Chapter Seven – The Liberal Years

Beginning in the late 1960s, the focus of Mr. Armstrong’s life, and in many ways that of the Church, changed dramatically. Previous to this time, Mr. Armstrong’s sole efforts and energies were devoted to leading, administering and guiding the Church and God’s Work in a very active “hands-on” way. He would periodically travel to visit campuses, regional offices or brethren in other parts of the world, but his attention was always exclusively on leading the Church and Work, largely from Pasadena.

Suddenly everything changed.

Mr. Armstrong’s friendship with King Leopold III eventually proved to be a door that led to meeting many world leaders and officials, in a way that Mr. Armstrong could have never dreamed or foreseen. Nothing in the first 35 years of the Church’s existence would have signaled to Mr. Armstrong what God was about to do. He could not have imagined that he would eventually meet such leaders as India’s Indira Gandhi, Israel’s Golda Meir, the President of Indonesia, the President of the Philippines, Prince Mikasa of Japan, Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, England’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the King of Thailand, and a great many others—over one-third of the world’s heads of state!

From 1970 until his death, Mr. Armstrong appeared before kings, queens, emperors, prime ministers, presidents and other heads of state and dignitaries. Yet he did not knock on their doors, requesting an audience with them—the great majority requested his presence. These unique contacts resulted in further arrangements for Mr. Armstrong to visit additional leaders.

Some may wonder why such dignitaries welcomed Mr. Armstrong’s visits. Consider that he was in his late-seventies, and later his eighties and nineties, and was a white-haired, statesman-like figure who carried himself with dignity, confidence and poise. From his early days in advertising, Mr. Armstrong recognized and understood how to comfortably interact with the successful, powerful and influential.

Mr. Armstrong did not visit with these world leaders, pleading for them to “just accept Christ.” He presented the gospel message in a way that was not syrupy or overtly religious. He simply put it in practical terms, telling them that there are only two ways of life—the way of get and the way ofgive. He would explain that, although mankind wanted peace, prosperity and true happiness, the only way these would eventually be achieved was through the way of giving, helping and cooperating with others.
Mr. Armstrong came to understand that these visits were part of the fulfillment of a special commission that God had long ago foretold to occur at the end of the age. Mr. Armstrong fulfilled the initial—or first—phase of a prophecy in Revelation 10:11: “You must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings”—similar to Paul’s commission: “…for he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15).

Coincidences or Miracles?

A number of “coincidences” strangely fell into place—one after the other—leading to numerous world leaders honoring Mr. Armstrong and giving him special attention and respect. At that time in his life, Mr. Armstrong’s carriage and experience presented a unique dignity that even world leaders were not accustomed to seeing.

Mr. Armstrong’s May 1971 Co-Worker Letter expresses how he saw these events develop: “I am able, now, to disclose to you privately and confidentially the almost unbelievable manner in which giant doors have been opening before me. As you know, one after another, the doors have opened for personal meetings with presidents, kings, prime ministers—and many other high government officials, in many countries around the world.”

The first “coincidence” developed in 1968, as described by Mr. Armstrong: “The wife of our office manager at Bonn, West Germany, happened to show a copy of the 1966 Ambassador College year book—The Envoy—to an industrialist friend in Brussels. He was much impressed by the book, and the high character of Ambassador students, reflected in their photographs and action shots. This industrialist happened to be a personal friend of King Leopold of Belgium. He asked if he might showThe Envoy to the King. The King was quite impressed, and said he would like to meet the founder and Chancellor of this unique high-character educational institution.”

Mr. Armstrong obliged his request. Over time, a friendship developed and King Leopold became very close to Mr. Armstrong, even accompanying him on some of his international visits that followed later.

The second “coincidence” took place shortly thereafter: “In September, 1968, our Dean of Faculties wanted Ambassador College to conduct an archaeological project at a location in Israel. I was personally not interested in such a project. But I consented to visiting Jerusalem to see whether permission could be granted from the government authorities.”

As the most important archaeological “dig” at that time, the project began from the south wall of the Temple Mount. The application of three major American universities to participate in the project had been rejected. But the “dig’s” leader, Dr. Mazar, offered a fifty-fifty joint participation to Ambassador College.

Upon inspecting the project, Mr. Armstrong was pleasantly surprised: “It was much more impressive than I had expected. I began to realize the scientific and educational value to Ambassador College. A luncheon was held in a private dining room in the Knesset—the government’s capitol building. Present at the luncheon were five high-ranking officials of both the university and the government. It was a most memorable luncheon. The favor we were given in their eyes—the warmth of their attitude toward us—was inspiring, astonishing, and most unusual.”

Dr. Mazar and Dr. Aviram, who was Dean of Hebrew University’s College of Humanities, visited the Pasadena and Big Sandy campuses, and were impressed by what they saw. Joint participation was made official on December 1, 1968.

“So that is the manner,” Mr. Armstrong wrote, “in which this vitally important leap forward in the Work was started. We have been given very great favor in the eyes of both government and university chiefs in Jerusalem!”

The third “coincidence” occurred on the heels of Mr. Armstrong’s initial reception in Israel: “After our mid-October meeting in Jerusalem in 1968…I caught a Pan Am round-the-world plane for Hong Kong and Tokyo, for conferences with advertising officials of Reader’s Digest. We had begun purchasing double-page advertising space in many editions of their magazine around the world. Arriving [at the] Tokyo airport, we were met by our…Chairman of the Department of Asian studies at Ambassador…He was acquainted with Prince Mikasa, brother of Emperor Hirohito. Unknown to me he had shown the 1966 Envoy to the Prince, and the Prince had expressed a desire to meet me…The Prince had asked me to be his guest at luncheon the following day…

“Also my acquaintance with Prince Mikasa led to my forty-five-minute private conference with Prime Minister Sato in December. Privately and confidentially, Mr. Sato requested me to go to Okinawa in February (the tension was too hot to go on the December trip). And I did go.”

Mr. Armstrong stressed that “private meetings with heads of state on this high level are something vastly different than a handshake with a crowd of tourists—or, for that matter, even magazine or newspaper correspondents. A magazine correspondent or editor may, on occasion, have a private conference with a head of state. But he does not meet the ruling official on an equal level.”

We are now ready to discuss “coincidence” number four, pertaining to Mr. Armstrong being given priority above senior American officials in his access to leaders:

“An interesting example of this, was an incident that occurred during a reception at the residence of the United States Ambassador of Nepal this past February…I had just returned from a visit with King Mahendra at the palace. We were hosting a dinner for important local men and their wives at the hotel that evening, but stopped off at the reception to which we had been invited.

“The Ambassador in Kathmandu [Nepal’s capital] happens to be a lady, and her husband is Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker at Saigon—U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam. He and his four or five chief assistants were in Kathmandu for the weekend.

“On learning that we had just come from meetings with the King, and with the Crown Prince the evening before—following meetings with President Giri of India, and Prime Minister Golda Meir of Israel—and on the previous trip with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India—at which time King Leopold was traveling with us—and that two days later we were to have a private meeting with the King of Thailand (Siam)—this government official looked puzzled, and asked, ‘Well how in the world do you do it? We’ve been trying for six months to arrange meetings with some of these people, and yet we haven’t been able.’ And they had the power and prestige of the U.S. government!

“I couldn’t tell him how I arranged these meetings—because I didn’t! Could you believe a Higher Power than the United States government opened these doors?”

Part of the fourth “coincidence” was that Mr. Armstrong’s good friend Dr. Singh, the official Secretary to President Giri of India, arranged to have Mr. Armstrong invited to visit Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, and to visit with King Mahendra.

Mr. Armstrong summarized these events in the following way: “And when you realize the doors have opened before me for eight such meetings in six months, you can believe it has been a series of providential or miraculous circumstances!”

Special Honor Presented by King Leopold

In November of 1970, King Leopold, with his wife, Princess Liliane, and their daughters, Princesses Daphne and Esmeralda, visited Mr. Armstrong in California:

“They were dinner guests in my home. After dinner that evening the King and Princess Liliane asked for a private talk. We excused ourselves from the other guests and retired to a private room.

“Then in subdued, solemn and hushed tone they told me that, after World War I had ended, the King’s father, King Albert, had visited one of the battlefields. He was appalled, and emotionally sick at heart at the realization of the human slaughter that had occurred there. It moved him deeply. He had one of the iron cannonballs remaining on the field melted and cast into four watch cases—pocket watch size—to encase four fine watches. It was his intention to present these to the four men whom he felt had made the most significant contribution toward world peace.

“World War I was the war supposed to ‘make the world safe for democracy’—the war to end all wars! King Albert therefore felt the chief generals and French Premier contributed most, and gave one watch to Field Marshal Foch, Supreme Commander-in-Chief over all allied armies. The second watch was given to General Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of all United States forces. The third went to Georges Clemenceau, Premier of France during World War I. King Albert apparently found no one he felt qualified for the fourth watch. It was passed on to his son, King Leopold to give.

“In solemn and subdued voice the King said he felt the fourth watch, in a red leather case now showing age, should go to me. Both the leather case and the watch are embellished with a gold design with a royal crown in the center.

“I feel it was the very highest honor the King could have paid anyone. Whatever contribution to world peace I may have made you have shared with me, and it has not been through war, but through education, teaching millions worldwide the way to peace! And I believe King Leopold feels, and that he saw here, that we have set an example by the real peace that we do have on our three campuses! He has visited both the Pasadena and English campuses.”

Mr. Armstrong concluded this explanation by presenting an overview of where God was leading: “Co-Workers, something very great is being accomplished through this great Work, in which you and I are both privileged to be Co-Workers. It is a greater power working through us that is producing peace, and happiness, and abundant well-being in ever-increasing thousands all over the earth! And truly, this Work is leading the way into world peace!”

This new phase of the Work eventually resulted in Mr. Armstrong having personal contact with fully one-third of the world’s heads of state. This meant that, through the 1970s, Mr. Armstrong spent the vast majority of his time away from the Pasadena headquarters, furthering the gospel by taking it to world leaders.

In spite of the obvious instances in which God opened the doors for this new phase of the Work, certain senior ministers, greatly lacking in vision—including uninformed elements of the membership—privately felt that these international visits were little more than high-powered “autograph hunting.”

Few, it seemed, could see and keep their focus on the big picture in the way that Mr. Armstrongalways did!

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