Dear Brethren and Friends, As I write this, my wife and I have just returned from two trips—our European trip and then, a few days later, a trip to Vancouver, British Columbia. Both trips went very well and we were very warmly received by God’s people. It was a real joy to visit with Mr. and Mrs. Norm Aitchison and stay with them in their home in Vancouver on this latest trip. They are doing a very fine job serving God’s people in the Vancouver area.
I have already commented elsewhere on the European trip, so I will not go into the particulars of it at this time. But being in Britain and Europe again impressed upon me, more than ever, that VERY FEW human beings alive today have ever heard the Truth of God.
While Sheryl and I were surrounded by approximately 250,000 people in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, I remarked to her that, in this vast sea of faces, we were probably the ONLY ones with any real knowledge of God or of His true PLAN for humanity. Even in our so-called “sophisticated” age, people were virtually worshipping the little old man up there on the stage.
How will God really reach the more than ONE BILLION people in what is called the Great Mother Church?
How?
How will the Creator’s Message be proclaimed to the additional hundreds of millions of Protestants, and to the hundreds of millions of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and others? At the rate all of the Church of God fellowships are growing, we will not even begin to make a dent in the understanding of the BILLIONS of human beings out there who have NEVER heard the real Truth of God!
So what is the ANSWER? As God gives me understanding, I feel more deeply every month that God Himself will have to intervene—to SHAKE the nations, to bring about severe drought and famine, then disease epidemics and scattered earthquakes, as the world experiences other plagues and terrorist activities. Then—and probably only then—people as a whole may be willing to at least “listen” to the idea of a REAL God—a personal God of POWER who intervenes directly in human affairs.
As you know, the above catastrophes are prophesied in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21. So we are not talking about anything “strange,” but about the REALITY of what will happen over the next decade or two.
A number of these prophesied events already appear to be shaping up. Our minister in Kenya, Ernest Owino, recently reported:
This is just to update you on the situation in the country which has now become so severe that 23 million Kenyans are starving and, as the president yesterday observed, “require immediate life-saving support of food, water and medical services.” On top of this severe drought and famine which has hit the country, thousands of employees are now being laid off due to severe power rationing; totaling only 6–8 hours in a 24-hour period. We are now going for 18 hours without electricity supply and the concerned experts warn that “the schedule will be very disruptive,” but adds that “there was no option because power is not there anyway.” The Federation of Kenya Employers Deputy Chief Executive said on Tuesday that “the staggered power rationing will be severe for both industry and domestic consumers.” And the Kenya Power and Lighting Co. Ltd., while delivering a new program for permanent power interruption said this: “Following persistent drought in the country and failure of the long rains in 2000, it has become necessary to further reduce hydro-power generation at KenGen’s dams in order to conserve available water to take the country until October/November when the short rains are expected. As a result, KPLC will experience a further shortfall of 396 MW during the day and 171 MW at night....” This applies to both industrial and domestic consumers. As a result, production has been stagnated and the cost of goods and services have already skyrocketed! It is becoming more difficult to meet these costs. But we have Christ’s very words to this effect: “And if those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved (alive)....” Both Revelation 11:15 and chapter 19 have been sources of encouragement of late. The President added yesterday “Kenya is facing its worst ever crisis.” He appeals aid, etc. Please pray with us in these traumatic conditions.
Many of us have already been reading for weeks about the millions of people starving in Eritrea and Ethiopia—due partly to the terrible war raging there. While my wife and I were in London, we encountered a major thoroughfare blocked by several dozen Eritreans putting on a “demonstration” to cry out for the world’s attention and intervention to stop their people back home from being slaughtered.
Meanwhile, United Press International issued this report on June 11:
One of the worst droughts on record continued in the South on Sunday, threatening wildlife and agriculture with no relief in sight. The National Weather Service said this could be the driest 6-month period in southern Alabama in more than a century unless rainfall comes soon. Only 8 and one-half inches of rain has fallen in the area this year. Rainfall is 14 to 18 inches below normal in Alabama, where corn has grown only waist high and some cattle are being sent to slaughter because farmers do not have enough hay or water to give them.
“Several streams in South Georgia, which normally have a trickle of water even during a drought, are now completely dry,” stated Mike Gennys of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. In Tallahassee, Fla., hundreds of turtles have died crossing U.S. Highway 27 as they fled 4,000-acre Lake Jackson, which has dried up because of sinkholes and the drought. Alabama Gov. Dan Siegelman has asked for a federal disaster declaration that would provide low-income loans and emergency assistance for some farmers. “Even a tropical storm, which could cause major flooding anywhere in the state, probably would not bring us out of the drought,” said David Stooksbury, state climatologist and professor of engineering at the University of Georgia.
Reports of spreading drought and upset weather are coming in from all over the world. This will cause lasting damage to crops and will spawn WILD FIRES and terrible destruction.
Rather than quote from reports of upset weather all over, let us zero in on one report that helps us understand one of its major CAUSES. Cable News Network reported on June 12:
Global warming will produce widespread changes in the U.S. climate in future decades, a government report released Monday predicts. DROUGHT-LIKE CONDITIONS WILL HIT EVERY REGION OF THE COUNTRY, SEA LEVELS WILL RISE AND URBAN POPULATIONS MAY REEL UNDER SEARING TEMPERATURES. [Report: Climate Change Impacts On The United States]
As all of the above weather conditions continue to intensify, people may be more willing to consider the title of our new booklet, Who Controls the Weather? Remember, brethren, just because the meteorologists and other scientists explain the possible physical causes of these storms and other conditions, that does not in ANY way mean that these carnal men understand the REAL cause of what will soon happen on the world scene! For it is the CREATOR—not puny men—who ultimately orchestrates or at least allows such things as “global warming” and “tectonic shifts” beneath the earth’s surface, which bring about earthquakes and the other physical manifestations of HIS intervention in the weather and natural affairs.
As God’s people, we must NEVER forget that! We humans and physical circumstances have a part, but GOD is in charge over all.
Will these weather upsets, earthquakes and disease epidemics help men everywhere “wake up” and turn to the true GOD? Indeed, these events may help shake people out of their “comfort zones” and get them to thinking. But, without God’s further intervention, it will only cause many to become more conscientious in their current religious practice—Hindu, Catholic or whatever.
For God intervening in the weather and in the “around” will NOT—by itself—make most people aware of where they should turn and what they should do. That knowledge will have to come through the powerful preaching of God’s Word—backed up by the “accompanying signs” (Mark 16:20).
Brethren, with the confusion caused by so many religions and ideologies in the world—and now by the divisions and confusion even among the Church of God fellowships—most people are simply not sure where to go, who to join or what to do. Knowing that Jesus Christ is “the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), how will the Living Jesus Christ solve this problem? We remember that in the Old Testament people heeded Elijah when they saw the “signs” that he performed. After Elijah had healed her son and brought him back to life, the widow of Zarephath declared: “Now by this I KNOW that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is the truth” (1 Kings 17:24). Then after Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal by bringing down fire from heaven, remember what happened? “Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, ‘The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!’” (1 Kings 18:39).
In the New Testament, the Apostle John was inspired to tell us one reason why Jesus Christ performed so many miracles: “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may BELIEVE that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:30–31).
The book of Acts confirms this same principle as in the instance of Philip preaching to the Samaritans: “Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did” (Acts 8:5–6). And in the very next chapter of Acts, we read of people being “turned to the Lord” because of a healing performed through the Apostle Peter, who had come to Lydda. “There he found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years and was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, ‘Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed.’ Then he arose immediately. So all who dwelt at Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord” (Acts 9:33–35).
So I simply want you to realize, brethren, that we are now in what I feel is a “transition period” between the Work Christ performed through Herbert Armstrong and the final powerful Work through His Church before the end. We do have many blessings. And we have had a number of miracles and divine healings in the Church. But, generally, they are “few and far between.” At this point, God is “testing” ALL of us in every Church of God fellowship. How close to the real Jesus Christ are we striving to be? How much “fire” is in our belly to serve and to sacrifice in order to reach others with the Truth of God? Are we really willing to submit to God’s kind of government—the kind that is clearly described over and over in the Bible? Or do we have marvelous “excuses” as to why we should not practice correct government, why we “shouldn’t” or “can’t” do a real Work of preaching the Gospel to the world, why we need to “water down” many of the basic teachings and approaches God taught the Church for decades through His servant Herbert W. Armstrong. God is allowing a few years of this transition in order to “watch” us. He is taking time to “test” (see James 1:2; 1 Peter 1:6–7) our deep-down attitudes to see what we will do even before He intervenes in human affairs and before He pours out the “gifts” of the Spirit in POWER upon His servants.
Meanwhile, we had all better see how close we can get to Jesus Christ and to His true ways as revealed in Scripture. We had better let God know by our actions that we deeply desire to share His precious Truth with others all over this earth. And we must NOT get discouraged or ever turn aside from God even without immediate dramatic miracles and healings. We need to remember that Jesus Christ said: “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matthew 11:11). Yet God’s Word also tells us: “Then many came to Him and said, ‘John performed NO SIGN, but all the things that John spoke about this Man were true’” (John 10:41). So it was clearly not God’s will for John to perform miracles or healings. Yet no prophet was reckoned as greater than John the Baptist!
It is clearly not “God’s time” for dramatic healings and miracles—YET. But the examples and parallels in the Bible indicate that this time should not be far off. So we need to be READY. We need, together, to beseech God to build within us a genuine atmosphere of FAITH. We need to CRY OUT for God’s intervention in world affairs and for the POWER of His Spirit to be manifested soon in many healings and miracles.
Jesus Christ tells us: “And shall God not avenge His own elect who CRY OUT day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?” (Luke 18:7). Let us all sincerely and fervently lift our hands to God in prayer and ask for His powerful intervention. He wants us to get involved. John was inspired to quote Jesus Christ’s words in Revelation: “Surely I am coming quickly.” But, in his own words, John was inspired to add: “Amen. Even so, COME Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).
