Armstrong’s 3-Point Plan Explained
The first apostles worked in the days before mass communication and high-speed travel. They had to go to each city and village preaching the gospel message personally. They went on foot, by horseback, or by sailboat. It was before the days of printing. Written communication was slow and expensive. 2,000 years later, that message is the same. But the means of spreading that message has changed. Today, incredible advancements in technology have made it possible for just one apostle to take the gospel to the entire world.
The end time phase of the work of God began in 1934. The first congregation of what became the worldwide church of God held its services in the Jean’s schoolhouse near Eugene, Oregon. In his autobiography, Mr. Armstrong tells how he organized a three-point plan to reach the world with the gospel of the kingdom of God. A half-hour radio program would begin immediately on the local radio station Kore Eugene. A magazine to be called the Plain Truth would be published and sent free of charge to all who requested it. Also, Mr. Armstrong would continue his personal campaigns in the towns and villages of the Willamette Valley. It was an ambitious program for a small church with few members and virtually no financial resources. But it was God’s work and the church members loyally and enthusiastically supported the three-point plan. And so the work grew. Campaigns bore fruit. Members were added and more churches were raised up. Demand for the Plain Truth increased. And new radio stations wanted to broadcast the World Tomorrow. Today, my friends, we are in the time as foretold by Jesus when he said that this is the beginning of sorrows, just the beginning of trouble and of sorrows in the world today. And so again today my friends I want you to notice first Jesus’ Olivet prophecy found in the 24th chapter of the book of Matthew. Matthew 24 where in plain language Jesus — before the days of tape recording — radio programs had to be recorded on large lacquered discs. Don Hunter was a young recording engineer in Eugene, Oregon in the 1940s just prior to his return to this earth.
Broadcasting: Radio Origins
Well, it’s been many years since I’ve cut a radio transcription disc. We’ve set up this equipment in here in my home studio to recreate the studio as it was when I used to record Herbert Armstrong back in the 1940s. Mr. Armstrong would come in with his notes and some script. Most of what he did was ad lib. Once in a while he would read one and he would have the Bible set up with bookmarks in it, even two or three Bibles sometimes and go on from one to the other. And it was always amazing to me how he knew where he was going through the program. We had music in the program — the early programs. He always had music to start with a theme song.
Some of the church people would come up and they’d have a little group of singers to record these theme songs. We would make them over several times, make several cuts of the same thing so when one wore out, we could have another one to put on the beginning of the transcription. And one of the singers would write up on the wall every time we did a retake. So that’s still on the wall in there. The studio is set up now pretty much as it was when we did the recordings. I’m a saver of equipment and I saved this old 16-inch disc recorder, although I had another one later that I used and then sold it. But this is the original recorder and in the studio the original microphone and I’d set up a card table, put a cloth doily over it to absorb the sound reflection so that it would sound more natural. I have a small studio, but I was able to put out good quality recordings. The transcription discs that we use cost me anywhere from $1.75 to $2.50. And that was quite a bit in those days. And I charged about the same amount for making a 15-minute transcription. So I think I used to charge him $5 a program. And I was happy. And it was quite a strain on anyone’s budget to pay $5 for a program in those days. We began to make more and more of these. And he started using them on other stations than KORE, the original station here, stations in other cities. And he said, “This is going to grow. It’s going to go all over the country.” Well, I didn’t know about that. But it did. And I remember he went to KFI and KSL and some Midwest stations and to where I was making transcriptions for him on a regular basis. When Mr. Armstrong started his radio ministry, he had to be present at every broadcast that he made. When he started using transcriptions, he could multiply himself by several times over. And from that beginning with transcriptions you can see what it’s come to today where one man can multiply himself all over the entire world and carry the message to the entire world. It’s really an advance in technology that’s unbelievable. We couldn’t have dreamed that this was possible when we first started making recordings.
Broadcasting: Radio to World Tomorrow TV
Today, in our modern radio production studios in Pasadena, we use high-speed tape duplicating equipment. We can make quality recordings of The World Tomorrow at 8 times normal broadcast speed. Machines like this mean that we can duplicate 50 programs an hour. Mr. Armstrong needs only to record the program once, then we can prepare it for broadcasting anywhere in the world.
Okay, we’re going to go for it, Art. Oh, sure. Why not? I’ve got one left.
Okay, our tapes are rolling. The World Tomorrow. The Worldwide Church of God presents Herbert W. Armstrong bringing you the plain truth about today’s world news and the prophecies of the world tomorrow. Ladies and gentlemen, Herbert W. Armstrong. Okay, next. Fine. Next. Australian closing. Art Gilmore has been our announcer for almost 40 years. He records the opening and a separate mailing address for each of the areas where the program is aired. Sydney, New South Wales 2001. That’s Worldwide Church of God, GPO Box 345, Sydney, New South Wales 2001. The preceding program and all literature were produced by the Worldwide Church of God. After broadcasting, the tapes are returned to us. We erase them and re-record. This can be done up to 20 times before the tapes are worn out. You see, each broadcast needs about 1,200 ft of tape costing about $2. Once the old lacquer transcription discs had been recorded, they could not be used again. But now, by recycling tapes, the cost is cut to just a few cents per program. We are able to use advancements in technology such as these to preach the gospel quickly and efficiently around the world. The World Tomorrow became a television program in the 1950s. President and founder and world-known broadcaster and editor Herbert W. Armstrong reveals the startling significance behind today’s world troubles with the prophecies of the world tomorrow. When wild animals shall be tame, a lion and a lamb playing together, and a little child leading them — in a world of peace at last. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Armstrong.
Well, greetings, friends. The real significance behind today’s world disturbances is simply this, that we’re now near world peace. Believe it or not.
Broadcasting: TV Production at Ambassador
Audio tapes rolling. Video tapes rolling. On five, four, three, two, one. Today in the Ambassador television studios in Pasadena, Mr. Armstrong’s specially designed set combines warmth and good taste with a feeling of authority and dignity. It’s time that a voice cries out in the midst of this religious confusion of this day. The telecast is recorded on a bank of videotape recorders, or VTRs as they are called. Once Mr. Armstrong is satisfied with the videotaping session, there’s still much to be done before the telecast is to be aired.
First, the program must be accurately transcribed by typists using sophisticated word processing equipment.
The script is then carefully gone over to determine where sections of film or videotape cover footage, graphics, and color illustrations can be added to support Mr. Armstrong’s message. Scripture references are electronically generated and then stored on magnetic discs until final editing.
Once all the visual material is gathered, editors assemble it into video clips which can then be inserted into the program.
How’s that opening scene, Rick? Looks great. Video — you ready to record, Barry? Yeah, let’s go ahead. Gary, stand by to check phase, please. Standing by. Recording.
The World Tomorrow. The Worldwide Church of God presents The World Tomorrow with Herbert W. Armstrong.
In the early days of video editing, the magnetic tapes were cut and spliced by hand. Today, all of this is done electronically with computerized editing equipment, and the end result is a more sophisticated product.
Plain Truth: Magazine Origins
The second part of the three-point plan was to publish a magazine. By 1932, Mr. Armstrong had had years of experience in advertising. He knew the power of the printed word. He had learned how to grab the reader’s attention with a striking headline and to write compelling copy that would drive home the message.
This experience would now be put to work to produce the world’s most important magazine, The Plain Truth. But there was no money to produce a printed magazine. So Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong bought a secondhand mimeograph and duplicated the first issues by hand. In February 1932, The Plain Truth made its modest bow. The Plain Truth has steadily improved through the years. Now, a fine 52-page magazine published monthly in five languages with a circulation in the millions. A large editorial staff supports Mr. Armstrong with the task of writing and producing not only The Plain Truth, but also Good News, Worldwide News, Youth 81, and the many other articles, books, and booklets published by the Worldwide Church of God.
At regular planning meetings, writers and staff gather to coordinate their efforts in producing The Plain Truth. One point that Mr. Armstrong has made recently is that if we get too negative in everything that we do, the whole magazine reflects that and to a certain degree it only appeals to a certain number of people. I think we do need to keep a positive approach. Take the approach that Mr. Armstrong takes in his subjects — with his titles, with the way he hits it. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything that Mr. Armstrong has written that starts off in a negative vein. It always starts off on a high positive plane and carries you right through and makes you feel like — once you finish the article — there is purpose in life and that there are answers and solutions to your problems.
The editorial coordinating team must consider not only The Plain Truth for North America but also the content of the many overseas and foreign language editions. In terms of settling on subject matter for December — Clayton has already done the one on Christmas which will appear in the November/December international edition. Now when we’re thinking of the US December, we’re face to face with the international January because that’s the way our schedule runs. What do we think would be for the international area a good article? One of our ministers in charge of the Paris church told me how little — even in the major French newspapers — there is about news concerning Germany. And he depends upon the organs of the work even to inform him about important trends in the neighboring country right across the Rhine River. Could I make a suggestion that possibly for that issue — if it’s international — that we get some input from the international offices, maybe even assign them to write a section, a bureau contribution from those areas of the world, and we tie it all together and possibly even involve Mr. Armstrong’s trips that he’s taken over this last year — make it a kind of a wrap-up for not only news and events; we can make use of the datelines that we have. Right. Right.
Plain Truth: Global Printing Process
Developments in the last few years have revolutionized the printing industry. Advances in every aspect of magazine production are exploited to the full in doing God’s work.
Ten years ago, The Plain Truth was typeset with metal type. We had the most modern equipment, but it was still comparatively slow and cumbersome. Typesetting has changed remarkably since the days of hot metal type. The typesetter has gone from a manual machine with thousands of moving parts to a computer that can produce 8,000 characters a second. That means that all the print you see on one page of The Plain Truth magazine can be typed and lined up in about 5 seconds. The computer even blocks out spaces where photographs and other graphics will later be inserted. We have the capability to typeset a magazine or booklet in 12 different languages. Others could be added as needed.
Once a page has been typeset, it needs to be made ready for printing. This graphic arts camera photographs each page. Copies are also made of the photographs and other illustrations that will accompany the article. These negatives are then carefully assembled and this master page is duplicated and sent to our printers around the world.
The Plain Truth magazines for North America and several other areas are printed at the plant of R.R. Donnelley and Sons in Glasgow, Kentucky. The magazine is printed on some of the largest and most sophisticated presses in the world. The Plain Truth is printed from huge rolls, each containing about 8 miles of paper. It takes 300 rolls to print one edition of the magazine. If stretched out, the paper would reach nearly 2,400 miles. The paper passes through a 100-ft-long press at the rate of 1,200 ft a minute. 840 gallons of ink are used each month. The magazines are labeled and mailed directly from the plant in Kentucky.
Plain Truth: Reaching Millions by Mail
From the very beginning, the three-point program for spreading the gospel brought in a response. The first week of programs brought about 14 letters. The response continued to increase. And in 1935, a small office was rented in this building in Eugene. Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong read and answered all the mail. Now, thousands of letters a day are processed.
Once again, the best tools have been selected to make this job as fast, efficient, and accurate as possible. Mr. Armstrong also encourages listeners and viewers to call directly for the literature that he offers. It is one of the most important booklets that we have ever produced, and I would like to give it to you. There’s no follow-up or request for money.
Many people today would rather pick up a phone than write a letter. We get thousands of calls here every week. It can get really busy in here when Mr. Armstrong’s program has been aired in a major city like New York or Los Angeles. By using what is known as the Wide Area Telephone Service, or WATS line for short, most places in the United States can call free of charge.
The thousands of requests for literature must also be mailed out as quickly but as economically as possible. Mail going to members and co-workers in the United States is now sent from here — the postal department. The machines we have make it possible to send a piece of mail to every member and co-worker in the United States in just one working day. Today we are mailing out a special feast issue of Youth 81.
This machine puts a wrapper around the magazine, seals it, and attaches an address label. The machine needs only five people to operate it. All these magazines can be on their way to the youth in the church by this afternoon.
Also, we save the work hundreds of thousands of dollars by pre-sorting all the mail before we send it to the post office. Our address labels are computer printed in zip code order and the operators separate them as they come off the machine. So when we send the bags to the post office, most of the sorting has already been done. This saves the post office time and money, and they pass the savings on to us, cutting our cost from 35 to only 3½ cents per magazine. Even though the mailing list is many thousands of times greater than it was in the days of the little office in Eugene, these machines help maintain the personal service that Mr. Armstrong has always given to members and co-workers. The thousands of requests that come in for magazine subscriptions, literature, and personal help and counsel must be recorded and processed accurately. Many thousands of subscribers change their address each year. The support from members and co-workers must be carefully acknowledged and receipts sent. And the bills must be paid for the many goods and services supplied to the work.
Plain Truth: Computer Technology & Data
The many thousands of requests for information from all over the work end up here in the computer room at the Ambassador College Data Processing Center. And this is the computer — actually, a whole series of very complex and sophisticated electronic machines linked together. Here is where the millions of pieces of information are stored, remembered, and retrieved. Let me give you a quick tour.
These are the disc storage units. Do you see what looks like a stack of phonograph records? That’s more or less what they are — discs of magnetic recording material revolving 60 times a second. Information is recorded on them like on a tape recorder. Each stack of discs can hold the equivalent of about 60 million words. To give you an idea of what that means, the Encyclopedia Britannica has about 43 million words. We currently have 12 of these disc storage systems. When a terminal operator asks the computer a question — say to verify an address or to find out if a person is a member — it selects from these millions of pieces of information. The information is fed to the CPU, or central processing unit, over here. Here the information is organized and checked before being fed back to the operator who may be several blocks or several thousand miles away. But all this happens at the speed of light. It takes at most only two or three seconds for the operator to get the answer. Over here, the printers are turning out material at the rate of more than 1,000 lines a minute. Each of our printers can print labels for 45,000 Plain Truths an hour. And printing Plain Truth labels is only one of the many things the computer can do to serve God’s work.
It took some of Paul’s epistles many months to reach their destinations. Yet, in just minutes, copies of Mr. Armstrong’s letters and articles can be sent around the world. I am sending a copy of Mr. Armstrong’s latest co-worker letter to our German office. The facsimile machine — we call it the fax — works like a combination Xerox copier and telephone. First of all, I feed the letter into our machine.
Then all I have to do is dial the number of the office in Bonn. This activates the fax machine over there.
The printed word is changed into electronic signals which are transmitted by satellite to West Germany.
In the German office, their machine decodes the signal back into print and they have in their hands an exact duplicate of the co-worker letter.
Public Campaigns: Armstrong in Europe
Mr. Armstrong’s visits to the international offices and churches prove that his leadership is a vital link in God’s government that ensures that there are no divisions in the church and that the ministry and brethren around the world are perfectly joined together in the same mind.
Now, brethren, I give you the chancellor of Ambassador College, the pastor general of the Worldwide Church of God and God’s Apostle, Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong.
Well, greetings to all of you wonderful people from different parts of Europe over here. Now God has given me a very important message that is worth your coming for. You didn’t come to see me because what you see is nothing. You did come to hear a most important message. And it’s about time we begin to learn who the real God is. He’s not a God of Britain. He’s not a God of America.
He’s a God of the entire universe. What is wrong? I’m here to tell you this afternoon what is wrong. I will tell you. The new president of your country here in France can’t tell you what is wrong. But I will tell you because this book here tells me — because God tells us what is wrong. And we have to go back and find out what God said.
Well, greetings to all of you up here in Scotland. We’re a little late starting today because they wanted us to come out and see the camp for our teenagers, our youths. This church is taking a great interest now in our young people. They are the future adults and the future leaders in this church. You didn’t get into the kingdom of God just when you were baptized. That didn’t settle it at all. That was only the start. And we’re only at the start of an immortal life. But we’re not an immortal life yet. And we have to grow spiritually. You have to grow daily, daily, daily, and weekly. So continue to pray. Continue to study your Bibles. Keep your minds away from the world. Come out from among the world and be separate, says God.
And come on until we become the whole man ready for the kingdom of God. Well, that is the message I wanted to bring you this afternoon. Goodbye everybody.
Public Campaigns: Gulfstream Jet Travel
The early apostles would be astounded if they knew the distances and speed at which their modern counterpart can travel. God has made available to his apostle one of the most valuable and versatile tools of all — the Grumman Gulfstream Jet, better known as the G2.
Between trips, the jet is based in California at the Burbank Airport. Welcome now to Ambassador Flight Operations.
You know, this is really a fantastic aircraft. It is one of the most versatile tools that Mr. Armstrong has. It takes a lot of work to keep it flying. It’s a very safe aircraft. It’s got a long range. It’s self-contained. So he can land at most any airport. For instance, he could go to Cairo or he could go to London or he can go to the summer camp. It has its own electricity on board and air conditioning when sitting on the ground. It is such a great aircraft. The Fortune 500 companies — many of them in the United States — have this aircraft in their fleet. It’s the most prestigious of the business jets. So consequently, whenever he goes to an airport, when he goes to visit dignitaries and heads of states, when they see a man like this arrive and when the people see him, then they know there’s somebody of importance. And certainly it does carry somebody important because it carries the most important man on earth. With this aircraft, he can cover what a thousand apostles could cover because it will take him any place on earth, any place that he wants to go.
Public Campaigns: Preaching to Nations
The third part of the original three-point program was personal campaigns. Little could Mr. Armstrong have realized that these small public meetings in the towns and cities of Oregon would one day lead him to stand before kings and leaders of great nations and to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God to large audiences in cities many thousands of miles away from the peaceful Willamette Valley.
Mr. guest speaker in our country, you are most welcome in our country. Yours will not be a voice crying in the wilderness because there are thousands — nay, millions — of Filipinos who are willing to listen to you. Ladies and gentlemen, my dear friends, it is an honor and a pleasure to present to you an educator, a publisher, a lecturer, and a world leader, Dr. Herbert W. Armstrong.
Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. I have come to your country to make an extraordinarily important announcement. A staggering turn of events is going to erupt all over this world in the very next few years.
And you had better heed what I say. It will involve the Philippines, but even more violently, it will involve the Middle East and Europe and the United States. Now we’re living in a very complex, a very complicated world, a fast-moving world. We go places in a hurry. We talk to anybody, any place. And yet we’re having more troubles than anybody ever had at any time before. And we’ve come now to where our number one problem — in all of our troubles — our number one problem is human survival. Can we keep alive even? Or are the weapons of mass destruction going to be used which will wipe us all off the face of the earth? That’s the kind of time we have come to. All of our troubles and all of our problems are spiritual in nature. In other words, we’re breaking that law of love. And that’s a spiritual law. It’s a spiritual law that is as much in motion.
The Gospel of the Kingdom of God
It is as inexorable as the law of gravity. You break it, it’s going to break you. You don’t need a policeman around to catch you and take you to jail or take you before a judge in court either. The whole world has been breaking it and the world is suffering and all of our sufferings and all of our troubles are caused by breaking that law of give and by following the law of get — and that is the law of the living God.
And let me tell you — when Jesus Christ came, he came to preach a gospel. And that was the good news of the kingdom of God that is coming, and that’s what we proclaim. And he came preaching the gospel of the good news of the kingdom of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye.” Repent of going that wrong way. Repent of living the way of get and take and of selfishness and believe the gospel. The gospel of the world tomorrow. The gospel of a time — of a world — when God is going to send Christ back to this earth. And he’s going to take over every nation on the face of the earth. And the law of the whole world and of every nation will be the law of give and of love and not the law of hate and the law of get and the law of take. And we’re going to learn to live a different way. And we’re going to begin to be happy all over the world. Right now you’re hearing the proclaiming of the gospel of the kingdom of God.
You haven’t heard that before unless you’ve heard me preach before. You know you haven’t. But you can find it in your own Bible if you want to look there. It is there. And that is the gospel. And that is the only gospel. And you’re hearing it. It’s in your ears tonight. And don’t you ever stand in the judgment before your maker and say, “Well, Lord, why didn’t you tell me? I never knew.” He’ll say, “I told you — my servant Herbert Armstrong was there in Manila that night. He told you.”
Church Members Power the 3-Point Plan
God’s apostle continues to direct the three-point plan formulated almost 50 years ago. God has seen to it that his church has the resources and tools to finish the job. But we haven’t forgotten the most important resource of all. It’s you — and you — and you — and many thousands like you, the members of God’s worldwide church. It was members like you who supported Mr. Armstrong when he first outlined a three-point plan to the congregation at the Jean’s Schoolhouse. It was a work based on faith and prayers, and it still is. No machine, however wonderful — no computer, however advanced — can ever fill this need. God hears the prayers of his people. In spite of all the wonderful physical inventions that he has provided, the work of God is still first and foremost a spiritual work. It must be — and is — done by people who are led by the spirit and power of God. People like you who are willing to enthusiastically support God’s work.
In the 17th chapter of Exodus, God teaches a valuable lesson. Moses, God’s chosen leader, was instructed to hold up his hands over the armies of Israel as they battled the Amalekites. As long as Moses’ hands remained steady, the battle went in Israel’s favor. But Moses was only human, and his hands and arms became tired. When he let his arms drop, the enemy prevailed. So Moses’ two helpers, Aaron and Hur, supported his arms and the battle was won.
So today, God’s leading servant needs those chosen to help him to hold up his arms and to get behind him in finishing the great commission. Who are those helpers? Just ordinary people — a student, a businessman, a grandmother, a housewife. Ordinary people with an extraordinary vision. All kinds of people with something very special in common — the work of God. And so the body of Christ, fitly joined together by the strength which every joint supplies, and according to the effective working of every part, makes increase, and the work of God gets done.
Well, thank you, brethren. I just wanted to talk to you now just as one of you. I love you all and I know you all love me. Let us go on loving one another, being loyal to one another, and let us be bound tightly together until Christ comes. I hope I can come back to see you again. I hope to see you in his wonderful kingdom. And I hope we’ll all be among those brethren who will be resurrected to immortality just as he was. So I’ll tell you goodbye now until the next time.