Herbert W. Armstrong And His World Tomorrow

Herbert W. Armstrong and His World Tomorrow

"Armstrong's Jewish Passover -- his Jewish Sabbath -- his Queen Elizabeth on David's Throne -- his Gospel -- his Christ -- his opinion of himself -- his opinion of everybody else."

by Noel Smith

Baptist Bible Tribune

Springfield, Missouri

1964

Author’s Note (Excerpt:)

I have tried to handle as gently as possible a man who claims that no authentic voice of Christianity was heard on this earth from the time that Titus destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple in A.D. 70 until the first week of January, 1934 – when Herbert W Armstrong suddenly appeared on the scene.  Obviously, Mr. Armstrong considers himself the only authentic voice of Christianity on earth today.

The gentleman has fared much better at my hands than he would fare at the hands of Peter, John and Paul. If they were here, they would clobber him mercilessly.

Noel Smith

Springfield, Missouri

September 1,  1964

Pg 9

How does he get the money? I suspect that, first of all, Mr. Armstrong knows the real nature of money and how to handle it, just as some men know the real nature of hogs and how to handle them. 

Pg 12

And so, according to Herbert W. Armstrong, from the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by Titus in A.D 70, “the Bridegroom tarried” and everybody “slumbered and slept” until the first week of January, 1934 –

When Herbert W. Armstrong came on the scene.

And so, according to Herbert W. Armstrong, nothing of genuine Christian significance and importance, nothing true of a genuine church occurred on this earth in the long period between Titus and the sudden appearance on the first week of January 1934, of Herbert W. Armstrong: not the hundreds of Christian martyrs who were thrown to the wild beasts by the Romans; not the fires that consumed the Polycarp’s; not the missionaries who took the Gospel to the pagans and savages; not Luther and Calvin and John Knox and the Reformation; not John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield and the revival that saved England; ….

All of that, was according to Herbert W. Armstrong, was nothing more than the snoozes and snores of sleeping virgins.  The trumpet of genuine Christianity was not heard from Titus until Herbert W. Armstrong took it up, moistened his lips, and sounded it during the first week in January, 1934.

Churches that now are named after St. Paul should be named St. Armstrong.  And in addition to celebrating the Day of Pentecost, we ought to celebrate the Day of Herbert W. Armstrong.

Pg 16

God’s one and only prophet, pope, and business manager has, it seems, a most vexing time trying to get it into the heads of his flock that going to the feast celebrations is “not” a part of God’s worldwide work.  According to Herb, it were better that they shouldn’t attend at all than to, by doing so, cut down on the amount of cash they were supposed to be sending to Pasadena.

Pg 18

But Herbert W. Armstrong, virtually claiming to be the only true representative of Christianity to be found on this earth today, ignores Paul and goes back into the wilderness and hunts up the rags of ancient custom and uses them for patches on the arrogant, presumptuous, contradictory, carnal system of religion he concocted.

Armstrong said in that letter:

As I said then, this is frankly incomprehensible to me, as a servant and minister of God that some of he very PEOPLE of God could FORGET the day which commemorates the very death of their Savior!

That is completely false.  The Passover doesn’t commemorate the death of the Savior.  The Passover testified to the coming and death of the Savior.

In its historical context, the observance today of Passover doesn’t acknowledge the death of the Savior; it denies that He was ever born, that He never died.

Pg 27

His British Israelism

The CALLIOPE of Herbert W. Armstrong’s carnival of religion is British Israelism.  He tells us all about it in a pamphlet of his. “The United States and the British Commonwealth in Prophecy.”

But before he starts, he must of course inform us, by inference, that Herbert W. Armstrong is about the only man in 2,000 years who as had an intelligent and responsible understanding of the subject.

Pg 28

And then he says:

“If the throne of David ceased with Zedekiah, then it does not exist today.  And if it does not exist, how shall Christ sit upon a non existent throne?

And following this, Armstrong really goes to town.  And he goes shooting capitals, italics, and exclamations right and left, up and down.

Now here is Armstrong’s position:

That “forever” in the Davidic Covenant means that the Throne of David must be in “continuous” existence here on this earth.  Its historical continuity cannot be broken; if it is, God’s promise failed.  And if that throne is not in existence when Christ returns to this earth, how then can He possibly “sit upon”

It?

Pg 32

To digress for a moment, Herbert W. Armstrong there again brands all the great Bible expositors of the English-speaking world so-called” Bible students.  Nobody but Herbert W. Armstrong understands anything about the Bible worth speaking of.  If Herbert W. Armstrong were living in Balaam’s day and had to get about on an ass as did Balaam, his ass, from sheer disgust and self-respect, would dump him into the first chasm he came to.  There is such a thing as doing more boasting than an ass can stand.  There is such a thing as trying to degrade the dignity of an ass.

Pg 34

On this question of Jews and Israel never being used interchangeably in the Bible, of there being no Israelites in Palestine in the days of Christ and His Apostles, or Israelites having nothing to do with the official Jewish rejection and crucifixion (pg 25) of Christ, it is clear as Italian sunlight that somebody –

                Is hopelessly confused,

                Is hopelessly ignorant;

                Or that somebody

Is deliberately juggling the facts of history, is deliberately trying to bend and twist history to fit a pattern of his own, for a definite reason.

The presumption must be that it is not the writers of the Old Testament, not Christ and His Apostles, not Peter at Pentecost, not the early Christians; and certainly not

                The Holy Spirit.

With those eliminations, it could only be the only real Bible scholar and prophet on earth today.

Pg 35

And now, I have omitted a good deal of Armstrong’s context.  I have omitted most of his “linking together of Biblical history, prophecy, and Irish history.”  And because we have (pg 36) already seen how Armstrong “links” things together. I have omitted his ‘re-plantings” in Ireland and Scotland, and his “planting” in London. Herbert W. Armstrong is not only the greatest prophet on earth; he is one of the greatest re-planters and planters on earth.  He’s a card when it comes to planting. As to going with Herbert W. Armstrong on one of his tours of history, I prefer to watch the Wizard of Oz.

Here is the material, relevant, decisive thing about Armstrong’s daughters and kings, and re-planting and planting:

Armstrong says this about the Throne of David –

                Has been in continuous existence since the death of David; that it was

                Replanted in Ireland; that it was

                Replanted in Scotland; that it was

                Planted in London; that

                Queen Elizabeth is now sitting on it, that the throne of David will remain in London until the return of Christ

With absolute directness, the Bible brands Herbert W. Armstrong as either a consummate ignoramus or an out-and-out false prophet when he says the Throne of David has been in continuous existence since the death of David, that it was re-planted in Ireland, in Scotland, and planted in London.
There is the plain statement in Hosea 3:4

Pg 45

But Armstrong’s system is a different thing. His system holds the “Jews” alone responsible for the crucifixion. His system inherently holds that all white Americans and white English are hereditarily innocent.  If this attitude doesn’t inflate Anglo-Saxon pride and promote anti-Semitism, what could it do?

And his system emphasizes that God’s blessings in this age are upon white Americans and white English. That puts the Negro, the Japanese, the Chinese and all the rest of them outside the camp. They are to come in at the back door and eat at the second table.

Pg 54

Back to Armstrong. He ignores the spiritual and present Kingdom of God. His message is that men must be saved by believing the “message of God’s coming world government” of which Daniel wrote.

That’s Armstrong’s gospel.

If that means anything at all, it means that men are not saved by believing in something that is going to happen, not by believing in something that has already happened.

And logically it means more than that. It means that men are not saved by believing in a Person; they are saved by believing in a government.  They are not saved by grace through faith; they are saved by keeping the law.

Pg 60

Herbert W. Armstrong’s “true church” and his “World Tomorrow” propaganda are another of the scores of cults that have grown up in this country like weeds and Johnson grass in uncultivated fields of corn.

All of these cults have in common basic and decisive marks and characteristics that bluntly and crudely distinguish them from genuine Christianity.

In the first place, they are all boresomely proud and self- sufficient.  When angels appeared to the prophets and good men and women in Bible days, those prophets and men and women were terrified.  They went down into the dust.  But when an “angle” appeared to Joseph Smith – to hear him tell it – Joe lay there in his feather bed and talked with the “angel” as causally as if he were talking to a neighbor.  And where Moses commandments were inscribed in stones, Joe Smith’s were on plates of gold.

We have been listening to Herbert W. Armstrong tell us about how he is the greatest prophet, the greatest Bible scholar, and the greatest everything else that has hit the earth since the last Apostle died.

And the founders of all these cults, vain and proud as they have been and are, have received from God visions and truth that had been hidden from everybody else, including the Apostles.  If you know anything at all about the God of the Bible, as He has revealed Himself to us in the Bible, you know that God never has revealed revolutionary truth, or any other kind of truth, to people like the founders of these cults.

In the second place, these cults are uniformly lacking the universal sympathy and compassion of genuine Christianity.  Christianity is a weeping, deeply burdened, seeking religion.  Its great mission is that of seeking that which is lost.  That’s why genuine Christianity has always had its missions among the wretched and outcasts as well as its churches and cathedrals for the upper classes.  But when did you ever see a mission of one of these cults on a Skid Row or a Bowery?  When did you ever in your life see a tear of urgent and profound concern trickle down the cheek of one of these cult leaders?

Pg 61

In the third place, the preaching of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ has always been the Gospel of genuine Christianity.  And first and most basic of all, the death of Christ for sinners.  “We preach Christ crucified.” That proclamation has always been central and basic to genuine Christianity.

But the proclamation of the Cross never has been and is not now central and basic to these cults.  Herbert W Armstrong has great deal to say about sinners being converted.  But we have already seen what constitutes Armstrong’s gospel: the coming government of God on earth.

These cults don’t have the spirit of grace.  They don’t speak the language of grace.  They don’t sing songs of grace.  They don’t manifest the words of grace.

And they don’t smell of grace.