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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, NOVEMBER 8, 1982
PAGE 11
Talk With Premier
Thanks to advance preparation by Mr. Stan Bass, director of God's Work in
the Caribbean area (Bermuda is administered out of the Puerto Rican
office), the local minister in Bermuda, Mr. Roland Sampson, plus a solid
support team of local members, a series of high-level meetings were
arranged for Mr. Armstrong. As a result, on Monday afternoon we met the
Deputy Governor of Bermuda (representing the British Crown), the Premier
(Bermuda has been self-governing since 1620, the longest of any Common
wealth country outside of the British Isles) and the Consul General of the
United States.
The Governor, Sir Richard Posnett, had unfortunately injured his back that
morning playing a round of golf. The alternative meeting with the Deputy
Governor was pleasant, but brief.
The meeting with the Premier, Mr. John Swan, was certainly the highlight of
the day. Mr. Bass and Mr. Sampson had the opportunity to accompany Mr.
Armstrong, Mr. Aaron Dean and me for the two-hour private chat.
The Premier, tall, vigorous and younger looking than his 46 years, has been
a most successful businessman in the island, specializing in real estate
and investments. He made his first million dollars before the age of 30.
The conversation between Mr. Armstrong and the Premier was a lively one
throughout, with Mr. Swan asking many knowledgeable questions, reflecting
an obvious concern on his part with matters of Christian thought and
morality. (He graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1960.)
At the conclusion, Mr. Swan thanked Mr. Armstrong for stopping off in
Bermuda. He remarked that if Mr. Armstrong stayed any longer he might have
to become one of his followers or disciples.
Mr. Armstrong smilingly
replied that he shouldn't be like the man who said that "almost thou
persuadest me to be a Christian" (King Agrippa's response to the Apostle
Paul, as recorded in Acts 26:28).
It was quite a witness, one in which Mr. Armstrong, like Paul, did "speak
forth the words of truth and soberness" (verse 25).
Value to Britain and America
There is another side to Bermuda however, one far removed from its idyllic
setting. We experienced this as well. Throughout a large portion of its
history Bermuda, a little-recognized seagate, has been of unique strategic
value to the descendants of Israel. Bermuda, by the way, is named after
Juan Bermudez, the Spaniard who first saw the islands, but did not land on
them. The Spanish were not interested in Bermuda, considering its reef
strewn waters only a navigational hazard to be avoided by their ships going
home after looting the gold from the new world. They called the region "La
Isla de Demonios"--Island of the Devils.
Bermuda had, ever since the American Revolution, served as one of Britain's
new world military outposts, with a large Royal Navy dockyard. Bermuda was
even at one time called the "Gilbraltar of the West."
The onset of World War II however, changed the strategic picture, as the
nearby United States realized the military importance of Bermuda. In 1941,