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Herbert W. Armstrong Post Office Box 431, Tucson, Arizona 85702
Pasadena, Calif.
April 6, 1981
Dear Brethren:
The largest convention, festival or assembly held on earth this year will
be
the Worldwide Church of God Feast of Tabernacles this coming Oct. 13 to 20.
In this world of gloom, unhappiness, suffering, frustration and despair,
there will be 84 Feast sites worldwide where spontaneous HAPPINESS, JOY, good
fellowship with brethren and with God and with Christ will fill thankful and
grateful hearts!
We live in a discouraged, sorrowful world full of evils. Oh sure, people
seek entertainment, excitement--they even seem to enjoy VIOLENCE as long as
they are watching and not being hurt by it.
A few days or nights ago I was watching what appeared to be a national
championship girls' basketball game between two universities. They played like
men. They were "up" for it, excited--BUT WITH SAD AND UNHAPPY
EXPRESSIONS ON THEIR FACES. At the end the victors hugged and jumped up
and down--but the defeated wept and cried. It was the ecstasy of winning for one
group, but they enjoyed that empty ecstasy at the cost of AGONY suffered by the
girls who LOST!
But at God's Festival NO ONE WILL LOSE. None will be suffering the
AGONY of defeat. But all whose hearts and minds are right with God will be
spiritually refreshed, uplifted, inspired, filled with joyous anticipation,
enjoying a
real FEAST on the SPIRITUAL WORD OF GOD!
Think how important this Festival is! After the return of King of kings
Jesus
Christ, "It shall come to pass, that every one...shall even go up from year to
year
to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles"
(Zechariah 14:16). And there shall be plagues and severe punishments on nations
that neglect or refuse to attend! People will be compelled to be happy! Of
course,
that is speaking of mortal people then left alive--not of Christ's saints who
then
will be immortal and in the very Family of God.
But you and I are, now, still mortal--and the above scripture shows us
how
very serious in God's eyes it is that we attend this wonderful Feast this year.
For
we may be attending it as immortal-born children of God before this present
decade is out! That certainly is a likely possibility.
We have undoubtedly entered the most explosive decade in the history of
man. But it is possible that God will cut short the days of great tribulation
ahead
and bring us into the wonderful and glorious Kingdom of God before this decade