Does God Recognize the Armstrongist Movement?
Frequently you will
hear many COG leaders, prophets, apostles, witness types, and many
others besides, claim that Herbert Armstrong was the modern apostle sent
by Jesus Christ himself. They will then go on to reaffirm their belief
that WCG was the one and only true church of god, and that the shattered
remains of the Armstrongism legacy remain the true church of god on
Earth today. They will say that "Jesus Christ is the head of their
church." Also, the "ministers" of these churches believe the validity of
their ordination as a "minister of Jesus Christ," is based upon an
unbroken chain of ordinations linking Armstrong's ordination all the way
back to the original first century apostles. These churches believe
that god only works with people, makes them
part of "his body," "his bride," the "ecclesia, etc., if they become
affiliated with one of the COG corporate organizations. Furthermore,
they hold it as beyond question that if you are affiliated and baptized
into one of the COG corporate organizations, then god MUST be working
with you.
Where did these ideas and assumptions come from? More importantly, how can we know how much truth there is to them?
Armstrong
preached that 1) the seven churches mentioned in Revelation 2-3 were
not just seven congregations along an ancient mail route, but were also a
prophecy, symbolizing seven historical "church eras." When he wrote his
autobiography, he claimed 2) that the Church of God (Seventh Day)
centered in Stanberry, MO, was the "Sardis era" of the true church of
god. He used this to assert that his splinter group was the
"Philadelphia era" of this same true church, and moreover, that 3) he
could then trace an unbroken lineage through COG(7D) all the way back to
the original apostolic church of the first century
AD. Many COG groups continue to use these claims and this logic, to say
that they are the true church, or are one of the true churches, and
that they can trace their roots back to the original first century
church. Those assertions form the foundation for another host of further
claims, such as that WCG was a fulfillment of certain prophecies and
many scriptures in the bible were referring to WCG and its membership,
for example, how Jesus Christ said, "I will build my church; and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
Can we take these
claims to the bank? How good is the foundation underneath those claims?
Was Herbert Armstrong telling the truth? According to Robert Coulter,
former president of the General Conference of the Church of God (Seventh
Day), (the church link through which Armstrong claimed authority), none
of those claims were true.
COG(7D) as an entity, traces its
roots back only to 1858 when it splintered off from
the Adventists. If COG(7D) had a founding "Armstrong figure" that man
would be a Methodist minister named Gilbert Cranmer. Like Armstrong, he
started out as a Sunday-keeping protestant. Later, in 1843, he converted
to become a Sunday-keeping Millerite Adventist. If Cranmer needed a
link to the "true church," as Armstrong seemed to need, then Cranmer
would have had to have acquired his authority from the Millerite
Adventists (since the Protestant Methodists are not an option). Were the
Millerites a “true church of god”?
William Miller was a
Calvinist Baptist who believed that Jesus would literally return to the
Earth in the Spring of 1843. When that didn't happen, it was pushed back
to the fall, and then to October 22, 1844. The doctrine of seven church
eras appears to have originated with Miller, which he used to help make
a case for the legitimacy of his own movement. Andrew N. Dugger,
although he was on the fringes of the Oregon State
Conference of COG(7D) and a mentor to the young Armstrong, he was also a
dyed-in-the-wool Millerite Adventist who did not reflect the beliefs of
COG(7D). In 1936, along with Clarence O. Dodd, he published a book
entitled, "A History of the True Religion Traced From 33AD to Date,"
which attempted to fill in the details of these Millerite "church eras,"
using generous helpings of other Millerite doctrines to help him do so,
such as the "true names" doctrine, which was borrowed by Armstrong and
has come to be associated with Armstrongism as well.
Dugger &
Dodd makes the claim that Adventism began as an incarnation of the
"true church," but does so based upon no more evidence than the "great
enthusiasm" of William Miller, and that they were organized under the
name "Church of God" prior to James and Ellen White changing the name to
"Seventh-day Adventists" in October of 1860. Dugger & Dodd make no
attempt to connect Adventism to the
previously discussed Seventh-Day Baptists of Salem, WV or any other
group. Brief mention is made of the obviously inconsequential "great
disappointment" as merely an "error in prophetic calculation," while
much is made of how he "went on with the truth."
Watchman.org,
however, does claim that Adventism got its belief in a seventh-day
sabbath from the Seventh-Day Baptists, although it doesn't say exactly
how that happened. Curiously, according to Dugger & Dodd, it wasn't
necessary that the Seventh-Day Baptists carry the "true name," I suppose
because they kept a seventh-day sabbath, and, as long as at least one
organization recognized under their umbrella carried the name "Church of
God" or Church of Christ" at some point in their history, no matter how
briefly, that was good enough to sanctify the rest. Also, it wasn't a
problem that Adventists originated as Sunday-keepers, not adopting a
seventh-day sabbath until 1846. In retrospect, maybe
that was why Jesus didn't come in 1844. But still, from 1846-1860, they
had fourteen years with both the "true name" and the right day of the
week, so I guess that's all we need to know.
Later, Dodd would
disavow the book entirely, saying he had come to believe their
assertions were based upon faulty premises. In reality, there is no
evidence that god had anything to do with William Miller in any way, or
that he had any special access to god, or any special authority from god
to convey to anyone else through association, ordination, or any other
means. Also, Deuteronomy 18:22 says that he was a false prophet.
Nevertheless, along with a little scriptural cherry-picking, Armstrong
and Herman Hoeh would continue to make much hoeh, er, hay, out of Dugger
& Dodd, using it extensively as though it were solid research.
Unless you count unfounded conjecture and then steadfastly pay no
attention to scripture, there really is little reason to conclude
that the Millerite movement were a branch of the “true church of god.”
Meanwhile,
Gilbert Cranmer, the Adventist minister would come to adopt the
seventh-day Sabbath as late as 1852, (apparently having been unaware
that the church within which he was a minister had officially embraced a
seventh-day Sabbath for the last six years). Cranmer would splinter off
to form his own group in 1858, and would change the name of his group
to "Church of Christ" in 1860. Later they would change the name to
"Church of God (Seventh Day)."
Robert Coulter freely admits that
when COG(7D) was founded it did not observe many of the criteria that
both Dugger and Armstrong would later claim are distinguishing
characteristics of the "true church of god." Perhaps the most important
tenets that COG(7D) has never acknowledged are the Hebrew calendar,
passover, and the old testament holy days.
In his autobiography,
Armstrong retells the story as though the
Millerite church eras doctrine and the believe that they were the
"Sardis era," were also bona fide COG(7D) tenets when in fact, neither
of these claims were true. After Garner Ted Armstrong was kicked out of
WCG for the last time, he met with and spoke to COG(7D) groups, and
Coulter says he apologized for WCG referring to COG(7D) as “the Sardis
church." Coulter also disavowed Dugger & Dodd, saying, "We are a
19th-century creation. We cannot trace our history back to apostolic
times."
We're left with nothing more than two dead-end
connections, neither of which fit the proscribed definition of a "true
church of god," and the most direct of which claims it has no
authoritative connections. From where did Armstrong derive his
authority? In short, he derived it from himself. He made it up. Herbert
Armstrong borrowed all these ideas from others, probably because they
were proven marketing tricks to gain followers.
The truth is,
there is
no evidence to suggest that the prophetic interpretation of Revelation
2-3 is a valid interpretation of scripture. COG(7D) never claimed to be
the “Sardis era” of the “true church” and WCG had no basis to claim it
was the “Philadelphia era.” There is no connection between Armstrongism
and the first century apostolic church. Herbert Armstrong himself was
not only not an apostle, as he claimed, but he also possessed no
authority to ordain anyone else as a "minister." There is no evidence to
claim that any of the COG groups are today or ever were "God's True
Church," or that any of the members are "God's People." Nor is there any
reason why Jesus christ is, or ever was, the "head" of any of these COG
organizations. Finally, there is no reason to suspect that god must
necessarily honor the baptisms of the members or be working with any of
them in any way, despite the popularly held theories to the contrary.
Currently
there is no evidence
one way or the other that god recognizes the validity of the Armstrong
movement. It is merely an article of faith, embraced because the
alternative is unthinkable. As we have seen the theory for Armstrongisms
validity in some cases is based upon a lack of evidence, and in other
cases upon
outright lies. But the difference between this faith and regular faith
is that with regular faith there is at least a holy book to go along
with it for support. In this case, you have to place your complete trust
in nothing more than a man's word, namely,
Herbert Armstrong. I would be lying to you if I said I could estimate
the chances one way or another. But given the history, what do you think
the prognosis is?
So, that's the truth, but there's more. There's also the brutal
truth. If the Armstrong movement should turn out to be invalid in the
eyes of god, then where does that leave the membership? I hate to say
it, but images of the Titanic do come to mind.
So, how can you
know if you are one of god's people? How do you know that god "began a
good work in you" in the first place? How do you know that the Father
has "drawn you" to christ, so that you can "come to him"? How can you
know that you've made the necessary connection and boarded the train
that's bound for glory, or even had an opportunity to do so, and that
you're not just sitting at the train station, going nowhere? You can't.
Not unless you're Gideon, and god talks to you and what he says comes to
pass; then you know you're on the train. Of course, either you're on
the train, or else you're on the boat. Maybe you want to be on the train
with all your heart and all your soul and all your
might. Maybe you've been keeping the commandments as best as you can
for decades. Sorry, there's no guarantee that translates to being on the
train. Contrary to what your "ministers" have been telling you, there
is no guarantee that god is calling you, and if he isn't, there isn't
necessarily anything you can do about it. Unfortunately, the bible is
unsettlingly unclear about all of this. These are just a couple of
pertinent little details that god forgot to include in the bible.
Andrew
