how great! He supplies it thru those He can use for this purpose. God is able to bless all you dear Co-Workers with enough so, if you are faithful with HIS TITHE of your income, and generous with offerings besides, THERE WILL BE ALWAYS ENOUGH TO KEEP HIS GREAT WORK GOING, greater and greater, until the tremendous mission is accomplished! God does not expect you to give what you have not got. But He is able to provide you with enough to give for His cause, and it should be given cheerfully, generously. Of those who are able to give much, God expects much, and large, generous sums are now direly NEEDED for God’s fast-growing work. Of those who have but very little, God expects only in proportion, and Jesus said the widow’s two mites were more important than the larger offerings of the wealthy.

Don’t think for a moment God’s work is growing too big to need those widows’ mites! If they were not arriving at our office, the work could not carry on. Yes, we need a shower—a veritable downpour of the widow’ mites—but now as never before the work needs, too, LARGE sums from those who are able.

We’ll probably be in Europe—perhaps on the way back— before you read this. It takes time to get this letter back out to our offices in Eugene, have it printed in The BULLETIN, and mailed out to all of you. And when we return, I’ll give you full details of the European division of AMBASSADOR COLLEGE—if it materializes, as I somehow feel a conviction it will. If it’s of God, it will. If not, God will show us by causing the deal to fall thru. He always guides and leads us, and will not fail us now. WE MUST NOT FAIL HIM!

TWO NEW SUPER-POWER RADIO STATIONS HAVE BEEN ADDED,— expenses keep getting higher as the work expands to greater service to greater numbers. I will transcribe broadcasts in New York for you to hear while we are abroad. I know you’ll hold up our hands with your liberal offerings, and faithful tithes. Please RUSH your contributions in the enclosed reply-envelope—AIR-MAIL, as the need is now VERY URGENT! AND DON’T FORGET WE NEED YOUR EARNEST AND CONTINUOUS PRAYERS, FOR GUIDANCE, SAFE-KEEPING, AND SPIRITUAL POWER! Thank you, and GOD BLESS YOU!

In Jesus’ name,

HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG