“We are very far from achieving a free and just society,” declared former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet. She was speaking recently on the subject of “Social Protection for a Fair and Inclusive Globalization” at the UN’s International Labor Organization.

One wonders if the former president is aware of the history of an unofficial ambassador for world peace being invited to visit Chile to share the keys to establishing just such a “free and just society” with her nation’s leadership almost 40 years ago.

It may come as a surprise to find the Chilean door to preaching the Matthew 24:14 gospel of God’s coming government was opened in India! Herbert Armstrong wrote, “[A]t New Delhi we were entertained twice at the home of the executive secretary to the president, Dr. Singh—and there we met two or three maharajahs, and the ambassadors from Chile, Argentina and Sudan, and we received invitations to visit their countries in South America and Africa” (co-worker letter, March 26, 1972).

From these invitations received while engaged in that trip to India, a bevy of world capitals were geared to hear the gospel message via public appearance campaigns featuring Mr. Armstrong—including in Santiago, Chile. Sadly, political events too often interfered with these arrangements coming to fruition.

Yet thousands in Chile did hear the gospel witnessed over radio and in the pages of the Spanish edition of the Plain Truth magazine, and hundreds responded, their lives changed and blessed as a result.

By late 1970, President Salvador Allende had become the only Marxist-Communist to have been elected in the country by democratic election but without a majority. As such, he governed a coalition including both the Socialist and Communist parties. At President Allende’s personal invitation, Mr. Armstrong traveled to Chile in August of 1973 for a meeting at the presidential palace.

“The day I arrived in Chile’s capital, Santiago, to see the president was a Friday, which happened to be a national holiday,” he wrote Plain Truth readers in January 1974. “The next day the president was fully occupied with overturning his own government, firing his entire cabinet and appointing new cabinet members. My conference with him was tentatively scheduled for Monday. Emergency happenings involved with the crisis in his embattled government caused him to leave the city. He got word to me, asking if, under the circumstances, he could meet with me by proxy, asking the chief of protocol to represent him in a meeting with me.”

Three weeks later, choking under the grip of long-failed attempts at finding the paths to prosperity and facing collapse in all spheres of its society, Chile was on the cusp of civil war. On Sept. 11, 1973, military commanders and police collaborated in a coup, code named Operation Seaweed. Troops surrounded the La Moneda Palace, ordering Allende to resign and offering safe passage to international exile. He refused, and a bloody gun battle ensued. Four hours into the coup, silence fell, along with the president. Herbert Armstrong recounted, “[H]e was assassinated by a machine gun in the very room where I had the meeting” (ibid, Nov. 5, 1975). Ironically, Augusto Pinochet, who had been promoted by Allande to commander in chief of the Chilean Army less than a month previous, succeeded in toppling his Marxist boss, assuming the reigns of power himself effective immediately.

“Never has there been a year like 1973,” Mr. Armstrong noted. “Stop and consider a moment! Four governments overthrown in the one year. I had indirect personal contact with three of them—Afghanistan, Chile, Thailand [and Greece]” (ibid, Jan. 27, 1974). Communicating the urgency needed to dispense the gospel as a witness, he emphasized, “Such government overthrows have prevented my planned campaigns in South Vietnam, Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Chile. I have said before, we must move from now on as swiftly as possible, for nations are being continually overthrown where we have made progress in planning campaigns” (ibid, Aug. 21, 1975).

In August 1981, millions worldwide read in the Plain Truth magazine an article titled “Chile—Up From Chaos!” which reported, “Strained ties between Washington and Santiago, in turn, increased the Allende government’s reliance on the Soviet Union and Cuba.”

It wasn’t until Sept. 19, 2000, with the release of the “cia Activities in Chile” report, that confirmation came of U.S. involvement in the affairs of Chile. The report noted, “[T]he U.S. administration’s longstanding hostility to Allende and its past encouragement of a military coup against him were well known among Chilean coup plotters who eventually took action on their own to oust him.

“The overwhelming objective—firmly rooted in the policy of the period—was to discredit Marxist-leaning political leaders, especially Dr. Salvador Allende, and to strengthen and encourage their civilian and military opponents to prevent them from assuming power.”

Pinochet ruled until 1990, at which time he stepped aside, remaining head of the military for another eight years. At the point of his death in 2006, there existed approximately 300 criminal charges pending against him related to financial misappropriation and human rights violations. Chile’s history underscores man’s inability to rule himself, which has existed from the garden in Eden till this day.

Yet, through his contact with its heads of state, ruling elites and international representatives, Mr. Armstrong did witness to Chile by personal example as God’s unofficial ambassador for world peace with his message about the hope for a very different authority to the governments of man.

“Governments promise peace—but bring wars,” wrote Mr. Armstrong. “They promise benefits for the people, and then extract from the people the cost of the benefits plus excessive costs of government. Government promises are empty. The people are the pawns who fork over the money, in order to get a part of it back. We fail to find in human government any knowledge of life’s purpose, or dissemination of the true values” (The Wonderful World Tomorrow).

What lies ahead for Chile? It is today one of the most thriving economies in Latin America, possessing strong links with the European Union and a religious heritage that is heavily linked to Rome. Yet vast disparities still exist between rich and poor in this nation. What are the chances of it finally achieving “a free and just society” and enjoying millennial blessings as forecast in Isaiah 2, 11, 30 and 35?

Herbert Armstrong gave this vision of the future for all nations: “Christ, the King of kings. Perfect in character, absolute in honesty, integrity, faithfulness, loyalty and trust; filled with outgoing concern for the governed—their welfare and salvation; total knowledge, understanding, wisdom. Complete love, mercy, patience, kindness, compassion, forgiveness. Yet, possessing total power, and never compromising one millionth of an inch with His perfect law—which is the way of love. He will enforce God’s law—God’s government on Earth. He will compel haughty, carnal, rebellious humans to yield in complete submission to God’s government” (ibid).

That vision is further magnified in Gerald Flurry’s captivating booklet Isaiah’s End-Time Vision. You won’t find a more inspiring, far-reaching vision in all the Bible. It pictures a beautiful and peaceful Earth. The vision reaches out into the universe.

You’ll want to study that must-read booklet The Wonderful World Tomorrow—What It Will Be Like to understand more about the return of Christ and the establishment of the utopian rule of God’s Family.

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