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Joseph W. Tkach

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Joseph W. Tkach

Joseph W. Tkach Sr. (March 16, 1927–September 23, 1995) was the appointed successor of Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of the Worldwide Church of God. Tkach became President and Pastor General of the church upon the death of Armstrong in 1986. Tkach spearheaded a major doctrinal transformation of the Worldwide Church of God, abandoning Armstrong's unconventional doctrines and bringing the church into accord with mainstream Protestant Christianity. His son, Joseph Tkach Jr., continued his work and in 1997 the Worldwide Church of God became a member of the National Association of Evangelicals.[1]

During Tkach's tenure, the changes that he implemented stirred much controversy and significant dissent among those who continued to follow Armstrong's theology. The dissenters labelled the changes as heresy and many left to form new church organizations. Within the mainstream Christian community, some have hailed Tkach's reforms, which brought a church from the fringe to orthodoxy, as unprecedented in the history of the Christian church.[2]

Background

Joseph W. Tkach Sr. was born March 16, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest of five children and the only son of Vassil and Mary Tkach. The name Tkach is of Russian origin, but his parents were originally from Czechoslovakia. Tkach served a short term in the U.S. Navy near the end of World War II and afterward returned to his native Chicago. On March 31, 1951, Tkach married Elaine Apostolos and had three children: Joseph Jr., Tanya, and Jennifer.

Tkach grew up in the Russian Orthodox faith, but eventually his family became interested in the Radio Church of God through the radio broadcast of Herbert W. Armstrong, the founder of the church. The Radio Church of God changed its name to the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). This was the church that Tkach eventually would lead.

Tkach was baptized by Radio Church of God minister, Dean Blackwell, on March 1, 1957. On June 7, 1961 Blackwell ordained him a deacon in the Chicago congregation, and on June 3, 1963, Roderick C. Meredith, who would eventually lead a breakaway church from the WCG, ordained him as an elder.

In 1966 Tkach moved his family to Pasadena, California, where he enrolled in classes at Ambassador College, a state-approved, but not regionally accredited, college that was sponsored by the WCG. In 1974 he was ordained to the rank of preaching elder. Herbert W. Armstrong taught that the Bible endorsed "ranks" in the ministry, and elders could progress up the ladder from local elder to preaching elder to pastor to evangelist. The highest rank, apostle, was reserved for the leader of the church.

In the late 1970s a period of disputes occurred within the church hierarchy, with church treasurer Stanley Rader at the center of many of the disputes.[3] For a time, the church was placed in financial receivership by the Attorney General of the State of California, an action that was later disallowed in court. During this period Tkach took an active role in the defense of Armstrong, Rader and the church's headquarters operations. Subsequently, Armstrong ordained him to the rank of evangelist on September 27, 1979. In March 1981, Armstrong appointed him to the WCG's advisory council of elders, and eventually Armstrong named him Director of Church Administration, one of the most prominent administrative positions under Armstrong himself.[4]

Selected by Armstrong

Armstrong had survived severe heart problems in the late 1970s, but by the mid-1980s he experienced rapidly declining health. By 1985 this was common knowledge among church members as the 93-year-old preacher had not been seen in public for several months.[5] According to The Worldwide News, the official church newsletter, Armstrong told his advisory council on January 7, 1986 of his decision to appoint Tkach to succeed him in the event of his death.[6] It was also announced by Armstrong in a letter to members of the church. Armstrong died on January 16, 1986, only nine days after naming his successor.

Tkach did not have the charismatic personality of his predecessor. Unlike Armstrong, who kept a strong hold of the reins, Tkach delegated many tasks, including the presentation of the church-supported television broadcast, The World Tomorrow and the authoring of articles and booklets produced by the church.

Initially there were few visible changes within the church. Tkach continued Armstrong's tradition of travelling abroad, although his emphasis was more on visiting church members and operations than on Armstrong's agenda of visiting world leaders to attempt to witness to them. The church entered a period of rapid growth during the early years of Tkach's administration. In fact, the membership peaked at 126,800 attendees during his tenure.[7] The finances were stable, largely due to the church's teaching that members should tithe a tenth of their gross income to the church. The church magazine, The Plain Truth, continued to serialize the final and most controversial book by Armstrong, Mystery of the Ages. Tkach also continued, at least in public, to promote the church's unique doctrines developed by Armstrong.

Although Tkach was not known as a theologian, and made no claims as such, he was to eventually have profound impact on the theological foundations of the WCG.[8]

Changes brought by Joseph Tkach

The first major change under Tkach's tenure was the WCG's doctrine on healing.[9] Previously the church taught that true believers were healed by faith in God and not by doctors. In the earliest years of the denomination, this teaching had been followed rigorously, but as the decades passed, many members chose to disregard its most strict interpretation and seek medical treatment as needed. This was influenced in part by the practices of Herbert Armstrong himself, who received regular medical treatment during the last decade of his life. Tkach officially softened the church's teaching on the matter, encouraging members to seek proper treatment while retaining faith in God as healer. This change was announced in The Worldwide News (March 1987).

Another officially published doctrinal clarification was that women in the church would be allowed to wear makeup. In the earliest years of the denomination, Armstrong announced the prohibition of makeup for women. In the 1970s that prohibition was lifted, but in 1981 Armstrong reinstituted the teaching. In 1988 Tkach eventually lifted the ban for good.[10]

The first major sign of dissent occurred in 1989 when a WCG minister, Gerald Flurry, published a manuscript outlining what he believed to be false teachings on the part of Tkach and the WCG. He and a fellow minister were excommunicated and formed the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG). He began a radio program and a magazine, and over the next several years a few thousand WCG members joined the PCG.

Other changes followed, including:  the deemphasis of observing world events primarily through the lens of prophetic interpretation;[11] the removal of the prohibition of interracial marriage;[12] the allowance of work on the Sabbath; the acceptance of trinitarian doctrine;[13] and the acceptance of the validity of other Christian denominations,[14] among others. Older Armstrong publications that supported the church's once unique doctrines were allowed to go out-of-print.[15]

The church's traditions of following the Jewish Sabbath, feast days, and tithing were initially retained. These doctrines were based on Armstrong's belief in British Israelism.[16] Despite this, certain ministers of the church continued to express alarm over Tkach's approach, and from time to time certain ones would leave to create dissident branches. They included Tkach's one-time mentor, Roderick C. Meredith, who formed the Global Church of God in 1992.[17] As various groups started, clusters of members followed.

The Christmas Eve Sermon

The doctrinal changes in the church occurred gradually, but by 1994, most of the concepts of Armstrongism had been largely modified or discontinued. However, the major bombshell was dropped during what is now called the Christmas Eve Sermon. Tapes of Tkach's sermon (dated January 7, 1995) were delivered to local congregations for viewing. In this sermon, he publicly declared that the Worldwide Church of God was a New Covenant church and was no longer bound by the terms of the Old Covenant.[18] Within mainstream Christian theology, the Old Covenant refers to Mosaic Law as defined in the Torah. Hence, by making this statement, Tkach officially dropped all doctrines based on Mosaic Law, i.e., the keeping of the Sabbath, the Jewish holy days, and dietary laws. He also dropped the requirement of tithing, declaring that giving as taught by the New Testament was voluntary. Not surprisingly, the last change had a great impact on the church finances.[19]

These and other major changes brought about major defections among ministers and members, which in turn contributed to a further drop in church revenue. In order to bring the finances in order, major changes in the church infrastructure were implemented. The World Tomorrow, which had seen record numbers of viewers in the early years of the Tkach administration, was stopped.[20] The Plain Truth publication runs were reduced. Staff at the church headquarters were laid off. The famous, church-subsidized Ambassador Auditorium concert series was cancelled and offers for the sale of the Ambassador College Pasadena campus were being considered.[21]

Final days

The Christmas Eve sermon only served to accelerate the departure of church members. A new branch, the United Church of God, was created in 1995 by Tkach's one-time friend and associate and former The World Tomorrow presenter, David Hulme.[22] It eventually became the largest of the groups to break away from the WCG during this period. Although revenues continued to drop, Tkach remained steadfastly committed to the changes that he had implemented.

On May 12, 1995 Tkach had surgery to remove his gall bladder. Shortly thereafter he was readmitted to the hospital because of severe intestine and back pain. Surgeons then removed a grapefruit-size tumor from his intestines and discovered he had cancer.

On September 5, Tkach named his son, church evangelist Joseph Tkach Jr. to the position of Deputy Pastor General in a private laying-on-of-hands ceremony presided over by the elder Tkach and with the assistance of prominent members of the council of elders. As Armstrong had done with him just nine years earlier, Tkach decreed that, in the event of his death, Joseph Tkach Jr. would assume leadership of the church.[23]

Joseph Tkach Sr. passed away at 2:20 p.m. on Saturday, September 23, 1995.

Tkach's legacy

The impact of Tkach's tenure as the head of the WCG was tremendous. Church income dropped from a high of over $200 million in 1990 to less than $40 million by 1996. [24] By then the church could only count 49,000 as members, less than half from its peak.[25] The circulation of The Plain Truth fell from a peak of 8,000,000 down to less than 100,000 and eventually the magazine was spun off into a separate, independent, evangelical ministry. The number of employees at the church headquarters fell from 1,000 to about 50. Ambassador University, as the college had become after earning regional accreditation in Texas, was closed as the church could not provide its an annual operating subsidy. The Pasadena campus was finally sold in 2004.[26]

Doctrinal critics of Tkach, including those who created the splinter churches, note that his rejection of Herbert W. Armstrong's doctrines are at best nonbiblical[27] and at worst the work of the devil[28]. The WCG for its part has accepted full responsibility of the doctrinal changes implemented by Tkach and published an apology to current and former members of the church for "our past sins and mistakes of doctrine".[29] As evidence that Tkach's work was instrumental in the move toward mainstream Christianity, the WCG was accepted into the membership of the National Association of Evangelicals within two years of his death.[30]

Notes

  1. ^ "NAE Accepts Worldwide Church of God". Retrieved 2006-08-16.
  2. ^ Ruth Tucker, "From the Fringe to the Fold", Christianity Today, July 15, 1996, pp. 26-32
  3. ^ For details on these disputes, see the article on the Worldwide Church of God
  4. ^ John Trechak, "Joseph W. Tkach - God's New Rep on Planet Earth", Ambassador Report, Issue 42, September 1989
  5. ^ John Trechak, "Herbert Armstrong's Sinking Ship", Ambassador Report, Issue 34, January 1986
  6. ^ John Trechak, "HWA Names Tkach Successor", Ambassador Report, Issue 34, January 1986
  7. ^ Joseph Tkach Jr., Transformed by Truth, Chapter 5, Multnomah, 1997
  8. ^ Joseph Tkach Jr., Transformed by Truth, Chapter 6, Multnomah, 1997
  9. ^ John Trechak, "Tkach Rewrites HWA's Healing Doctrine", Ambassador Report, Issue 38, April 1987
  10. ^ Joseph Tkach Jr., Transformed by Truth, Chapter 8, Multnomah, 1997
  11. ^ Editorial of Worldwide News, July 3, 1989 as quoted in Ambassador Report no. 42
  12. ^ Editorial of Worldwide News, July 30, 1990 as quoted in Ambassador Report no. 45
  13. ^ John Trechak, "WCG Adopts Trinity Doctrine", Ambassador Report, Issue 53, September 1993
  14. ^ John Trechak, "Tkach: There Are True Christians In Other Churches!", Ambassador Report, Issue 56, October 1994
  15. ^ John Trechak, Ambassador Report, Issue 53, September 1993
  16. ^ Joseph Tkach Jr., Transformed by Truth, Chapter 9, Multnomah, 1997
  17. ^ John Trechak, "Rod Meredith Becomes Contender for Church of God Crown", Ambassador Report, Issue 52, June 1993
  18. ^ Joseph Tkach Jr., Transformed by Truth, Chapter 2, Multnomah, 1997
  19. ^ John Trechak, "Tkach Says Sabbath, Holy Days, Tithing Not Mandatory!", Ambassador Report, Issue 57, January 1995
  20. ^ John Trechak, "No More World Tomorrow", Ambassador Report, Issue 55, May 1994
  21. ^ John Trechak, "Cuts, Cuts, and More Cuts", Ambassador Report, Issue 58, April 1995
  22. ^ John Trechak, "'The Uniteds'", Ambassador Report, Issue 59, June 1995
  23. ^ John Trechak, "Tkach Sr. Dies of Cancer", Ambassador Report, Issue 60, October 1995
  24. ^ John Trechak, "Tkach Jr. Downsizes WCG", Ambassador Report, Issue 61, March 1996
  25. ^ Ruth Tucker, "From the Fringe to the Fold", Christianity Today, July 15, 1996, pp. 26-32
  26. ^ "A Brief History of the Worldwide Church of God". Retrieved 2006-08-22.
  27. ^ "Brief History of the United Church of God". Retrieved 2006-08-22.
  28. ^ "Malachi's Message, the Philadelphia Church of God" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-08-22.
  29. ^ "Forgive Us Our Trespasses". Retrieved 2006-08-22. Published in the March/April 1996 issue of The Plain Truth
  30. ^ "NAE Accepts Worldwide Church of God". Retrieved 2006-08-16.

References

External links

Preceded by Pastor General of the Worldwide Church of God
1986–1995 		Succeeded by
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