In the late Spring/Early Summer of 1978, Herbert Armstrong delivered a fiery sermon to get the Church "back on track" and "wake them up" out of the "laodicean condition" that the Church had "slumbered into". Garner Ted had full control of the church for many years. Spending was out of control. Attitudes were beyond carnal in every area, it seemed. This sermon was an effort for Herbert to set everything back to what it once was and save the Church from itself.
Herbert railed on the conditions of the ministry - where every man near the top "tried to do his own thing". Well, doesn't that just sound familiar! What comes to mind when I read this? Malm? Thiel? Pack? Weinland? UCG? LCG? COGWA? PCG? Should I go on?
Here's the first clip that explains a bit of what was going on.
Then, he shakes his jowels and pounds his desk about doing away with tithing, the holy days, the festivals, the truth - but of course, what is it he pounds the table and yells at brain-splattering volume about? Tithing - of course.
The next clipping we see here is another classic example of Armstrong double-speak. First, he says "Satan is winning" that battle. Then, in the next breath, "Christ is on the Fathers throne" and - important this next sentence - "If we are willing" (translation: If you keep donating, tithing, and supporting Armstrong) he will restore everything. He then says "Jesus Christ has awakened me."
Then there's this bombshell statement - or shall I say, the understatement of the entire Armstrong movement by Armstrong himself. He says:
"Now maybe I was slumbering a little bit."
Can you believe this. What he did was the most incompetent thing any Chief Executive Officer could EVER do, and would have been FIRED for immediately, on the spot, for the blatant ignorance of how he ran his organization while he was supposedly on world trips out "preaching the Gospel". What Herbert was doing was having the time of his LIFE, on our dime, quarter, and dollar, stoking up his ego and vanity talking to heads of state about education and world conditions and the way to peace - and throwing in " a strong hand from someplace", a "great teacher once said", and other religious connotations to justify the expense as "religious". While this was going on, he seemed to know NOTHING about what was going on.
Let me state for the record I don't believe this for a second, that he wasn't aware of what was happening or that he was fully ignorant of what was going on while he was away. Garner Ted always kept his father in the loop - this is evident by what he would say in the PGR's and the Bulletins. Yet, nothing was done. But when Garner Ted Armstrong was fired when the defecation hit the rotary oscillator - Herbert saw the opportunity to throw all the blame on GTA for what was happening.
This next clipping showed just how great Herbert Armstrong EXALTED the devil, and made Jesus Christ seem like a weak manager just standing around looking at the Worldwide Church of God and keeping his hands off the Church. Herbert seems to be describing "the World" he so often condemned.
And here, in the next and final clip, Herbert describes what is going on in the Churches of God today to a tee. Everyone is "doing their own thing". There were power struggles then, there are power struggles now. EVERYONE wants to be the head. Malm wants to be the head. Thiel wants to be the head. Pack wants to be the head. Weinland tried to be the head. The other splinters are desperately trying to be the head.
Some are of one leader, some of another - and - in the Churches of God - everyone wants to be in charge. And the Church has gone it's own way in a million splintered, fragmented, shredded fragments of a shadow of its former self.
I have news for Herb.
The SPIRIT of Competition got in because that was the spirit that was in Herbert from the very beginning.
WHO had the spirit of vanity? Herbert did. (and conceit. And yes, Herbert admitted to this countless times.)
WHO had the spirit of self-exultation? Herbert did. (He would stride around the campus with executive big-wigs bragging about HIS accomplishments. He would go to world leaders bragging about HIS accomplishments, just to point out briefly a couple simple proofs.)
WHO had the spirit of lust and greed? Herbert did. (Shall I get out the co-worker letters to prove this? I'll be glad to, if I have to.)
WHO had the spirit of envy and jealousy? Herbert did. (Don't think for a minute he wasn't jealous of the other televangelists and preachers and constantly compared himself to them.)
Herbert was NOT the savior of the Church. Herbert was responsible for what the church became, and Herbert was responsible for allowing it to get off the track. For him to take the credit of getting back in there and "putting it back on track" after he allowed it to "go south" as steadily as it did while he was having the time of his life on our dime going around the world talking with leaders about the strong hand from someplace and how he built this and that and how he had the most beautiful campus in the world - was at the very LEAST, gross incompetence. Of course, he waltzed in there blaming GTA, blaming the ministers, blaming the members, blaming everyone for what happened but himself. The gall of him to get in there and take the credit for saving the church from itself - and then simply saying maybe he "slumbered" a "little bit". If he were still alive I'd tell him to stop being so full of himself and take responsibility for once in your conceited, arrogant, greedy, vain, narcissistic, rage-filled sorry excuse for a minister. Am I being disrespectful? You bet I am. Respect is earned. He did not earn a bit of respect in my eyes. If he went to Africa, to the starving, and the dying, and the sick, held their hand, shared Jesus' love to them, talked with them, fed them, and cared for them, THEN I would fully respect him for that action. Did he do anything like that? No. They were beneath his highness.
And I'd tell him that right to his face. Because no one stood up to him to tell him that, that I know of, but should have. Why? Because of the money and the control over people's lives he had using money and perks. Forbid they'd have to do *gasp* manual labor.
What do we have now? The result of what we would have had then had not Herbert moved in with his perfect opportunity to save the church from the very attitudes he constantly exhibited. Just look around at the state of the church today. It's an ugly, splintered, divided, confused, weak, powerless, lethargic mess headed up by everyone who has "gone on to do their own thing".
No, Herbert was not the saviour of his own church. He jumped in when his son became the competition, and threatened the lifeblood of the organization. He wasn't about to let anyone jump in and destroy the church from the inside out.
That is, until he appointed Joseph Tkach, Sr. As Pastor General.
