Current effects of

The Myth of

Herbert W Armstrong

This information about the ministry of Herbert W. Armstrong is part of the
Field Guide profile Herbert W. Armstrong -- The Myth and the Man
which is part of a larger profile of the Worldwide Church of God under founder Herbert Armstrong.

 

 

Herbert W Armstrong (HWA), founder of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG– it was originally called the “Radio Church of God”–its name was changed in 1968), died in 1986 after a ministry that lasted over fifty years.

A large proportion of the people who were at one time members of the Radio Church of God or the Worldwide Church of God, and who have retained their belief in most of the basic doctrinal teachings of Herbert Armstrong, belong to hierarchical church organizations (each with its own strong central authority) which still use the Myth of Herbert Armstrong as a major foundation of those organizations.

The leadership of these organizations regularly invoke the memory of Armstrong in order to bolster their own credibility and alleged spiritual authority. They may note that their ordination to a ministerial position within a church hierarchy was done at the hands of Armstrong. They may claim to be leaders in an organization which, by their definition, holds most closely to the teachings of Armstrong. They may boast that they are the only ones capable of effectively continuing or "finishing" the Work that Armstrong established. They may even claim a spiritual calling specifically by God to an inheritance of the "mantle" of Herbert Armstrong as Head of The Church, or as the "Elijah-like" Prophet of the End Time.

All of these uses are intended to maintain their influence and control over the membership of their respective church organizations.

IF Herbert Armstrong was not what he claimed to be, and what others credited him with being... the Apostle of God's Only True Church on Earth, and the Elijah of the End Time... then the credentials of the leaders of these other organizations are based not on the Rock of Jesus Christ, but on the shifting sands of  a Myth.

 

Those who are members of such organizations might wish to find out which of these is the reality... the Man or the Myth. That is the purpose of the section of this Field Guide website addressing the history of the WCG and HWA—to provide adequate documentation so that others might conclude for themselves the truth about this matter.

The Church of God group whose leader, Gerald Flurry,  makes the most sweeping claims of being the heir to the role of Herbert Armstrong is the Philadelphia Church of God. This organization is particularly exclusivist, and thus not much documentation on Flurry's most outrageous claims is easily accessible through the Internet from which to draw quotations for this page. Suffice it to say that he uses his record of extreme faithfulness to the memory of HWA as his main drawing card to attract members. He has created a college named “Herbert W Armstrong College.” He has created a charitable outreach named the “Armstrong International Cultural Foundation.” He has purchased a variety of items from Armstrong’s own now-defunct Ambassador College to adorn his own Oklahoma headquarters. And he even hauled a large rock all the way from Oregon to Oklahoma to feature it as a shrine … it was mentioned by Armstrong in his Autobiography as a rock next to which he knelt to pray at some significant time in his early ministry.  

Following are quotes from leaders of other split-off groups from the WCG which frequently  invoke the memory of HWA, although none quite as avidly as Gerald Flurry. The organizations to which each of these men originally belonged have split a number of times in recent years, and the top leadership has shuffled between splits. Thus by the time the reader sees these quotes, the authors may be in a different organization than when they wrote these items. This little sample was pulled together in 2004, but nothing has changed within the groups who claim to be continuing Armstrong’s “Work.”   Armstrong’s son Garner Ted Armstrong has since died, but his organization still refers to the legacy of Herbert. And the rest of these men still use the same tactics in dealing with appeals to members in whatever group they find themselves.

(For an overview of some of the ministries that have “spun off” the old WCG, see WCG Family Tree.)

 

Les McCullough     Ministerial letter of 6/19/98:

   I am not Mr. Armstrong nor do I in any way consider myself in that category. I do however have the responsibility to inform all of you and the brethren of the problems we face. To help keep a focus, I am going to quote part of an article from the 1968 Good News: "How often just in the course of this past year have we had to read such words as ‘delay,’ ‘postpone,’ ‘fail,’ ‘go backward,’ and ‘MOUNTAINOUS SETBACK’ in the Member and Co-worker letters? Time and again Mr. Armstrong has been forced to use such words to describe the lack of progress in God’s work...."

   How I wish this letter wasn’t needed. Perhaps we need to remember Mr. Armstrong’s cocking of the gun for the greater push forward.

Rod Meredith Letter of November, 1998:

   Remember, the Bible NEVER speaks of "Government by Committee." Rather, as Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong explained again and again, God has ALWAYS worked primarily thorough one man—Moses, David, Peter, Paul, etc....

   However, brethren, I know personally that thousands of you DO CARE about the Church governmental structure. You do want to have and to follow a strong, dedicated leader. You do want that leader to basically follow in the footsteps of God’s apostle, Herbert W. Armstrong.

 

A Personal Perspective on Governance. David Hulme, August 1998:

   They wanted to see strong central direction and a continuation of the work on the pattern established through Herbert W. Armstrong, with use of mass media including printing and broadcasting....

   I would like to quote some comments from a man whom I have come to respect even more highly in recent months. Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, Volume 1, pp. 411-412:..     

   In the early years of his own organization, the Church of God, International, HWA's son Garner Ted Armstrong did everything he could to distance his reputation from that of his father. He was highly critical of his father's methods as absolute dictator of the Worldwide Church of God. But in later years, especially since his own ouster, over sexual scandal, from the CGI, even GTA began speaking in a positive way about his father's ministry. By the time of his death in September 2003, he seemed ever more willing to use the reputation of Herbert W. Armstrong to enhance his own ministry, the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association and its affiliated church organization, the Intercontinental Church of God.

 

Press release from Garner Ted Armstrong giving his background, March 1998:

   Armstrong, 68, is the son of the late Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of the "Worldwide Church of God" of Pasadena, California, and Ambassador Colleges, with three campuses: Pasadena, California; Big Sandy, Texas, and Bricket Wood, St. Albans, Herts., England. The elder Armstrong died at age 93 in 1986.

 

Ad for a booklet in 2011 on the website of the late Garner Ted Armstrong’s “Intercontinental Church of God.”

The Long Tradition of Prophetic Insight and Accuracy

This end-time Work of the Watchman has a well documented history and tradition.  It began with Herbert W. Armstrong some 70 years ago.  All involved or familiar with this Work know of his lifelong contribution, and of the long and productive Work of Garner Ted Armstrong.

[This particular “invoking” of the memory of the Myth of Herbert W Armstrong is particularly humorous since Herbert disfellowshipped his own son, Garner Ted, in 1978 from the Worldwide Church of God in an acrimonious split. They were estranged from one another from that point until the death of Herbert in 1986. And for the first few years that Garner Ted was out of the WCG, he had very little good to say about his father … and a whole lot of very bad to say. But in the later years of his life–Ted died 9/15/03–he found himself with such little personal credibility that he began using his father’s reputation of the past in an attempt to bolster his own. His son Mark, who inherited GTA’s ministry after his death in 2003, obviously understands also how necessary it is to appeal to the memory of the Myth of HWA in order to give GTA’s legacy more weight. As the old saying goes, HWA would likely “turn over in his grave” at this turn of events.]  

 

Back to HWA Questions Page

 

Unless otherwise noted, all original material on this Field Guide website
is © 2001-2011 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.

Return to Top of Page and the Navigation Bar