Dear Brethren and Co-Workers with Christ,
Greetings from Charlotte, NC! My friends, really bad weather is just ahead! The weather forecasters here in America tell us that several potentially dangerous hurricanes are predicted to strike the East Coast of the United States this late summer and autumn. They may do huge damage. Why?
In the western United States, the increasing drought is causing massive wildfires to break out in many places—even near huge population areas in Southern California. And a number of news reports have come out describing the growing “dust bowl” conditions in much of the Southwest—causing thousands upon thousands of farmers to suffer heavily and causing many to consider leaving the farming profession for good. Again, why?
Also, the idea of same-sex “marriage” is growing across America and in many other so-called “educated” nations. Even as I write, the United States Supreme Court is debating how much to get involved in “approving” this practice of same-sex marriage. And now, our government agencies have “approved” the distribution of the “morning-after pill”—even giving young girls only twelve to fourteen years old the opportunity to purchase this pill without a prescription and certainly without any parental approval whatsoever! Now, obviously, the young girls and boys can go ahead with their fornication with more peace of mind and the young men will probably not feel the need to take protective measures—thus greatly increasing the incidence of venereal disease and AIDS! We are certainly making “progress,” aren’t we?
Meanwhile, lawsuits and investigations are mounting as countless instances of governmental and corporate corruption are being exposed. Increasing numbers of liars and thieves are at the highest levels of our society and are causing growing mistrust of governmental and corporate leaders. And they are costing American taxpayers billions of dollars!
Do you, personally, “connect the dots”?
My friends, these seemingly different problems are all part of a Big Picture described by the real GOD of the Bible. For He—and He alone—actually controls the weather. Ultimately, it is not “Mother Nature” but Almighty God who is in charge of the weather. The lying, the thievery and the massive corruption of our entire society—and all our growing sins—contribute to the fact that Almighty God will intervene in the weather to punish our nations unless we repent. Most of you brethren and co-workers already believe that, I am sure. Yet, in the hurly burly of our daily activities, it is easy to forget how involved our Creator is in both our national and personal lives. How involved He is in causing bad weather. How involved God is in the soon-coming enormous earthquakes and the horrifying disease epidemics soon to come. And how involved Almighty God will be in the ultimate destruction of our rebellious society if we continue to turn away from the true God—the God who reveals Himself both in His awesome creation and in the inspired Word of the Holy Bible. We in this Work of the great God are continuing to reveal to increasing millions of people the reality of that true God and the totality of His awesome power.
Remember, Almighty God caused His Son Jesus Christ to describe the conditions just before the end of this age. Jesus said, “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences [disease epidemics], and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:7-8).
In a dual prophecy given to our forefathers—which not only refers to ancient Israel but to our times today—God warned us powerfully: “But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, I also will do this to you: I will even appoint terror [terrorism] over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it” (Leviticus 26:14-16).
We today certainly do as a nation “despise” God’s statutes and His laws. We are slowly but surely turning away from almost every vestige of biblical Christianity! And so God tells us that—if we continue to disobey—“I will break the pride of your power; I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. And your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce” (vv. 19-20). We have already seen the national power and prestige of the British-descended and American peoples go down and down. Even in my lifetime, I have seen the once-powerful British Empire be dissolved. I have seen how the American people are slowly but surely losing their national prestige and the national confidence and sense of purpose—and the “pride of power”—we once had. It is happening! It is all part of God’s prophesied warnings to our people that they are to obey Him and keep His commandments and statutes, or else genuinely bad weather, fires, earthquakes and disease epidemics—plus other catastrophes—would all begin to occur and bring them down. So we, as genuine Christians, must learn to “connect the dots.”
All these things are part of God’s supreme purpose to teach humanity that our own ways and the fruits of our human reasoning will be broken. Only if we turn to God our Creator and obey His laws and ways will we be blessed with good weather, world peace and prosperity—and all the things human beings genuinely want. As you see the terrible things beginning to take place which I have just described descend upon the British and American peoples, then know that God is real, know that your Creator is in charge and that it is He that is bringing about all this because of His specific promises to do so and because of His desire to “shake” our peoples to an awareness of our own sins and finally—in His time—to bring us to genuine repentance for our own good.
There is one Work on this earth which is proclaiming this inspired warning and the full message of the coming Kingdom of God with increasing power. This is that Work! Most of you are very aware that God has continued to bless the Living Church of God in very meaningful ways as we continue to dedicate ourselves to the Great Commission of preaching the return of Christ and the soon-coming Kingdom of God on this earth. However, there are some self-appointed “prophets” or “apostles” who make big claims and, at the same time, throw around erroneous accusations. Brethren, as the senior evangelist remaining in the true Church of God, let me share with you just a few brief statistics and comments that should help illustrate that we not only remain the spearpoint of the Philadelphian Work, but also that God is continuing to greatly bless this Work. All of the glory and honor goes to God for opening these doors because, as we all know, it is God Who opens doors for His Church (Revelation 3:8). In addition to the Tomorrow’s World magazine circulation surpassing 400,000, many of you co-workers and brethren may not know that the Tomorrow’s World television program is aired on more than 220 stations, not including the massive new Russian satellite network which is comprised of four separate satellites giving us worldwide coverage in the Russian language! This television coverage creates thousands of literature requests and inquiries every single week—often 5,000 or 6,000 or more!
Additionally, our English, French and Spanish-language Tomorrow’s World Web sites reach multiple millions of people every year and continue to experience rapid growth; with major new Web site upgrades planned for later this year, which will increase the effectiveness of our Internet presence even more! Additionally, as many of you know, our Social Media efforts continue to experience explosive growth! YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are vital ways to reach millions and millions of people who may not otherwise find us on television or by “classic” Internet searches. The numbers speak for themselves. For example, our main @TomorrowsWorld Twitter account is increasingly active and is followed by more than 31,000 people. Additionally, our main Tomorrow’s World Facebook page posts and ads have a total reach of more than 26 million unique people! And, as you can see, our main Tomorrow’s World Facebook page currently supports more than 53,000 unique Facebook fans, with weekly views to the page topping over 1 million on any single day! In fact, some of these Facebook “wall posts” generate hundreds of thousands of views for a single post. For example, a recent post about our upcoming online Tomorrow’s World presentation (scheduled for June 30 at 3:30 p.m. EDT) was read by more than 605,000 people!
The Internet and Social Media are increasingly major ways that we can reach millions and millions of additional people with the True Gospel—ways we can encourage people to think about the meaning of life, what the Bible really says about God, our ultimate destiny, the end-of-the-age and the return of Christ, how to have a happy marriage, and the other many vital Truths that many of you have come to understand because of this Work.
My friends, as we approach the termination of this present society, all of us who have been given precious understanding by Almighty God really do need to stir ourselves and do everything we can to “reach out” to our fellow man and warn our peoples before it is too late. As Almighty God tells us in His Word: “Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, ‘Surely we did not know this,’ does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?” (Proverbs 24:11-12).
As God looks down from heaven, how much are you, personally, sacrificing in order to get His final warning message to our peoples? How zealous are you to do all you can to support the very Work which the living Christ is using to preach the full message of His coming Kingdom and His way of life to this world? As I have just demonstrated in this letter, your tithes and offerings are being put to very good use in preaching the Gospel—and this Work has more direct impact than any similar work on earth today! We do thank God—for all credit goes to Him! But we do need to “stir ourselves,” and be able to get on more stations and preach this message with ever greater power so this crazy, mixed-up world begins to feel the real impact of this Work of God before it is too late. May God help every one of you do his or her part. At age 83, I am trying to “go all out,” myself, to give of myself in getting God’s message to the world which He has commanded us to do. May each one of us demonstrate our zeal for our Creator by getting fully involved in the Work of the living Christ right now!
With Christian love,
Roderick C. Meredith