The Real Mystery of the Ages II
By
Lonnie Hendrix
In the chapter of Mystery of the Ages dealing with human civilization, Herbert Armstrong wrote: “God placed man here to restore the government of God to the earth. Lucifer and his angels had been placed here originally. God had put them here on an unfinished earth. Remember, God creates in dual stages. Like a woman baking a cake, she bakes first the body of the cake, but it is not finished until she puts on the icing. The substance and body of the earth had been created before the angels were placed here. But God intended for the angels to develop the surface of the earth, to beautify and improve it. For this purpose he gave them his government to regulate their conduct and performance together in so doing.”
There are, however, a number of passages which indicate that the original home of the angels was heaven (Genesis 28:12, Matthew 18:10, 22:30, 24:36, Mark 13:32, John 1:51, Jude 6). Moreover, in the previous post, we quoted from the first two chapters of the epistle to the Hebrews to demonstrate that God NEVER intended for the angels to have ANY part of man’s potential or mission! Also, God did NOT place humans on this earth to “restore” the government of God. There are numerous passages which suggest that God’s ultimate aim/goal/purpose was to prove to humankind that they needed God’s government – that God’s Kingdom was the only thing that would bring mankind the peace, prosperity, and other blessings which they had sought in vain to establish for themselves (Isaiah 9:7, 11:9, Daniel 2:44, Revelation 21:1-4). Indeed, Jesus Christ instructed his disciples to pray for God’s Kingdom to be established on this earth (Matthew 6:10, Luke 11:2).
In this same chapter, Armstrong also quoted extensively from C. Paul Meredith’s thesis (which was heavily dependent upon the thoroughly discredited work of Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons). For Herbie, modern civilization was founded in paganism influenced by Satan the Devil. In other words, he completely ignored and/or dismissed the influence of Judaism and Christianity on Western civilization. For him, those faiths were also riddled with paganism and deception and had exerted a mostly negative influence on humanity. Of course, this view of human history is neither Scriptural nor consistent with secular historical scholarship. Hence, it is clear that Armstrong’s teachings about human civilization were deeply flawed and based on erroneous interpretations of Scripture.
The next “mystery” which Herbert sought to unravel was that of the modern identity of the ancient people of Israel. Unfortunately, much of the information in this chapter was lifted from another important book by Armstrong which promoted the notion that the English-speaking nations of the earth were the descendants of two of the tribes of Israel, Manasseh and Ephraim (The United States and Britain in Prophecy). Now, I (and many others) have written extensively about how the teaching of Anglo-Israelism is both scripturally unsound and genetically and historically impossible. I have also written about how this teaching distorts the promises made to Abraham, and how they were to find their ultimate fulfillment in and through Jesus Christ. Likewise, I have pointed out how Armstrong fundamentally misunderstood the purpose of Israel (to introduce God to the rest of humanity), and that the way that Herbie taught Anglo-Israelism was inherently racist in nature. Hence, once again, we see that Herbert Armstrong did NOT understand who and what Israel was/is, and that his flawed understanding also necessarily had a profound impact on his understanding/interpretation of Biblical prophecy.
In the next chapter, Armstrong wrote: “Perhaps the greatest mystery of all will not seem, at first glance, to be a mystery to most readers of this volume. The reason that is true is the fact that the true purpose and meaning of the Church is as little understood as the Bible itself. The revelation of that mystery must come as a shocking truth. The real truth about the Church, the reason for its origin, and its purpose has remained hidden from even the professing Christian world.” Unfortunately, once again, Mr. Armstrong’s understanding of the nature and purpose of God’s Church was just as superficial and flawed as was his understanding of the other “mysteries” he addressed in this book!
The Greek word translated into English as “church” is ekklesia. And, according to Blue Letter Bible’s entry for ekklesia, the word indicates “a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place, an assembly” (In this case, an assembly of Christians). Moreover, in ALL of the places where this word appears in the New Testament in relation to the Christian Church, the sense is clearly indicative of a spiritual organism – NOT any human organization or corporate entity! Moreover, the ekklesia is clearly referred to in those scriptures as the property of God and Jesus Christ – founded on the Day of Pentecost with God’s gifting of the Holy Spirit to Christ’s followers. Hence, the emphasis on the proper “name” of the Church is misplaced. In other words, it was/is God’s ekklesia whatever we humans choose to call it! The Roman Catholic Church, the Worldwide Church of God, and the Southern Baptist Convention were/are NOT the ekklesia! They are human organizations which may (or may not) contain some of the members of God’s ekklesia!
In terms of the Church, it is also important to point out that Herbert Armstrong did NOT understand the governance which God placed within HIS ekklesia! As Krischan has recently pointed out on this blog, the hierarchical structure which Armstrong instituted within his Worldwide Church did NOT reflect the decentralized and service oriented model found in the New Testament. Jesus told his disciples that he did NOT want them to imitate the leadership models found in the world around them – that he didn’t want them lording it over each other (Matthew 20:24-28, Mark 10:41-45, Luke 22:24-27). Likewise, Peter reflected the exact same attitude toward leadership within the Church (I Peter 5:1-3). Indeed, rather than imposing one person’s will over the Church, we see that controversial issues within the early Church were settled by reaching a consensus among the leadership (Acts 15).
Finally, before we leave the subject of the Church, we should point out that Herbert Armstrong also did NOT understand the commission given to Christ’s disciples or the content of the message which they were to deliver to the wider world! In the Gospel of Matthew, we read: “Jesus came and told his disciples, ‘I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.’” (28:18-20) Moreover, the book of Acts and the epistles of Paul, Peter, James and John make very clear that the message was focused on the person of Jesus Christ and the salvation which was available through him!
Herbert Armstrong, however, insisted that he was the only one preaching the “true” gospel! He wrote: “Why do the churches disagree on what actually is ‘the gospel of Jesus Christ’? During the first twenty or thirty years after the founding of the Church in A.D. 31 a violent controversy arose over the very question of what is ‘the gospel of Jesus Christ.’ There ensued a hundred years in which all history of the New Testament Church was destroyed. It has been called ‘the lost century of Church history.’ When the curtain lifted, about the middle of the second century, there appeared an entirely different type of church calling itself Christian, but in the main preaching its own gospel ABOUT Christ, not the gospel OF Christ. The gospel OF Christ was the gospel Christ proclaimed. Jesus was a Messenger sent from God with a message, and that message was THE KINGDOM OF GOD. Christ’s message was Christ’s gospel-the gospel OF Christ. It had not been proclaimed to the world until the first week in 1953, when for the first time in about 1,900 years-a century of time cycles-it went out on the world‘s most powerful radio station, Radio Luxembourg in Europe.”
First, there was no “lost century of Church history.” Mr. Armstrong was either ignorant of the many Christian writings available to us from this period or he intentionally ignored them! Moreover, those writings make very clear that the message of the Church was focused on Jesus Christ and the salvation that is available to us through him (see the epistles of Ignatius, Clement, Polycarp, The Didache, etc.). In other words, there was no interruption in the preaching of the Good News about Christ and his Kingdom!
In fact, Herbert Armstrong’s focus on a physical government and kingdom represented a DEPARTURE from the message of Christ, the early Church, and millions of Christians down through the centuries until the present day. Like some of those early disciples, Mr. Armstrong appeared to expect the immediate overthrow of current governments and the establishment of a physical Messianic Kingdom. Once again, Armstrong appeared to either not understand or intentionally ignored the very spiritual and salvific nature of the Kingdom of God. He also failed to focus on the King of the that Kingdom, Jesus Christ. Indeed, for Armstrong, the focus on Jesus of Nazareth was the problem with the message of other Christians!
Hence, we have seen that Herbert Armstrong’s Mystery of the Ages failed to deliver on its promised demystification of the Bible. Sadly, Mr. Armstrong either misunderstood Scripture, or he intentionally ignored anything which contradicted his interpretation of it! Thus, the real mystery of the ages is how anyone could so pervert and twist the message of the Bible and the Christian Church! In other words, it wasn’t just a matter of administration or character – Herbert Armstrong’s theology (as outlined in this book) is quite simply NOT consistent with Scripture or the history of Christian thought and practice.
