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WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
WORLD HEADQUARTERS
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
PRESIDENT and PASTOR
September 1, 1968
Dear Brethren and Co-HEIRS with Christ:
I wish I didn't have to write you this letter. I write it
with a heavy heart. God is showing me that many of YOU right now
are standing in MORTAL DANGER. I don't mean all -- and this may
not apply to many who will receive this letter -- but it is true of
TOO MANY of our members!
And I mean in serious DANGER of losing out, and never
entering the glorious Kingdom of God! In danger of being
consigned, instead, to a yawning LAKE OF FIRE!
If you are really established in the KNOWLEDGE of the
Truth Satan cannot deceive you with false doctrines. Knowing this,
many of you relax, apparently assuming you've "got it made."
Apparently many are carelessly supposing they are now SURE of being
protected through the Great Tribulation (now ALMOST READY TO
STRIKE!). Whether it will be Petra or another place, many feel
carelessly secure, and, after that, entering God's Kingdom with
ETERNAL LIFE!
But YOU DON'T HAVE IT "MADE." You are still being TRIED
-- to determine whether you shall have this protection -- whether
you shall enter the Kingdom of God! It is those who are LED BY the
Spirit of God -- NOT those who are led by desire for more and more
physical and material things! When you were brought by the power
of God's Holy Spirit to REPENT, and to BELIEVE in Jesus Christ as
your Saviour, and to receive His blessed Holy Spirit -- that is
when JUDGMENT BEGAN for YOU!
The unconverted world is not being called now. God's
judgment is not, yet, on them! But the time has come when judgment
must begin at the House of God! (I Peter 4:17.) That means those
in The CHURCH OF GOD! So you and I are being JUDGED by the
all-seeing ever-living GOD, every hour of every day!
But Brethren, many of you are letting down spiritually!
Many of you are letting material things, possessions, pleasures,
fill your minds. Many are letting down on constant earnest PRAYER,
slacking off on continuous Bible study, letting your affections be
centered on things of this world, and on anticipation of some new
things you think will fill you with delight.
If you are established in the knowledge of God's Truth so
that Satan can't deceive you with counterfeit doctrines, Satan
isn't giving up. He is out to outsmart you. He is out to TEMPT
you with the glitter and glamour and anticipation of MATERIAL
things of his world. He is out to tempt you to begin finding