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WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91123
HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
PASTOR GENERAL
September 12, 1985
Dear Brethren and Co-Workers with Christ:
Since last December I have been working diligently on the
largest and most important book of my life. In real fact I feel I
myself did not write it. Rather, I believe God used me in writing
it. I candidly feel it may be the most important book since the
Bible.
It is named MYSTERY OF THE AGES. Actually it might be
called a synopsis of the Bible in the most plain and understandable
language.
But first, before I tell you more about it, let me say I am
overjoyed to be able to send you one of the very first copies off
the press, hardbound--the same beautiful copy that will be sold in
bookstores all over the United States--in gratitude for your
cooperation and financial support of this wonderful work of the
great God.
All baptized members will be given the book, one copy to a
family, at the coming annual Feast of Tabernacles. All nonmember
co-workers are being mailed your copies, but allow a few weeks for
delivery, for this kind of mail goes much slower than this letter.
We want to reach the largest audience possible with this
book. I know you will feel the same way when you read it. There
is a very large audience which would never request this book if
offered free--who would never send their name and address to
us--but would gladly buy a copy in a bookstore. By putting it in
the bookstores we will reach a very great audience that we can
reach in no other way. We will not sell the book ourselves, but it
cannot be made available to this large audience of book buyers
unless the bookstores do put a price on it.
Now let me tell you something about this new book.
The Holy Bible is the world's best-selling book, but not the
most read, and certainly just about the least understood. Why
should this be? Several reasons. First, God did not intend it to
be understood until now, in these last days before the return of
Christ and the setting up of the kingdom of God to rule all nations
and usher in world peace. For example, in Daniel 12, Daniel wrote
that he heard what the angel was telling him to write, but he did
not understand. The angel told him to write the words anyway--that
their meaning was closed and sealed from understanding until the
time of the end of this present world.
Secondly, when the first man, Adam, rejected the tree of
life--rejecting God and reliance on God, taking to himself the
knowledge of good and evil, relying on himself instead of God--God