Victims of Our Own Success

Beginning next month, there will be a change in the number of Tomorrow’s World magazines that you receive each year. Let me explain how we at Tomorrow’s World are the victims of our own success.

Success is not the same for everyone. For many, it means living a happy life, which is often considered to be a life with enough money to do the things one likes to do. For some, this includes marriage and children, leading to grandchildren. For others, it means “climbing the corporate ladder” or attaining celebrity status. In my message to you last month, I discussed the meaning of life. What greater success can there be than discovering and fulfilling God’s purpose for your existence?

On a different level, we must ask what success is for Tomorrow’s World. Most enterprises look at the proverbial bottom line—the more sales, the greater the income, the greater the success. But here at Tomorrow’s World, we measure success differently. Success, to us, is how many magazines we can give away, how many people we can reach with the truth of the Bible—and that truth, by the way, is not what most people think. More broadly, success for us is doing the Work that God has called us to do. That is to preach the good news of the coming Kingdom of God and to warn the world of what will surely come to pass unless there is a massive turning-around to move in a different direction. We see no evidence of that change.

Devoted to God’s Truth

Truth, in our postmodern world, is often seen as fluid. We hear it said that “your truth is not my truth.” It is true that not everyone’s perception of truth is the same. But truth is truth, and it is not left up to each individual to determine. We don’t construct bridges or build airplanes based on someone’s perceived truths of engineering. While there are varying designs, there is no “fluidity” in what works and what does not when it comes to engineering, math, and a host of other subjects.

The rub comes in when discussing human behavior. Morality is easier to argue than aerodynamics, and people are more than happy to promote their own perception of moral standards. If we are the result of blind chance through evolutionary processes, then anyone’s ideas might be correct. But, even when it comes to human behavior, some things work and some do not.

For example, a faithful, monogamous marriage between a man and a woman works far, far better than the many “alternative” arrangements suggested today. Activists Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen were arguably the men most responsible for selling acceptance of homosexuality to America and the world, and their landmark work, After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the ’90s, provided a virtual road map to the new sexual morality of our time. Yet in many ways their work acknowledges that much of what they saw in homosexual behavior was flawed. They admit, “Relationships between gay men don’t usually last very long…. [The] romantic pairing of man with man [is] inherently less stable than the pairing of man with woman. (Sorry if the truth hurts.)” (p. 318). Compared to heterosexual couples, they conclude that “surely the cheating ratio of ‘married’ gay males, given enough time, approaches 100%” (p. 330).

All of our attempts to define right and wrong on our own inevitably make life worse for humanity, not better.

Only God can define right and wrong (Psalm 16:2). Only God determines the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:9–10). Only God will prevail when the story is fully written (Revelation 11:15). Tomorrow’s World—through our magazine, weekly telecasts, booklets, DVDs, CDs, Bible Study Course, and more—is committed to proclaiming the truth of God as contained in His word.

What Is Changing and Why

At the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdowns in March 2020, we expected donations to drop, and I expressed this in a letter to members of the Living Church of God and our coworkers, the sponsors of Tomorrow’s World. They responded generously as they were able, and we were very thankful for their loyalty and support so that all could continue receiving our resources free of charge.

But something unexpected occurred over the next two years. A man with a large estate named us in his last will and testament, and other special donations came to us as well. We suddenly found ourselves in the best financial condition in our history, and we did not want to take our ease and sit idly by while the world came apart. We planned to draw down these reserves by expanding the Work. We immediately prioritized the magazine, and the number of subscribers more than doubled, from 301,000 in January 2020 to 615,000 by January 2023. At similar financial cost, in 2021 we increased the number of issues per year from six to ten.

Of course, at the same time, we seek a large readership rather than simply a large subscribership. So, wanting to be fiscally prudent, when we do not hear from someone—for example, no requests for any booklet for three years—we want to know if that subscriber is still interested in our material, so we ask that he or she renew the free subscription. If a subscriber does not reply to the free renewal offer, we stop sending the magazine. Over time, we decreased the renewal period from three years to two years, which is why the number of subscribers has dropped below 600,000 in recent months. The magazine remains free of charge to all subscribers, and always will—as Jesus Christ commanded, “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8). However, we want to know that each subscriber actually wants the magazine.

We also hired several needed personnel in television production and editorial and increased our budget for buying time on television stations. However, we now recognize that the time has come to put the brakes on spending. Printing costs and postage costs have increased significantly. Even small increases there add up when more than a half-million magazines are involved, and four extra issues per year are no small matter when you also double the number of subscribers. This is why we are going back to publishing Tomorrow’s World six times per year, beginning with the September-October issue.

In many respects, we are victims of our own success. We are thrilled to see our subscription list double. We are pleased to have increased the number and quality of the television stations airing Tomorrow’s World. We are thankful for the new hires who contribute to the quality and output of our work. We are thankful that, for the better part of two years, we were able to increase the number of magazines sent to you. And despite having to slow down on some spending, we continue to move forward.

As most of you readers know, mankind is headed in a very bad direction. The world is in geopolitical turmoil as old alliances are falling apart and new ones are forming. Some believe the opening shots of World War III have already been fired, as brought out in our April-May 2023 Tomorrow’s World issue, the cover of which asks, “Has World War III Already Begun?” The United States and other countries are descending into a financial abyss, the consequences of which will be devastating. Europe is in crisis, and it is out of crises that charismatic, decisive, “strongman” leaders arise to offer their “solutions.” Such ideologues and even dictators may appear as saviors at first—but, as we know from history, their bids for power do not always end well. Bible prophecy reveals that an end-time political leader and a charismatic religious leader will bring destruction in the near future.

We must not fail to proclaim the good news that Jesus brought of the coming Kingdom of God (Luke 4:43; Mark 16:15)—and we must not fail to warn mankind “and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter” (Proverbs 24:11).