Cyprus is in crisis.

Sinking in debt, already bailed out by the Russians to the tune of over €2 billion, now the first order of business commanding Cyprus’s current half-year European Union presidency has been to request 5 billion again from Moscow and 10 billion from the coffers of Europe’s central bank.

Even as its million or more residents clutch their euros with great expectations of redemption from their fiscal sins, the Cypriot government knows that its strategic location in the eastern Mediterranean has great bearing on its negotiating position amid the present crisis.

The recent capture of a suspected Hezbollah terrorist acting on behalf of Iran in the Cypriot capital of Nicosia further fans the flames of regional tensions and underscores the geopolitical importance of this nation for various national groups as a bridge to Jerusalem.

The current leadership in Cyprus is probably unaware that 30 years ago in a stunning 1980s World Tomorrow television program, recorded shortly after visiting Cyprus, Herbert W. Armstrong told his millions of viewers worldwide why he was continuing to meet with heads of state:

I go as an unofficial ambassador for world peace … and yet I am actually the ambassador of Jesus Christ, who is the coming head of state over all nations.As a minister of Jesus Christ, many people ask, well what do I talk about when I talk to the heads of nations? Well, we talk about world conditions, about problems that they have, and their solutions. The causes of events. …That was the message God Almighty sent by Him—the causes of these troubles, the way out of these troubles and the final solution and the bringing in of world peace. And that’s what I go talking about.

Christ Himself, on the Sabbath day, taught such a message when He first came, and people were astonished at that doctrine of the coming Kingdom of God (Mark 1:21-22).

Mr. Armstrong was so stirred by the Cyprus trip that he devoted the entire television program to identifying the importance of the visit and sharing the reaction of perhaps one of the most astonished heads of state at the Matthew 24:14 gospel.

In a private meeting in Nicosia, acting President Georgious Ladas greeted Herbert Armstrong, stating, “It was very kind of you to come and see me.”

Mr. Ladas was a member of his country’s Democratic Party. His academic studies in law, politics and economics took place in the Greek scholarly center of Athens. He was elected president of the House of Representatives of Cyprus in 1981.

At the outset of the meeting, the unofficial ambassador for world peace spoke of the current troubles facing the Cypriot nation, noting, “It all gets back to the roots of civilization.”

The give and get way of mankind in his man-made 6,000-year civilization was recounted by Mr. Armstrong and agreed upon by the acting president.

Discussion then centered upon the biblically prophesied seventh resurrection of the medieval Holy Roman Empire combining both church and state in Europe, dominating the world.

“I tell you,” Mr. Armstrong declared to Mr. Ladas, “the God of all of our religions is going to step in supernaturally, by supernatural power, and is going to shake up this world, and is going to bring about such a condition that He is going to change the nature in us.”

He recounted how human nature will have to change, and mankind will start to work together in unity and cooperation.

He identified the problems in the Mideast as an example of man’s inhumanity to man and then touched on the problems of the West Bank. He recalled his friendships and meetings with Israel’s Prime Minister Begin, Jordan’s King Hussein, and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak.

“And they know,” Mr. Armstrong commented, “those on the Arab side know that I’m friendly with those in Israel. And those in Israel know that I’m friendly with the Arabs. I am just not going to have this kind of fighting. I am going to have cooperation, and I’m trying to bring that about, but we poor humans are not going to do it by ourselves.”

He then detailed for Cyprus’s head of state the history of the fallen archangel Lucifer, aided by his demons, and his rebellious, deceptive broadcasting into the minds of man the attitudes of animosity and the get way.

What was Mr. Ladas’s reaction to this powerful recounting of God’s gospel message? Silence? Hostility? Anger?

“Thank you very much for telling me all of these things I knew nothing about. This is a quite different aspect of the problems of the world, purely religious, which as a matter of fact I never thought about it. It is something entirely new. That aspect which you put before me today, here is something new for me. But I will have it in mind, and I will give it much thought”—to which Mr. Armstrong responded by thanking the acting president.

Concluding the World Tomorrow program, the unofficial ambassador added that there was more he shared with the Cypriot leader that day in Nicosia, and that Mr. Ladas actually asked for additional material on the subject. Prior to the television broadcast, the unofficial ambassador sent him a copy of a particular booklet.

What was that publication? It was written by Mr. Armstrong and titled Never Before Understood: Why Humanity Cannot Solve Its Evils.

At the conclusion of that booklet, now out of print, readers were offered a free enrollment in the Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course.

Trumpet editor in chief and Armstrong College founder and chancellor Gerald Flurry led the Trumpet’s sponsor in a six-year court battle to regain, republish and redistribute this vital course in revelatory biblical understanding after its removal from circulation by its original publishers.

The Herbert W. Armstrong College Bible Correspondence Course has served over 50,000 students worldwide with the prophetic truth behind global events, along with the very gospel message of mankind’s purpose and the impending establishment of God’s Kingdom.

Enroll today, and like the Cypriot head of state, prepare to be astonished at the life-changing power contained in this vital course.