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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, July 3, 1980
Page 5
"The First Amendment is one of the United States' most important contribu
tions to civilization. It made churches--for the first time in history-
truly and officially independent of the state. Prior to that time,
churches--or at least the favored church--had been a wholly owned subsid
iary of the government. In some places that is still the case. One of
them may be California. The theory advanced by the attorney general of
that state could, if not corrected by higher authority, work a monstrous
throwback to the Middle Ages, even to the Caesaropapism promulgated by
Justinian, which proclaimed the emperor the ruler of the church. This
the Worldwide Church of God is making heroic efforts to prevent."
PUBLISHING SERVICES UPDATE
Here in Publishing last week, we had meetings and various discussions with
Bram de Bree, Regional Director of the Dutch area of God's Work, and David
Hulme, Circulation Director of the Canadian area. Mr. de Bree and Mr.
Hulme also spent time with various department heads here in Pasadena. Our
meetings in Publishing centered around ways in which we could help improve
PLAIN TRUTH circulation and promotion programs.
Topics discussed were: PLAIN TRUTH direct mail systems, direct mail for
increasing PLAIN TRUTH readership, The PLAIN TRUTH newsstand program, and
newspaper advertising.
Everybody involved felt that the meetings were very helpful. We will be
following up on some specific details regarding the meetings in the next
few weeks.
Mr. Herbert Armstrong's Everest House Book, TOMORROW--WHAT IT WILL BE
LIKE is still getting positive reviews, which in themselves are proving
to be a tremendous witness.
Below is a typical example taken from the
June 1980 issue of "Columbia," which claims to be the largest Catholic
family magazine in North America.
"The Work of world evangelism--of spiritually saving the world-
will require re-educating the world." So writes Herbert W.
Armstrong in "Tomorrow--What It Will Be Like" (Everest House-
$7.95). Armstrong, founder of the Worldwide Church of God, has
preached his brand of evangelism in over 70 countries in the past
decade. Armstrong's message is a fundamentalist one, based on an
unswervingly literal interpretation of the Bible--particularly its
apocalyptic revelations. He espouses chiliasm, or a literal
acceptance of the thousand-year reign of Christ and its saints
on earth.
This reign, Armstrong holds, will be realized in a very near
tomorrow. The implication of his breathless remarks is that those
now living will be subjects of Christ's corning kingdom.
It's interesting to ask yourself when, in the last 50 years, has a
Catholic magazine carried such a positive statement about the message
Mr. Herbert Armstrong is preaching.
The above is an excellent example of why Everest House exists. A free
book does not get the same public acceptance as one that is published
through the book trade for sale. The ironic thing is, all of Mr.
Armstrong's writings are still available free for the asking.