Early Beginnings

May 7, 1899, was the date of the first issue of a new Sunday school paper called “Messages of Love” begun by Mr. J. T. Armet and his wife. It began, “Our Dear Little Friends: If the Lord permit, we hope to have a paper like this one for you every week, telling you of God’s love to this world of sinners. What could be more wonderful to tell you about than the love of God, and that love being towards us when we had no love for Him.” By God’s good hand, that paper presenting God’s love and salvation has been continuously published from that day to this. Later the Armets began a bookstore at 1112 Taylor Street, St. Louis, Missouri, which they called Bible Truth Depot, to distribute, as the name suggests, Bible truth through periodicals, books, pamphlets, hymnbooks, tracts, and (more important than all the rest) the Word of God.

Bible Truth Publishers

By 1947, brother Armet had been with the Lord for over twenty years and sister Armet was ready to pass the work on to others. A non-profit corporation was formed and given the name Bible Truth Publishers with the purpose of carrying on the good work that the Armets had begun and to add to the scope of the work by also becoming a publisher of the works of sound Bible teachers, stories illustrating Bible truth, and the biographies of those whose faith we are to imitate. In 1951 the work was moved to Oak Park, Illinois, and, in 1977, to Addison, Illinois. Many around the world have come to know Bible Truth Publishers (or BTP, as it is often called) through the Joyful News and Wallet Calendars, now printed in over thirty languages. These gospel messengers were added to BTP’s list of printing projects early in the 1970s.

Current Desire

As it began, so the work continues with the desire to share God’s good news with the lost and God’s truth for the whole church of God. We present “God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3-4).