“Sharing the Word of the Lord”

PT

“Sharing the Word of the Lord”

Continuing a legacy that keeps proving it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Next week, the organization that sponsors this website—the Philadelphia Church of God—will celebrate its 19th anniversary. For nearly two decades, we have been headquartered in Edmond, Oklahoma. During that time, we have grown from a mere handful of supporters in 1989 to a globe-encompassing work that now reaches millions of people.

Many of these people have become aware of our work because of our weekly Key of David television program, presented by my father and pastor general of the church—Gerald Flurry. Since its humble beginning on wgn in 1993, our coverage has expanded to include 190 other stations throughout the United States, Australia and Canada. In the U.S., so far this year, our call center has received over 135,000 phone calls from Key of David viewers.

As one of the most popular religious programs on television, the Key of David program has generated nearly 1 million viewer responses over the years. Not once in more than 500 episodes have we asked for money over the air.

The Philadelphia Church of God has also produced a storehouse of literature—hundreds of booklets, books, pamphlets and magazines. Last year, we distributed nearly 4 million pieces of literature for free.

Much of this material is also made available on this website. Over the last few months, theTrumpet.com has been setting numerous records for overall traffic. In October, we reached a new high with 545,000 hits on our site. This month, we have already surpassed that figure and are on pace to eclipse 600,000. Added to that, the magazine version of theTrumpet.com is sent monthly to more than 280,000 subscribers worldwide.

One of our most popular pieces of literature is still Mystery of the Ages—a book we have given away free to more than 20,000 recipients just this year.

We obtained the copyright to Mystery of the Ages, as well as the copyrights for four other books, 15 booklets and a 36-lesson Bible correspondence course after a grueling six-year lawsuit with the Worldwide Church of God. Raising the Ruins, which we are running serially in the Trumpet magazine, details the story of this David-and-Goliath struggle.

Drawing upon official reports, internal memos, court depositions and personal interviews, Raising the Ruins reminds readers that Herbert W. Armstrong was recognized and respected by leaders in government, industry and education around the world. Until the time of his death in January 1986, he was pastor general of the Worldwide Church of God, editor in chief of the Plain Truth magazine and weekly presenter on the World Tomorrow television program.

After he died, however, the Worldwide Church of God, which Mr. Armstrong founded in 1934, denounced him as a heretic and rejected his teachings. As a result, church membership plummeted. More than 70 percent of his followers were driven out or excommunicated from the Worldwide Church of God due to sweeping doctrinal changes. Ambassador College, the World Tomorrow program and almost all of the Ambassador Foundation’s projects are now no longer operational. Gone also is the world-renowned concert series held in the magnificent Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, California. The Plain Truth magazine circulation, which topped 8 million free copies per month in the late 1980s, has shriveled to a minuscule fraction of what it once was and now carries a subscription price.

When these doctrinal changes were in their early stages, Gerald Flurry, an ordained Worldwide Church of God minister since 1973, became alarmed and plunged into a yearlong study of the Bible to find the cause of the betrayal he was witnessing. The result was a book titled Malachi’s Message to God’s Church Today. In 1989, nearly four years after Mr. Armstrong’s death, Mr. Flurry was excommunicated from the wcg for continuing to believe and teach what Mr. Armstrong taught.

This is what led to the establishment of the Philadelphia Church of God that same year, the Trumpet magazine in 1990, the Key of David program in 1993 and Herbert W. Armstrong College in 2001.

The establishment of the college has brought hundreds of students to Edmond from all over the world, including India, the Philippines, Colombia, England, Australia and the Netherlands. It is largely through the college and its cultural arm, the Armstrong International Cultural Foundation, that the church has been able to continue Mr. Armstrong’s legacy of sharing God’s way of life with our local community and the world at large.

Over the last two years, the college has provided the archaeology department at Hebrew University in Jerusalem with funding and volunteer laborers in support of the excavations of Dr. Eilat Mazar. Upon completing our second phase of digging with her team in October, Dr. Mazar sent me this note of thanksgiving to pass along to our church and college:

This is an opportunity to thank your father, the Philadelphia Church of God and Herbert W. Armstrong College for the great contribution to our excavations of the City of David. … You and I both know that you have established a very rare relationship in which the students of the college are so highly and significantly involved in all aspects of the excavations. I look forward to continuing this relationship for many more years to come.

Besides the Jerusalem dig, for several years the church supplied funding and volunteer teachers to two handicapped schools in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Here in Edmond, our college’s Young Ambassadors have performed concerts for local elementary schools, community clubs, assisted living residences and at Fourth of July parades.

In 2005, the college’s Choral Union gave its first-ever public performance, together with members of a local professional orchestra and other professional soloists.

For several years now, our local concert series has brought world-famous artists to Edmond from all over the globe, including the Canadian Brass, Vienna Choir Boys and the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet. Just last week, we hosted the internationally known 5 Browns to a sellout crowd. The concert series, which is heavily subsidized by the church, is open to the general public here in Edmond and the surrounding communities.

Earlier this year, when we announced at a King’s Singers concert that we were moving forward with plans to construct a new $15 million performing arts center in north Edmond, the locals spontaneously broke into a lengthy and spirited applause.

These many and varied endeavors of the Philadelphia Church of God all trace back to the profound and positive impact that Herbert W. Armstrong’s ministry had on Gerald Flurry and the legions of faithful followers who now support this work.

Commenting on Mr. Armstrong’s ministry shortly after he died in 1986, President Ronald Reagan said, “Mr. Armstrong contributed to sharing the word of the Lord with his community and with people throughout the nation. You can take pride in his legacy.”

From the very beginning, it has been Herbert W. Armstrong’s legacy and work that has served as a constant model for every project and activity at the Philadelphia Church of God’s world headquarters in Edmond. Like Mr. Armstrong, our ministers and members are dedicated to living, sharing and proclaiming the way of life God describes in crystal-clear detail in the pages of His inspired Word—the Holy Bible.

It is the way of togetherness, cooperation and love—of continually striving to put God first in our individual lives and to love our neighbors as ourselves. It’s a way of life that strives for godliness in all things—particularly in our dealings with other human beings. It is one that promotes marriage and family, upholds God’s commandments and the laws of men and upbuilds communities.

It’s a way of life filled with robust activity, rigorous accomplishment and exciting opportunity—and one the Prophet Isaiah said will soon spread over all the Earth.

Our work is about sharing that way of life now! This is why we do not ask for money on our television program and why our many magazines and publications carry no subscription price.

There is, however, a substantial cost in “sharing the word of the Lord,” to use President Reagan’s words. This work is made possible by the tithes and offerings of the membership of the Philadelphia Church of God and others.

So, on this weekend of gratitude and thanksgiving, we offer these appropriate and well-deserved words to our tens of thousands of faithful, enthusiastic, generous and most encouraging supporters, who come from all over the world and who, with God’s help and backing, make this globe-encompassing work possible:

Thank you!