Dear Friends and Co-Workers:
A most UNEXPECTED emergency has arisen. It forced me to do
something DRASTIC--something I've never done before--something I
hated to do more than you can realize--It forced me to put out an
urgent emergency appeal over the air last night on the two great
super-power stations that cover the entire nation and continent.
Never before in twelve years of broadcasting God's Gospel
Message have I asked for money over the air.
I did it for the sake
of A MILLION PRECIOUS SOULS now listening to the Message EVERY
NIGHT--and the many THOUSANDS now interested and writing in for
spiritual help, and our free literature carrying to them the BIBLE
TRUTH.
Here is what I was forced to say, at the close of the broad-
cast last night--it is self-explanatory:
....and now, may I have just a word with our CO-WORKERS who
are listening tonight. What I'm going to have to say for the next
two or three minutes isn't intended for most of our great vast
radio audience---this is just for our regular co-workers ONLY.
But I have to report to you dear Co-Workers who are financing
this great work of God that we may be forced off the air SUDDENLY,
in less than a week! Co-Workers, LISTEN! I can hardly bear to say
it, but most of our regular co-workers who have so loyally
supported Christ's work and kept it going--yes, and GROWING until
it's become an international POWER for GOD--have simply been
letting the work down, since the beginning of the Christmas
shopping season!
Only about a fourth of our usual co-workers are
remembering CHRIST and His glorious work at this time! Almost none
of the usual larger offerings--or tithes--in amounts of thirty,
fifty, a hundred dollars or more, are coming in now,--and just as
we are STARTING this nation-wide INTENSIVE campaign of EVERY-NIGHT
BROADCASTING! It seems about the only Co-Workers who are
remembering CHRIST at this season are those of meagre circumstances
--many, old people living on old-age pensions, who STILL are
faithful and loyal with their widow's mites, given at real
sacrifice! --GOD BLESS THEM!
Now just at this time God opened the opportunity, and I've
launched out--ON SHEER FAITH--with the biggest, most powerful
campaign BY FAR we ever were privileged to conduct.
This program
is going out every night except Saturday over the two MOST POWERFUL
radio stations in North America--at the VERY BEST HOUR--8 o'clock
in the middle-west, 8 o'clock in the Mountain States and beginning
next week it is scheduled to go out, unless we are stopped, also at
8 o'clock on the COAST! Now this has multiplied expenses THREE
TIMES OVER! Unless our family of co-workers comes to the rescue,
we'll be forced off the air in less that a week!
I can't keep this valuable radio time another week unless a
LARGE NUMBER of our co-workers all over the country hear, and HEED
this appeal, and come to the rescue not only with a veritable
DOWNPOUR of widow's mites, but also with a real shower of the
larger sums of fifty, a hundred dollars, and more,--and by RETURN
AIR-MAIL! Please DO NOT send it special delivery--but use
AIR-MAIL, or even better yet TELEGRAPH THE MONEY BY WESTERN UNION!
Now listen: I want you to know the FACTS! The mail response
to these every-night broadcasts has been overwhelming! It
indicates this precious Message is being heard by an interested
audience of at least ONE MILLION souls EVERY NIGHT--a great, vast,
nation-wide and international audience. The response shows
thousands and thousands are HUNGRY for GOD'S PRECIOUS TRUTH. It
keeps a large and growing staff in our office busy every day
mailing out FREE Gospel literature to thousands and thousands of
people who are writing in for it! And remember it goes FREE. I
can't put a PRICE on the Gospel! Some are bound to write in, after
this appeal, and urge me to CHARGE for it--but THAT IS NOT GOD'S
WAY, and WE CAN'T DO IT! You know I never ask for money over the
air. You never heard me mention this, or ask for it BEFORE, and
even tonight I'm saying this only to our regular co-workers who are
listening,--and only because circumstances FORCE me to say it, as
a last resort! I've never put out an appeal for money over the air
before!
Why, every day I receive letters like this one that just
came this afternoon, saying, "If you will accept an offering, I'll
be glad to send one to help spread the Gospel." Thousands of
listeners do not seem even to know whether I'd be willing to ACCEPT
an offering, or their tithe! That's because THIS broadcast is
probably the ONLY ONE you have ever heard on the air--that is, of
RELIGIOUS broadcasts--that does not continually beg for money over
the air. No, I do not, I WILL NOT, and there is NO REQUEST FOR
MONEY WHATSOEVER in any of the Gospel literature we send to
listeners who respond to the broadcasts--except our Co-Workers
BULLETIN, sent ONLY to those who have first voluntarily taken
financial part in this work by sending in money UNSOLICITED! So,
this once, I state the FACTS, as I must.
Now, of course, out of the thousands of NEW LISTENERS now
writing in for our FREE GOSPEL LITERATURE, a small percent have
been sending in small offerings for the work with their requests,
even tho it was not solicited, nor expected. The plain facts are
that had it not been for these offerings from NEW LISTENERS, I
could not have continued this great campaign this far.
I owe you an explanation of the FACTS: Twelve years ago I
started this work in a country schoolhouse near Eugene, Oregon,
without a dollar of money--nothing but God's TRUTH, a rich
experience, and PURE FAITH! A man at that time said to me, "I'd be
willing to BET you that you can't go on preaching these PLAIN BIBLE
TRUTHS and succeed--it can't be done!" He said "People won't
support it, and no denomination will pay you a salary. People
don't love or WANT the TRUTH. They want, and will support, only
the soft and smooth things--the deceits--the FABLES. You'll STARVE
to death if you keep preaching the TRUTH!" Well I want to tell
you, my friends, I took that man up on his challenge. We didn't
bet--but I've kept right on preaching the PLAIN BIBLE TRUTH to
constantly increasing audiences ever since! At that time, 12 years
ago, I preached to a nightly audience averaging 36 people.
Tonight, and every night, if you Co-Workers stand with me and make
it possible to continue, I'm preaching to a great, vast,
INTERNATIONAL audience in THREE NATIONS of A MILLION or more
people! And I'm still not pulling my punches, no matter WHOM it
hits or hurts--I'm not preaching to please MEN, but to PLEASE GOD
--and, God helping me, I'll go right ON preaching His TRUTH boldly,
and fearlessly, as long as God Himself gives me the opportunity and
the breath to preach it. God hasn't called me to entertain, amuse,
or please the people with soft and smooth things and popular
traditions and deceits and fables, but to cry ALOUD--yes, ALOUD,
over this whole NATION, and SPARE NOT--and SHOW MY PEOPLE THEIR
SINS!
That's God's commission to me and you co-workers who stand
with me!
Now I realize fully that SOME of our former good co-workers
will be offended by the straight plain TRUTH I gave you in this
broadcast tonight. I doubt if you ever heard this TRUTH preached
before, but it's time SOMEONE had the courage to tell it to this
sinning nation bringing the wrath of GOD upon itself, before it's
too late!
When Jesus was here on earth, HIS Message was not popular. He
offended a good many, too. He was despised and rejected of men,
too. He was persecuted, too.
Now a great, vast, powerful broadcast such as this costs MONEY
--a lot of MONEY. GOD'S WAY--The BIBLE WAY--of financing God's
true work is thru the tithes and offerings of HIS PEOPLE . . . the
real Christians. A Christian is one who has REPENTED of the
selfish, greedy, GETTING way, accepted Christ as Saviour, and
turned to the loving and GIVING way of life. So, God's real born-
again people GIVE of their tithes and offerings, freely, generous,
even at SACRIFICE,--and GLADLY and JOYOUSLY--that the precious
GOSPEL may be carried forth and GIVEN, FREE, without money and
without price, to those in the WORLD who are willing to heed and
accept it! Jesus set us the example! I myself try to follow His
example, and in turn set an example for our other CO-WORKERS.
I am
giving of MY all,--and my wife HER ALL, right along by my side.
We're giving OUR VERY LIVES to God's work! A year ago I turned
down an offer of a salary of $2,000 a week--$100,000 a year--if I'd
quit preaching God's TRUTH and broadcast a straight news-analysis
program 15 minutes a day over a large national network for a
breakfast-foods sponsor. Two years ago my wife and I sold our home
in Eugene, Oregon, and put EVERY CENT into God's work, that it
might grow to its present size and scope and great power for good.
And we are both happy that so far we ourselves have put in the
largest single sum of money ever contributed to this work. Right
now, we have no home of our own at all--we're forced to just move
around every few nights from one auto cabin to another to find a
place to sleep--but we aren't grumbling about that!--rather, we're
HAPPY to be able to be of HELP to so many, and of service to our
God! Now I only mention this, so you'll understand there's nothing
more I can do--and so, for the sake of the MILLION PRECIOUS SOULS
listening in every night, and the THOUSANDS who are hungry for the
free literature we are preparing of God's TRUTH, I've felt FORCED
to send out this appeal tonight to the scattered sprinkling of
Co-Workers who may be listening. THIS IS THE CRISIS of THIS WORK
FOR GOD! The issue is whether GOD'S TRUE WARNING MESSAGE--this
kind of PLAIN BIBLE PREACHING--can continue in a BIG WAY over this
entire nation! That issue is NOW IN YOUR HANDS.
Co-Workers, I know you'll rally to this emergency. Remember
this is a GENERAL LETTER, going to all co-workers. Many of you
have stood by us to the limit of your ability--GOD BLESS YOU!--but
more of you have let other things crowd CHRIST'S WORK out of your
minds during this shopping season. If you are one who has ability
to send a hundred, several hundred, or a thousand dollars or more,
please rush it AIR-MAIL, or by telegraph. It's URGENT! These
thousands of hungry souls MUST NOT BE DENIED GOD'S PRECIOUS MESSAGE
EVERY NIGHT. Thank you, and GOD BLESS YOU.
HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG