October 4, 2019 Brethren Letter
Dear Brethren,
I was reading Mr. Armstrong’s letter of 1981 regarding the Feast of Tabernacles, and wanted to share it with you. Just think, God’s Master Plan will eventually change the outlook of the entire earth. Instead of today’s unhappiness and misery, the World Tomorrow will be a time when people will learn how to live a new way of life that produces real and lasting happiness.
Here is an abbreviated version of Mr. Armstrong’s letter. Please have a good night’s rest everyone.
Your Brother in Christ,
Gary Liebold
Herbert W. Armstrong
Pasadena, Calif.
April 6, 1981
Dear Brethren:
In this world of gloom, unhappiness, suffering, frustration and despair, there will be 84 Feast sites worldwide where spontaneous HAPPINESS, JOY, good fellowship with brethren and with God and with Christ will fill thankful and grateful hearts!
We live in a discouraged, sorrowful world full of evils. Oh sure, people seek entertainment, excitement — they even seem to enjoy VIOLENCE as long as they are watching and not being hurt by it.
A few days or nights ago I was watching what appeared to be a national championship girls’ basketball game between two universities. They played like men. They were “up” for it, excited — BUT WITH SAD AND UNHAPPY EXPRESSIONS ON THEIR FACES. At the end the victors hugged and jumped up and down — but the defeated wept and cried. It was the ecstasy of winning for one group, but they enjoyed that empty ecstasy at the cost of AGONY suffered by the girls who LOST!
But at God’s Festival NO ONE WILL LOSE. None will be suffering the AGONY of defeat. But all whose hearts and minds are right with God will be spiritually refreshed, uplifted, inspired, filled with joyous anticipation, enjoying a real FEAST on the SPIRITUAL WORD OF GOD!
Think how important this Festival is! After the return of King of kings Jesus Christ, “It shall come to pass, that every one … shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles” (Zechariah 14:16). And there shall be plagues and severe punishments on nations that neglect or refuse to attend! People will be compelled to be happy! Of course, that is speaking of mortal people then left alive — not of Christ’s saints who then will be immortal and in the very Family of God.
But you and I are, now, still mortal — and the above scripture shows us how very serious in God’s eyes it is that we attend this wonderful Feast this year. For we may be attending it as immortal-born children of God before this present decade is out! That certainly is a likely possibility.
We have undoubtedly entered the most explosive decade in the history of man. But it is possible that God will cut short the days of great tribulation ahead and bring us into the wonderful and glorious Kingdom of God before this decade is out.
Again, remember, Jesus said no man will know the day or the hour. But He did say we may know by world events when it is near — even at the door!
This will be my 55th year of keeping the annual Fall Holy Days. We did not come to realize the meaning and need to keep the entire Feast of Tabernacles until 1945, though my wife and I began keeping the annual Sabbaths in 1927.
The Feast of Tabernacles pictures to us year after year the glorious thousand years just shortly ahead now of world peace, happiness and opportunity for eternal salvation for all not previously called! It will be a world without Satan! It will be a world with Jesus Christ ruling with love!
It is a time for us to get away from the dreary routine of daily life in Satan’s world and enjoy eight wonderful days with brethren in Christ and their families! It is the only time in the year that God provides a time when we may get away and rest from our daily regular duties — to be with brethren in Christ to worship Him and look forward to His utopia!
With much love, in Jesus’ name,
Herbert W. Armstrong