January 4, 1985• Herbert W Armstrong • Co-Worker
Letter Armstrong Says the Gospel Commission has been Fulfilled.
HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
PRESIDENT and PASTOR
January 4, 1985
Dear Brethren and Co-Workers:
The time has come to send each of you your receipt for tithes
and offerings for 1984.
I want you to realize the magnitude of the accomplishments
you have helped make possible -- yet I wonder if it is humanly
possible to comprehend just how great is the Work the living Christ
is accomplishing through our combined efforts and sacrifice under
him and through the boundless power of the great Creator God.
We are humanly inclined to judge by what we can see
physically. What we see physically is one of the smallest church
bodies on earth. Yet what we should see spiritually is something
so stupendous as to defy any comparison, so colossal above all that
has been accomplished by all the combined efforts of the large
churches of this world. Spiritually it is a gigantic worldwide
accomplishment compared to no spiritual accomplishment whatsoever.
Jesus Christ sent forth the first apostles going afoot, or on
horseback or by sailboat, to the small world of that day, centered
around the Mediterranean Sea. In 20 years there was violent
controversy over whether the gospel to be proclaimed was a gospel
ABOUT Christ, or the gospel OF Christ. For nearly 1,900 years
Christ's Gospel of the Kingdom of God was thereafter NOT PROCLAIMED
to the world. But Jesus had said, "THIS gospel of the kingdom
shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto ALL NATIONS,
and then shall the end [of this world] come."
The tithes and offerings of this little church began
proclaiming 1,900 years later the Gospel of the Kingdom -- the only
true Gospel started by Jesus -- throughout Europe after it had gone
forth for 19 years over the United States and Canada.
It is now true that this Gospel has been proclaimed within
EVERY NATION ON EARTH BY THE WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD.
NO OTHER CHURCH has proclaimed THIS true Gospel at all!
Following are actual figures you should know of for the year
1984 in comparison with 1981, just three years earlier.
+ In 1981, 22 million PLAIN TRUTH magazines were sent to homes
or distributed on newsstands. In 1984, 73 million PLAIN
TRUTHS went out. Monthly circulation soared past seven
million copies.
+ In 1981, 800,000 GOOD NEWS magazines were mailed. In 1984,
3.7 million went to members, co-workers, and other subscribers.
+ In 1981, 191,000 copies of YOUTH 81 magazine were sent to
teenagers and other readers. In 1984, 1.2 million YOUTH 84s
were sent out.
+ In 1981, two million books, booklets and reprint articles
were sent out. In 1984, more than six million were sent
upon request.
+ In 1981, our Mail Processing Department received 2.5 million
letters, plus 336,000 telephone requests on our toll-free
lines. In 1984, five million letters were received, plus
800,000 telephone requests.
+ In 1981, 52,000 enrolled in the Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course. In 1984, 250,000 enrolled.
What tremendous growth in just three years your tithes
and offerings have made possible!
