The Worldwide Church of God - Page 1

Herbert W. Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God changed and splintered

Notes:

1. History of the doctrinal changes in the Worldwide Church of God

   The Worldwide Church of God (WCG) was originally founded in 1933 by Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA) as the Radio Church of God. At its peak in the 1980's, about 150,000 people attended the Worldwide Church of God meetings all around the world. The WCG's income was over $200,000,000 a year. Its World Tomorrow television program was on over 400 TV stations. About eight million free copies of its Plain Truth (PT) magazine, and almost one million free copies of its Good News (GN) magazine, were distributed each month, ten months of the year. The WCG also had its own private college called Ambassador College (AC). Just before Herbert W. Armstrong died on January 16, 1986, at age 94, he apparently appointed Joseph W. Tkach, Sr. (JWT, Sr.) as his successor. Joseph W. Tkach, Sr. died about a decade later, at age 68, on September 23, 1995, and his son, Joseph Tkach, Jr., took over and is still in charge. Both Tkaches, Sr. and Jr., began changing the church's teachings as soon as Herbert W. Armstrong was in the grave. Eventually, all of Herbert W. Armstrong's writings were withdrawn from print. The doctrinal changes were made quietly and slowly at first, but then openly and radically in January 1995.

   Ambassador Auditorium Pasadena, California

   Worldwide Church of God members were told that Joseph W. Tkach, Sr. had once been stung by a scorpion during the night. According to the story, JWT, Sr. simply touched his arm, rebuked the poison, and healed himself. Interestingly, soon after this story was told, JWT, Sr. did away with the WCG's booklet about healing. It was made to sound like the wonderful JWT, Sr. just didn't want to embarrass people who, unlike himself, lacked the faith to be healed. But, the next thing he knew, doctors discovered about fifty spots of cancer on his bones, and he seemed to have lost the gift of healing that he supposedly once had. Joseph W. Tkach, Sr. died on Saturday September 23, 1995, forty weeks after saying that God hadn't struck him dead for making all the doctrinal changes in the Worldwide Church of God.

   To make the major doctrinal changes of January 1995 easier for members of the Worldwide Church of God to accept, Joseph W. Tkach, Sr. even did away with tithing. The WCG's income plummeted, and Joseph Tkach, Jr. eventually "discovered that Abraham tithed before the institution of the Old Covenant," and called on "every man, woman, and child to resume tithing immediately." The divorced (in 1978) and remarried (in 1980) Joey, Jr. didn't seem to discover anything else that needed to be brought back.

   Since the death of Herbert W. Armstrong in January 1986, and especially since January 1995, the Worldwide Church of God has been changing from a clean-eating, Sabbath-keeping church into a ham-eating, Sunday-keeping church. The Annual Holy Days are being discarded and replaced with customs like Halloween, Christmas, and Easter. The idea that God is reproducing Himself through humans made in His likeness has been replaced with the doctrine of the Trinity. Ideas about the American and British people being the descendants of the Israelites, and having surprising prophecies in store for them, are no longer taught. Some people claim that there have been over 200 doctrinal changes in the Worldwide Church of God since the death of Herbert W. Armstrong.

   Herbert W. Armstrong (left) Joseph W. Tkach, Sr. (right)

   In the June 24, 1985 issue of the Worldwide News (WN) newspaper, Herbert W. Armstrong wrote that, "God had blessed His Church with an unprecedented approximate increase of 30 percent per year for 35 years." After Herbert W. Armstrong died, and Joseph W. Tkach, Sr. took over the Worldwide Church of God, the claims that HWA had made about the growth of the WCG were mocked. Now, the WCG has had nothing but declining income for years, and the story of the decline is more amazing than the story of the original growth.

   From its peak in the 1980's, the Worldwide Church of God's income has dropped by over 80%. Regular WCG attendance in the United States was once approximately 100,000 but has since dropped more than 80% to under 20,000. The WCG's Web site continues to claim that the "Worldwide Church of God is a Christian denomination with about 64,000 members," but this figure is from old membership lists on their computer. The number is old, and intentionally deceptive, and does not reflect the actual regular attendance at all, which a recent report put at only 13,500. The World Tomorrow television program totally disappeared, the Good News magazine totally disappeared, and the Plain Truth magazine's circulation dropped to about 100,000 copies every other month after a subscription fee was put on it. Ambassador College (AC), which had briefly become Ambassador University (AU) under the reign of Joseph W. Tkach, Sr., was closed down by Joseph Tkach, Jr., and the campus in Big Sandy, Texas was sold. The Pasadena, California headquarters buildings of the Worldwide Church of God, including the Ambassador Auditorium (pictured above right), were also put up for sale. On May 14, 2004, the WCG announced the sale of approximately 13 acres of its 31-acre west campus to Ambassador Acquisition Partners, LLC, comprised of Harvest Rock Church and Maranatha High School. The announcement is posted at the WCG's Web site at http://www.wcg.org/eastcampus.htm. This sale, for an undisclosed amount of money, included the Ambassador Auditorium, Hall of Administration, Physical Education Complex, Student Center, and Men’s Dormitory. At one time, more than 1,000 full-time employees worked in Pasadena and Big Sandy. The people who were willing to go along with all the doctrinal changes in the WCG in order to remain employed by the WCG have now run out of luck anyway. Many of them did not care about the truth of God, but certainly did care about their paychecks and pensions.

   Joseph Tkach, Jr.

   Herbert Armstrong started the Worldwide Church of God in the middle of the Great Depression, and it grew larger all the time. Joseph Tkach, Sr. took over the WCG in relatively good times, yet its membership and income have been declining year after year, and the WCG sometimes tries to explain away the shrinkage by claiming that the economy is bad. The leaders who thought that they could make a church grow better than HWA did are now finding out that it is not as easy as HWA had made it appear to be.

   The Worldwide Church of God has a Web site at http://www.wcg.org. The current issue, as well as past issues since September 1995, of its Worldwide News newspaper (later called WCG Today, and now called Together) can be read online at http://www.wcg.org/wn/default.asp. Joseph Tkach, Jr. wrote a book called Transformed by Truth that claimed to give the "inside story" about how the Worldwide Church of God rejected the teachings of founder Herbert W. Armstrong and embraced "historic christianity." Transformed by Truth can be read online at http://www.wcg.org/lit/booklets/truth/. Of course, it does not tell the whole story. The WCG's Web site now has an Alphabetical List of Worldwide Church of God Publications at http://www.wcg.org/lit/alpha.htm. These writings represent the new beliefs of the WCG.

   Transformed by Truth by Joseph Tkach, Jr.

   The doctrinal changes in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) caused many people to break away from the WCG and form many different splinter groups. Currently, the three largest splinter groups are the United Church of God (UCG), the Living Church of God (LCG), and the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG). At the present time, neither the WCG under Joe, Jr. nor any of its splinter groups is anywhere near as large and influential as the WCG was under HWA.

2. Herbert W. Armstrong's writings are still available

   Anyone interested in seeing and reading the writings of Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA), including The Autobiography, can go to the following Web pages, as well as others:

   Pabco's Home Page - HWA's writings on the Internet
   
   Herbert W. Armstrong Library and Archives
   
   Hoselton.net - HWA's writings and Global Split Page

3. Did WCG leaders have doctrinal agenda?

   The doctrinal changes in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) were discussed in the August 25, 1995 issue of the In Transition newspaper, which had an article with the heading Did WCG leaders have doctrinal agenda? This article was available on the Internet's World Wide Web, then disappeared, but has now returned, this time at http://www.thejournal.org/in-transition/v1issue5/did-wcg-have-doctrinal-agenda.html.

4. Hanky Panky to fool the Protestants

   In its attempt to gain the approval of Protestant churches, the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) under Joseph Tkach, Jr. got the support of a character by the name of Hank Hanegraaff, who liked to pass himself off as "The Bible Answer Man." More than a few people claim that Hank Hanegraaff has some behavioral problems that he needs to answer for, instead of just presuming to answer for God. But, rather than answer, Hank Hanegraaff has his lawyer threaten with lawsuits anyone who complains about Hank's behavior.

   The accusations about Hank Hanegraaff include:

   • Plagiarism in both his Memory Dynamics and Personal Witness Training programs
   • Personal cruelty towards employees, i.e., yelling and swearing at them while they worked at CRI (Christian Research Institute)
   • Use of foul language and crude remarks
   • Abuse of power: threats and intimidation if questioned
   • Wrongful termination of CRI employees who did ask questions
   • Use of CRI resources to further the sales of his "for profit" businesses Memory Dynamics and Personal Witness Training

   Details of the hanky-panky can be read online at http://www.waltermartin.org/cri.html.

5. Honey, I shrunk the Church

   An interesting article about the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) and its doctrinal changes, breakup, and decline appeared in the December 4, 1997 New Times Los Angeles. The article can now be read online right here. It is called Honey, I shrunk the Church.

6. History and overview of the ministry of Herbert W. Armstrong

   A brief but informative history of Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA), called HISTORY AND OVERVIEW OF THE MINISTRY OF HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG, is available at http://www.isitso.org/guide/hwahist.html.

7. The temper tantrums and divorce of Joseph Tkach, Jr.

   When Joseph W. Tkach, Sr. (JWT, Sr.) died on September 23, 1995, his son, Joseph Tkach, Jr., became the leader of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). An article in the November 1991 issue of the Ambassador Report (AR49) mentioned Joseph Tkach, Jr.'s 1978 divorce and the reason for it. The article was called Joe Tkach Jr. Members of the WCG might wonder why Joey, Jr. doesn't seem to care about cases of abuse and injustice in the WCG. Well, when someone rejects God's good laws about justice and decency, this is what happens.

8. Worldwide Church of God women bewitched by Harry Potter

   Whereas the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) under Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA) had opposed customs like Halloween, the Worldwide Church of God under Joseph Tkach, Jr. just can't seem to get enough sorcery and nonsense. This complete change in the nature of the Worldwide Church of God is illustrated by an article in the April 2002 edition of the WCG's Canadian Northern Light magazine (also known to some people as the Northern Blight magazine). The article, called Harry Potter: What's All The Fuss About?, was written by a woman whose daughter had become obsessed with the overly lengthy books written by a divorced English woman named Joanne K. Rowling. The daughter read them everywhere she went. In no time at all, the mother too "was enchanted." Reading the Bible did not seem to be of any interest to either of them. The article first appeared in the February/March 2002 edition of the WCG's British Plain Truth (PT) magazine, and can now be read online at http://www.wcg.ca/news/nl/2002/Apr2002/guest_commentary.htm#start.

   In the Old Testament of the Bible, God told the Israelites, "When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the LORD your God" (Deuteronomy 18:9-13, NIV).

   The New Testament of the Bible says that, " Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas" (Acts 19:18-19, NIV). Whereas converted people in the first century rejected sorcery and nonsense for the truth of God, people in the Worldwide Church of God in the twenty-first century are rejecting the truth of God for sorcery and nonsense.

   The Bible does say that a time will come when people will "not put up with sound doctrine" (II Timothy 4:3, NIV). "They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths" (II Timothy 4:4, NIV).

   While the Old Testament of the Bible mentions some pretty dire consequences of wrong behavior, the New Testament of the Bible warns about even worse consequences: "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death" (Revelation 21:8, NIV).

   Having been "brought up with weird witchy tales," the author of the Harry Potter article can't see what all the fuss is about. She can't differentiate between right and wrong. She doesn't care that her daughter's head is full of things that God says are detestable. Her great concern is that her daughter's "vocabulary would be full of Americanisms, her written work full of US-style spellings," if it weren't for English authors like J. K. Rowling. From time to time, some woman will want to teach in the church. When one sees how unbalanced they can be, it is no wonder that the apostle Paul said, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent" (I Timothy 2:12, NIV).

   From a practical point of view, people who don't really believe in God anyway, and who like things that the Bible says are evil, could save a lot of money by just purchasing Harry Potter books for their retail price, without the additional cost of tithes and offerings added on. Unless one wants to help corrupt the world, why financially support a so-called church so it can praise and promote Harry Potter books rather than the Bible? Now that the WCG is teaching the exact diametrical opposite of the Bible on so many issues, those who really truly do believe in the God of the Bible should never again send another dollar to the WCG. Remember, "Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the LORD must be destroyed" (Exodus 22:20, NIV).