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Retirement provides more time to read, study and write for which I am truly thankful. In the month of January 2021 I finished reading a book during the course of less than one week about what happened in the latter part of Worldwide Church of God days and after Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong’s death (he died on Thursday, 16 January 1986). This book had been given to us coincidentally just prior to the 35th anniversary of his death because it was one of two copies in the owner’s possession and one of them was not needed, therefore it was superfluous. It was an interesting read but very sad and at times made me angry and disgusted that some of the people closest to HWA betrayed him, even his own son, Garner Ted Armstrong, and especially the man, Joseph Tkach Sr., who was selected first hand by HWA to succeed him.
HWA had spent most of his life completely devoted to God in tireless work leaving a great legacy behind and all of it to give God the glory. Mr. Armstrong kept working despite blindness and serious health concerns in his advanced age, as he was highly motivated by God to continue and finish what he considered his best written work called “Mystery of the Ages”, as he knew God was with him to inspire him. Shortly after the completion of this work Herbert died at the great age of 93 and left everything to the Worldwide Church of God to continue on in the work of spreading the good news of the gospel that Christ would soon return to earth and establish The Kingdom of God, and to prepare and care for the people within God’s Church who need spiritual food in order to be ready for Christ’s return and their part in assisting Jesus the Christ, their Saviour. Reading this book would not have happened if still employed, as while working, it was a daily struggle to ensure adequate time was spent in meaningful reading of the Holy Bible, and rightly so for there is not another book in the world more worthy of our time, attention, and for meditating upon.
Mr. Armstrong was God’s appointed physical shepherd of the flock under the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ — he was entrusted to lead while the people were the sheep of God’s pasture. The faithful ministers were also shepherds appointed by God via HWA and then there were wolves, savage wolves who preyed on God’s people (some wheat, some tares) pretending to be shepherds because they looked the part, however they had no intention of caring for the flock but instead brought confusion and division, and attempted to destroy Mr. Armstrong’s lifelong work by ripping it apart until it was no longer recognisable, then eventually selling it for monetary gain (Matthew 7:15, Ezekiel 22:27, Jude 1:10-11). Power hungry people full of pride who were under the influence of Satan the devil, who had his evil way with them and eventually destroyed them after he was finished with them and his purpose was achieved. They did his bidding under the veil of deception and were tossed aside like a mound of decaying rubbish destroyed in a burning heap once the devil achieved his will.
Some might say it didn’t have to be this way but God allowed it to see who would remain faithful and who would not. Every person in WCG was tested through this experience in order for God to know who was listening with ears to hear and rightly dividing the Truth. Subsequently the Church splintered off into many pieces and this is just how the devil wanted it. As far as Satan is concerned he got his way in order to conquer God’s people whom he hates with a vile passion. There should be no doubt that we are in a spiritual war and this war is a filthy, dirty battle as our adversary does not fight fairly, but rather through lies with the strongest wicked and malevolent intent in order to achieve annihilation of God’s people.
We must learn from history and never forget the lessons of the past so as not to repeat the same mistakes again. This is just one of the main reasons why reading Stephen (son of Gerald) Flurry’s book “Raising the Ruins” was of interest to me. As the time is now close to my 14th baptismal anniversary and the Passover season approaches it is high time to prepare for anything to occur as inevitably Satan’s track record shows that he attacks God’s elect with trials especially as we approach the seasons of Passover and Tabernacles. Thankfully I’ve not had the personal experience of any splits within our congregation or greater membership that has affected me to date unlike many others who reflect and lament strongly with tears in their eyes over the stressful divisions they endured. It is just a matter of time as far as I am concerned as our adversary does not change — the devil may become more subtle as we increase in knowledge but what I see happening in the world is not subtle at all. We must be alert and remain alert to avoid being lulled into a false sense of security. Consider 1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour”. His eyes are always upon the flock to separate and pick us off one by one commencing with the weakest.
Satan is relentless in setting his traps in order for as many as are vulnerable to walk away or separate themselves from their home or place of belonging (congregation), as in Proverbs 27:8 “Like a bird that wanders from its nest is a man who wanders from his place”, and also as in Proverbs 21:16 which says “A man who wanders from the way of understanding will rest in the assembly of the dead”. Of course it is a very different matter if any of us leaves due to hearing wolves in sheep’s clothing preach heresy and false doctrines such as the Sabbath is abolished, or tithing is no longer required, or the law of clean and unclean meats (Leviticus 11) is no longer in practice due to erroneous thinking that these laws are old, archaic or done away with. This is heretical teaching and blasphemy to God and His faithful people who know their Master’s voice — the Bible — because they have a close relationship with their Creator and follow only Him, just like physical sheep do with their shepherd out in the fields being fed with rich pastures as they graze while wandering in the wilderness of life (John 10:4).
It is a great pity that those in charge, who should have followed in HWA’s footsteps, did not resist temptation. They should have humbled themselves and taken to heart God’s message via the apostle Peter from the scripture in 1 Peter 5:1-4, “The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away”. Then there is the timely warning from the apostle Paul in Acts 20:28-31 “Therefore take heed to yourselves (speaking to the Ephesian Church, and by extension to us today) and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears”. Strong words for a strong message — will we be alert to recognise the first signs of trouble?
Imagine getting off to a good start in one’s spiritual journey under the leadership of HWA only to succumb to the devil’s wiles in order to be deceived by the devil’s deception as in the case of the Worldwide Church of God’s leadership accepting the doctrine of the Trinity. How tragic this is and the resultant serious ramifications for their spiritual salvation; however we must remember that God allows it for now as everything has a purpose according to His great plan for humanity. Makes me wonder whether perhaps Satan wasted no time by going before the throne of God to ask to sift the entirety of the WCG membership once Mr. Armstrong had died, as he knew some followers were weak without HWAs strong and faithful leadership. Satan could not wait to scatter brethren by disrupting the correct teaching but he did this stealthily using his cunning wiles bit by bit so as not to cause immediate alarm until it was so widespread the doctrines were unrecognisable. The sifting process of God’s people is never an easy one when the devil is allowed to intervene, and there is an account of this in the Bible which is extreme, found in the Old Testament book of Job. Well worth reading all 42 chapters. Consider Job 1:6-7 where Satan was found amongst the people of God on the Sabbath and holy days, as he attempts to influence them by transmitting his evil attitudes amongst the brethren in order to stir up mistrust and interfere in the congregation’s peaceful unity, respect, and harmony (Jude 1:8, 12).
Importantly we should take heed of the account known as the “Parable of the Wheat and the Tares” in Matthew 13 from which we read an excerpt “Another parable He (Jesus Christ) put forth to them (the apostles), saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this’. The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn’”. We may realise that the tares refer to people within God’s Churches who are not truly converted whereas the wheat are converted, have God’s Spirit and are known as firstfruits. After the splits in WCG after Herbert Armstrong’s death, many went through heartbreaking situations involving loss of dear brethren with whom lifelong bonds formed, only to be crushed by the division from the heresy brought in via Tkach under the influence of the devil. Many have told me over the years that they did not know who they could trust and needed time to heal away from the devastating apostasy in WCG during the late 80s to mid-90s. Sounds incredibly chaotic and frightening to me.
God cannot have another rebellion like the one Satan initiated against God’s throne in the third heaven, therefore human beings must all be tried and tested to prove ourselves in order to present faithful and true without any glimpse of wavering or hesitation. Thankfully we are not tempted beyond what we can bear, and God does indeed desire all to be saved (1 Corinthians 10:13, Ezekiel 33:11). We must make all due diligence to work out our own salvation individually with fear and trembling, just like the scripture states in Philippians 2:12, in order to ensure that we do confidently know that we know God’s Truth because we have proved all things for ourselves. We need to read Proverbs daily (there is one chapter for each day of the month) and see that Proverbs 2 speaks about the value of wisdom, Godly wisdom. Notice that there is practical protection against the devil in order “To deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things, from those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness” (Proverbs 2:12-13). Embrace God’s wisdom and do not let it go, not even for one day.
There is a scripture which should be taken to heart by all the sheep who know God’s voice (John 10:14, 27) and it is found in 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 which says “...and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness”. That is exactly what the problem is — they DID NOT TAKE TO HEART THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH — as they did not want to obey God’s will but rather their own. They wanted and embraced what was right in their own eyes rather than what was right in God’s eyes like HWA taught. They discarded the Truth for a lie given to them by the devil. Our Bibles warn us that any member of the flock can be deceived unless we stay close to our Chief Shepherd.
Personally I never met Mr. Armstrong as he died 20 years prior to my calling, but have understandably been recommended by others to listen to numerous recorded sermons he gave over the years which were divinely inspired — for there is no doubt about it as God’s Holy Spirit within me recognised the Truth he humbly yet powerfully delivered as one of God’s shepherds. Some say speaking highly of HWA is worshipping a man which is actually ridiculous and something the devil would say and accuse us of — hugely hypocritical. Worshipping a man would be listening to that man only at the exclusion of all others without proving for oneself the veracity of God’s Word. Blind obedience, for which we are all warned against by God and rightly so. Mr. Armstrong would repeatedly say “Don’t believe me, believe your Bible” and would encourage his listeners to “Blow the dust off your Bibles”.
At the conclusion of this article I would like to honour Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong’s memory and lifetime of work to reinforce the message proclaimed by his teachings from the Bible of how we should all pray on our knees daily “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done”, by giving grateful thanks each and every day for God’s protection against our enemy, while continuing steadfastly in perseverance despite trials, while earnestly being about our Father’s business in due diligence until Jesus Christ’s return. Deep personal communication with God in prayer, repentance from sin, unwaveringly practicing daily righteous living with complete obedience to God, and having a humble servant’s heart deeply desirous for the love of the Truth cannot in any way be overestimated as these are of the most paramount importance. Fight the good fight until Christ returns and overcome evil with good one day at a time until we reach the Promised Land and the rich pastures we will inherit eternally as part of the faithful flock in the God family. May you continually recognise our Shepherd’s voice and stay close until then.