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WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
WORLD HEADQUARTERS
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91123
HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
President and Pastor
August 19, 1976
Dear Brethren and Co-Workers with CHRIST,
Many times I have said, "Keep your eye on JERUSALEM AND THE
MIDDLE EAST." From now on that will be the focal point of WORLD
HAPPENINGS.
This is the END-TIME! Never in the history of mankind have
world conditions been so VIOLENT--never so much TROUBLE--never
before so many NATIONS and their GOVERNMENTS toppling and being
overthrown so often--now one a month on the average. NEVER such
VIOLENCE by man. Never such VIOLENCE in NATURE--such massive and
violent EARTHQUAKES--tidal waves--FLOODS.
Following the recent tremendous earthquakes in China, this
morning's newspaper headline, front page, "PHILIPPINES QUAKE TOLL
CLIMBS TO 5,300: 30,000 HOMELESS."
Yet from now on the very CENTER of world happenings will zero
in on JERUSALEM and the Middle East.
I have just spent another four days and five nights in
Jerusalem.
Jerusalem!--the CITY GOD CHOSE over all places on earth. The
city from which for a span of time God has HIDDEN HIS FACE (Jer.
33:5)--yet the city God SHALL YET CHOOSE AS HIS CITY (Zech. 1:17).
The city soon to BECOME THE CAPITAL OF THE WHOLE WORLD--WHEN,
finally, we shall have WORLD PEACE!
Jerusalem is a city IMPORTANT TO GOD--it ought to be important
to us! So I want to tell you about my most recent visit there. It
is a city I have visited many, many times.
My first visit to Jerusalem was a mere short stop at Jerusalem
airport (not now in regular use) in 1956--20 years ago--en route
from Cairo to Baghdad. Just setting foot on the ground of its
airport for the first time was a thrill. It gave me sort of a sense
of awe. With my wife and elder son, Dick, we stopped again at
Jerusalem on the return--first visiting the "old city" then in Arab
hands--then walking, luggage in hand, through the "Mandelbaum Gate"
(no man's land) into the newer Israeli Jerusalem.
Back in 1969 and 1970, when our joint participation with the
Hebrew University in the huge archaeological excavation at the east
wall of the temple mount was getting well under way, General Yigal
Yadin, organizer of the Israeli army and Chief of Staff from 1948,
referred to my arrivals there as "monthly visits." In many ways
I have had a deep personal interest in Jerusalem since December