At 10 a.m., June 13, 1984, Herbert W. Armstrong was driven through the streets of Paris to the West German Embassy for a meeting with the ambassador to France, Franz Jochen Schoeller. He was accompanied by the news editor of the Plain Truth magazine, Gene Hogberg.

Schoeller had served embassy missions to France, Italy, Tanzania, Spain and Iran, as chief of protocol in the German Foreign Office, and latterly as top diplomat to France and Poland. “The ambassador had been called to a meeting and he asked his assistant, Nils Grueber, to meet with Mr. Armstrong …” (Worldwide News, June 18, 1984).

“When Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Hogberg began discussing the Plain Truth, Dr. Grueber said he was a subscriber and pulled out the June issue of the magazine. That edition featured a personal from Mr. Armstrong about the true Church, prophetic articles focused on honesty, science, earthquakes, the Nordic and Scandinavian countries, Europe and the Church, along with the second installment of the editor in chief’s booklet, A World Held Captive.

“After discussing the magazine Dr. Grueber turned the discussion toward the problems and strengths of the international relationship between France and the Federal Republic of Germany. After the hour-long meeting, Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Hogberg drove to Le Bourget Airport for the noon departure for Vienna, Austria” (op. cit.).

With a print circulation larger than Time or Life magazine, the Plain Truth was a household name in publishing. Its circulation of 8 million reached all corners of the globe. As with the example in Paris, Mr. Armstrong was reminded of the publication’s impact when meeting with diplomats, ambassadors, prime ministers, presidents and royalty.

The magazine was produced and written with its worldwide audience in mind. It captured the documented approach of the Apostle Paul who became “all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22). As a trained advertising specialist, Mr. Armstrong well understood the necessity to use “all means” to reach the largest audience possible.

Through television, radio, advertising and personal appearances, he spearheaded the advancement of the publication which began so humbly, printed by hand on a mimeograph in a small office in Eugene, Oregon.

It was not a copy cat news tabloid, rather as its motto declared, an international magazine of understanding, analyzing world events in the clear light of Bible prophecy. Mr. Armstrong ensured its writers were well educated, traveled and experienced in the prophecies that make plain God’s supreme purpose for mankind being worked out here below.

“This is indeed a high point in my life,” Mr. Armstrong stated after being presented with a commemorative plaque on the 50th anniversary of the Plain Truth. The event was videotaped and later broadcast on the World Tomorrow program in 1984.

By this time, the mass circulation magazine was printed in seven languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian and Norwegian. Through the power of God-inspired targeted and regular advertising, it had grown to reach into 213 countries and territories crossing six continents. These editions were printed in the United States, Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

At that 50th anniversary presentation, Mr. Armstrong addressed the magazine’s printing staff of R. R. Donnelley. “But I want to say that printing, and the printing business, has been the whole lifeblood of knowledge and education in the world. We had virtually an illiterate world until 1450, when Guttenberg invented the printing press. And the printing press has made possible the diffusion of knowledge.

“Now today we live in a world of absolutely awesome progress and that couldn’t be without knowledge and technology. And a diffusion of education and printing has made that all possible. And I just wanted all you to realize the type of profession you’re in, what it has meant to humanity. Now we have both truth and error, we have both good and evil in the world. But, whatever good can be disseminated, it’s disseminated pretty largely by the printing press, and that diffuses education and gets knowledge to the millions where previously it was only the very select few. I thought you might not just think on something of that kind all the time, and you’re in that kind of business and profession, I think all of you would like to have me say those few words” (ibid).

Since first attending the Philadelphia Church of God in 1991, I’ve had the opportunity to serve in our regional offices in Australia, New Zealand and Britain, along with over a decade at our Edmond, Oklahoma, headquarters. My employment experience began in mail processing, then moved to publishing, broadcasting, advertising, and latterly the field ministry across the United States.

With the pcg’s growth, we have witnessed the astounding advancements of the Internet and globalized communication. Continual observance of the pinpoint accuracy of God’s inspired reach of the Trumpet, initially in print and now also online, remains an inspiration.

I recall that humble two-page inaugural black-and-white edition of the Trumpet, which Gerald Flurry boldly called a magazine. As the publication has grown and matured over the past 2½ decades, my travels have placed me in a position to observe the Trumpet in the hands of many people from various countries. Our readership transcends domestic postal services and news stands to reach the ever increasing international audience consuming their media via wireless smart phones and tablets accessing the Internet superhighway.

Perpetuated over the past two decades by the Key of David broadcast, and at times targeted recurring advertising, I’ve personally seen the publication in the hands of people in homes, businesses, hotels, airports, planes, trains, boats and automobiles, across the oceans of the Pacific, North Sea, Mediterranean, Atlantic and Gulf Coast.

As Mr. Flurry has written in his booklet on Haggai, God has established His end-time type of Elijah as a “signet”—an inspired path we are to emulate today prophesying again the gospel message (Haggai 2:23; Matthew 24:14; Revelation 10:11). We cannot underestimate the God-directed reach and impact of God’s documented prophecies. Our collective daily prayers for the Trumpet are not confined to any one geographic location. Our God is a globally minded God.