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HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
P.O. BOX 431, TUCSON, ARIZONA 85702
Pasadena
December 20, 1982
Dear Brethren and Co-Workers with CHRIST:
Do you realize that with the ending of 1982 we are completing 50 YEARS in
the PHILADELPHIA era of the CHURCH OF GOD!
The first of those 50 years--1933--was the year of transition from the
Sardis era (Rev. 3:1-6) into the Philadelphia era (verses 7-13). In late
February of
that year I reentered the ministry, employed by the Oregon Conference of the
Church of God, Seventh Day, which was then separately incorporated. My salary
was $3 per week. During the spring of 1933 we carried on a six-nights-a-week
series of Bible meetings in Salem, Oregon.
In July two opportunities had opened up for public preaching services--
one
at a church seating some 300 in the town of Harrisburg, and the other in a
one-room country schoolhouse seating 36 people, 8 miles west of Eugene, Oregon.
It was in a sparsely settled rural community. Church officials decided I should
conduct services in the little schoolhouse, and Sven Oberg in the town church
building.
The Harrisburg meetings produced no results. The Firbutte country
schoolhouse averaged 40 in attendance per night for six weeks, and resulted in
nine members. In October of that year the Oregon Conference and our new
converts formed the new Church of God at the Jeans schoolhouse, 12 miles west of
Eugene. This was the transition from the Sardis into the Philadelphia era of the
CHURCH OF GOD founded A.D. 31 at Jerusalem, by Jesus Christ and the first
century apostles.
A "Three-Point Campaign" was agreed upon by the brethren of the Oregon
Conference and the new brethren at Jeans schoolhouse at that time, October,
1933. This campaign, as a Church of God activity, was to consist of a radio
broadcasting program, a publishing program, and personal evangelism combined
with the pastoring of local churches. All brethren, Oregon Conference included,
approved the campaign as the Church activity which continues to this day.
In early October I had been invited to broadcast on the regular weekday
morning devotional hour on the local radio station, KORE, the only Eugene
station, then only 100 watts of power. By Thursday morning of that week I was
called to the office of Mr. Frank Hill, station owner. Several letters had come
from
listeners in response to my 15-minute broadcasts. Mr. Hill suggested I start a
Sunday half-hour program. He offered to pay half the cost by charging us only
half the cost of operation, $2.50. I had planned a magazine to be called The
PLAIN TRUTH seven years before, upon conversion in 1927.
The first Sunday in 1934 we went on the air under the program name, Radio
Church of God. The Church members did what they could to finance the $2.50
per week cost, by special offerings above tithes. But they were able to finance
only half of it. We took the rest on faith. And somehow, every week God
provided.