Armstrongism had the chance to be taken seriously. For multiple tens of thousands over a period of seventy years and more, it was. Many well-intentioned, God-fearing individuals took the words of Herbert Armstrong as Gospel, equating him as a 20th century Apostle who had been granted divine revelation to restore what seemed to be lacking within the religious confusion of the protestant world scene. Many abandoned everything they had believed - and embraced the new beliefs - with full trust in the words and visions of Herbert Armstrong and the general ministry of the Worldwide Church of God.
The restoration of what was perceived to be original Christianity was completely dependent on the claim that God was speaking through Herbert Armstrong. Of course, for God to actually have been speaking through Herbert Armstrong, there would have had to have been validation. Yet the Church convinced the same tens of thousands of God-fearing people that they indeed did have validation. Validation through physical works orchestrated through a physical organization.
What had to be accomplished to prove and to validate Herbert Armstrong's ideas was very simple: That the period of time of the growth and rise of the Worldwide Church of God was the same period of time as prophesied about in Matthew 24. That the Gospel of the Kingdom would be preached unto the whole world, and then the end should come. What Herbert saw happening around him - to him - was the validation of what, and who, Herbert thought he was. Things were changing, developing, advancing, and modernizing at a breathtaking rate. From Herbert's birth was the horse and buggy, at mid-life was nuclear and atomic power, and late in life was the moon landing and the Space Shuttle and the beginnings of the information age. It certainly appeared at that time - for anyone living in 1986 - that things could have reached a pinnacle that could not be topped without some sort of divine intervention - that we had sealed our doom for certain. And it was this fear that sealed the belief - the wholehearted belief - that Herbert somehow got it right.
Somehow, everything in Revelation that was prophesied - the bowls, the seals, the thunders. The beasts with the horns and crowns. The two witnesses. All of it - according to Herbert, and believed by us - had to do with the period of time from 1930 to 1986. The expectation among the believers was sure. That was absolutely believed to be the final generation of mankind as we know it today. It was unmistakable. Yes, the Worldwide Church of God was that grain of mustard seed that restored original Christianity and restore the Kingdom and Government of God to the whole world right then. Not in ten years, not in twenty years. Then. In three to five years, tops, the Baptized Members would be transformed and changed into spirit beings. The ministry would be transformed and changed into top-level leaders. The children would remain on Earth, guided by their spirit-parents. World war III would break out, in an all out nuclear catastrophe. In just a few years, just before we wiped ourselves to oblivion, Jesus would return on a white horse with His army of angels, the Worldwide Church of God and all original Christianity would be resurrected and meet him somewhere in the middle of our atmosphere, descend and make war with the resistance, set up the Millennium, and restore the Government of God in a very physical way for 1,000 years under God, Christ, and Herbert Armstrong. Lions and wild animals would be tamed, swords would be turned to plowshares, the Sabbath and the Holy Days would be kept by everyone, especially the Feast of Tabernacles, and everything would gradually turn into a magnificent agricultural fountain-filled utopia until the devil would be released one more time for a short period. This was our expectation. This was what was expected in 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, and 1986. This would have been the validation that Herbert was right. This is what was consistently, adamantly, and without wavering preached as the Word of God that all of us believed fully, waiting for the validation to commence. Just wait - it's going to happen, we'd say. Just a few more years.
The problem is the truth became something totally different. A truth that thousands refuse to look at in the face and see. Here's the truth that many refuse to wake up to. The truth is that the Worldwide Church of God was going to collapse in 1995. The Ambassador College would be shut down. The Ambassador Auditorium would be sold to Pentecostal Charismatics. The Student Center and many Ambassador facilities would go to a mainstream Christian high school. The Church would shrink to a fraction of what it was. There would be no physical world-shattering return of Jesus Christ in 1986, 1990, 2000, 2010, or 2015, no matter how many Armstrong ministers claimed that that would happen. Those who preached prophecies in the name of Armstrongism would be, every time, proven completely false and absolutely wrong. Many would try and some would succeed to raise their own mini-empires, causing Armstrongism to become the very name of confusion that for so many years they harpooned others with. If anyone would have told anyone this truth in the glory days of Armstrongism, they would have been accused of being demon possessed, liars, and evil - and thrown out of the Church and marked. Yet that would not have made any of this any less truth. This is the truth, this is what was destined to happen. This is what the eyes of you and of me see as reality today.
The reason why so many to this day continue to flock to Armstrong Churches in whatever denomination they feel comfortable with (And so many is a relative term - a fraction of what it was, honestly) is because of either two things. One, they hold out hope that they could be right, and that everything was just a little delayed. Or two, they refuse to admit that they were wrong. Either way denies the truth. The truth that history shows as evidence to reality. Yet, neither of these reasons are what holds them to stick with Armstrongism. The only thing that truly binds them to the core falsehoods that Armstrongism propagates is one thing, and one thing only: Fear.
They are afraid. They are afraid of Satan. They are afraid of demons. They are afraid to anger God - and oh, there are so many ways to anger God if you believe in Armstrongism. Eat the wrong food. Drink the wrong drink. Do the wrong thing on the wrong day. Say the wrong thing. Dress the wrong way. Work at the wrong job. Associate with the wrong people. Don't give an offering. Don't pay your tithe. Don't go to church. Disobey a minister. Disobey a deacon. Be weak in faith. Go to church on Sunday not Saturday. And the list goes long and on and on. It is this fear that keeps them rigidly subscribing to a weak, pathetic version of the Law without form and without substance, bound and loosed by ministers who have never truly kept the Law even themselves - breaking it with hypocrisy, pride, arrogance, conceit, lust, love of power, and the love of money. There is no freedom of Christ in this. There never has been. Just pure, unadulterated fear that blinds them of the truth - the very Truth that has every bit of power to set them free from the tired, worn, drug out, repetitious, constant drone of falsehoods that calls itself Armstrongism - held together only be a loose-knit group of social clubs financially supporting proven liars and charlatans feeding like leeches off of the members in a supreme example of stone-cold wickedness, who throw darts and daggers of fear to "keep the money coming" so their false gospel - invalidated for decades - can be preached. Again. There's no freedom here. Never has been. There never will be.
Wake up! Quit being afraid and living in paralyzing fear! Enough!
God has never given anyone a spirit of fear. God only gives a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind. The truth is? It's Armstrongism that gives a spirit of fear. It has from the beginning. It still does to this day. Armstrongism IS a spirit of fear. And the sooner that people wake up to that fact, face it, and admit it, the closer they become to truly being free. As scripture says, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
You'll never find true freedom in Armstrongism. You never have, you never will. Freedom is only found by Christ in you, the true mystery of the ages.
Submitted by SHT
