The Future of The Prophecy Letter

Dearest Brothers and Sisters,

It has been over a month since the last Prophecy Letter was distributed over the globe. We know the sad news concerning our Brother Harold Lafferty has been widely dispersed, but we desire to ensure that all are properly informed. “There is a great man fallen this day in Israel” (2 Samuel 2:38). Our beloved Brother Harold now awaits the resurrection, having fallen asleep in Christ this past December.

The news was a shock to the entire Household. When it was shared, the extent of the loss was difficult to absorb. Even at this present time, we cannot say that the numbness has completely subsided. The Household mourned and will continue to mourn the loss of an incredibly spiritual, knowledgeable, and inspirational Brother.

Brother Harold had spent all of his days laboring diligently “in the Master's service”, as he would often say, exhorting and expounding upon the Word of the Lord, most prominently PROPHECY. As all know, he invested his skill and great knowledge of God’s Word into his newsletter and website - The Prophecy Letter.

When Brother Harold fell asleep, there was great concern among many brethren that all of his labor with the website would be lost. A great many feared what might happen to The Prophecy Letter.

A few weeks before Harold's falling asleep, he had suffered a fall in his home which placed him in the hospital. Prior to this, he had given some thought to a successor for the website, indicating that it seemed prudent at his age of 93 years old. The fall shook him and caused him to begin more avidly seeking one out. The following is an excerpt from an email he had sent to a Brother after his fall:

“I took a headfirst fall down our stairs on the 11th of December and spent three days in the hospital due to a severe forehead injury… All that focuses my attention more on this: I need to appoint a successor for my work. I've been giving it a lot of thought and think I have a good candidate in young Tanner Hawkins of Southwest Missouri. I've not approached him on this yet but I think it's now good time to talk with him about the possibility of bringing him on board as an associate editor with a clear path forward. He is grandson to Bro. Jim Washeck, current Editor of the Advocate.”

Brother Harold had not yet reached out to us, but he had also revealed these plans to the Editor of the Advocate around this same time. It was from two different brethren that we later learned of Harold’s intention.

We have revered Brother Harold as among the Pioneer brethren. His vast knowledge, love, and dedication for God and His Word made him a truly inspirational Brother. It is difficult to describe how humbling it was to learn of his plan to bring us onto The Prophecy Letter with a view to taking it over one day – an offer we would have gratefully but timidly accepted. Though we held frequent conversations with Brother Harold regarding prophecy and latter-day events, we relish the very thought of having been able to work alongside and learn from him. After discussing the matter of succession with Brother Harold’s family and numerous other Brethren, we have inherited Harold’s website and works. It is our purpose to ensure that Brother Harold’s charter will continue until that day that our Lord returns to raise him up. "For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest" (Isaiah 62:1).

We seek, however, not only to preserve Harold’s work, but to continue and expand its scope to encompass not only prophecy, but all aspects of God’s Truth. We have therefore created a new website entitled The Gospel Proclamation, where both of Brother Harold’s websites have been reproduced under the heading eTPL so they may continue their service to the Household. The Prophecy Letter will forge ahead.

We will continue the work of expounding the Word of the Lord and providing frequent, sporadic updates regarding latter-day prophecy. As we are continuing Harold’s work, we have decided to call our prophecy updates The Gospel Proclamation Prophecy Letter, abbreviated as TGP Prophecy. We have sent out two Prophecy Letters this past week and will be resending them for the sake of those who were not on the mailing list at the time, so please forgive us for the redundancy.

We humbly invite all to peruse the new website and submit any questions or comments you have. Our contact information is posted at the bottom of every email we send. The Gospel Proclamation website is new, so it does not presently contain many articles, but will grow with time as did Brother Harold’s.

We cannot compare ourselves to the man who performed the work before us, but we assure all that the effort will receive our greatest, most rigorous attention and energy. We aim to “strengthen the things that remain” to the end that we all might “be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ" (Revelation 3:2, 1 Peter 1:7). We humbly and fervently pray for the Lord’s great help in this task before us and hope that the days of all of our laboring might be short.

In the One Hope of Israel,

Tanner Hawkins