It is hard to believe that it has been 38 years since Herbert Armstrong died. I remember that morning vividly. I always had to drive by his house to park in the underground parking structure on the campus. When I drove by that morning there were a couple cars in his driveway, no real biggie.
Then, when I got close to the Hall of Ad I saw the flag at half mast and a flurry people going into the building. Later that morning I got a call to come to his house and was given a suitcase that was filled with his medicine. It contained a huge number of medicine vials, prescriptions, etc. I was instructed to take them to the amphitheater down by the gym and burn them all in the fire pit there.
The day quickly devolved into endless speculations what his death meant for the church. Many saw it as a sure sign that the end times had arrived and we would be fleeing soon. The craziness was off the charts.
Various HQ evangelists and high ranking ministers thought they deserved to be his replacement and got the shock of their lives when it was discovered Joe Tkach Sr. was the new Pastor General. Rod Meredith and Ellis LaRavia was sure they were going to be the chosen one. Thank God they weren't!
And here we are 38 years later and the church is like a basket of rotting peaches. A putrid rotten mess of moldy decay covered with flies. Who could ever imagined we would have men like Bob Thiel, Gerald Flurry, Dave Pack and Ron Weinland saying the most idiotic and blasphemous things imaginable.
Almost every single Church of God out there was born in an act of rebellion and refusal to follow church government they had all so earnestly demanded of members just a few weeks earlier to their apostasy. None of these men were men of virtue and ethical standards. As each splinter group split off the shenanigans by their new leaders was shocking and disgusting.
Is it any wonder 38 years down the road we continue to watch these groups shrink and become nothing worthwhile? Hundreds and hundreds of members continue to leave the church every year. The churches offer nothing worthwhile to the youth to keep them interested. Their appeal to the public is minuscule since they all try and operate on 1986 Worldwide Church of God models.
For most of its lifetime the church was a closed environment with leadership controlling what members read and heard. Questions led to disfellowshipment and public humiliation which kept the membership in line.
Then the internet and cell phones with internet access happened and the church lost control of its information stream at an astounding rate. Members who had long distrusted official statements from the official sources quickly discovered they had been systematically lied for for decades. Money was embezzled and used for private means of enrichment by many top church officials. Members who had struggled to fund this quagmire of corruption quickly stop supporting the church. Tens of thousands left the church entirely.
Today the flashy veneer that some COG's use to cover up their stinking underbelly is barely sustainable. Grumbling factions are at work in many COG's today ready to break things up yet again.
11 years from now will anyone even know what the Armstrongist Church of God movement was? Will anyone even care?
