The Real Mystery of the Ages
By
Lonnie Hendrix
Not long before his death, Herbert Armstrong published a compilation of some of his writings which he titled Mystery of the Ages. In terms of a comprehensive theology, it is probably the closest that he ever got to such a thing. The premise of the book was that God had revealed to Herbert Armstrong seven great mysteries that had perplexed humankind throughout their history on this planet. Even more mysterious than the mysteries, however, was the fact that they had been extracted from the same Scriptures which Jewish and Christian scholars had had access to for centuries! According to Mr. Armstrong, prior to him, no one had ever figured this stuff out! Indeed, according to him, “The clergy and theologians of organized ‘Christianity,’ therefore, cannot and do not understand the Holy Bible.”
To Herbie, the Bible was a “coded book” – “like a jigsaw puzzle” with thousands of pieces which needed to be assembled in just the right way to reveal these mysteries. He wrote that “The Bible itself is the basic mystery that reveals all other mysteries.” Armstrong, of course, claimed that he had assembled the puzzle pieces correctly and demystified God, angels, humans, civilization, Israel, the church, and the Kingdom of God. Why had everyone else missed these fundamental “truths”? Armstrong claimed that God had revealed these mysteries to HIM, and that only the folks whom God “called” and gave his Holy Spirit would be able to comprehend what had been revealed to HIM!
Unfortunately, although Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God later rejected Mystery of the Ages as heretical and riddled with errors, much of the membership continued to believe that the book was crucial to a proper understanding of the Bible. Although many of the lay members would eventually acknowledge that there had been problems with church administration and/or governance, they would continue to insist that the “core teachings/doctrines” of the church had been sound. In other words, they continued to believe that God had revealed these seven mysteries to Mr. Armstrong and had chosen to hide them from the religious and secular scholars of the world at large! After all, it did wonders for the ego to imagine yourself as having been singled out for a special understanding that wasn’t available to the intellectual elite of the world!
The first mystery which Herbert claimed to have deciphered was focused on “who and what is God?” While most of Catholic and Protestant Christianity had embraced a Trinitarian view of God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), Armstrong insisted on a Binitarian view of God (Father and Son). Like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Armstrong taught that the Holy Spirit was NOT a personage – that it was a force which was used by God to accomplish his will. Armstrong, of course, had to explain away a great many passages which suggested personality for the Holy Spirit and basically ignored Christ’s instruction to baptize new believers “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19, NIV). Moreover, Armstrong embraced an anthropomorphic view of God which limited God and made him into the image of a human! For Herbert and his followers, God was an extremely angry individual who was ready to zap most of humanity at a moment’s notice and forcibly impose a “benign” dictatorship over humanity. In other words, Armstrong’s god is NOT one that most of us would recognize or equate with THE GOD!
As for the angelic host, Armstrong taught that angels were immortal – even though Paul told Timothy that only God is immortal (I Timothy 6:16). Herbie also taught his followers that angels originally had the same potential as humans – that God intended for them to live on the earth, finish, and rule over it. For the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, however, angels were “ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). Indeed, a little further into the letter, we read: “It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking.” (2:5) In fact, Mr. Armstrong taught that God had created humans as mortal beings because of the failure and immortality of the angels! However, in that same epistle to the Hebrews, we read: “For to which of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father?’” (1:5) In other words, God is NOT working on plan B! The angels NEVER had mankind’s potential – not ANY part of it! Moreover, ALL of the scriptures which address the fate of Satan the Devil speak of him eventually being consumed by fire and ceasing to exist! (See Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, Revelation 20)
Next, Armstrong claimed to have special insight into the mystery of man. He correctly taught that Satan had deceived the whole world (Revelation 12:9), but then he turned right around and exempted himself and his followers. Everyone was deceived EXCEPT him and his followers! Moreover, Armstrong claimed that God was only calling a select few into his Church in the present – that salvation was not currently being offered to the majority of humankind. Even though Christ had instructed his disciples to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19) and Christ himself declared that he came here to save the whole world (John 12:47). Armstrong claimed that John 6:44 should be interpreted as God limiting salvation to a select few – NOT that God was calling/inviting everyone to come to Christ. Also, in this connection, Mr. Armstrong failed to focus on the reason that Jesus Christ came to this earth as a human. In the epistle to the Hebrews, we read: “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Hebrews 2:14-18)
Hence, in this first part of a two-part post, we have seen that Herbert Armstrong did NOT understand the mysteries which he claimed to reveal in Mystery of the Ages! We have seen that Armstrong did NOT understand who and what God is. Likewise, we have seen that his understanding of both angels and humans was very flawed and misleading. In the second part of this post, we will see that Mr. Armstrong also did NOT understand the forces behind human civilization, who Israel was (and is) and how they related to prophecy, the nature and structure of the Church, or the nature and organization of the Kingdom of God! In other words, Herbert Armstrong’s theology was/is hopelessly flawed and does NOT represent a proper understanding of any of the so-called mysteries which he claimed to have revealed! Stay tuned.
