hwafor the place of safety

"The WORLD TOMORROW"

A WORLDWIDE BROADCAST

HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG

Proclaims to the World the

GOOD NEWS OF THE WORLD TOMORROW

BOX 111, Pasadena, California

Publishing:

The PLAIN TRUTH

a Magazine of UNDERSTANDING

Jerusalem, Israel May 8, 1956

Dear Co-Workers with Christ in America:

GREETINGS, from JERUSALEM! These past three weeks in the

ancient lands of the Bible have been the most eventful -- the most

eye-opening -- of my life!

This has been a very necessary -- a most important,

experience. It has made the Bible an entirely new and different

Book. It certainly ought to make a dynamic change in my ministry,

and the pity is that this trip could not have been made at least 15

years ago. But today this land is the very center and erupting

point of world disturbance and prophecy fulfillment. So it seems

this is the time we were destined to come!

Always before the events of the Bible -- the places, the

people, seemed mystic, far-off, unreal. The people of the Bible

didn't seem like OUR people we all know at home. These lands

didn't seem real -- but like some far-away mystic land that was not

like our earth, and not REAL like the earth in America. It didn't

seem as if Abraham, Moses, David, Soloman, Elijah, Jesus, Peter or

Paul actually walked on the very same earth -- on ground that was

just like OUR ground.

But now I have walked where Jesus walked. I have been to

the places where He went. I have seen where He was born, and where

He died, and where He was buried and resurrected from the dead. I

have walked to the garden where He walked and where He sat and

talked with His disciples, and have been on the Mount of Olives

from where He ascended to heaven. And it's all the very same kind

of earth, the same kind of ground we have in California, and other

parts of America!

We've been down in Egypt where Joseph was Prime Minister,

and where Jacob's children later were slaves. We've crossed the

Nile in a boat, and seen the bull-rushes along its banks, just like

those where Moses' mother hid him when he was a baby.

AND IT'S ALL REAL!

We have been over the same trail the children of Israel

wandered for 40 years -- and it IS a wilderness of desert and barren

mountains. The difference is, we were privileged to FLY over this

route from Egypt to Jerusalem in comfort in around two hours,

instead of trudging over it for 40 years, as our forefathers did.

But we did get a taste of "roughing it" down thru that

desolate wilderness. We later took a three-day tour down to PETRA,

the mysterious, awe-inspiring ancient city built in a Rock, called

the Rose-Red City half as old as Time. We traveled in the comfort

of a modern Ford automobile, but even so it was a slow, jolting,

dusty journey -- half of it over primitive dirt-and-rock roads,

around narrow ledges on sharp "figure-8" curves on steep canyon-

sides. The last 4 miles going in and coming out were ridden on

horseback, thru the narrow single-file Siq, with solid rock walls

rising straight above us for hundreds of feet. I'll have much to

tell you, later, about fantastic Petra -- a now deserted city that

was carved out of solid rock, in a recessed hide-away surrounded

by its own impenetrable wall of mountains.

But first, we flew over to Baghdad, so we could take an

automobile tour from there to see with our own eyes how the Word of

God has been fulfilled in His sentence on ancient Babylon. I can

now give you my personal testimony that, as God said would happen,

it is an absolute desolation -- even the few ruins now visible have

been excavated from above, -- and not a man lives there. The Iraq

government maintains a small museum at the site of the ruins, with

a single custodian. But he told me he does not live there, and

rides to the museum on his donkey each day. And it's a fact, as

the Bible said it would be -- not an Arab will even pitch his tent

there!

We have been all along the Street called Straight, where

Saul of Tarsus was led after God struck him blind, in Damascus. We

even saw the place where they lowered Paul through a high window in

the wall, and he was let down outside the city when he had to flee

for his life. Beyond doubt Paul went from there direct to Petra,

where he spent the unaccounted for 3 years with Christ. We thought

of that, when we were in Petra -- and how undoubtedly that is the

very place where WE shall spend from 3 1/2 to 7 years during the Great

Tribulation and possibly also the terrible Day of the Lord, soon to

come -- IF we are close to God instead of this pleasure-man world --

if we are praying always, and WATCHING, and accounted worthy to

escape the things that are coming on the earth! During our visit

there, we became more than ever convinced of the probability that

Petra is the place God will take us. And, if so, our advance visit

and inspection was VERY NECESSARY, in order that proper

preparations may be made.

We visited Tyre and Sidon, and God's great prophecies

concerning those cities are truly clear to me now. My television

program on Tyre excited more interest, and brought a heavier mail

response, than any other TV program. But at that time I had to get

many of my facts about the present condition of Tyre second-hand,

and I was not able, in that way, to get the picture clearly in

mind. This shows how IMPORTANT it is, if I am to shout out the

TRUTH of these prophecies and Christ's Gospel to the world, and

SHOW these things on TV, that I visit these places myself and get

all the facts straight and clearly in mind. Actually, the true

facts show the prophecy fulfilled even MORE effectively than I had

been told, and had explained on radio and TV. The amphitheatre and

one or two other buildings the Romans attempted to build were not

on the site of OLD Tyre on the mainland, as it was represented to

me -- but on the peninsula that once was an island, and on the site

of NEW Tyre. Actually, no town or city has ever been built on the

site of Old Tyre, since Alexander the Great scraped its wreckage,

debris, timbers, stones and top-soil into the sea. However, the

site of Old Tyre is not solid rock today, because thru the 2550

long years much dirt has blown in over its rock base, and it looks

like any other ground -- but no city has ever been built there.

There's absolutely NOTHING there but the barren earth.

All this experience has made us realize as never before

that God is REAL. What He has said is SURE. These places are

REAL!

But while, as I said, I have now walked where Jesus

walked, I have not walked on the same ground. The ground where

Jesus walked is now buried some 20 or more feet under the present

ground-surface. We have not seen ANY of the buildings that stood

in Jerusalem in Bible times, for one century builds on top of the

debris of the previous century. But we did see a few places in the

wall of Jerusalem which in all probability are the very same

original stones that were a part of the wall in Jesus' day. The

city is still in the same identical spot, only the earth has built

up so that we are always 20 or 30 feet higher than they were 1900

years ago. Yet the whole shape and contour of the land in general

is the SAME. And it's the same kind of soil. So we know exactly

how it all looked to Jesus and to Peter and Paul.

I forgot to mention -- of course I have taken motion-

picture films of all these very important places, to be used on

future TELEVISION programs. Mrs. Armstrong, of course, is with me,

and also our elder son Richard (Dick). Dick has taken scores and

scores of still pictures with our German Contax camera, while I

have taken most of the movies with a Bolex -- many hundreds of feet

of film. These pictures will be used in the PLAIN TRUTH as well as

on TV.

One thing we've seen that makes the Bible more REAL is

the dress and the customs of the people here in the Middle East.

While the earth is the same earth -- the trees and vegetation mostly

the same as in the same climate-zones in the United States -- yet

the customs and the garb worn, and the architecture and design of

cities is quite different.

In all these Bible lands, except the new country of

"Israel" which we entered only yesterday afternoon, the people are

Arabs. Their dress, their ways and methods are still the same as

they were 2,000 years ago. In Egypt, Saudi-Arabia, and to a

considerable extent in Jordan and Syria, men do not wear trousers,

coats and hats. They wear long flowing robes, with an Arab-type

cloth turban covering their heads and flowing down their

backs -- often wrapped around most of their faces, especially in

rural sections out in the hot sun. The women wear black robes and

keep their faces half-veiled or full-veiled. Usually the women are

walking along in a graceful glide, arms swinging, balancing a wide

flat basket, a tall water-jug, or almost any kind of cartage on

their heads. I would keep looking, expecting to see the basket or

jug fall off -- but never once of the hundreds of women I've seen

carrying freight on their heads have I seen one get the slightest

bit out of balance! It seems as if these baskets are nailed onto

their heads! They turn around, turn their heads this way or that,

at will -- but never do the things they balance on their heads

become the slightest bit unbalanced. This was a deep mystery to

me. But it was so in Jesus' day!

Their houses and cities are built more on the European

style, which is that of the ancient Middle East. Houses are built

out of mud, adobe, mud-bricks, or stone, depending on location and

accessibility of materials. In Egypt, buildings in cities were of

stone, but in rural districts mostly of mud, adobe, or mud-brick.

In Jerusalem, it is nearly all stone. Houses are built one

adjoining another, with inside courts -- no lawns -- no space between

houses. Along the country-side we will see a green valley down

below, with green trees and vegetation, while the city where the

people all live will be up on a barren hill -- all the houses flush

against one another, narrow streets barely wide enough for one

automobile single-file and no side-walks -- and not a single tree or

shrub or plant in sight.

Of course in Jesus' time the cities all were surrounded

by very thick high walls -- 25 to 35 feet high. These walls were

their defense against invasion. Consequently they huddled their

houses close together, and made their streets very narrow, for

space was at a premium. The European custom has followed this

ancient manner, tho without the walls.

As a matter of fact, Jesus seldom if ever spent a night

in the city of Jerusalem. When there He usually made His abode

down at Bethany, almost at the base of the Mount of Olives, and

south-east of Jerusalem. One can walk from there up into Jerusalem

in a matter of not too many minutes.

The one difference between these people we saw in these

Bible lands today, and those of Jesus' day is this: Today the

people populating this territory are Arabs, who are more or less

degenerate. In Jesus' day they were mostly Jews, who were on a

higher level of intelligence and culture. And besides there has

been general degeneration constantly among all peoples.

I will have much to tell you -- on the air, in The PLAIN

TRUTH, and future letters, and I will speak of these things as they

come to me.

But now about the WORLD CRISIS of the moment.

As you know, Jerusalem and this new nation called

"Israel" is right now the seething trouble-spot of the world. Not

more than about an hour's drive from where we are, there have been

border shots and provocative incidents just during the past three

or four days that are keeping New York, Washington, London, and the

capitals of the world in a state of jitters.

For a while it looked as if war was breaking out, and we

would not be able to make this trip to the land God has chosen for

His own. But, just before we came, the UN sent its Secretary-

General Dag Hammarskjold over here to get a "Cease-Fire," and

armistice. While he did not succeed in achieving any permanent

solution or peace, he did get a temporary "'Cease-fire." So we

were able to come on along.

As our plane stopped 30 minutes at Amman airport, enroute

from Cairo to Baghdad, we saw Mr. Hammarskjold's UN plane at the

airport, and I took a few movie-shots of it.

Yet even this morning, as Mr. Hammarskjold is now back at

UN headquarters in New York, the 3-column main page 1 headline of

the morning paper here in Jewish Jerusalem shouts "CONCERN OVER NEW

VIOLENCE" -- lists Jordan, Egyptian attacks. THE TROUBLE IS FAR

FROM OVER! And I have just learned there was machine-gun fire

heard in this hotel last night, tho we all slept thru it, and have

not yet learned who shot what.

Here, in few words, is the basis of it:

The Saudi-Arabians are the original fanatical anti-Jewish

group. In 1945, and until the new nation "Israel" was set up in

1948, their Sheik, Hafiz Wahba, was in charge of Palestine affairs

for the Arab nations. I know the Sheik well. I spent an hour with

him at San Francisco, during the United Nations Conference in 1945,

and then reported in The PLAIN TRUTH the Arab position in regard to

Jewish aspirations in Palestine.

In few words, it was this: Although the Jews claim

Palestine as their original ancient home-land, Sheik Hafiz Wahba

points out that this was all around 2,000 years ago. Palestine, he

said, has been the home of the Arabs for thirteen long centuries.

They built their famous "Dome of the Rock." usually known in

America as the Mosque of Omar on the site of the Temple in

Jerusalem in the 7th century, A.D. The Sheik pointed out to me

that America once was the home of the Indians, and that our people

have lived there only some 300 years, and our nation is less than

200 years old. And he asked me if we would feel it right that we

now get out and give it back to the Indians, because their fore-

fathers occupied most of America over 300 years ago? Palestine, he

said, belongs to the Arabs. It has been their home for 1,300

years. Jerusalem is THEIR religious home, and their Mosque is

there today, instead of any Jewish temple. If the Jews need a

national home, let them go somewhere else. Why drive the Arabs out

of their own homes in their own land. That is the Arab viewpoint,

and they will fight with fanaticism to exterminate the Jews from

here.

The Sheik invited Mrs. Armstrong and me to a Royal

Reception in London in 1947, to be presented to the then Crown

Prince Emir, who now is King Saud of Arabia. While we were in

Cairo, two weeks ago, the Sheik came to our hotel with his wife and

three daughters, whom he introduced to us, and talked for more than

two hours with me, while Madam Hafiz Wahba chatted for more than an

hour with Mrs. Armstrong. God may have reasons for keeping us in

close personal acquaintance with the Arab's chief diplomat in this

whole powder-keg disturbance which COULD set off World War III.

Saudi Arabia is fabulously rich in oil. Now read this

carefully, for here is the crux of the whole trouble -- the heart

and center of all WORLD-trouble today -- the present vital scene of

conflict between the U.S. and Russia. More than half of all the

world's known oil reserves are in this Middle East -- 60% to be

exact! Western armed forces, above all BRITAIN'S, are absolutely

dependent on this oil. They could be defeated in war quickly

without it! The whole Western economy depends largely upon it.

Russia, having less than 7% of the world's oil reserves, looks on

this Middle East with hungry, covetous eyes. THERE'S THE CAUSE OF

TODAY'S FRICTION, mingled with this Arab-Jew dispute over

Palestine.

The Saudi-Arabians, receiving more millions of dollars

from American oil companies than they need at home, began using

this money to fan flames of racial hatred among other Arab

countries against the Jews.

Gamel Abdel Nasser, the young, dynamic, 38-year-old

Premier of Egypt, has been swept into the vortex of this wave of

racial hatred and fanaticism. Nasser started a program to

rehabilitate his people -- put in force compulsory education,

started a great dam project to harness the Nile and build Egypt.

But he is young and ambitious, and now apparently aspires to be the

"big-shot" leader of the Arab nations. Today Nasser is beginning

to forget the wretchedness and ignorance of his people -- which we

saw there.

The Soviets saw their opportunity to make a drive into

the Middle East, and stir up things against America and Britain.

They offered Nasser arms at half price. He is young and impetuous,

lacking mature wisdom, and he fell for their bait. Now he is

becoming a sword-rattler, and a threat to the peace of the whole

world. He has started many incidents on the Israel border at the

ancient town of Gaza.

There will be NO SETTLING of this dispute. Prophecy says

that every nation that burdens itself with Jerusalem shall be cut

to pieces. "And in that day," says God, speaking of NOW, "will I

make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden

themselves with it shall be cut in pieces" (Zech. 12:3). The

trouble will go on. Later, the resurrected ROMAN EMPIRE -- the

Roman Catholic Fascist United States of Europe, even NOW in process

of being formed -- will take over this territory and move their

capital here, until the coming of Christ.

Truly, still today, JERUSALEM IS TRODDEN DOWN OF THE

GENTILES. It is regarded as the cradle of the three major

religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It is called the

"Holy City." But there is very little here visible that is holy

today. Jesus said, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the

Gentiles UNTIL the Times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." The

Gentile Times are not yet fulfilled. Jerusalem is INDEED trodden

down by them and their abominations today!

Jerusalem today is literally cut in two. The east half,

containing all the old city and all the historical places, is in

Jordan. The West half, once just hilly ground, the NEW city, is

occupied by the Jews, and is the capital of the new nation

"Israel."

First, on this tour, we visited Egypt. We journeyed 400

miles south of Cairo up the Nile, by train, to Luxor, site of

ancient Thebes, once the glorious capital of Egypt. Once there

flourished an "advanced" civilization there, in this world's sense.

Medicine originated there. But we saw there the fruits of that

worldly civilization -- not health, but degeneration, decay,

children and land wasting from rickets and trachoma, bilharziasis

and starvation, and even Nasser's rejuvenation of his country now

interrupted by the vanity and greed and ambition for power as a

military force. From Egypt we spent two weeks travelling thru the

wilderness -- ancient Babylon, Tyre and Sidon, and Petra. Then,

finally, we crossed the Jordan river, on to Jericho, down thru

Bethany, and on up into Jerusalem.

I think I felt some of the thrill of the ancient

Israelites entering the promised land. But it is not today a land

flowing with milk and honey, but largely barren and desolate, under

God's curse because of the sins of the people! Jerusalem,

incidentally, is on hills. You go DOWN the hill from Mt. Moriah

where the old Temple site of Jerusalem is, and then UP a hill again

to the Mount of Olives. The Garden of Gethsemane is at the foot of

the Mount of Olives, and a portion of it is retained today as a

beautiful garden. We took pictures to show you. But finally, from

today's down-trodden, defiled, dirty Jerusalem, we crossed thru the

Mandelbaum Gate, and across "No-Man's-Land," carrying our own

luggage alone, into the "NEW Jerusalem," of this modern "Israel."

The Jewish Jerusalem is all practically new -- built of cream-

colored stone which is beautiful and has warmth. We expected to

find American Jews here. We didn't. They are mostly Jews from the

Balkan regions, Europe, and Russia. American Jewish DOLLARS are

here, but most American Jews are staying in America to make more

dollars.

Today Jerusalem is literally FILLED with churches,

shrines, and pagan monuments venerating every spot where the

various religions CLAIM some Bible event occurred -- literally

dozens upon dozens of these shrines, where the awe-struck,

ignorant, yet devout victims of satanic deception come and kneel,

and bow, and kiss stones and rocks, and cross themselves. We have

seen them here by the DOZENS on the Arab side of Jerusalem, going

through these useless, senseless motions, worshipping the THING,

the PLACE, or the CREATED, but not knowing how to worship the

CREATOR. Worshipping in ignorance and in the physical, knowing

nothing about worshipping in Spirit and in Truth!

Well, that's a brief outline of our tour so far. From

here we tour this "new" Jerusalem this afternoon, then tomorrow

morning we go by automobile to visit Galilee, the city of Nazareth,

the Sea of Galilee, the districts where so much of Jesus' ministry

took place -- the valley where "Armageddon" will be fought, Haifa,

then back to Tel Aviv. From there we fly to Istanbul

(Constantinople), Turkey, then to Athens, and to visit Corinth,

then Rome once more, then London, where we are to hold a campaign

of nightly meetings, sailing for home on the Queen Mary the middle

of July.

MEANWHILE -- and FINALLY -- world conditions are WORSENING,

not getting better. We've seen the Germans everywhere over in this

Middle East -- preparing for the day when THEY, at the head of the

resurrected Roman Empire, shall rule over this land -- for a while.

OUR TIME GROWS SHORTER DAILY, for finishing the Great Work of God!

We see people here at Jerusalem, worshipping they know not what --

material relics of supposed sacred events -- PROFESSING Christ, but

IN TOTAL IGNORANCE OF HIS GOSPEL.

Jesus had compassion on these ignorant multitudes. We

have been moved with that same compassion.

CO-WORKERS, I realize as never before the MOMENTOUS task

before us. This GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM -- Christ's own Message MUST

go, more powerfully than ever, to ALL THE WORLD. We are NOT

reaching this Middle East as yet. WE MUST! We must dedicate

ourselves anew, with renewed zeal, to the great task. I see these

ignorant, superstitious people, SO REVERENT and DEVOUT in their

worship of material THINGS!

WHY, Oh, WHY is it, dear Co-Workers, that we, who have

the precious knowledge of the TRUTH, and God's TRUE WAY, and the

gift of the very LIFE and POWER of the Holy Spirit of God, are so

lukewarm -- so LACKING in that devout, reverent, worshipful ZEAL

and even fanaticism, which I see in these ignorant, misled,

deceived people living in true spiritual darkness?

Can't we WAKE UP?

Can't we rally stronger than ever to the greatest CAUSE

ever commissioned to any people? I know from sorrowful experience

that, unless you keep hearing from me, MANY of you will let up your

effort, and totally neglect the precious WORK OF GOD!

Must the Work of God suffer, or even have to stop,

because God has called His servant over here for necessary

television pictures, for a spiritual rejuvenation, for new

knowledge to form part of the Gospel Message? Remember, while

God called Moses away from the people, up into the mount with God,

the people said, "As for this Moses, we wot not what has become of

him. Come on, let's make us idols to worship -- let's forsake the

true God."

Brethren, Co-Workers, YOU MUST NOT BE LIKE THAT TODAY!

Not only is the precious work of God almost continuously in a

DESPERATE financial condition, but your very own personal salvation

is also at stake. For YOUR sake, I implore you, IN JESUS' PRECIOUS

NAME, arouse yourself, and remain DILIGENT, and FAITHFUL, to any

amount of sacrifice. Keep PRAYING, earnestly, continually, with

YOUR WHOLE HEART, for the work. Keep praying for ME. I am under

continual temptation you know nothing about, and only the POWER OF

GOD can keep me, and I personally need your prayers! And keep

sending, in addition to your full honest tithe, as generous

offerings as you can, REGULARLY, for the work. I have to rely on

YOU, while I'm away.