OUR Co-Workers' BULLETIN =================================================================== VOL. V Number 1 January 19, 1944 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Published every little while by your radio-pastor editor, Herbert W. Armstrong, Box 111, Eugene, Ore., to bring spiritual edification and encouragement to our little family of Co-workers who make possible the RADIO CHURCH OF GOD and The PLAIN TRUTH. -------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT'S G O I N G TO HAPPEN IN 1 9 4 4 ? Where do we stand in this war, and what will happen this year? President Roosevelt says military victory is now CERTAIN. General Eisenhower has made the flat statement that we will win in Europe this year. Victory, our people seem now to believe, is "just around the corner"--the Germans are almost crushed and about ready to surrender. And consequently most people, I'm afraid, are assuming this will be a soft, easy, rosy year--a victorious year, in which we shall win, our boys shall come home, we shall enter into a beautiful and harmonious peace relationship with Russia as well as the other "United Nations," and we may begin to indulge in the expected post-war luxurious living. It's a blissful dream--but it's only a DREAM! And it's time we woke up, and come to a knowledge of the true facts as they exist! The stern FACTS are that regardless of whether the war ends this year or not, in all likelihood this year will go down in history as "the YEAR OF THE GREAT SLAUGHTER!" The President, while predicting certain victory, has tried to prepare the public for what he knows now lies immediately ahead. In an effort to shake the American public out of its sublime complacency and jar it to its heels, to prepare it and brace it for the coming shock, a statement was issued the other day in Washington that American casualties during the next eight to ten weeks probably will be three or four TIMES as heavy as our total war casualties during the past two years, since "Pearl Harbor." So far our casualties have been comparatively light. But the next two or three months will see this war brought home to all of us. Last Fall I foresaw a possibility of this war being brought to an armistice (temporary recess) in Europe, by conferences behind closed doors. I foresaw the possibility that the "trial balloon" thrown up in Italy, in which the Italians received not only a separate peace but actually a "co-belligerent status" with the allies, might be tried out in Germany. The idea was that the German army generals would do away with Hitler, disown the Nazi party, withdraw entirely out of Russia, and seek to make peace, first with Russia, and then, on the strength of that come to terms with the Allies on a basis that would permit the Germans to RETAIN a considerable amount of the conquered territory in Western Europe. THAT POSSIBILITY IS STILL VERY MUCH ALIVE! It might still be pulled any time between now and Spring. The Russians are already past the original Polish border in one sector. The Russians have made public what they WANT in Poland. It is known the Russians do not want a completely conquered, de-militarized, occupied Germany. They want a de-Nazified Germany, but a strong independent Germany. In a word, they want a Germany friendly enough to permit their propagandists to go to work inside Germany. The Communists had almost swung into power in Germany when Hitler suddenly and dramatically beat them to it and swept into absolute power in 1933. Goebbels's propaganda machine, backed up by the Gestapo, stamped out Communism and swung the German thinking to the opposite extreme of Fascism. The Russians do not want to invade, conquer, and attempt to rule Germany by brute force. They know too well of the secret underground movements in every country Hitler has conquered and tried to rule by force. The Communist method is to conquer a country's MIND before it tries to conquer its body. The Russians probably could keep marching right on into Berlin--but they won't. They don't even want to occupy Germany with their soldiers in the peace. They want merely to throw Hitler out. They know the tendency of masses to swing from one extreme to the other. They count on a re-action after the war. Nazism stands at the extreme so-called RIGHT, while Communism goes to the opposite EXTREME-- extreme leftist as it is called. Now they count on turning the German people against Hitler and Nazism, swinging them to the opposite extreme or Communism. The Russians ARE out to communize all Europe--and the world! Make no mistake about that! And so, if the German generals should throw out Hitler, give the Russians everything they want on the East, WHAT WOULD THERE BE LEFT FOR RUSSIA TO FIGHT FOR? Russia certainly will not go on fighting OUR battles--fighting for a war objective to which Russia is opposed. And, incidentally, IF one party to an agreement wishes to break that agreement, he usually starts out by accusing his partner of something that will JUSTIFY him in breaking it, hurling the blame on the other party. And as this is written the Russians, thru their largest, and official government-controlled newspaper "Pravda", are accusing the British of talking peace with the Germans. That gives the Russians the justification for making a separate peace with Germany, IF SHE WISHES! It might happen BEFORE we launch the much-advertised second front. It might happen AFTER. If it happened before we invade Europe across the English Channel, then we would not be able to launch the invasion--not until we could send to England an army of five to seven MILLION men for the task--and that would require perhaps three times our present number of ships, and twice our present Navy! What would be our chances, THEN, of winning the war against Germany? Would we not be forced into seeking the best armistice terms we could get? And perhaps, with close to five million German soldiers released from the Russian front, the Germans might not then WANT to stop the war! It might happen AFTER we have launched the promised invasion of Europe, suddenly releasing these four to five million Nazi soldiers to be rushed across Europe to the new Western Front. And that, very possibly, might result in utter military defeat for us! Is it not true, then, that if we launch this vast-scale invasion of Hitler's Europe at all, that we are doing it in FULL TRUST that Russia will not stop fighting, even after she has reached the German borders and accomplished all she wants to accomplish in the war? Are we not TRUSTING the Russians to keep most of three 300 German divisions occupied on the Eastern front? Are we not forced to put our faith in Russia,--and in Russia doing that which may be against her proclaimed objectives and interests? And then there's a third possibility. The Germans may actually have this secret weapon that they claim--one that, at the last desperate moment, will turn the entire tide of war back in Germany's favor. This idea is not being scoffed in higher miliary circles. It is at least a definite possibility. And in that case, the Germans probably would not consider throwing out Hitler at all. In event of ANY of these possibilities, the outlook is NOT SO BRIGHT AND ROSY for us, this year! And the most likely possibility of all is that this will go down in history as the YEAR OF THE GREAT SLAUGHTER! No MAN can look into the future and know what lies ahead. The outcome of wars often turn suddenly, unexpectedly, on a hair. Some unexpected, odd, strange apparent coincidence often alters the entire course of a war overnight, the apparent victor becomes the vanquished. General Eisenhower does not KNOW that we shall conquer the Germans this particular year. NONE BUT ALMIGHTY GOD KNOWS WHAT SHALL HAPPEN! "Armies do not bring victory to a king," says the Eternal God (Psalm 33:16, Moffatt translation). No the Eternal God Himself brings to NOTHING what the nations plan-- and it is HE and He alone who determines the final outcome of wars! What is prophesied for NOW? An easy, victory-laden year? A Utopian PEACE to follow? "ALL THESE," said Jesus Christ who KNEW the future, speaking of this very world war--of the famine and disease now following its wake--of the EARTHQUAKES now occurring such as the one just last Sunday in South America--"All these are the BEGINNING OF SORROWS!" Just the BEGINNING! Nowhere does the Biblical prophecy hold out any hope of brighter times immediately ahead. JUST THE OPPOSITE! More chaos, strife, bloodshed, and DEATH! More disease, starvation! Man is reaping what he has insisted on sowing in direct REBELLION against Almighty God. God has permitted us to live as we have pleased. We have sown the seeds of malice, jealousy, resentment, hatred--we have lived selfishly. Now we are reaping the HARVEST! And God will let this world go on reaping it a little longer, to the end that this world SHALL LEARN ITS LESSON! Yes, learn it well enough that we shall turn to God and to His ways--and then, with Christ once more on earth, this time as the KING of kings, ruling the entire world, we shall at last have--PEACE! In the meantime, it is OUR responsibility to WARN the people of these things--to show our people that the one way to victory and to peace is thru our GOD--thru repentance, returning to God's laws, placing our faith and trust in HIM! Meanwhile, it is our responsibility to proclaim to our people and to the world the GOOD NEWS of the coming KINGDOM OF GOD, wherein we SHALL have peace and prosperity! In other words, to proclaim the true GOSPEL of JESUS CHRIST, and the way of salvation, that we may ENTER into that KINGDOM of peace! The CALL to ARMS ! I want you to notice one prophecy for THIS VERY HOUR! It is Joel 2:1; 15-17: "Blow ye the trumpet in ZION, and sound the alarm in My HOLY MOUNTAIN." A trumpet is a WARNING--an alarm of war. Where are we to sound it? "In ZION"--in God's holy mountain. That is, the true CHURCH--among GOD'S PEOPLE--the HOLY people-- those who are God's own true children. We are, therefore, CALLED TO ARMS! True Christians are CALLED TO ARMS! We are to sound a WARNING. What is it? "Let all the inhabitants of the land TREMBLE: for the DAY OF THE LORD COMETH." The warning of the trouble to come--the DAY OF THE LORD--the time of God's plagues, now soon to follow. We, the Christians, are to warn "ALL THE INHABITANTS OF THE LAND." Read also verses 15:17. We are to take this call to arms so seriously we FAST and PRAY! The nations of this world are at war. We, as Christians, are "ambassadors for Christ." We have answered God's battle cry! We, too, have been called to WAR! What's OUR mission? Shouting God's WARNING--proclaiming His MESSAGE--preaching the GOSPEL! We fight with a SWORD--the symbolical sword of the SPIRIT, which is THE WORD OF GOD. The sword issues from our MOUTHS--by proclaiming fearlessly and forcefully GOD'S WARNING! Yes, we're soldiers for CHRIST! And THIS IS WAR! It requires of us sacrifices, courage, perhaps suffering. Shall we be any less good soldiers than those fighting for doomed MATERIAL kingdoms, and godless satanic human leaders like Hitler and Hiro-Hito? They fight like inspired fiends. They offer their very LIVES--they give up EVERYTHING. The Eternal God has placed in OUR hands, thru the WORLD TOMORROW program over nine powerful radio stations, and thru The PLAIN TRUTH, powerful facilities for fighting His battle--for using His sword, which is sending forth the WORD OF GOD! Precious souls are being converted all over the United States! Many are being awakened! Letters keep pouring in by the hundreds testifying to this! Already between a half and three quarters of a million souls are reached by the broadcasts EVERY SUNDAY. The present circulation of The PLAIN TRUTH is 35,000 copies, and this is going up rapidly. Within three to four months we must add more powerful radio stations to reach still other hundreds of thousands of people with the vital message of the hour. It is IMPERATIVE that I get out another issue of The PLAIN TRUTH immediately--so it can be in the mails in less than four weeks! Between a third and a half of it is already set to type. Most of the remainder of this issue is already written. I believe you'll find it the MOST INTERESTING issue yet! But, in addition to our weekly expense now running into hundreds of dollars, we must have ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS additional before this next PLAIN TRUTH can be printed and mailed. I must order the paper AT ONCE, cash in advance--and I do not have the cash on hand! We have 10,000 empty envelopes addressed to ten thousand people who have asked for the booklet "United States in Prophecy." It will take $500 to print this edition to fill those envelopes and other requests still to come. GOD'S WORK IS WAITING ON OUR CO-WORKERS! We are storing up treasure in heaven, when we put our tithes and free-will offerings cheerfully into this glorious work of the Eternal. The need is great--it is URGENT. Let us keep up the good fight! We're in this war, too! This is GOD'S "loan drive." You'll be paid back with overwhelming interest--Christ will bring your reward with Him when He comes--SOON! KEEP PRAYING! Stand by me! And GOD BLESS YOU! In Jesus' name. HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG