Dear Brethren and Co-Workers with Christ,
Greetings from Charlotte, NC! I am writing this letter to you on December 8—the day after "Pearl Harbor Day." Sixty-four years ago today, I heard over the radio President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s powerful speech telling about the dastardly Japanese attack on our nation and asking the United States Congress to declare war. After his account of the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt continued:
"Yesterday the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaysia.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.
Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.
Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island.
And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island."
However, before concluding his address, the President told our Congress and our nation: "With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph. So help us God."
Today, 64 years later, America is once again in dire straits. This time—except for a few of our English-speaking allies—it seems that almost the whole world is against us.
Our attempt to spread democracy through the Arab world is just not working. Rather, increasing hundreds of millions of Muslims and others regard America as "the enemy."
Our national debt is skyrocketing. In spite of repeated warnings from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and dozens of top economists, our Congress and our President keep spending money like drunken sailors. The "day of reckoning" is only a few years away!
The bipartisan commission assigned to make recommendations to improve our national security has given a failing grade to the slow and ineffective response from the Congress and the President to their recommendations.
Many, many other facets of our national malaise could be cited. But most important of all is the vital fact that the moral fiber of our people is being destroyed by the consistent efforts of the Great Deceiver, Satan the Devil. Throughout most of the English-speaking world, the increase in venereal diseases, in couples living together in fornication, in the persistent push for so-called "homosexual marriage" or its equivalent, in lies, crimes and unethical conduct at the highest level, in teenage drug use and alcoholism—all these problems and many more are pervasive and many are becoming more severe almost every year.
No wonder Jesus Christ tells us to constantly pray, "Thy Kingdom come!" That coming reality is indeed our hope and our prayer. And it is important for all of us involved in this Work of the living God to realize that—in spite of all the above problems—in the end we win! So as Jesus said, after reciting a number of the end-time prophetic events, "Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near" (Luke 21:28). Indeed, brethren and co-workers, we in this Work have every reason to "lift up our heads," and be thankful to God and to the living Jesus Christ for all the things that He is allowing us to accomplish in preparation for His coming Kingdom!
For we really are involved in the very "Work of God"—specifically being used by God to warn our English-speaking nations, and increasingly all the world, of what lies ahead and of the supreme purpose for which God has placed all of us here on this earth. What a privilege! What an opportunity!
Although many encouraging statistics could be given, I have just asked for an "overview" report of our media growth during this past year. This is the report from our Media Coordinator, Mr. Wayne Pyle:
"This has been a most exciting year for Tomorrow’s World audience growth in North America.
According to the latest information we have seen from Nielsen Media Research, the organization famous for TV ratings, the weekly Tomorrow’s World viewing audience has experienced a 25-percent jump over last year’s group of viewers. We began the year with a total of 6.2 million TV households having viewed the telecast over the previous six years, and so far this year the viewership has zoomed to over 7.8 million households, which is 25 percent above a year ago.
The increase was greatly helped by the addition of 29 TV stations across America, with the Inspiration Network being a major contributor. These stations connected the Tomorrow’s World telecast to 38 million homes.
While only a fraction of American and Canadian viewers watch the telecast each week, our average weekly viewing audience has been growing steadily. The telecast has now been actually watched by more than six percent of all American and Canadian TV households, or about one out of every 16 households in America and Canada have viewed the Tomorrow’s World program at least one time over the past seven years. As many as 400,000 TV households are viewing the telecast each week. We are very grateful for the marvelous doors Jesus Christ has opened to do His Work!"
Thank God for the opportunity to reach nearly eight million households here in the United States and Canada! This means—considering the fact that about 2.5 people are in each household—that about twenty million people have viewed our telecast at some time over the past few years! In addition, we are reaching people by television, radio, our publications and the Internet in other nations all over the world. The growth of our impact in Britain, Europe, the Middle East and parts of North Africa has been wonderful because of our program on the Inspiration Network. We are now on a whole network reaching across the entire continent of Australia—with increasing millions viewing the program in that part of the world and in New Zealand.
So each of you, personally, are having part in the Work Jesus Christ is doing now to prepare for His coming Kingdom. Additionally, if you are truly "listening" and "growing in grace and in knowledge," we in this Work are helping you understand the real purpose for your existence. You are beginning to realize more with each passing month that you are being trained as "kings and priests" to help assist Jesus Christ in ruling this earth in a very few years. In his inspired writing, the Apostle John sends us grace and peace from Jesus Christ, "the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen" (Rev. 1:5-6).
God tells us in Romans 4:17 that He "calls those things which do not exist as though they did." So, the Apostle John could correctly write that God has "made us" kings and priests in His coming Kingdom! For, through His spirit, He has supernaturally opened the minds and hearts of thousands of you and "called" you to understanding and to become His full sons to assist His firstborn Son, Jesus Christ, in ruling this earth and in straightening out the world’s problems in the coming Kingdom of God.
Again, God tells us, "And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’—as I also have received from My Father" (Rev. 2:26-27).
Dear friends and brethren, within a comparatively few years—if we do our parts—we may each look back and say with deep gratitude, "Thank God that I was able to see the Big Picture of the events working out in the previous world, before Jesus returned. Thank God that I was able to have part in the vital Work of preparing for the Kingdom of God. Thank God that I was willing to come out of this world and be ‘different.’ Thank God for giving me the courage to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness. Thank God that I now have the opportunity—as a member of Christ’s Kingdom—to help truly straighten out the mess here on this earth, to feed the hungry, comfort the afflicted, bring about clean and right government all over the world and give people a genuine sense of peace and joy far beyond what they have ever experienced."
Brethren, as the year 2005 draws to a close, I sincerely want to also thank you for your help and participation in the Work of the living God. Tremendous growth and increased power are going to be granted us in finishing this Work as we continue to walk with God and do His Work with all our hearts. So thank you for your help, your prayers and your encouragement. Let us, even now, look with joy toward the tremendous future ahead of us and realize fully that we can, with faith and joy, recite in a spiritual sense those concluding words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, "We shall gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God!"
With Christian love,
—Roderick C. Meredith
P.S. Please remember that any December contributions that are postmarked with a December date will be counted as year 2005 donations, even if we receive them in January 2006, and may be tax-deductible in 2005. So be sure any December donation is postmarked no later than December 31.