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The Myth and the Man:
Documentation regarding the history of the ministry of
Herbert W. ArmstrongThis information about the ministry of Herbert W. Armstrong is part of the Field Guide profile Herbert W. Armstrong -- The Myth and the Man.
The following is from a list of questions regarding Armstrong's ministry. To see the other questions on the list, click on the link at the end of this page.
Q. 9 There may have been problems in later years, but wasn’t Ambassador College at one point "God’s College," created by the miraculous intervention of God and the boundless faith of its founder, Herbert W. Armstrong?
Introductory comments on the documentation to follow:
If Ambassador College (AC) was considered nothing more to its supporters and students than "another religious school," a place for "church kids" to go instead of to their local state university so they wouldn't be exposed to the evils of evolution and porno novels in English class, then there would be no need to investigate its history.
If it was just another denominational college where young adults forged friendships, made memories ... had a "good time"... and learned some good stuff and prepared for a career while there, there would be no impetus to question "what went on there" so long ago and far away.
However, AC was "sold" to tens of thousands of tithe-paying, sacrificial-offering-paying, True Believers as "God's College." Based on "God's Ways." Training "God's Ministers." Led by "God's Apostle" and "God's Leaders." Preparing young adults to be the "cream of the cream," to go back to local congregations of the Radio Church of God (later the Worldwide Church of God) and be the leaders of the "Church Today and the World Tomorrow."
There are many folks—including AC graduates—who honestly want to know ... Was it really "God's College"? Do they owe allegiance to those "ministers" who were trained at "God's College"? Must they continue, even after the institution is gone—allowed by God to crumble— to give allegiance ... and tithes ... to those trained there by "God's Apostle"? And do church leaders of groups descended from the Worldwide Church of God have the "right" to demand loyalty ... and tithes ... from folks as the "inheritor" of the mantle of the man who created "God's College"? Was it created by the miraculous intervention of God and the boundless faith of its founder?
You are invited to view the following "Coworker Letters" sent out by Armstrong to his followers during the period when the college was being instituted, and come to your own conclusions. (All CAPITALIZATION for emphasis was in the original letters.)
Coworker Letter August 1947
Co-Workers, the work of God stands AT THE CROSS-ROADS! It is in it's greatest crisis. The fate of Ambassador College hangs in the balance. We have not more than TEN DAYS to get STARTED on the structural changes, or it will be TOO LATE to start the college this year. The crisis is NOW! We are all going to answer in the judgment for what WE do, each of us, as OUR part in this crisis, NOW! God surely blesses those who serve Him well! NEVER has this work so direly needed large and generous offerings of $1,000 and up to MANY thousand dollars. Several of you are ABLE, if you permit God to make your hearts willing. Lay up treasure in heaven, while you may, and see how God blesses you for it! And, again, NEVER has the need been so great so that the widows' mites will help so much as now. Let each give as God has prospered and made possible, generously, even at sacrifice, as you are able -- and PLEASE RUSH IT AIR-MAIL, in the enclosed envelope!
Was that true? Will folks "answer in the judgment" for how well they responded to a financial appeal from that man in 1947?
Coworker Letter October 1947This means EVERY SINGLE CO-WORKER MUST NOW STRETCH TO THE VERY LIMIT OF SACRIFICE AND SELF-DENIAL, in a supreme effort, with me, to raise this money at once. We must ALL pitch in, to the limit of our ability! I must now ask YOU, and EVERY single co-worker, to rise to the supreme effort to send in the very largest sum you possibly can, as a very special emergency gift for this great work at this time. It's WORTH sacrificing for! This world is marching on at a faster and faster pace toward IT'S DOOM! ...
... few of our co-workers have helped us up to now by LOANING us money they have felt they could not GIVE ... One has borrowed money on some property he owned, and we are making the payments to him to pay his bank, as the payments and interest come due. Some have sold bonds, or securities, and loaned us the cash, to be paid back in the manner that fits the needs of each one in each case. We need now to borrow several thousand dollars more on this basis....
If you can LOAN the work anywhere from one to ten thousand dollars—or even $500 or less, please SEND THE MONEY AT ONCE AIR- MAIL, stating in your letter how you wish to be repaid—whether beginning now, or a year or two or more from now—whether by the month, or quarter, or how -- and in what amounts each payment. If you want interest, tell me what rate. As a minister of Jesus Christ I must say to you that God, in His Word, forbids Christians to receive interest from Christians—the whole interest and usury system is condemned in the Bible. But Israel was permitted to PAY interest, and even to RECEIVE it from Gentiles, so a Christian can PAY it if demanded, or receive it from a non-Christian, if he deems that circumstances warrant. I could never RECEIVE interest from any of you, but God does permit me to PAY it if you, after I have mentioned this Bible teaching, desire it—so just state your own wishes in the matter. So if you can borrow money FOR us on some security you have—on property, or on securities or other investments—or if you have bonds to sell, or savings you can put to work for God, getting it back, if and when you need it, please send the money at once by return mail, stating how you want it repaid, and I will immediately make out a note binding our corporation to repay it on whatever terms you state, and mail it to you. And WITH it, send the largest offering you can GIVE.
Coworker Letter December 1947
YOU, dear Co-Worker, are not going to be permitted to enjoy your home, your freedom, your present privileges and pursuits, many more years. Just a few more years—perhaps six or seven—perhaps twelve or fifteen—and a re-united Fascist-Nazi Europe will STRIKE—America's great cities will be blown out of existence in one night without warning...
I tell you, ON THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS CHRIST, IT IS COMING! Many of you NOW, are in financial condition to DO A LOT MORE than you are doing for GOD'S CAUSE—to help me get out this Message over the air, and in print—to help me train and prepare talented, able, consecrated young men and women for THEIR part in soon carrying this vital message to THE ENTIRE WORLD—into EVERY NATION!
One consecrated co-worker and his wife are mortgaging their home in order to place a few more thousand dollars in this mighty work that more millions may be warned! At first I shrank from accepting money under such conditions -- but when we remember that in a few years NONE OF US will be living in our present homes—EVERYTHING material we possess now will be swept away from us, and we shall then be either in that haven of safety under God's divine protection, or else dead or in slavery worse than death—and when we consider further that this brother and his wife are not deprived of their home, but merely PUTTING IT TO WORK FOR GOD'S GREAT CAUSE, while they enjoy it and live in it, too—then it appeared in a different light, and we could do nothing but accept it, to use it for God's honor and glory...
TIME IS SHORT! It is fast running out! Soon we shall come to the time of the prophesied FAMINE OF HEARING THE WORD OF THE ETERNAL—the time when world forces will no longer PERMIT the preaching of God's Truth!
No man can know exactly how long. This much we DO KNOW—it is now NEAR, even at the very doors, according to prophecy—it will strike DURING THIS PRESENT GENERATION—it cannot now be more than A FEW YEARS...
I know that TIME IS SO SHORT, there was not enough time to delay the opening of AMBASSADOR COLLEGE even one more year. That is why God moved with MIRACLES to make the IMPOSSIBLE happen for us, so we could start, as we did, this fall!...
This work needs your greatest sacrifice—it needs all you and every other co-worker can give. It needs MORE than you can give—it still needs the LOANS from many who are in position to put money they may need later INTO GOD'S WORK where it can be WORKING FOR GOD until needed, when we can pay it back. Especially do we need more LONG-TERM, and LARGE loans—that is, of from one to ten thousand dollars—even more, over a long period, not to be paid back for two, three, five years or more.
Was it true in 1947 that "in a few years NONE OF US will be living in our present homes—EVERYTHING material we possess now will be swept away from us, and we shall then be either in that haven of safety under God's divine protection, or else dead or in slavery worse than death—"?
No matter how "sincere" Herbert W. Armstrong was in his pontifications at that point, he was dead wrong. And all those people who mortgaged their homes to support the beginning of Ambassador College because they believed his false prophecies that there were only "five to seven... or fifteen" "years to go"... sold their own family's future financial security for an illusion.
Was it, after all, "God's College"?
Unless otherwise noted, all original material on this Field Guide website
is © 2001-2006 by Pam Dewey.Careful effort has been made to give credit as clearly as possible to any specific material quoted or ideas extensively adapted from any one resource. Corrections and clarifications regarding citations for any source material are welcome, and will be promptly added to any sections which are found to be inadequately documented as to source.
Pam Dewey
Pam Dewey
Pam Dewey
