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Herbert W. Armstrong
Box 431
Tucson, Arizona 85701
January 18, 1979
Dear Brethren and Co-Workers with Christ:
This may be the most important letter I have ever written.
The very life of God's Church and His Work hangs in the balance.
This letter may have to be long. I want you to know all the facts
about this master-blow of Satan to DESTROY the CHURCH OF GOD
through the civil power of the State, in flagrant violation of the
Constitution of the United States!
I thought on January 7, when I wrote you, that God had then
given us the victory in this decisive LIFE-AND-DEATH assault
against Almighty God, Jesus Christ and God's Church. It was
reported to me then that the judge in the hearing of that day had
said he found NO EVIDENCE of any wrongdoing. And that was true --
and NO EVIDENCE of any wrongdoing or justification for this
monstrous outrage against God's Work has been found against us.
Nor will they find any in our records -- for few, if any,
corporations have kept as accurate and clean-cut records as God's
Church.
Yet this case hangs on, and the court-appointed receiver (a
cigarette-smoking ex-judge in our executive offices) is making
every effort to take over to himself the entire Church and all its
assets.
So far, it is precisely like the trial of Jesus, when He was
on trial for His life before Pontius Pilate. Pilate said, as has
the court in our case, "... I find in him no fault at all" (John
18:38). But Jesus' false accusers shouted, "Let His blood be on
us and on our children." Although it was in God's Master Plan
that Christ die for our sins, and Jesus had voluntarily come in
the human flesh for that purpose, A TREMENDOUS INJUSTICE WAS DONE
THROUGH THE COURTS AND JUDGES OF MEN.
I knew 52 years ago, that as they persecuted Jesus, so would
they me -- and His people -- if I surrendered and was baptized and
received the gift of His Spirit. I counted the cost. And now I
am paying it! -- AND UNJUSTLY!
Did you know that the only place in the Bible it speaks of a
human judge in the legal sense, it speaks of "THE UNJUST JUDGE"
(Luke 18:6)? We are now getting an abominable taste of it!
The ex-judge demanded another $100,000, which I am told is
for his personal use. He tells some of our people that seizing
our physical facilities is not interfering with our religious
beliefs or activities.
Let me illustrate to you brethren JUST HOW this great Work
of God started. To start the Work, I needed to broadcast over
radio. That required physical facilities for which I had to pay