Fitly Joined Together? Herbert Armstrong’s One True Church Meets the Reality of a Thousand Splinters
Samuel Kitchen recently posted a 1981 quote from Herbert W. Armstrong that paints a picture of beautiful, organic unity. Armstrong declared that the Church of God is “fitly joined together,” founded on the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone. He leaned on the vine-and-branches imagery of John 15: the branches are joined to the vine and to one another through that vine. Break one off, he warned, and you break it off from Christ. God has one Church. He never said He would create several different groups. “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” And, Armstrong insisted, that Church was still here in 1981—organized, together, and speaking the same thing.
Illustration by Samuel Kitchen
Forty-five years later the landscape looks less like a single healthy vine and more like a vineyard after a hurricane.
The organization Armstrong led did not remain “fitly joined together.” Before his death, there were already hundreds of splinter groups and self-appointed group leaders. Then, HWA had to go and die, and all hell broke loose. The Worldwide Church of God became a cascade of competing claims: United, Living, Philadelphia, Restored, Continuing, Church of God Eternal, and hundreds more. Each new group insisted it was the true remnant, the Philadelphian era, the sole organization still joined to the vine. Leaders rose, declared themselves the rightful successor or the end-time Elijah or the final apostle, and promptly cut off anyone who questioned the new arrangement. Disfellowshipping became the preferred pruning method. Congregations split, re-split, and split again. Today the COG world operates as hundreds of independent fiefdoms, each demanding exclusive loyalty, each warning that leaving their particular group is the same as leaving Christ.
The irony is thick enough to cut with a knife. Armstrong’s own words are now used by men who lead separate, mutually exclusive organizations to prove that only their group is the one true Church. The very quotation that insisted God would never create several different groups is posted by leaders who have spent decades creating and maintaining those groups. The “one thing” they claim to speak is no longer a shared voice; it is a chorus of competing claims about calendars, governance, prophecies, titles, and who is allowed to sit at the table.
This is the natural fruit of the exclusivity model Armstrong taught. When the identity of the true Church is tied to a single hierarchical organization, every disagreement becomes a potential schism. Every strong personality becomes a potential new headquarters. Every failed prophecy or internal scandal becomes an opportunity for the next man to declare that the previous group has been rejected and that he now carries the true mantle. The result is not a fitly joined body. It is a landscape of rival claims, competing websites, parallel Feast sites, and endless accusations that the other groups have “broken off from Christ.”
New Covenant Christians are under no obligation to play this game. The New Testament never requires believers to locate the one correct corporate organization in order to remain joined to Christ. The Church is the body of those who are in Christ by faith. The vine is Christ Himself. Union with Him is by the Spirit through faith, not by membership cards, hierarchical approval, or the ability to recite the correct list of end-time titles. Believers are joined to one another through the vine, not through a single human headquarters that claims exclusive rights to the vine.
That means a Christian who fellowships with other believers outside the Armstrongist orbit is not automatically “broken off.” A believer who refuses to accept the latest self-appointed leader’s claims is not cut off from Christ. The gates of the grave have not prevailed against the Church Christ is building—because that Church is not identical with any one of the splinter groups that claim the Armstrong brand.
Armstrong’s 1981 words reveal the high ideal he held. The history since then reveals how quickly that ideal collapses when it is married to organizational exclusivity and hierarchical control. The fractured COG world is living proof that tying spiritual life to the claim of being the sole true Church produces endless division rather than the unity it promises.
New Covenant believers are free to leave any COG out there and the exclusivity contest behind. The vine is still there. The branches that abide in Him remain joined—both to Him and to one another—without needing permission from any of the competing headquarters that still insist they alone hold the keys.
15 comments:
Excellent post. Exclusivity certainly was the hallmark of the Armstrong empire, and that exclusivity was enforced. John 10 tells us who we belong too, and no one can steel us from Him. It is the believers in Him who are justified from what the law would never do. Fractured, splintered and slowly withering away to dust marks this movement in all its shattered fragments. We have nothing to fear from these men any longer and can have that life more abundantly that He came to give us, without the middle men. I feel sorry for those still caught up in the Armstrong embrace. It has truly become a forest of splinters, so much for the one true church theory they held too.
..........and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. Dan 12:7
Felt sick seeing that self satisfied face staring back and dressed in fancy suit and tie
HWA's strength (advertising background) became a profound weakness in many ways. His exclusivity also applied to himself in that he created a personality cult which was so dependent upon himself and his personal attributes that he was irreplaceable. Any successor would be regarded as a place holder, and always less than, right up until the time of the resurrection.
Many of the mantle grabbers believe that if they continue to spread all of the bogus material which defined HWA, that that material will make them great leaders, great teachers. But, alas! Nobody can sell that crap as meaningfully as could HWA!!! He exemplified "If you build it, they will come." His successors? All quite lame and totally ineffective. (Thankfully).
BB
With more than one of my ministers, an accusation was a sentence via being verbally bashed, but a complaint was met with a "I wasn't there." So the ultimate value of everyone having a right to life just wasn't there. A civil war was fought over this point, but the church under HWA sided with the confederates. Today's ministers and their bootlickers are the church Massa's. The splintering is one consequence.
Do these guys just ignore the behaviors that disqualified HWA? I can tell you that many of the upper echelon from Pasadena knew of his perversions and deny it all u want but the incest occurred. I have yet to hear of any conversions from all his meetings with foreign heads of state or dignitaries. And if any one thinks that someone is going to build a new movement using old videos or taped sermons of HWA about the 2 trees or Give vs Get they are sadly mistaken. I sat there for 2 hours+ back in the 70s and 80s and what I remember is kids getting restless and being scolded to be quiet, smelling stale farts, and a couple of regulars including my dad who had narcolepsy dozing off catching up on his sleep
CGI already existed when HWA wrote that in 1981. The erosion only has worsened from there.
BB knocked it out of the park with that comment! See if you are the history of the New York Yankees. Sure your first mega star is Babe Ruth, but then the empire goes on, Lou Gehrig was next, then Joe DiMaggio and then to Mickey Mantle. Each player possessing a different talent and bringing something amazing to the table to continue winning as a franchise, along with individually “every dog has his day”
The Cult of Personality within Armstrongism doesn’t allow something like that. The HWA mantle (placeholder) practice fallacy gets thrown to the wayside when the two witnesses arrive. Splinterdom is the result of the mantle placeholder spirit that gets into those men. It also is karma to the 1963 plain truth article “Here's the Plain Truth About OLD TESTAMENT POLYGAMY” and how he pointed out Christ is to marry ONE church. That sounded solid in 1963, but now look at splinterdom.
I have to agree with Byker on that.
As a pre teen I read quite a bit about Cults and recognized that "our Church" did in many ways resemble the criteria of one. I reasoned....yeah.....but all is well if a Cult is led by a good leader like Mr A.
As a teen in High School I figured that "our Movement" was quite good despite the blatant and obvious incompetence of those under HWA.
Later when Joe Sr. met the troops I told him to "keep up the good work." As from the second he was in charge he obviously and blatantly strayed from the core of "what our movement was supposed to do and be." (for instance telling the asking News Media that the Collapse of the Berlin Wall held no significance whatsoever)
Then I saw Joe Jr being introduced in a manner that was kept secret for the entire Worldwide membership as I saw Jr's sermonettes being censored from the Feast video's. It became obvious that the entire edifice was coming down in a manner that was so poorly executed that many succumbed under the rubble and others clang to spaces that seemed to be intact but had no foundation left whatsoever.
nck
You bet they sided with the confederates. And todays ACOG ministers are really slaves unto HWA. Even after a few decades, they can't break free from those mental shackles. Christ brings us freedom.
Galatians 2:4 And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage),
Gal 5:1-2 is similar as it's talking about individuals lording it over individuals about circumcision. But Armstrongism is very similar with it's additional "outdated" OC issues and dispositions.
We ought to take a vote! From that forest of splinters, which one has become the "Forrest Gump" of splinters?
Oh, I imagine there were many clandestine discussions amongst the ministry, 6:57! HWA had the power structure stacked against anyone who might have confronted him. Some gave up their paychecks, houses, and perqs, but most of the ministry either rejected the information, or decided to roll with it and see if it would resolve itself. And, then there was death. The toppling of the Berlin wall had no prophetic significance, And the church fragged. One would think that was the end, but..........................
Good points, 9:09. One of the Armstrong undertones was always that "the world's" mess is just too big for each of us as individual human beings to handle and function. In other words, nothing can really be done until Christ returns. In fact the classic Plain Truth articles usually ended with a statement to that effect. The essence was "there can be no real solution until Jesus Christ returns." But HWA shucked and jived and taught us how to dance a bad Boogaloo that no mantle grabber has ever been able to replicate. Plus, we all never realized the horrifying fears with which he motivated us. They did not happen. The church, under HWA's successors is like an ACOG kid trying to duplicate Eddie Van Halen's complex guitar tones and riffs on the ukelele Aunt Minnie gave him as a Feast of Tabernacles gift!
And as you suggest, if God ever had anything to do with Armstrongism, the splinter situation of today is so completely hopeless in its confusion and devastation that the only thing which could possibly straighten it out, unite it, and complete the work (if there is an Armstrong-based work!) would be the arrival of the two witnesses, who then assumed the authority. HWA's "baby" that everybody thinks they found in the bath water has produced a horrible, smelly, explosive diarrhea dirty diaper, a spiritual biohazard which no human could possibly clean up!
Now, I continue to adhere to the Gamaliel model, but if I were a splinter group member, I would very much be anticipating the reunification of the church, not under one of the title-usurping humans who have already tried and failed, but under the the two spirit beings, the two witnesses whom some of the place holders have already claimed to be. (They are NOT!) And the memories and influences of HWA loom so immensely in COGdom, that I suspect even then the two witnesses will be hearing "But, Mr. Armstromg said......" quite frequently.
The two witnesses are in excellent company! Jesus will be confronted with that statement as well!
Interesting. The "we can't do anything about it" malaise has not only affected the church members' once held earlier life high hopes for the surrounding world, but has also obliterated their hopes for their church rising into prominence and fulfilling its alleged commission. HWA destroyed hope in order to herd people into his church. He left them no way out, and took vast numbers of prisoners whom he convinced that being part of his work was the only solution. As luck would have it, hope is not something you can turn off and on. Just as the WCG awaited the return of Jesus Christ to rescue the world and reinvigorate it, now the splinters' only hope for reunification is the coming of the two witnesses, with their authority to get past the egos of the mantle grabbers. That fits one of their guiding principles.. A spiritual solution.
And, of course all this is simply a hypothetical scenario, a "what if" which assumes that God might have had anything to do with Herbert Armstrong in the first place. And, yes, I admit that it kind of becomes a "Johnism", in that the only possible verification is the passage of time! 🎩. A lot of wisdom in that! What I like about it is that the wait on time mentality helps us avoid the extreme errors which one might make if we believe we are trapped in, and must function in an emergency situation..
BB
“The Vine and the Dead Sticks: How the 'One True Church' Became a Forest of Splinters”
Somewhere around 25 years ago, a UCG minister mentioned that they had already identified 200 people who each thought that they were one of the Two Witnesses mentioned in the book of Revelation.
That was 200 brain-dead shticks right there already.
Somewhere back then, Norman S. Edwards, who always eagerly encouraged and loved all division and confusion in the Worldwide Church of God, said that he had 150 papers on his desk about the calendar, and that they all disagreed with each other.
That was another 150 brain-dead shticks right there already.
The more one looked around back then, the more signs one saw of brain-dead shticks everywhere.
BB The"we can't do anything about it" is them telling on themselves. Yea the two witnesses are the individuals who are going to be able to do something about it. And whenever that does take place it’s going to be hilarious watching their tails between the legs (if we are still here). Time will tell.
The splinters have continued with“that being part of the work is the only solution.” Because it’s the end time and “this is the most important work in the history of the world”, as they need that money.
And that emergency situation under armstrongism is reading the “bible like a newspaper” and being worried about any and everything when listening to a sermon or telecast. We all make mistakes just like Eddie Van Helen was trying the lick that Holdsworth was doing , but came up with something new. The internet has been a wonderful thing to combat armstrongism. As one minister used to always say, “check up on us, but also check up on all the other guys.” Well that’s what we’ve done.
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