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inspiration and true understanding, God literally plunged me into
His work as His minister. This was the last profession on earth I
had wanted to enter. I did not, even then, seek entrance into the
ministry---I was literally PUT IN by circumstances of God's making.
I had been thru a gruelling experience---had known utter defeat,
humiliation, hunger, suffering. God had rebuked and chastened me
in many ways, burned out former egotism and replaced it with faith
in God. God must humble those He can use.
And so, as the Apostle Paul said to those at Galatia: I
certify to you, that the GOSPEL which is preached of me is not
after man, for I neither received it of man neither was I taught
it, BUT BY THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST...When it pleased God,
who...called me by His Grace, to reveal His Son in me that I might
preach Him to the world, immediately I conferred not with flesh and
blood (man), neither went I to any sect or denomination or human
theologian, but I went directly to the WORD of God, on my knees, to
be taught, corrected, reproved, and instructed in God's
righteousness and Truth. (Compare Gal. 1:11-18).
Have you ever noticed, in the Bible, that when God starts
anything thru His called HUMAN servants, it must always begin as
the very least---the very smallest---and, like the grain of mustard
seed, GROW large and great thru God's power?
This present world-wide program, now reaching the millions
and changing thousands of precious lives, started out the very
smallest activity. It started with nightly meetings in a little
one-room country school house, eight miles west of Eugene, Oregon.
There was no money for handbills or advertising. I borrowed the
use of a typewriter, and typed out slips outlining the sermon-
topics. I walked over the country-side, for I had no car, where
houses often were a half mile apart, personally inviting the
neighbors to attend. In those days I had to rely on God by faith
to get me to the meetings, often having to hitch-hike. The school
house seated 36 and our average attendance was over 40---several
standing thru the entire service. There were several conversions.
A few months later, the first Sunday in 1934, the door of
radio was opened, and the program, then under the name "Radio
Church of God," started on the air. It has never missed a Sunday
since. It started on the smallest of stations, a mere 100-watts of
power. This work of proclaiming Christ's true GOSPEL has never
been backed, financed, sponsored, endowed, or controlled in any way
by any denomination or organization of men.
I remember that during those early meetings, late in 1933,
a resident of that community met me out on the road and said, "Mr.
Armstrong, you'll never get far. You're preaching the straight
truth of the Bible, no matter whom it offends. People won't stand
for that very long. People won't support that kind of preaching---
it's too strong for them!"
It was GOD who put me into His work. It was to GOD I had to
look for financial support. From the beginning our faith has been
sorely tried. I used to go up on top of a small mountain in that
neighborhood, where I found a flat stone for an altar before which