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Herbert W. Armstrong Post Office Box 431, Tucson, Arizona 85702
Tucson, Arizona
December 19, 1980
Dear Brethren and Co-Workers with Christ:
Year One of the reborn era of God's Work starts in a few days--with the
beginning of
the year 1981. This great Work is now ready to TAKE OFF at an accelerated pace--
with
NEW LIFE!
That NEW LIFE is being imparted to this Church by the living Jesus Christ
who heads it!
Look at this era of the Church of God, and its growth up to now! Let me
condense it
in a few words.
The true Church of God had not been carrying Christ's Gospel to the world
since around
A.D. 70 (see Galatians 1:6-7). It still held to the NAME "Church of God," but
had become
spiritually dead--in the Sardis era (Revelation 3:1). God had called me, brought
me to
conversion and to BELIEVE HIM (that is, what He SAYS in His Word, the Bible) in
the spring
of 1927. I came among the Church people in Oregon, fellowshipped with them--but
never
joined with them.
Jesus Christ started me preaching in a 36-seat one-room country
schoolhouse near
Eugene, Oregon, in July, 1933. A new era--the "Philadelphia" era (Revelation
3:7)--of God's
Church was born after six weeks' six-nights-a-week meetings! The Church was
organized
in October, 1933. Nineteen members!
God had called me, prepared me and now used me to raise up this
Philadelphia era of
His Church. He then used me to direct and be the human dynamo driving its
growth. The
first Sunday in 1934 we started on the air--never to go off! February 1, 1934,
the first issue
of The PLAIN TRUTH was mailed out to some 350 new subscribers. The Church and
its Work
grew--and GREW--and GREW!
I held public services, inviting the people of local communities. The
radio broadcast
grew. The PLAIN TRUTH grew, and special booklets began to be printed more and
more.
I answered letters with questions from listeners and PLAIN TRUTH readers.