Letter
March 18, 2016

March 18th, 2016

Richard F. Ames (1936-2024)

Dear Brethren and Co-Workers with Christ,

Thank you very much for your continuing support and prayers for Tomorrow’s World and our efforts to preach the true gospel to the world. I appreciated meeting a number of you who attended our Atlanta, Georgia presentation, “Wake Up, America!” on March 5. Regional Pastor Dan Hall and I addressed a group of enthusiastic Tomorrow’s World subscribers and Living Church of God members. Many expressed their agreement with my attack on the sins of America, which included:

  • Greed, corruption and government mismanagement in overspending funds, while entrenching ourselves internationally as the world’s greatest debtor nation.
  • Continuing moral decline, including same-sex marriage and practices God calls an “abomination” (Leviticus 18:22).
  • The sin of abortion. Americans have purposely murdered more than 50 million babies in the womb (according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute).
  • Following false religions and counterfeit Christianity.

These sins and many more are not just practiced in the United States. We have been warning all our Western nations—and countries all around the world—that God will judge them for their lawlessness and evils (Joel 3:12-13).

By the time you receive this letter, hundreds of millions of professing Christians will have celebrated one such evil—a pagan Easter Sunday—on March 27. Millions of Eastern Orthodox will observe Easter a month later, on May 1. I hope you have seen Mr. Gerald Weston’s powerful Tomorrow’s World telecast, “Easter: The Untold Story.” Why do nearly all of our world’s 2.2 billion professing Christians participate in a non-biblical religious tradition named after a pagan fertility goddess? As I told our Atlanta audience, if any of you are observing that festival, you need to repent!

As Mr. Weston emphasized in his telecast, the truth of the matter is clear. Either the traditional timetable of Friday crucifixion and Sunday morning resurrection is in error, or Jesus of Nazareth did not fulfill the only sign He gave to prove His Messiahship! Jesus Himself plainly stated: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:39-40).

Jesus Christ meant what He said, and we rejoice in the truth of His resurrection from the tomb exactly 72 hours after He was interred, just as He said. You can read the full explanation in our new booklet, Easter: The Untold Story, which will be mailed automatically in the next few weeks to all our co-workers and members around the world. Be sure to study it thoroughly and check the scriptural references in your Bible! Billions of professing Christians need to repent of their denial of the only sign Jesus gave to prove that He is the Son of God, the Savior of the World, and the prophesied Messiah!

Jesus and His Apostles set for us the example of observing the New Testament Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread (Matthew 26:26-30; 1 Corinthians 5:7-8; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). Annually, they commemorated Jesus’ death, mindful of the reminder to “keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:8). They never observed Easter, nor a so-called “Resurrection Sunday”—because Jesus was already risen from the grave before Sunday morning, as our booklet makes clear.

Proclaiming this truth may make us unpopular to some who treasure their false traditions. But we have a higher calling from our Savior Himself. Jesus stated: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). We in the Living Church of God are deeply dedicated to fulfilling that mission. And we are very thankful for the “open doors” Jesus Christ has given us to preach the gospel through various end-time media (Revelation 3:8). We receive encouraging comments from all over the world from people who are receiving that witness. I hope this letter from a woman in Summerfield, Florida, will give you an inspiring perspective on how God is working in the minds of those who for the first time hear the gospel, “the good news,” of the coming Kingdom of God:

“I have to stop between my Bible Study Course to say thank you for the free course and all the free literature. If I didn’t receive it, I sure would be in the dark. I did not know we had a kingdom to look forward to. I listen to Mr. Meredith. He explains very well how the evil ones attack us, and I’m also learning about the feast days which I knew nothing about. Now I’m learning the truth. It’s like seeing the scriptures for the first time since I’ve become acquainted with Tomorrow’s World. Thank you again for the time and literature for reaching people like me. This Tomorrow’s World is a true gift from our Savior Jesus Christ.”

What a joy it is to see spiritual fruit sprouting from this Work! People are “waking up!” Indeed, in the United States this year, the theme of our Tomorrow’s World Presentations is: “Wake Up, America!” Many of our ministers are very busy presenting campaigns across the nation and across the globe. In just the first three weeks of March, in addition to Atlanta, we will have had campaigns in cities including:

  • Fresno, California
  • Greenville, North Carolina
  • Hook, United Kingdom
  • London, Ontario
  • London, United Kingdom
  • Manchester, United Kingdom
  • Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
  • Pontefract, United Kingdom
  • Lusaka, Zambia
  • Harare, Zimbabwe

Earlier in the year, Mr. Rick Stafford and Dr. Wilner Pierre gave a presentation in St. Maarten, in the Caribbean; Evangelist Gerald Weston and Mr. Henry Cooper gave presentations in Dublin, Ireland and Lisburn (near Belfast) Northern Ireland. Be sure to visit the TomorrowsWorld.org Web site to learn about any scheduled presentations in your area!

Also, while you are visiting the TomorrowsWorld.org Web site, you can take advantage of our exciting new initiative offering e-mail delivery of the Tomorrow’s World magazine in digital format. I encourage you to go to TomorrowsWorld.org/digital and subscribe to the digital edition of Tomorrow’s World—it will only take you a few minutes to subscribe. Of course, many of you will prefer the printed magazine, which continues to reach more than a half-million addresses! Remember, you can subscribe to the digital edition, the print edition—or to both! And don’t forget to watch us on “Internet Television” if you have Roku, Amazon Fire or AppleTV. We are happy to be able to announce that we have begun to advertise the telecast worldwide on Roku, where the Tomorrow’s World channel is consistently in the top 10 percent of more than 800 religious programs! It is exciting to see the Truth being spread in new media—you might be surprised that in recent months, about 53 percent of traffic on TomorrowsWorld.org has come from mobile and tablet devices!

Some of you with a special interest in particular Church initiatives have asked about various funds to which you can make direct contributions in addition to regular tithes and offerings. In a previous co-worker letter, I mentioned the Media fund that allowed us to go on new television stations. Another fund supports our Living Youth Programs, providing for our pre-teen, teenage and summer adventure youth camps and programs. Others have contributed to our Disaster Relief Fund, which has helped earthquake and storm victims in the Philippines, Haiti, Papua New Guinea, and other locations around the world. Many of you also contribute to Living University in providing scholarships and other support to students around the world. Thank you again for your enthusiastic support for God’s Work.

We are living in the “time of the end” (mentioned five times by the prophet Daniel). We must all work while it is day, as “the night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4). For then a time is soon coming when peace will descend on the earth as never before, as Christ returns as King to establish the Kingdom of God. Until then, we are called to be pioneers of His Way, supporting the proclamation of His Message and living in obedience to His loving rule over our lives, with the help of the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is the good news we proclaim to a sin-sick and dying world. Thank you so much, brethren and co-workers, for your faithful support and participation in that proclamation!

May God bless you all in your service and dedication to God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

In Christian love,

Richard F. Ames