Change at the Worldwide Church of God On May 7, 1997, the World- ered about him a small group of men was made president—and continued wide Church of God (WWCG) was who were as willing as he was to the same modernist stance, on down voted into membership by the Na- make changes. to the present time. tional Association of Evangel- One by one, they discarded ear- Yes, 1995 was indeed the bomb- icals. Eighteen months earlier, lier teachings. At first, they worked shell year for WWCG. Large numbers their leader, Joseph Tkach, Sr., slowly. Articles hinting at changes of believers forsook the denomina- the successor of Herbert W. began to appear. New pastors were tion. Church headquarters went into Armstrong, had publicly repudi- appointed, who had been trained by a crisis mode, but refused to reverse ated the necessity of Sabbath- teachers willing to follow different itself. Leaders refused to turn back. keeping and obedience to the Law paths than those blazed by Arm- They adamantly pressed forward in of God. strong. their objective. But what was it? The There are lessons here for Books by Armstrong began go- people in the pews who were leaving those in our own denomination, ing out of print. His picture came could not understand what was hap- in view of the fact that our own down from where it had hung in pening. However, lax members who denomination is, in books and WWCG churches and schools. had hankered more for the world publications, openly repudiating Leaders, teachers, and pastors loved it. Now they could obtain di- the Bible Sabbath and obedience were discovering the books of out- vorces more easily and still retain to God’s law as being involved in side theologians. Pluralism was in; their church membership. They the plan by which we are saved. historic beliefs were old-fashioned. could get a job on the Bible Sabbath In just nine years, from 1986 to and not be kicked out. People were When Herbert W. Armstrong died 1995, the denomination had been free to live without being hampered in 1986 at the age of 92, Plain Truth nearly remodeled into a new image. by any Biblical rules. They were editor, Greg Albrecht, recalls stand- But, with each step away from the saved by grace! ing by his grave at the funeral, won- historic beliefs, members left and Like many in our own denomi- dering what would happen to the formed independent groups. Some nation, the more worldly WWCG church. united in larger splinter groups. members loved the opportunities for “He is dead now,” Albrecht said, All this sounds so much like what loose living, they no longer had to “and that began a giant upheaval in we are going through. bother with enabling grace; they only my worldview.” Then came the final blow: Tkach, wanted forgiving grace. So powerful had been Arm- Sr., came out openly in the Plain Sin as you like, they were told. strong’s influence, that, for a short Truth and denied the necessity of Heaven is your home. You were saved time after his death, some of his fol- Sabbathkeeping as having anything on the cross by Christ, and all you lowers kept vigil by his gravestone, to do with salvation. need to do is verbally accept it. You expecting to see angels come down, He wrote that Christians were do not even need to pay tithe any- resurrect him, and escort him to now living under “the new covenant,” more. heaven. and no longer needed to obey the law Does all this sound familiar? It Joseph Tkach, Sr. had been of God. ought to. Our denomination has been handpicked, by Armstrong, to take When Joseph Tkach, Sr., died in following a parallel course for a far over the leadership. He quickly gath- 1995, his son, Joseph Tkach, Jr., longer time than the Tkachs. 2 Waymarks When those faithful to historic determined today to take us out into when that time comes. positions were told they need no ecumenical Protestantism and We can be thankful that Ellen longer obey God’s law, pay tithe, or Pentecostalism, as were the Tkachs White’s books are all out-of-copy- keep the Bible Sabbath, droves left and their associates. right, and anyone can now print the church. Finally, on May 7, 1997, the WWCG them. Gerald Flurry, of Edmond, Today much of the 30-acre Pasa- was voted into membership by the Oklahoma, pastor of an offshoot dena church headquarters is empty. National Association of Evangelicals. WWCG church which remains with A security guard and receptionist are This was an astounding event, com- Armstrong’s earlier positions, has re- the only people visible on the mas- ing only eleven years after the death printed Armstrong’s 1985 book, Mystery of the Ages. sive first floor of the administration of Herbert W. Armstrong, who once But, in Febru- hall. Other buildings are shuttered, castigated the Catholic Church as the ary of this year, the WWCG filed a and the great reflecting pools outside Babylonian whore of Revelation, copyright lawsuit to forbid Flurry Ambassador Auditorium are dry. whose daughters were the Protestant from distributing it! They do not want All three universities are closed, churches. the public to learn or accept the his- the television programs have been David Briggs, of the Associate toric beliefs of the denomination. discontinued, and the monthly cir- Press, said it this way: Similar persecution could come culation of Plain Truth magazine, “How great a change is this? You to Advent believers. Spirit of Proph- which once was free to 8 million, is can’t compare it to the Mormons’ ecy books have already been burned now a paid 125,000. decision to give up polygamy to as- in some areas. Annual income has dropped from similate with American culture. In- We live in momentous times. $200 million to $50 million, and stead, it would be more like the Mor- Read the Bible and Spirit of Proph- membership has plunged almost in mons suddenly becoming Baptists!” ecy as though your eternal life de- half. (Associated Press release, June 22, pended on it. For it does. Dixon Cartwright, publisher of 1997.) Only a small stone marker, The Journal, an independent publi- Eighteen months earlier, their tucked in a nondescript corner of the cation which keeps close tabs on the leader, Joseph Tkach, Sr., had pub- Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, various Churches of God, says that licly repudiated the necessity of California, denotes the burial place three major breakaway denomina- Sabbathkeeping and obedience to the of the writer/speaker who used ra- tions have formed (one is called the Law of God. —Only eighteen months dio and television to build an inter- Global Church of God), and the num- to make a complete changeover! national church, complete with three ber of informal splinter groups Just think how fast changes will universities and a magnificent 50- throughout the world numbers over be made when the National Sunday acre headquarters in California. a thousand. Law is enacted, and you—and our But other men came in afterward; Sound familiar? We may be look- leaders—could share prison cells for and, in eleven years, they effectively ing at our own future. There are lead- keeping the Bible Sabbath! Changes abolished all that he had done. ers in our denomination who are as will be made in the blink of an eye Herbert Armstrong’s teachings are far differ- a “flash depression.” On his 25th birthday, he married ent than ours. His came from human reasoning; Loma Dillon, his third cousin. Moving to Oregon when ours came from the God of heaven. he was 30, he began advertising for laundries. By 1926, But there were similarities, just as the mem- he was making $1,000 a month; but then that failed, bers of the Worldwide Church of God were led away when the advertising was assigned to a national ad by modernists from obedience, by faith in Christ, firm. to the Ten Commandments; so our people can be That same year, his wife told him she found that led away also. the Bible said people should keep the commandments Yet it would be of interest to know more about of God. This was a startlingly new thought to Herbert. the background of Armstrong’s denomination. The very idea that his wife would have such “reli- Here is a brief, and surprising, overview: gious fanaticism” and keep the Bible Sabbath was in- tolerable to him. His words describe him as a man Herbert W. Armstrong was born, in 1894, into a who was proud and very sure of his astute abilities: Quaker family in Des Moines, Iowa. By the age of 16, “I thought I could not tolerate such humiliation by his own account, he “was burning with desire to go . Why, what would my friends say? What would somewhere in life—to become a success!” When he be- former business acquaintances think!”—H.W.A., Au- came 18, he began a three-year stint as advertising tobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, Vol. 1, 1967, and promotional man, writing copy for the Merchants 282. Trade Journal in Des Moines, Iowa (1912-1915). Mov- “ ‘I will give you just one more chance, before we ing to Chicago, his advertising career ended in 1920 in separate and get a divorce,’ I said. ‘I don’t know just Change at the Worldwide Church of God 3 where it is, but I know all these churches can’t be rope. Because he taught Anglo-Israelism, he became wrong! I know it’s in the Bible that we are to keep popular wherever people of English descent lived Sunday! I’ll give you this one more chance, before throughout the world.