Herbert W Armstrong and the Radio Church of God

Herbert W Armstrong and the Radio Church of God in the Light of the Bible

By Walter Martin

Bethany Fellowship Inc. Publishers

Minneapolis, MN

1968 1972 printing

 

 1965/1968 Cover with same contents as above cover

 excerpts...

Pg 1

The Radio Church of God (the official name of Herbert Armstrong’s cult) could more properly be designated “The New Galationism” because of its emphasis upon legalism.  Since this group is gaining momentum throughout the entire world, it is essential; that its theological system be analyzed in the light of the Word of God, to see whether or not it is, as advertised, “The Plain Truth.”

Pg 4

The Eclecticism of Herbert Armstrong

Armstrong’s biographer, Roderick Meredith, goes to great pains to point out that “there was never any association in any way with Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists, Mormons, or any such sects as some accusers have falsely claimed.”

1. Seventh-day Adventism and Herbert Armstrong

Unfortunately for Mr. Meredith, the Seventh-day Adventist denomination has done a complete historical résumé of Herbert W. Armstrong and his association with them.  Writing for the Ministerial Association and his church George Burnside states concerning Mr. Armstrong:

“…Mr. Armstrong is an off-shoot of an off-shoot of an off-shoot of the Seventh-day Adventist church.”

In 1866 Elders B.F. Snook and W. H. Brinkerhoff, two ministers of the small and newly organized Iowa Conference of Seventh-day Adventists apostatized, and with a few members formed a group of their own.  They directed their work from Marion, Iowa.  In 1889 they centered their work in Stanbury, Missouri calling their company “Church of God (Adventist).”

Mr. Armstrong joined this small church and after a stormy experience with them, he reported that Mr. Dugger, in a dispute over leadership, led off a sizable part of the membership and called their group “the Church of God (Seventh-day).”  Mr. Armstrong joined this off-shoot movement.  Sometime later because of Mr.  Armstrong’s acceptance of the British Israelism theory and other subjects, he went out on his own and formed his own church calling it “The radio Church of God.”

Having checked the Adventists’ documentation on this thoroughly, and finding it to be accurate, what Mr. Meredith glosses over lightly now takes on significance. The neighbor lady who revealed the great discovery to Mrs. Armstrong about the law of God was a former member of the Seventh-day Adventist church and a member of the splinter group. Mr. Armstrong’s theology is many areas paralleled Seventh-day Adventism, such as, his insistence upon observance of the Seventh-day Sabbath, abstinence from certain articles of food as unclean, a general Adventist system of prophetic interpretation (albeit with his own peculiar modifications), his extreme legalism and the observance of feasts, and new moons, and his denunciation of the doctrines of hell and eternal punishment for which he has substituted the Adventist doctrine of annihilation of the wicked.  Mr. Armstrong owes (pg5) considerable debt to Seventh-day Adventism as he does Jehovah’s Witnesses (with whom he agrees in his denial of the doctrines of the Trinity and the bodily resurrection of Christ) and the Mormon Church, whose teaching that man may become as God was appropriated by Armstrong without even the slightest acknowledgment to Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.

Mr. Meredith seems overly eager to pass on these facts, but facts they are. His blanket dismissal “there was never any association in any way with Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventism and Mormons” is a clear misrepresentation of historical fact.

Pg 6

To sum up the theories of the Anglo Israel cult in a concise manner is not difficult. and to refute them from the Scriptures as noted scholars and Biblical expositors have done many times, is essentially an elementary task.  But with the advent of Herbert Armstrong’s version of the old error, and his utilization of it as cloak for his own confusion on Biblical theology, the problem is no longer elementary, in fact, it is quite complex and deserves the careful consideration of responsible Christian ministers and laymen. For it is certain that they will be affected, sooner or later, by the plausible propaganda which flows from the Armstrong presses and out on the airwaves.

Pg 14

Like so many other non-Christian cultists, Herbert Armstrong claims for himself a divine mandate and nowhere is this more clearly exemplified than in his own writing: (excerpt from The Inside Story of the World Tomorrow Broadcast)

Mr. Armstrong’s son, Garner Ted, heir apparent to the 19-cycle throne, carries the same through:

Pg 15

As did Joseph Smith, “Pastor” Russell, and Mary Baker Eddy, before him, so does Mr. Armstrong pose his efforts as the only work which is accurately representing Christianity today.  But a tree is known by its fruit, and fruits are not only manifested in a life which is lived, but also in doctrines which are believed and taught.  And so it is to the doctrines and teachings of the Radio Church of God that we shall now turn for a closer look at what Mr. Armstrong calls The Plan Truth.

Pg 23

The similarity to Mormonism in Armstrong's theology at this point is quite striking, for as previously observed in our chapter on the Mormons, they, too, believe and teach that men may become members of the God-family and become gods.  Armstrong, on the other hand, exceeds even the Mormon fantasy boldly teaching what appears to be a pantheistic unity of God in which all members of the ‘family’ participate.  This is certainly a view which is not shared by any of the inspired writings of the Scripture, and his recourse to the Hebrew plural (Elohim) in which he stretched beyond all proportion and contextual meaning to the forced interpretation of a ‘family” or “kingdom,” is indirectly a pathetic admission of the extremely limited knowledge he posses of the language.

Armstrong’s usage of Elohim is not consistent with any scholarly presentation, in fact, as he uses it, it is simply a perversion tailored to impress those who can be impressed with the ludicrous.

The followers of Armstrong’s cult should consult the third chapter of Genesis where they will find that Satan first taught the “God family” doctrine to Adam and Eve.  Both Armstrong and the Mormons have received and believed the same perversion which ushered in the reign of sin and death upon the human race, for if Satan lied when he said “you shall be as gods” so does Mr. Armstrong “wrest the Scripture to his own destruction” and sadly to the destruction, spiritually speaking, of those who follow in his training.

The plain truth of this whole matter is that we do indeed grasp what Mr. Armstrong is teaching. His radio Church of God serves only as a camouflage for his doctrinal deviations which are mixed with orthodox terminology and evangelical clichés and infused with numerous half-truths.  This concoction is enunciated with a dogmatism and arrogance akin to that of the late Judge Rutherford of Jehovah Witnesses. And were it nor for Armstrong’s dynamic presentation and wide radio coverage coupled with the spiritual vacuum which  (pg 24) today pervades many quarters of Christendom his entire system of interpretation would be the object of humor instead of the serious consideration it now demands.