Dear Brethren and Friends,
We can all thank our Father in Heaven for the truly magnificent Feast of Tabernacles we recently experienced! The outpourings of love, loyalty and a deeper Christian spirituality were manifested more in that festival than ever before. Now, more than ever, thousands of our brethren undoubtedly realize that our human society really is coming to an end! It is inspiring, and yet sobering, to see traumatic world events taking place around us. After the terrible financial crisis that has struck our nations almost across the globe, and after a truly "historic" American election has changed our nation, the world will never be the same again. All of us, especially the young people who may not have seen as much as we older brethren, need to think through and fully realize this fact! God is intervening at the end of an age to humble the British-descended and American peoples, and to teach His people the lessons that we desperately need to learn.
We, who have been called by God, need to genuinely try to learn what He is trying to teach us! We, of all people, need to "wake up" and genuinely seek God as never before!
Meanwhile, this Work of Christ is growing more than ever—and God is blessing us! We are very grateful for His blessing and guidance. We were blessed with good offerings during the Holy Days. Thank you, dear brethren! We are blessed in having been able to go on a number of new stations, and are now receiving some of our best-ever responses to the Tomorrow's World telecast. More and more of our weekly responses total over 4,000—with a few weeks even breaking the 5,000-response level! Far more prospective members are writing in to request visits, and a number are beginning to attend—and a number of new members and ministers are coming with us from other groups, as they sense more than ever where Christ is working and where the full message of God is being preached. For all of this we are thankful, and I personally want to thank all of you brethren for your part and for your prayers! Brethren, most of you have heard about the recent stroke that I experienced. My left side—especially my left arm and hand—is still somewhat numb, and I am only able to work a few hours a day. A stroke also leaves one somewhat debilitated and lacking in energy. So I ask for your fervent prayers to continue! God is obviously "testing" me—and indeed testing many of us—through this trial. For all of us need to fully realize that this is not my Work, but God's Work—and that it will continue regardless of me! I know that, and I know God is fully in charge. We have a wonderful team of dedicated leading ministers to carry on the Work if something should happen to me. Mr. Richard Ames, Dr. Douglas Winnail, Mr. Dibar Apartian and others are certainly beginning to take some of the load off of me, and all have proven themselves very loyal in this time of trial. For that I am thankful, and I know you are, too. These men have been faithful to God for decades, and God will use them to carry on the Work even without me if that becomes necessary. None of us are inexpendable!
However, I deeply feel—as do many others, including the other leaders—that the living Christ still has much work for me to do! I am trusting that God will heal me, strengthen me and use me more than ever, if I more fully surrender to Him and try to "learn every lesson" He wants me to learn through this trial.
Brethren, it is important that we all realize this when trials come to each of us. God rebukes and chastens every son He loves. It is not a matter of His lack of love, but a matter of His wanting us to be even more yielded and to strengthen us. Jesus' own teaching in John 15 gives us an insight into the situation. For Jesus said, "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit" (John 15:2).
Notice that God does not "hurt" or destroy those who are serving Him. He does, however, "prune" them—even when they bear fruit—that they may bear more fruit! So He wants each of us to achieve our full potential. He wants us to become like Him in every possible way. So, He allows various trials and tests to come upon us—and sometimes He directly brings them on us, to teach us lessons for all eternity! We should try to learn those lessons, and we should thank God for His love, His concern and His patience with each of us. I sincerely want to do that, and I appreciate your prayers for God's guidance, for His patience and for His mercy to me and to the Work in this entire situation!
Brethren, just before the Feast—too late to announce in any written communication—I learned of the death of my dear friend and former brother-in-law, Mr. Raymond F. McNair. Most of you know that Mr. McNair was one of the first seven evangelists ordained in the Philadelphia era of God's Church. He was a long-time evangelist, and served as Deputy Chancellor of the colleges at Bricket Wood and Pasadena. He served God's people in many situations all over the world, and did much good during his long ministry. Although he left us at one point, and then came back to the Living Church of God to serve for a few years, he was not with us at the end. He did not wish to move with us here to Charlotte, North Carolina, and chose instead to carry on a small Internet work on his own from a small city north of San Diego. However, Mr. McNair did remain faithful to the Truth to the end. He tried to serve God's people in many ways. So I think it is important that we honor the decades of service of Mr. McNair who did, in fact, remain faithful to the true commandments of God—honoring God and honoring Mr. Armstrong in his own way until the end of his life. Mr. McNair certainly did that. And I pray that God will have mercy on his family and loved ones, and help all of us to remember and honor what Christ did through him for so many years.
I hope that all of us will genuinely commit ourselves with increasing zeal to the cause of Christ, as we see the tremendous prophetic events occurring all around us. With our American financial system coming apart, the Europeans are continually talking about the need for Europe to "take the lead" more than ever before! The Europeans are turning away from America's leadership—and so is much of the rest of the world. America's recent elections show that its people are choosing the "liberal" way of life, and that the nation is increasingly approving of abortion and homosexuality, and condoning the lack of individual responsibility in personal finances and other areas of daily life. We see that China is increasing in power and beginning to replace the U.S. as the leader in the Western Pacific. We see that the nations of Central and South America are turning away from the U.S. more and more, and are ripe for a takeover from the coming "Beast" Power that is beginning to rise in Europe. We see that the British people, like the Americans, are increasingly choosing the path of liberalism and moral degradation. Britain is being "absorbed" by the European Power—yet we can expect that its people will at some point either rebel and leave, or be "pushed out" from that growing centralized European power under Roman Catholic leadership.
Our Father in Heaven is not pleased. As a result, He will definitely bring upon us the loving chastisement that
He describes over and over in the end-time prophecies about the "House of Israel." All of us—Israelite, Jew or Gentile—need to realize this. For, within God's Church, we are neither Jew nor Gentile, bond or free, but we are all "spiritual Israel" and are members of the household of God! We need to deeply love one another and serve one another. We must work together to help each of our brethren to prepare for the time when we will be neither male nor female, neither black or white, but Spirit-born sons of God in the very family of God—assisting Christ in ruling this earth and bringing about a genuine degree of peace and prosperity that has never before been experienced by the world as a whole!
President-elect Barack Obama does not understand or share our spiritual goals, and neither does Senator John McCain. But we should pray fervently for Mr. Obama in the office of President of the United States! We should ask God to guide him and lead him according to His will—and to direct him to preserve peace and order so that we may worship God in honesty and godliness and without fear! Remember the Apostle Paul's inspired instruction, "Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence" (1 Timothy 2:1–2).
So, let us all pray for the new President of the United States—and for all in authority. And let us pray for one another and do everything we can to genuinely give ourselves to God to be used in His service in preparing for the only genuine solution to this world's problems. For President Obama cannot—nor could a President McCain—bring about the kind of change that only God can bring through Jesus Christ and the coming Kingdom of God that will be set up under Him in a very few years! Let us be stirred by this realization, and by the responsibility we will soon have in serving under Christ in the genuine government of God to be set up on this earth, based on the revealed Truth and on the laws of God. This soon-coming government will be able to bring about the genuine peace and prosperity and joy for which the entire world longs—and which it will experience after Christ returns as King of kings.
Brethren, as this Work grows in power, as we reach out to other nations and some of us are even brought to testify before kings and rulers, as the Beast Power in Europe finally coalesces, as the King of the South arises—and as our own nations, sadly, continue to come apart because of our sins—you and I need to be awed and thrilled to be part of the only solution that will ultimately come about. For Christ really is coming soon. As you watch world events unfold before your eyes, this should become increasingly clear. It should also be evident that if we genuinely believe in God and His word, we should do all we can to "lay up treasure" in heaven, by fervently doing our part in the Work the Father is doing to prepare the way for His Son's return to this earth. So, let each of us give our lives as "living sacrifices" in Christ's service, and recognize that we are, in fact, part of the final "crusade" to prepare the way for the ultimate solution to mankind's problems.
With Christian love,
