The Truth Shall Make You Free: Chapter 17 A Yoke of Burden

published by: 

The Truth Foundation

11 Laurel Court

Freehold Township, New Jersey 07728

1981

Chapter 17 A Yoke of Burden

(Pg 241) Throughout the moves and countermoves taking place between the state and the Rader group, Osamu Gotoh could no longer be found. Apparently, he was out of the country and would not return. Although he handled large sums of money, running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, spending it all over the world, it will take an extensive investigation to determine how he fits into the overall picture. He was known as the mysterious Gotoh and remains so to this day.

Ray Wright, who in December was so anxious to help our attorneys, returned to the Rader camp. Many others, who in the very early stages of the receivership indicated that they were glad to see the wrongdoings brought to light, and who said that they wished Rader would finally be emoved, also returned to the Rader camp. Many ministers throughout the country who said that they would never follow Stanley Rader were standing before their congregations every Sabbath supporting Rader and threatening the members with the loss of their eternal life if they did not sacrifice to support Armstrong and Rader. Most of the area coordinators who during the first week of January were so solidly with Wayne Cole, were now faithful to the umbilical cord of a pay check.

 Over the several months since the imposition of the receivership, many ministers did finally leave the Worldwide Church, or were asked to leave because of disloyalty. Disloyalty was defined as an (pg 242) unwillingness to support the Rader regime each week at Sabbath services. However, those who left were a small proportion to the total number of ministers in the Church. Those who remained knew better, and remained to willfully deceive the flock over which they had been placed as shepherds. Through the prophet Ezekiel, God spoke quite sternly regarding men such as these. In Ezekiel 34:2 he says: "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?"

During that same period of time, the barrage of propaganda through the Worldwide News continued. The members' minds, which by this time had been beaten to a psychological pulp, were now being totally submerged in a continuous outpouring of unscriptural nonsense from Church headquarters.

In the April 23rd issue was an article entitled: "And Now-Christ Sets Church on God's Organizational Track." Taking up a half page was an organizational chart (see p.243). The entire article by Herbert Armstrong went on to substantiate his claim as human head of the Church directly under Christ. The whole tone was government, authority, and power-all written in capital letters. He said: "I have realized for 52 years that God's form of government is ruled from the TOP DOWN." He claimed that his dictatorial rule of the Church was God's form of government. And reverting back to the harsh control over members lives reminiscent of the 1950s, the May 21st issue carried bold headlines: "HOW YOU DRESS FOR CHURCH-COULD IT KEEP YOU OUT OF THE KINGDOM?" While no one would argue that one must dress appropriately for various occasions, there is nowhere in the Bible where one can find his eternal life threatened due to his manner of dress. But that didn't matter to a Worldwide Church of God member. By this time, anything coming out under the authorship of Herbert Armstrong carried the weight of new and divine revelation.

In the June 25th issue, an article appeared called "What God Never Did-Never Will-Allow To Happen." After a lengthy rambling dissertation comparing himself to Moses, Armstrong ended the article by very nearly proclaiming himself a deity. He said, "Let me close with one thought. It is now a little late in life for me to turn to Satan's way, as so many others in high places have done. (pg 243 contained an organizational chart) 

(pg 244) God never yet has let one through whom He STARTED a great project turn wrong-and he has never yet let such an appointed leader of his die until his job was FINISHED!"

One can only conclude from such a statement that Armstrong feels that he is immune to turning to Satan's way, in other words he can no longer sin, and that he does not expect to die until Christ returns.

In another article entitled "How Satan Injects False Doctrines," Armstrong claimed that he was the one who restored all truth to the Church of God after nineteen hundred years. According to him, the satanic deceptions in the Christian church remained until 1927, when God began working with him. He wrote: "And beginning in the Fall of A.D. 1927, God began an absolutely UNIQUE WORK on the one the living Christ had chosen to be His apostle. He put me through the wringer that squeezed out all former misconcepts and untrue beliefs, using me to put His Truth into His Church, that is to rise and meet the glorified Christ in the clouds as He returns to establish the Kingdom of God!"

To say that the Church was without truth until he came along is an absolute lie, as we shall show in a future chapter, and Armstrong knows it very well.

To keep the money coming, Armstrong apparently felt the need to reinforce the tithing doctrine. In the July 9th issue, his front page article was entitled "Non-Tithing is Stealing." Armstrong made it quite clear that no matter what one's circumstances, they must tithe a full tenth of their income to the Church. He even threatened to again activate the computer snooping program. He wrote: "Heretofore I have made NO EFFORT TO CHECK OUR COMPUTER RECORDS TO FIND OUT WHO TITHES. I surely never wanted to "snoop". But it is A LAW! Neglect or refusal is MAJOR SIN! I am not pussyfooting! Commandment breakers won't get into the Kingdom of God, and I am commissioned to blot out the spots and iron out the wrinkles to make God's Church READY when He comes."

Again, Armstrong was hitting them with the loss of eternal life if the members did not tithe. And how skillfully he diverted attention from the allegations of stealing that had been brought against him and other high officials in the Church. If he truly felt a commission to blot out the spots and iron out the wrinkles, there was (pg 245) somewhere else that he could start other than laying another yoke upon the necks of the Church members.

Ending the article, Armstrong said,  "Failure to tithe is STEALING - COMMANDMENT BREAKING. It is without excuse! Keep current with God and HE will keep you current with your other obligations! This matter of STEALING FROM GOD is one matter that Christ is CLEANING UP IN GOD'S CHURCH NOW! No delay! And no excuses!"

At least Armstrong was speaking some truth here. The matter of stealing from God was being cleaned up in God's Church. But he just refused to face up to the fact as to how it was being done. In this case God's "ministers for good," the officials of California, were the ones who were doing the cleaning up. The article just quoted from was actually excerpted from what was written in the "Pastor's Report" of June 25th. In that publication, Armstrong was laying it on the ministers quite heavily also. They, too, are expected to tithe from their salary. He said to the ministers, "If you are on the payroll, unless tithing begins with the very next paycheck, YOUR PAYCHECKS WILL BE CUT OFF WITHOUT FURTHER NOTICE."

It certainly is interesting to see how Herbert Armstrong practices his philosophy of love, and that of give instead of get in his relationship with his employees and followers. Not only were the Church members subjected to a continuing barrage of propaganda, but so were members of the press. A front organization called the "Emergency Committee for the Defense of Religious Freedom, a Voluntary Association of Lay Members of the Worldwide Church of God in Good Standing," was formed in March 1979. They prepared a several-hundred-page aide-memoire with supporting data for distribution to the media. This aide-memoire consisted of selected documents taken out of context in order to support the Armstrong/Rader position.

An interesting aspect of the publication was the constant reference to the Pope. It must be remembered that the Worldwide Church, as do many other churches, considers the Roman Catholic Church to be modern Babylon, the great whore referred to in the seventeenth chapter of Revelation. In the reference to the Pope, Stanley Rader, in a signed statement, said that, "The Church is hierarchically structured, with Mr.Armstrong as its pastor general (pg 246) (analagous to the Pope). As with the Pope, Mr. Armstrong's authority is virtually absolute." He went on to say that the executive committee of the Church board was "a group perhaps most closely comparable to the Papal Curia".

In the aide-memoire section outlining the Church organization according to Armstrong, it said: "His position and authority are comparable to those of His Holiness, the Pope. The Board of Directors is equivalent of the Papal Curia." Never, in all the history of the Worldwide Church, had Armstrong ever been compared to the Pope nor had the Church organization been compared to the Papal Curia as a means of justification. And certainly the title of His Holiness was never acknowledged as a title or name of any individual. And for very good reason: Our Savior is the only one who may be called His Holiness. To take on such a title to one's self, or call someone by that name is blasphemy. In Psalm 111:9 we read: "He sent redemption unto His people: He that commanded His covenant forever: Holy and reverend is His name."

This is the same verse, by the way, that has always been used to support the reasoning for not calling ministers reverend. One can expect that it may not be long before Herbert Armstrong

will have the title, the "Most Right Reverend Holy Apostle." It is not difficult to see that a Church which had come so far from false beliefs, which had come into the knowledge of so much truth, which had done as God commanded, had come out of Babylon, was now, through its internal corruption, going right back into Babylon. And the signs of this are quite clear, justification of itself by comparison to "BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS" (Revelation 17:5).

The situation was fast deteriorating to the point where Armstrong and Rader were just fighting to hang on to the members through continued fear and intimidation. Before all this happened, the Church was already in trouble, and the leaders knew it. They knew it in spite of the fact that they were lying to the members, saying that things were better than ever, on the right track, God's government was being restored, etc. etc.