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WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91123
HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
PASTOR GENERAL
June 25, l985
Dear Brethren and Co-Workers with Christ:
You are helping fulfill Bible prophecy. As Winston Churchill
said before the U.S. Congress during World War II, a PURPOSE is
being worked out here below. The events working out that purpose
of God are recorded in the history of the past and the prophecy of
the present and future, in the Bible.
Jesus told you and me to WATCH these world events.
Where are we right now in this sequence of events? We are
comparatively near the Second Coming of Jesus Christ--near the end
of this civilization as we know it--near to the peaceful world
tomorrow. We are now and have been for some few years, at the
point of Matthew 24:14, where Jesus said, "And this gospel of the
kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all
nations; and then shall the end [of this world] come." That Gospel
was not preached to the world after A.D. 70. For the first time
after that, it began going to the world by this Church and work in
1953. During this time nuclear weapons of mass destruction have
been produced that can blast every human life out of existence.
Then what next? Verse 21 of Matthew 24: a time of violence
and great destruction such as never before or after, and except God
intervenes to cut it short, not a single human being would be left
alive--but for the elect's sake--meaning you and me--God will
intervene supernaturally and cut it short (verse 22). Then what?
Immediately (verse 29), there will be supernatural frightening
signs in the sky above, and then those left alive shall SEE Jesus
Christ coming in supreme power and glory to take over the throne of
the earth and rule.
Right now, it seems God has been holding events in the world
back. We had expected the Great Tribulation to come before now.
Why the delay? It surely seems God has held the winds of terrorism
and the Great Tribulation back to allow time for the fulfillment of
verse 14 in a more complete way. Already we have reached every
nation on earth with the Gospel of the KINGDOM. But not
intensively enough, apparently. Another thing, we are in the time
of final exams in God's Church, and perhaps we are not yet
sufficiently tried and tested and proven to be ready to sit with
Christ on the earth's throne. Perhaps WE OURSELVES have been
holding the march of events up.
So what will CAUSE the Great Tribulation just before Christ's
coming? We find the very event of his coming described in
Revelation 17. A woman--symbol for a great false church--is
described as riding on a beast--guiding it as a woman riding on a
horse guides the horse. This symbolic beast is pictured in verses
12-14, as fighting against Christ AT his coming. So they will be