Herbert W. Armstrong

Herbert W. Armstrong

Herbert W. Armstrong (July 31, 1892 – January 16, 1986) was the founder of the Worldwide Church of God, Ambassador College (a private university), a broadcaster, a publisher, widely known as an "Ambassador for Peace", and (through the Church and the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation) a promoter of the arts, humanities and humanitarian projects.

As head of the U.S.-based church which he founded (essentially in 1933), Armstrong was a controversial figure. The Church's doctrines and theological teachings, called by some Armstrongism, were the result of his interpretation of the New Testament (particularly in regards to prophecy and the mission of the modern church) as well as the Old Testament (observance of the Sabbath, health laws, etc.) which were markedly diverse from those of other mainstream Protestant or evangelical churches.

Armstrong’s life span ranged from the horse and buggy era through the World Wars to the nuclear age, and his belief that world events during this span mirrored Bible prophesy, indicating a soon-coming return of Jesus Christ "…reflects a broad and important social [trend] in American society",[1] as one historian put it.

Background

Herbert Armstrong was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on July 31 1892, into a Quaker family. He regularly attended the services and the Sunday school of First Friends Church in Des Moines. At age 18, on the advice of an uncle, he decided to take a job in the want-ad department of a Des Moines newspaper, the Daily Capital. His early career in the print advertising industry which followed had a strong impact on his future ministry and would shape his communication style.

On a trip back home in 1917, he met Loma Dillon, a schoolteacher and distant cousin from nearby Motor, Iowa. They married shortly thereafter (his 25th birthday on July 31, 1917) and returned to live in Chicago. His career in advertising began to take off (with his earnings exceeding the equivalent of USD 200,000/year in today's currency). On May 9, 1918, they had their first child, Beverly Lucile Armstrong, and on July 7, 1920, a second daughter, Dorothy Jane Armstrong. In 1924, after several unforseen business setbacks, Armstrong and family moved to Eugene, Oregon where his parents now lived. He continued in the advertising business despite the setbacks.

Armstrong's wife encounters Church of God (Seventh Day)

Once in Oregon, his wife, Loma, began spending time with Ora Runcorn and other members of the Church of God (Seventh Day). It’s worth giving considerable attention to whom and what this church was historically, as much as can be discerned from the record of history.

This small Sabbatarian church (observing Saturday as the Sabbath) traced its history back to the Apostles, a belief as evidenced by the book A history of the True Religion Traced From 33 A.D to Date by A. Dugger and C.O. Dodd — both members of the Church (Armstrong later commissioned additional research into the history, resulting in A True History of the True Church, by his underling Herman Hoeh). Its history in America went back to Stephen Mumford’s Seventeenth Century congregations in Rhode Island, and from there, in reverse order chronologically, they traced themselves back to the so-called “Sabbatarians”, "Lollards", "Waldensians", “Bogomils”, “Athyngani” (or “Athingians”) and "Paulicians" of medieval and ancient European fame, and beyond them on down to certain early Christians congregations primarily in Italy and Asia Minor (modern day Turkey), including early church leaders like Polycarp and Polycrates of Ephesus -- who had contact with the apostle John in his latter years, and who had fought for the observance of Passover and against Easter -- and ultimately down to the Apostles.

Lastly, note that this church's historians assert that at no time since it came to America it had an affiliation or connection with Ellen G. White, though acknowledging that many members had left the Church of God to join the Seventh-day Adventist Church she started.

Beginnings of Armstrong's ministry

Loma challenged Armstrong that the day of the celebration of the Sabbath on Sunday was not supported by the Bible. As his business was struggling against larger competitors, he had the time to take up the challenge and began a long study of the Bible to prove his wife wrong. Armstrong began what would become a life-long habit of exhaustive cross-referencing of scriptures combined with the study of the original Greek and Hebrew renderings; he soon felt God was inspiring this, opening his mind to “truths” that historical Christian churches had not found or accepted. Also at this time, as stated in his autobiography, he was challenged by a relative who told him that anyone who didn't espouse to the theory of evolution over special creation was ignorant; this issue became the foundation of Armstrong's conversion. Though not very religious at the time, he had always taken the existence of God for granted, and began to study evolution extensively (and would later write frequently and in detail about what he had uncovered, focusing on a scientific refutation of evolution). His studies on the Sabbath and evolution convinced him that his wife was right, and that the theory of evolution was false. Overall, this became the starting point of Armstrong's delving into the Bible, and for several months he devoted virtually all his free time in this pursuit.

Armstrong soon became perplexed about whether the Church of God (Seventh Day) could be God's true church not. On the one hand, this church seemed by far closer to the biblical description of the true church, in his view, than any other. He believed scripture prophesied the Church would never die, would be a tiny flock, and that they would be a Ten Commandment abiding, Sabbath-keeping Church, and he knew that the name of the church in the epistles was "Church of God" and would always be kept in the Father's name; yet he was amazed at the church's extremely limited work of spreading the gospel. Further, he had been greatly disappointed when he had approached the ministry with what he thought was a wonderful biblical truth: a manuscrpit that he had been working on about the biblical identity of the American and British peoples in prophecy. Armstrong would write years later that the top ministers agreed with his findings but did not want to proclaim it (it would later be published by Armstrong under the title, The United States and Britain in Prophecy). In his autobiography, he stated that he came to realize that it was in fact the true church, but that its "weak spiritual condition" had been prophesied in the third chapter of the book of Revelation, and that this spiritual weakness was causing God to now direct him in leading a revived work into the next church era.

Soon after Armstrong would permanently cease to have contact with the headquarters ministry of the Church of God (Seventh Day); meanwhile a few members of the Church of God joined with him in his work. Armstrong began holding Bible studies in and around Eugene, Oregon, inviting people who had shown interest. This campaign was successful and small congregations began to sprout up.

Radio ministry

In October 1933, a radio station, KORE, in Eugene, Oregon, offered free time to Mr. Armstrong for a morning devotional, a 15-minute time slot shared by other local ministers. After positive responses from listeners, the station owner let Armstrong start a new program and on the first Sunday in 1934, the Radio Church of God was born. These broadcasts eventually became the well-known, The World Tomorrow, of the future Worldwide Church of God. Radio stations in other cities (Portland, Salem, Seattle in 1940, Los Angeles in 1942) were recruited to broadcast the program. In February 1934, The Plain Truth magazine began publication. With these two media vehicles, Armstrong began to expand his ministry throughout the West Coast.

From his new contacts in Los Angeles, Armstrong began to realize the potential for reaching a much larger audience. He searched for a suitable location and chose Pasadena, California, as being ideal as it was a conservative residential community. During this time, Armstrong also reflected on starting a college to train people in his growing church. Hence, in 1946 Armstrong moved his headquarters from Eugene to Pasadena and on March 3, 1946, the Radio Church of God was officially incorporated within the state of California. On October 8, 1947, his new college, Ambassador College opened its doors with four students.

Reaching out to the world

During the 1950s and 1960s, the church continued to expand and the radio program was broadcast in England, Australia, the Philippines, Latin America, and Africa.

In 1952, The World Tomorrow began to air on Radio Luxembourg, making it possible to hear the program throughout much of Europe. The beginning of the European broadcast provides the context of a booklet published in 1956 called 1975 in Prophecy! In this controversial book, Armstrong hypothetically portrayed a scenario with 1975 as the possible date, conveying vividly one prophetic possibility. He thought that World War III and Christ's return was as the doorstep, probably to occur within his lifetime. Several books and booklets focused on key events that would signal the imminence of Christ's return, and taught of a specific end-time prophecy to be fulfilled, manifested in the form of European peacekeeping forces surrounding Jerusalem, at which time his church would flee to the scriptural "place of safety", possibly Petra in Jordan. World War III was predicted to be triggered by a “United States of Europe” led by Germany which would destroy both the United States of America and the United Kingdom. From the place of safety they would continue the work and prepare to help Christ establish Utopia upon His return.

During his life these several books and booklets were published by the church and distributed for free "as a public service." This literature included a fifty-lesson Bible correspondence course which used hundreds of scriptures to explain the Bible and doctrine. The book The United States and Britain in Prophesy was published, the content of which Armstrong pointed to as proof of the Bible's authority, and it became the most well known and requested church publication with over five million copies distributed. The Plain Truth magazine continued to be published and circulated, eventually reaching a circulation of eight million.

Becoming the Worldwide Church of God

In April 1967, Armstrong's wife, Loma, died. On January 5, 1968, Armstrong’s church was renamed the Worldwide Church of God. By this time, Garner Ted Armstrong (the son of Herbert W. Armstrong) was the voice and face of the new television version of The World Tomorrow. It was speculated that with his charisma and personality, he was the logical successor to Armstrong. However, in 1972, his son had been removed from church roles over doctrinal disagreements. He was reinstated, but soon after that he again openly rejected several doctrines and the church government structure, which would lead to him being excommunicated by his father in 1978. In response Garner Ted started a new church, the Church of God International in Tyler, Texas. Armstrong has his name removed from most church publications including Armstrong’s own autobiography where only his birth is mentioned.

The volume of literature requests for material written by Armstrong continued to grow during the 1960's and 70s, and the literature was translated into several languages and distributed to a worldwide audience. At this time Armstrong began to receive invitations to talk with prominent world leaders.

Final years

The church at its zenith membership peaked at over 100,000 worldwide. Armstrong continued to travel around the world, meeting with heads of state.

In August 1985, Armstrong’s final work, Mystery of the Ages, was published. He called it a “synopsis of the Bible in the most plain and understandable language”. It was more-or-less a compendium of Armstrong’s theology. This work is treasured by his followers and the publishing copyright would become the source of lawsuits between the Worldwide Church of God and one of its splinter groups, the Philadelphia Church of God.

Armstrong had hoped and speculated that Jesus Christ would return in his lifetime, but focussed not on dates or timelines but on the sequence of events that the Bible--according to his understanding--indicates must precede the return of Jesus Christ. He had long written of in The Plain Truth magazine that the primary sign to look for would be some sort of dissolving of the Eastern Bloc alliance under Soviet control, followed by those nations subesequent incorporation into an eastern leg of a sort of United States of Europe. This of course certainly appeared to happen three years after his death -- but the timing of these events was later than he had long hoped.

In September 1985, with his failing health widely known, Armstrong disappeared from public view. Normally he would have appeared at that year’s Feast of Tabernacles, a regularly held church festival. It was the first festival he was unable to attend since the church’s founding. According to The Worldwide News, Armstrong told his advisory council of his decision to appoint Joseph W. Tkach on January 7, 1986. Only nine days after naming his successor, Armstrong died on January 16, 1986, at the age of 93.

References

• Herbert W. Armstrong, Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, Vol. 1
• Herbert W. Armstrong, Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, Vol. 2
• Herbert W. Armstrong Was Ahead of His Time!
• The Plain Truth about Herbert W. Armstrong & the Worldwide Church of God
• Ambassador Report, John Trechak, June 1976 to April 1999.
• About Our Founder, Worldwide Church of God
• A history of the True Religion Traced From 33 A.D. to Date, by A. Dugger and C.O. Dodd
• Mystery of the Ages, by Herbert W. Armstrong