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issues of the day from its particular
edi torial vantage point. Scattered
around my office are many publica–
tions, Sorne represent quiet , con–
servative values. Others are more
extreme.
One newsmagazi ne published in
Europe has a Third World reader–
ship in mind . No question where
the editors are coming from-the
United S tates is always wrong, and
terrorists of any ilk are invariably
" liberation fronts." Get past that
and you have an informative, well–
written publication that keeps you
up on what's happening in Africa
and Asia.
The point is that most publica–
tions, in catering to their readers'
interests, present thei r materi al
from a par ticular slant. But what
about
The Plain Truth?
When it began, more than 50
years ago now, the founder and edi–
tor had in mind a publ ication that
would fill a gap in publisbing. In
that difficult decade of the '30s- as
now-just about every point of
view was represented except one.
Rarely was anyone asking, " What
did God have to say abou t
things?"
8
H erbert W. Armstrong had
begun to understand that he was
living in the end of an age, and
that society was about to go into
its final tailspin. T he world was
becoming more selfish and mate–
rialistic, and although paying lip
service to religion, was s tead ily
losing contact witb truth and real–
ity. (Sorry to bring tbis up right
now, but even t be apostle Pa ul
told us that would happen. l t's in
bis second letter to Timothy,
chapter three, verses 1-5.)
Tbe world needed a magazi ne
that would accurately represen t
God 's point of view. So
The Plain
Truth
was founded to fill that
ga¡>-to explain what God had to
say about the news and the great
issues of the day. That 's a bold
claim. Yet we've been doing that
for half a century!
How do we do it?
Why
Scriptures
Is the news of the day a series of
isolated happenings, or is there
indeed something big going on
behind the scenes?
lf
so, how do
the apparently unrelated events fit
into that pattern?
The answer is the prophecies
once delivered to ancient Israel and
recorded by the prophets. T hose
prophecies, when you really under–
stand them, give shape and form to
the news of today ... and tomor–
row. We would not presume to help
our reade rs understand what is
real/y
going on without constantly
referring to them.
Wbat about moral issues and
social trends in our turbulent soci–
ety? What is rigbt and what is
wrong? Who should decide? If
anyone is entitled to say bow man–
kind should live, surely it is man–
kind's Creator. He gave instruc–
tions that we have chosen to ignore.
Those instructions are the laws of
God and are recorded in the Bible.
They are bedrock truth . Our read–
ers, caught in the cross fire of
experimental val ues, need to know
wbat God's law says about how
they live-or should live- their
lives.
In o ur s tress-filled soc iety,
people need encouragement, conso–
lation, inspiration and entertain–
ment. The quest for happiness and
fulfillment has taken us in sorne
bizarre directions. The world is full
of false hopes and emotional blind
alleys.
Is there a nything genuine to
believe in and positive to work for
among the mixed-up values? ls
there any real hope for the future?
Is there indeed any meaning to life
at all? Once again, the answers
are available in the pages of
God's instruction book,
the Holy Bible.
So that's why we quote
the Bible so often. We never j ust
"add a few scriptures" to make our
articles sou nd nice and pious. We
don't use a scripture unless it is
truly relevant to our subject.
But as we sort through the news
of the day from wire services in our
news bureau and as we examine the
issues of the moment, tbose quota–
tions from Psalms, Ezekiel, the gos–
pel of Luke and the other books of
the Bible do become irresistibly
relevan
t.
God does have something to
reveal about our lives and our
world, and
The Plain Truth
would
not be true to its founding princi–
pies if we didn't say what God
reveals in bis instruction book.
o
The
PLAIN TRUTH