World Wide CH of God - Person Bios, History - Criminal acts

[Cyborg]

Http://www.apologeticsindex.org/w01.html


Throughout most of its history, the Worldwide Church of God - founded and led by Herbert W. Armstrong - was, theologically, a cult of Christianity. Among other things, it rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, the bodily resurrection of JesusOff-site Link, and salvation by grace through faith aloneOff-site Link.

Sociologically, the movement had many cultic elements as well.

However, starting in the mid 1980's under Joseph Tkach Sr, and later his son, Joseph Tkach Jr. - the church's current leader - the Worldwide Church of God has undergone major changes in doctrine to the extend that is has rejected its heretical teachings, and instead has embraced orthodox Christianity.

On Jan. 7, 1934, the Radio Church of God took to the air with the remarkable teachings of its founder, a former advertising man named Herbert W. Armstrong. Among them: that the British and their colonists in America had descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel, that God was not a Trinity but a family (Father and Son, but no Holy Ghost) and that the apocalypse would begin in 1936 (later postponed to 1943, then 1972, then indefinitely).

On his program, ''The World Tomorrow,'' and in his magazine, the Plain Truth, Mr. Armstrong called his beliefs the product of methodical explication of the Bible, which he said was ''a coded message not allowed to be revealed and decoded until this time.'' Members contributed up to 30% of their income. Some attended the church's Ambassador College and joined a media empire that strove to link current events to prophecies of a coming ''Tribulation.'' Renamed the Worldwide Church of God, the congregation claimed 100,000 members and a $131 million annual budget when the founder, who called himself ''Christ's chosen apostle,'' died in 1986 at age 93.

Then his successor had a message of his own for the faithful: Mr. Armstrong was dead wrong. Joseph Tkach Sr., whom Mr. Armstrong had anointed just a week before his death, began abandoning the church's unusual doctrines one by one. In 1989 he suspended publication of the founder's final summation, ''Mystery of the Ages,'' a 381-page work that Mr. Armstrong had called perhaps ''the most important book written in 1,900 years.'' Half of the church's members left. Tithes dwindled. The church was forced to slash its payroll drastically and liquidate a real-estate empire that had included campuses in Texas and England. Last year it sold its 48-acre Pasadena headquarters complex, including one of California's leading concert halls, to condo developers.

Through it all, a splinter group in Oklahoma continued to take Mr. Armstrong at his word.
Source: Crying Copyright Violation, Church Demands Money Donated to SplinterOff-site Link [Accessible by WSJ Subscribers only] , Wall Street Journal, Feb. 21, 2001

David Covington, a former WCG pastor, wrote:

His [Herbert W. Armstrong's] widely-circulated message was an eclectic mixture of cultic doctrine, Jewish observances and Seventh Day Adventism. The church strictly observed the Saturday sabbath, Jewish festivals, and the clean meats of Leviticus 11 javascript popup window. Members were required to give upwards of 30% of their incomes to the church. The ministry of the group controlled the membership through fear and manipulation and decided who they could date, how they could dress, what they could eat, etc. Members were not allowed to wear make-up, observe birthdays or participate in Christmas, Easter or Halloween.

The group believed in British Israelism, the view that the white anglo-saxon Protestants of America and Britain are the "pure" descendants of ancient Israel and God's true people on earth. This was a major component of Armstrong's "theology". In addition to rejecting traditional orthodox views of heaven, hell, eternal punishment and day of salvation, Armstrong also taught that members of the WCG would actually become Gods themselves after the resurrection, a twist on Mormon doctrine.
Source: What is the Worldwide Church of God? (Article by David Covington, ex-WCG pastor, who is also critical of the new WCG) [No longer online]
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Splinter Groups

Kurt van Gorden writes:

Once known far and wide as the cult of Armstrongism, [the Worldwide Church of God] now, through repentance, joins hands with conservative Christians in heralding the gospel. Its official organ, Plain Truth magazine, embraces the very doctrines its past issues condemned. It interviews contemporary Christian leaders it once derided. It accepts advertising from various Christian publishers it once shunned.

The Worldwide Church of God, originally founded by Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986), was led through this remarkable change by his successor, Joseph W. Tkach (1927-1995). He reversed Armstrong's most damnable doctrines in full acceptance of the Trinity, Christ's divinity and humanity, the person and deity of the Holy Spirit, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and salvation by grace through faith alone. Gone is Anglo-Israelism. Gone is the bondage of legalism as a test for fellowship. Gone is the God Family of divine humans. Gone is the exclusivism and cultism.

Not all followers of Armstrong, whose teaching we term ''Armstrongism,'' accepted this welcomed change. Joseph W. Tkach and the administrators made earnest attempts to hold the church together during their doctrinal reexamination period. But those dedicated to Armstrong's cultism grew impatient, forming about fifty splinter groups from 1985 to 1995. These groups are disassociated from the Worldwide Church of God and each claims succession from Armstrong. Preceding them, another fifty splinter groups separated from Herbert W. Armstrong during his lifetime. Armstrong's teaching bred a hundred factions of which ninety presently remain. The founder's son, Garner Ted Armstrong, leads quite a successful movement with the Church of God, International. Garner Ted Armstrong was once viewed by millions on television as the flamboyant commentator of The World Tomorrow program. Amid charges of sexual misconduct, his forced departure from his father's domain landed him in Tyler, Texas, with thousands of television followers. His playboy lifestyle followed him into the 1990's with new charges of sexual misconduct, again forcing a temporary step-down from his new church (Los Angeles Times, Nov. 23, 1995). Nevertheless, faithful Church of God, International members reinstated him as their iconic representative on 315 cable stations in North America. His espoused doctrines follow that of his father, namely, denial of the Trinity, denial of the bodily resurrection, and denial of biblical salvation.
[...more...]
Source: Appendix A: The Worldwide Church of God From Cult to Christianity, Kingdom of the CultsOff-site Link, by Walter Martin, (Hank Hanegraaff, General Editor), Bethany House Publishers, 1997. Appendix updated and written by Kurt van Gorden.

Others remain skeptical, and claim the changes have not gone far enough.

However, despite the positive doctrinal changes and widespread acceptance by Protestant Christianity, it is the belief of many who have left the WCG group that many abusive and cultic dynamics remain, including financial manipulation, a complete lack of accountability and a totalistic hierarchy in which the Pastor General controls the church and its assets (see WCG bylaws).
What is the Worldwide Church of God? [No longer online] (Article by David Covington, an ex-member, critical of the new WCG)

On the one hand the church is open and honest about its past errors. On the other hand, there is some concern that the church also insists it has a Christian heritage and that Herbert W. Armstrong was not a false prophet. Reality is that while the Worldwide Church of God claimed to be a Christian movement, it clearly was not. At best, it was a cult of Christianity. And since Herbert W. Armstrong made many false prophecies, he most certainly was a false prophet.

That said, the changes that have taken place within this movement are significant and highly encouraging.

Professor James Bjornstad offers the following perspective:

A. Members of the Worldwide Church of God who are part of the "New Covenant," i.e. those who have had a personal experience with Jesus Christ and have truly accepted the doctrinal changes initiated by the Tkachs, all things being equal, should be considered our brothers and sisters in Christ.

B. Those members who are part of the "Old Covenant," who have rejected the doctrines taught by the Tkachs, should be considered as unbelievers. They need to hear again and accept the truth about the nature of God, the Person and Work of Jesus Christ, and salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
Source: Overview, Worldwide Church of God [No longer online]

The vast majority of Christian apologetics- and countercult ministries no longer consider the WCG to be a cult.

- Articles -
Secular Associated Press Summarizes WCG Theology and Cultural Change Off-site Link Good overview of various WCG viewspoints, and the radical changes that have occured in this movement.
Christian Church Sells Armstrong's WorksOff-site Link "Nineteen books by founder sold to Worldwide Church of God splinter group.", Christianity Today, June 17, 2003
Reversing course, the financially struggling Worldwide Church of God has agreed to sell the rights to 19 books by church founder Herbert W. Armstrong to a splinter group. Announced March 12, the $3 million settlement ends a costly round of litigation. It also allows the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG) to reproduce Armstrong's teachings.
[...]

Phil Arnn of Watchman Fellowship, a Christian research and apologetics ministry, said the deal raises an ethical question about the WCG.

"These are heretical doctrines that are destructive to the eternal life of anyone who comes under their influence," Arnn said. "To have profited from the release of the copyrights is a matter that I would think [would be] very troubling to the conscience."
Source: Church Sells Armstrong's WorksOff-site Link
Christian Church struggles with changes in its mission, financial woesOff-site Link Pasadena Star News, Jan. 26, 2003
Christian David Covington's Nine Fundamental Problems with the Worldwide Church of God (WCG)Off-site Link by a former WCG pastor
Christian Doctrinal AftershocksOff-site Link "Worldwide Church of God seeks a new start in the face of fresh opposition.", Christianity Today, June 17, 2003
Ten years ago, leaders in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) began denouncing the fringe beliefs of their founder and transforming their church into an evangelical denomination. This revolutionary theological shift caused congregations and families to splinter. It also sparked a financial Armageddon in the highly visible movement of 150,000 people.

Now church leaders propose a physical shift that they say will determine the church's future. They want to turn their valuable 55-acre Ambassador College campus in upscale Pasadena into about 1,500 residential units. Church officials say selling the headquarters will secure the church's financial foundation, provide pensions for its pastors, and create much-needed housing for city residents.
Source: Doctrinal AftershocksOff-site Link
Christian The Road To Damascus?Off-site Link Apr. 27, 1996 WORLD Magazine article, subtitled, "Long written off as a cult, WCG takes an evangelical step."
Christian The Two Faces Of The Worldwide Church Of GodOff-site Link PFO acknowledges the changes that have occured within the WCG, but also takes note of some serious issues that still cause concern.
Christian Transforming The TruthOff-site Link The Worldwide Church of God Continues to ''Make'' History. A critical article, but Personal Freedom Outreach
Christian Watchman Fellowship articles on WCGOff-site Link Collection of helpful articles, reflecting Watchman Fellowship's balanced approach. Excellent starting point for gaining an understanding of the issues involved.
Christian The World wide Church of God: From Cult to ChristianityOff-site Link Apendix to Walter Martin's "Kingdom of the Cults"
Christian The Worldwide Church of God's Orthodox BandwagonOff-site Link an article from Personal Freedom Outreach. PFO welcomes the changes that have taken places, but also explains why it cautions against overly optimistic assessments of the new WCG.
If the church has made such a transformation by the grace of God, why have there been such concerted efforts to adopt a revisionist position as to its founder and history and maintain a "Christian" heritage?
The Worldwide Church of God's Orthodox BandwagonOff-site Link
Christian The Worldwide Church of God: Resurrected into OrthodoxyOff-site Link by Doug LeBlanc
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- Books - Click On Titles To Order At Discount » More Books
Christian Discovering the Plain Truth : How the Worldwide Church of God Encountered the Gospel of GraceOff-site Link by Larry Nichols, George Mather. In this account of recent developments in the Worldwide Church of God, the authors tell the nearly unprecedented story of a religious body turning away from its unorthodox beliefs and toward historic Christianity.
Christian The Liberation of the Worldwide Church of GodOff-site Link by J. Michael Feazell (Editor). The fascinating story of the remarkable and unique transformation of the Worldwide Church of God from heretical sect to mainstream evangelical denomination, told by a long-time insider and church executive.
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- News Articles Database -
» Database of archived news items
(Includes items added between Oct. 25, 1999 and Jan. 31, 2002. See about this database)

Older item:
(Mar. 31, 1999) The Year of Believing in Prophecies
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- Profile & Basic Information -
Christian Statement of Beliefs of the Worldwide Church of GodOff-site Link On the main WCG site.
Christian Worldwide Church of God ProfileOff-site Link By Watchman Fellowship
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- Usenet Newsgroup -
» alt.religion.w-w-church-godOff-site Link Unmoderated discussion group
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- See Also -
» About the Sabbath
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- Sites -
Christian Exit & Support NetworkOff-site Link Aiding victims spiritually and emotionally abused by Worldwide Church of God and its offshoots
Non-Christian The Painful TruthOff-site Link Extensive site. "A collection of Facts, Opinions and Comments from survivors of Armstrongism The Worldwide Church of God."
Christian MarkTab Ministries WCG HomepageOff-site Link Mark Tabladillo's extensive site, covering just about every aspect of WCG history, theology, and controversy. Excellent collection of research resources.
Christian Worldwide Church of GodOff-site Link Official site
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- Splinter Groups -
Note: This section lists only some of the many splinter groups.
Profess to be Christian but are outside orthodox Christianity Church of GodOff-site Link Splinter group (1998) of the United Church of God, which itself is a splinter group of the WCG.
Profess to be Christian but are outside orthodox Christianity Church of God - A Christian FellowshipOff-site Link Successor of WCG splinter group, Global Church of God.
Profess to be Christian but are outside orthodox Christianity Church of God InternationalOff-site Link Splinter group of the WCG. Sponsors the ''Armor of God'' literature and TV shows.
Profess to be Christian but are outside orthodox ChristianityGarner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic AssociationOff-site Link Splinter Groups of the WCG. (About Garner Ted ArmstrongOff-site Link)
Profess to be Christian but are outside orthodox Christianity United Church of GodOff-site Link Splinter group of the WCG
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About this page:
Worldwide Church of God (WCG)
First posted: Jan. 3, 1997
Last Updated: Jun. 17, 2003
Copyright: Apologetics Index
Link to: http://www.apologeticsindex.org/w01.html
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[Cyborg]

MICHAEL DENNIS ROHAN

Michael Dennis Rohan
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Michael Dennis Rohan
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Michael Dennis Rohan is an Australian citizen who gained worldwide infamy on August 21, 1969, when he attempted to set fire to the Al-Aqsa mosque, located atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The life of Rohan, like that of Bobby Fischer, was influenced by the Worldwide Church of God (of which he was never a member) and this translated into personal actions which impacted much of the world in a very negative manner and was strongly condemned by Herbert W. Armstrong who distanced the Church from such a vigilante act, especially since the Church doesn't even vote or engage in any political activities.

Brief biography

Not much seems to be known at present about Michael Rohan apart from his sudden emergence in the wake of the fire at the Al-Aqsa mosque.

Lord's emissary

By his own admission Rohan claimed that he was "the Lord's emissary" acting upon divine instructions in accordance with the Book of Zechariah. He claimed that he had tried to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque in order to enable the Jews of Israel to rebuild the Temple on the Temple Mount and thus hasten the second coming of Jesus as the Messiah to rule the world for one thousand years.

Rohan was arrested for the arson attack on August 23, 1969. He was tried, found to be insane, hospitalized in a mental institution and later deported from Israel.

This single act set in motion a chain of propaganda which Yassar Arafat recalled repeatedly during his many interviews on American television programs. However, this strange incident is still shrouded in mystery due to the distortions surrounding what appears to be a single illogical act, carried out by a single individual who was motivated by an American cult leader who later repudiated his own propaganda.

The Plain Truth magazine

While the Arab press accused Israel of setting the fire, Michael Dennis Rohan claimed that he had attempted to burn down the mosque after reading an editorial by Herbert W. Armstrong in the June 1967 edition of The Plain Truth magazine. Millions of copies of that monthly publication were distributed free of charge every year by the Radio Church of God which changed its name to the Worldwide Church of God and was best known for its radio and later television programs called The World Tomorrow featuring his son, Garner Ted Armstrong.

While The Plain Truth magazine looked like a quality news magazine, its texts contained ever changing prophecies which were constantly being shown to be in error due to the passage of time and the recording of actual events. In the May/June edition of 1941, Herbert W. Armstrong wrote (using emphasis shown) that:

Since the last issue many things have occurred, every one in accordance with prophecy! ... War events thunder on, rapidly approaching the prophesied climax!... Hitler now emerges as the "BEAST" of Revelation! Bible prophecy shows the Roman Axis forces will take Egypt, Suez, Palestine, -- even Gibraltar. Britain will go down. And, unless we turn as a nation to God our beloved United States will have to go under ... we lack TOTAL Defense, without which we shall never win. We are at the END of the present order. ARMAGEDDON is now just a short way off.

In 1956 Herbert W. Armstrong wrote the booklet 1975 in Prophecy! which was illustrated by Basil Wolverton and offered free of charge to listeners of The World Tomorrow radio program and readers of The Plain Truth magazine, of which Ronan was a subscriber. This booklet predicted the course of future events which would result in a World War III and the return of Jesus to save humanity.

1967 editorial

The article in Personal from the Editor by Herbert W. Armstrong which motivated Rohan, was in line with the message contained in the booklet 1975 in Prophecy!. The editorial stated that:

There will be a Jewish Temple built in Jerusalem, with animal sacrifices once again being offered -- probably within about four-and-one-half years. It is going to take some time to build such a Temple. And I don't see how they have another month to spare. ... There will very soon be a Temple in Jerusalem, with daily sacrifices once again being offered.

This was not a new claim by The Plain Truth magazine. On page 4 of the October 1958 edition, it reported that:

A temple or sanctuary is yet to be built by the Jews in Jerusalem. It shall happen in less than 14 years from now (1972).

Rohan who was living in Australia in 1967 when he read the 1967 editorial by Herbert W. Armstrong. Rohan had met a minister of the Worldwide Church of God and he had been counseled about membership, but he never became a member. However, this and similar texts motivated Rohan to go to Israel in 1969 in order to make the words of Herbert W. Armstrong come true.

Response by Herbert W. Armstrong

On September 26, 1969, Herbert W. Armstrong wrote to financial contributors to The World Tomorrow program. He addressed his mailing list as "Co-Workers with Christ" and the emphasis in the abbreviated text below is in the original:

… News dispatches are going out to newspapers all over the world attempting to identify with me the arsonist charged with setting fire to the Al Aksa Mosque -- with Ambassador College, and our Work.

Every effort, it seems, is being made to link us with it in a way to discredit the Work of God. The man, Rohan being held as the arsonist, the dispatches say, claims to be identified with us. This claim is TOTALLY FALSE. The first any of us at Pasadena ever heard of this man was when the press dispatches began coming over the Teletypes in our News Bureau. Checkups revealed that this man had sent in for and received a number of our Correspondence Course lessons. Last December he had sent in a subscription to The PLAIN TRUTH. But any claim to any further connection or association with us is an absolute lie.

Two million others subscribe to The PLAIN TRUTH. 100,000 others subscribe to the Correspondence Course lessons. These are sent to any and everybody who requests them, FREE. But such subscriptions do not connect us with such subscribers or any act any one of them might commit, any more than a subscription to the New York TIMES makes that newspaper responsible for any acts committed by its subscribers. I am writing from our (Bricket Wood) British campus. Mr. Stanley Rader, our General Legal Counsel, and Mr. Hunting, Bursar of the College here, are in Jerusalem conferring with officials there with whom we are associated in the archaeological project. I am momentarily expecting a telephone call from them. It is forcing us to go to great effort, and expense, to try to offset this vicious and false persecution. It could get blown up out of all proportion and do tremendous harm to God's Work.

… We have to be VERY DEEPLY CONCERNED with what happens when this trial comes up in Jerusalem on October 6. We need to PRAY, deeply earnest, as never before, that God will stay the hand of Satan, and not involve HIS WORK. Scores of newspaper men will be there. …

Herbert W. Armstong dropped his claims following arson

In the wake of this incident Herbert W. Armstrong decided to drop all claims to the building of a physical Temple, because at the time he was trying to establish a relationship with the government of Israel. He had previously developed a relationship with King Hussein of Jordan prior to the Six Day War and had actually signed a contract to go on the AM and shortwave Jordanian transmitters located in the West Bank with his daily radio program called The World Tomorrow. When Israel gained control of the West Bank it also voided Armstrong's contract and as a result he then courted the favors of the government of Israel by becoming involved with such projects as the archeological digs in the area of the Temple Mount.

Other sources currently advocating the restoration of the Temple

* David Ben-Ariel (arrested on the Temple Mount for trying to exercise his religious rights) is a staunch Christian-Zionist, author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall, and member of the Temple Mount Faithful.
* House of Prayer for All Peoples?
* Plot to blow up Al-Aksa?
* The Third Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem
* A web site called The Temple Mount in Jerusalem advocates the restoration of the Temple and contains more information about Michael Dennis Rohan:

Since 1967 there have been various attempts by individuals and by groups to assault the Temple Mount in order to perform Jewish blood sacrifices, to destroy a Muslim building, or to upset the balance of power and to alter the status quo. On August 21, 1969 Michael Rohan a non-Jewish tourist from Australia set fire to the Al Aksa Mosque. Firefighters fought the blaze for four hours as an angry Muslim crowd shouted "Down with Israel." The president of the Muslim Council accused the fire brigades of a deliberately slow response. The Arab states blamed Israel for the incident even though Rohan identified himself as a "Church of God" member. The fire destroyed a priceless on thousand year old wood and ivory pulpit (minbar) that had been sent from Aleppo by Saladin. At his trial Rohan told the court that he believed himself to be "the Lord's emissary" in accordance with a prophecy in the Book of Zechariah. The court convicted Rohan but then declared him criminally insane. He was placed in an Israeli mental hospital. The Temple Mount remained closed to non-Muslims for two months after the incident. For the next three years, all non-Muslims were barred from El Aksa Mosque.

* An organization called the International Christian Zionist Center currently promotes a similar theme of a restored Temple on the Temple Mount on their Internet web site:

Satan ... kept his grip on the Temple Mount for hundreds of years, until he was almost unseated in the 1967 Six-Day War. ... Islam was permitted to hold sway over who would worship on the Mount. And for the last 32 years, Jews and Christians have been forbidden from doing so. ... The "political" struggle over Jerusalem has really never had anything to do with whom heads up which municipality or who oversees the city's housing, parks or public buildings or even who controls the old city. At the heart of the battle lies this small piece of real estate called Mount Moriah, Mount Zion, the Temple Mount - today in the shadow of an Islamic mosque, but, according to the Bible, soon to be home again to a majestic temple built to the glory of God.

Arab reaction to arson attack

The Arab press accused the government of Israel and claimed that Rohan was "Jewish". Yassar Arafat later developed a regular television interview speech in which he would refer back to this act of attempted arson, while avoiding mention of Rohan by name, as being the reason for his own motivation for attacks on Israel.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper in London pictured Rohan on its front page with a copy of The Plain Truth magazine sticking out from his outside jacket pocket.

Role of the Soviet Union

The USSR exploited the event in its propaganda campaign in the course of the Cold War. In a secret KGB document PDF (in Russian) signed by the head of the KGB Yuri Andropov, Israel was blamed for the arson. The document (dated August 28, 1969) describes a plan to organize and finance 20,000 strong Muslim protest demonstration in India. Source: the Soviet Archives [1] collected by Vladimir Bukovsky.

Response by United Nations

After several meetings by the Security Council to discuss the complaint, it adopted on September 15, 1969, Resolution 271 (1969):

Grieved at the extensive damage caused by arson to the Holy Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on 21 August 1969 under the military occupation of Israel. ... Mindful of the consequent loss to human culture, Having heard the statements made before the Council reflecting the universal outrage caused by the act of sacrilege in one of the most venerated shrines of mankind, Recalling its resolution 252 (1968) of 21 May 1968 and 267 (1969) of 3 July 1969 and the earlier General Assembly resolutions 2253 (ES-V) and 2254 (ES-V) of 4 and 14 July 1967, respectively, concerning measures and actions by Israel affecting the status of the City of Jerusalem. Reaffirming the established principle that acquisition of territory by military conquest is inadmissible. ... Recognizes that any act of destruction or profanation of the Holy Places, religious buildings and sites in Jerusalem or any encouragement of, or connivance at, any such act may seriously endanger international peace and security ...

Adopted at the 1512th meeting by 11 votes to none, with 4 abstentions (Columbia, Finland, Paraguay, United States of America.)

Response by Arab leaders

On August 28, 1969 a complaint was submitted to the United Nations Security Council by twenty-four Muslim countries in response to due the Al Aqsa arson attempt. Mohammad El Farra of Jordan stated:

Today, my delegation joins the 24 other members, representing 750 million adherents of the Muslim faith, which requested a meeting to consider another, more serious tragedy, namely of Al Aqsa Mosque, and the fire which severely damaged that historic Holy Place on the morning of 21 August 1969. The Israeli authorities introduced more than one explanation for the start of the fire and at last charged an Australian with the arson. According to news that originated from Israel sources, the Australian suspect is a friend of Israel who was brought by the Jewish Agency to work for Israel.

The Jewish Agency arranged for the Australian to work in a Kibbutz for some months, so that he could learn the Hebrew language and acquire more of the Zionist teaching. The report published in the Jerusalem Post - an Israeli semi-official newspaper-of 25 August 1969 concerning the life of this Australian in the Kibbutz and his dreams of building Solomon's temple casts doubt on the case and adds to the fears and worries of the Muslims about their holy shrines; it also throws light on who is the criminal and who is the accomplice.

We have not forgotten statements in the early days of the 5 June 1967 Israeli occupation about the future of Jerusalem, nor have we forgotten the report of Menahem Borsh, which was published in Yediot Aharanot of 18 August, 1969, only three days before the burning of the Mosque, emphasizing that the Temple would be built anew in the same spot ... on Thursday, 21 August 1969.

The Arab Press further reported that:

In the early hours of that morning fire broke out at the Al Aqsa Mosque. Muslims praying in the Mosque and others rushed to the scene to remove some of the valuables in the Mosque and extinguish the fire. The Jordanian fire brigade in Jerusalem was called. Muslim religious leaders as well as Jordanian officials within the Israeli-occupied area came to the scene.

To the outside world news of the fire came in Arabic from Radio Israel at 8:30 a.m., that is, one hour and ten minutes after the fire started. The broadcast carried the news of the arson; it did not give any reason for the fire and did not say whether it was extinguished.

Meanwhile, Jordanian fire brigades from Ramallah, and even those from Al Khalil (Hebron) and Nablus, were sent to the scene ... According to Reuters, it took the fire brigades over five hours to extinguish the fire; this, to a certain extent, was substantiated by Israeli authorities.

Remaining questions by Arab media

Was Rohan, after all, acting on his own initiative? Was he not brought to Israel and sponsored by the Jewish Agency? (Note: The Jewish Agency's mission is primarily to bring Jews to Israel, at times there are some people who may not be Jewish by birth who may be brought to Israel as well.) Where did he get all the money which he offered to the guards of Al Aqsa on the morning of the fire and which the guards declined to take? According to The Times of London, of 12 September 1969: "On Rohan's way out he offered each 110 pounds sterling but they declined ... According to the same semi-official Israeli newspaper, The Jerusalem Post of 25 August 1969, Rohan's foster-parents in the kibbutz said: "He never appeared to be short of money to us."

Response by and on behalf of Yassar Arafat

"During an assembly commemorating the 1969 arson attempt on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Zakhariya Al-Agha, a member of the PA Executive Council, made a speech on Arafat's behalf, stressing the determination of the Palestinian people to continue along the path of Jihad until the occupation ends." [2], (August 22, 2001.)

Response by Aljazeera Television

On the web site of Aljazeera Television the following information has been posted about Michael Dennis Rohan:

Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock mosques have come under several attacks since 1967 as Jewish groups prepared for construction of the Third Temple. ... In 1967, a Jewish group tried to lead prayers within the Sanctuary despite a Rabbinate prohibition. Two years later, the entire south wing of the mosque was burned, including a pulpit commissioned by the Muslim leader Salah al-Din al-Ayubi some 700 years earlier. Israeli authorities claimed the perpetrator - Australian Dennis Michael Rohan, a tourist belonging to an evangelical group who hid out in an illegal Israeli settlement - had been mentally imbalanced. By his own admission, he claimed that he was trying to hasten the return of the Messiah by destroying the mosque and rebuilding the temple in its place. Rohan's actions may have alluded to research conducted by Israeli archaeologist Benjamin Mazar, who claimed that the Second Temple stood on the very grounds of al-Aqsa Mosque and the Noble Sanctuary.

2003 Hamas attacks in the name of Rohan

On August 21, 2003 The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia reported "Ceasefire illusion just blown away":

The terrorist bomb that killed at least 18 Israelis in Jerusalem yesterday has shattered the illusion of a Palestinian ceasefire and dealt yet another blow to the moribund peace process. The bomb was detonated on a packed bus taking people from the Jewish shrine at the Western Wall, just after it turned into the narrow, crowded streets of the ultra-Orthodox Shmuel Hanavi neighbourhood. Another bus travelling behind was also badly damaged by the five-kilogram homemade bomb. At least five children were among the dead, and more than 50 passengers and bystanders, including many children, were take to hospital badly injured...

Islamic Jihad claimed that it carried out the attack in revenge for the Israeli killing of one of its leaders in Hebron last week. Shortly afterwards, however, Hamas released a video of the bomber, whom it named as mosque preacher Raed Abdel-Hamed Mesk, 29, from Hebron, a city still under Israeli control. Hamas claimed that the attack was timed to coincide with the anniversary of a 1969 attempt by a deranged Australian Christian, Dennis Michael Rohan, to set fire to Jerusalem's hallowed Al Aqsa mosque...

2004 Comments by Mufti of Jerusalem

On by September 6, 2004, Sheikh Ikrama Sabri, the Mufti of Jerusalem is reported to have commented that:

Since the Israeli occupation in 1967, the Islamic Waqf has been constantly wary of attempts by extremists to harm Aqsa. Most infamous was the fire set to the Aqsa Mosque on August 21, 1969 at the hands of one Michael Dennis Rohan, said to be an Australian national. At the time, the Israeli authorities said he was insane so as to clear him from standing trial and the file was closed. [3]

Israeli Chief Rabbinate response

Official Israeli Policy toward the Temple Mount

According to the Jewish Political Studies Review, Volume 11:1-2, Spring 1999, author Yoel Cohen recorded that the official Israeli Chief Rabbinate adopted a mostly conservative stance toward the capture by Israel of the Temple Mount in 1967, in response to questions of whether to rebuild the Temple and reinstitute the sacrificial service to whether to allow Jews to ascend the Temple Mount to pray:

Given the uncertainty where the Temple building itself was located, Unterman and Nissim (Israel's chief rabbis at the time) decided to impose a complete ban on the Mount. Dr. Zerah Warhaftig, the Religious Affairs Minister, who favored preserving the "status quo," fearing that permission to Jews to pray on the Mount would enflame the Arab world, spoke to the two rabbis about the political dangers.

Cohen further footnoted these remarks with comments from an interview:

Dr. Warhaftig said that in 1967-68 he had favored the erection of a small synagogue in the area of El Aqsa, but once he saw the violent reactions after the Michael Rohan arson at El Aqsa in 1968, he concluded that such a step would not be possible. "Had it just been a matter of the Palestinians," Warhaftig said, he would have favored prayer facilities for those Jews who insisted on such prayer rights, even though it transgressed the decisions of the chief rabbis. But once he saw the emotional strength of feelings throughout the Moslem world, he did not pursue this idea.

See also

* Jerusalem syndrome

External links

* The Third Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem
* Palestine Facts: Who was responsible for the al-Aqsa Mosque fire in 1969?
* From Daniel Pipes' Weblog (August 21, 2004): Jordan's Al-Aqsa Conspiracy Theory
* From Incontext blogmosis (August 21, 2002): The myth of the Al-Aqsa fire
* IsraCast (July 25, 2004): Temple Mount Nightmare

Other pages related to Michael Dennis Rohan and Al Asqa arson
Herbert W. Armstrong profile | Radio Church of God history prior to reform Worldwide Church of God current history of the church | Lost Ten Tribes links to related theories | 1975 in Prophecy! theory of two time cycles | The World Tomorrow radio and television broadcasts | The Plain Truth magazine history | Ambassador College and Ambassador University | Big Sandy history of Texas campus location | Bricket Wood history of UK campus location | Ambassador International Cultural Foundation history | Ambassador Auditorium history | Garner Ted Armstrong profile | Stanley Rader profile | Basil Wolverton profile | Art Gilmore profile | Bobby Fischer religious affiliation

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)



Mentioned In
Michael Dennis Rohan is mentioned in the following topics:
United States in Prophecy Benjamin Mazar
Ernest L. Martin List of Australian criminals
1975 in Prophecy! The Plain Truth
Worldwide Church of God Crime in Australia
Herbert W. Armstrong List of Australians
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[Cyborg]

Stanley R. Rader (August 13, 1930 – July 2, 2002) was born as a Jew and raised to be observant. However, in 1956, in the capacity of a certified public accountant and while keeping his own faith, he first met Pastor General Herbert W. Armstrong who was founder of the Radio Church of God (later renamed Worldwide Church of God). This article traces the relationship between Stanley Rader and Herbert W. Armstrong.

Brief biography

Stanley Rader was born and raised in White Plains, New York. He later moved to California where he met his future wife, Natalie "Niki" Gartenberg. He graduated in 1951 from UCLA and became a Certified Public Accountant in 1954. In 1956 the young Stanley Rader first met Pastor General Herbert W. Armstrong of the Radio Church of God at its world headquarters offices on the campus of its Ambassador College in Pasadena, California. Under contract to the Radio Church of God, Stanley Rader worked on improving its accounting system, creating a highly favorable impression with Armstrong, who then urged him to attend law school at Armstrong's expense. In 1963 Stanley Rader graduated from the nationally ranked University of Southern California Law School where he came in first in his class.

The Radio Church of God had been previously incorporated on March 3, 1946 when it was reestablished in Pasadena. Prior to this event it had been an unincorporated voluntary association based in Eugene, Oregon named after its radio broadcast. On January 5, 1968, which was the year following the death of his first wife, Loma, Herbert W. Armstrong, as president, together with the secretary of the corporation amended its Articles of Incorporation to reflect change of name to the Worldwide Church of God. (By then its radio broadcast had also been renamed as The World Tomorrow. By this time Herbert W. Armstrong was considered to be more of a modern-day Apostle by his followers, rather than a mere Pastor General. After coming to terms regarding salary and compensation, in 1969 Stanley Rader decided to devote his full time and best effort to the service of Herbert W. Armstrong.

1971 sex scandal

Until 1971, having already taken over all major responsibilities for radio and television broadcasting as well as heavily promoted local public speaking campaigns, Garner Ted Armstrong was in line to follow his father as head of the Worldwide Church of God. In that year, sexual affairs, and gambling binges by Garner Ted Armstrong using church funds, which had been known about for many years by insiders, suddenly became public knowledge, resulting in a major scandal, and Garner Ted Armstrong was removed from the church and from the airwaves.

1972 time cycle ends

The doctrinal basis of the Radio Church of God/Worldwide Church of God had been built upon three basic ideas: The first was an assimilation of many beliefs common to Jews and the second was to disown many beliefs common to Christians. The second was the idea that Jews were merely one of the tribes of Israel (Abraham) and that ten of the tribes had become lost to history until they were rediscovered as being mainly the peoples who had settled in the British Commonwealth and the United States of America. The third belief was contained in a booklet called 1975 in Prophecy! which had been previously developed by Herman L. Hoeh who was a graduate student of Ambassador College.

This booklet which was written by Herbert W. Armstrong and illustrated by Basil Wolverton, stated that the Radio Church of God was operating on two 19-year time cycles with the second one beginning in 1953. That is when its The World Tomorrow broadcast was first aired over Radio Luxembourg. The second time cycle was prophesied to end sometime in February of 1972 following which the church would flee to a place of safety which was often hinted to be Petra in Jordan.

Between 1972 and 1975 a third world war would be unleashed upon both the United Kingdom and the United States by a Neo-Nazi dominated United States of Europe which would destroy both Britain and America. In turn this would unleash a second war between this USE and a united USSR and China which would lead to the total destruction of humanity

if Jesus did not return at that very moment as the world-ruling Messiah to halt all further military activity. Peace would then reign on Earth for one thousand years with the followers of Armstrong serving in positions of authority in the new world government.

1972 financial crisis

By February 1972 at the end of the second 19 years time cycle, most members had been led to believe that they would have been taken to a place of safety, probably in Petra, Jordan, to wait out the destruction of both the UK and the USA by a prophesied United States of Europe during World War III. But because the income of the church had began to fall dramatically with removal of Garner Ted Armstrong from the airwaves, he was quickly restored to both his broadcasting and ministerial positions of authority.

However, the failure of these prophecies revealed that Herbert W. Armstrong did not have a master plan or inside information after all. In fairly short order the first in a never-ending series of doctrinal disputes leading to defections and splits began to tear the church apart.

Proposals by Garner Ted Armstrong

Garner Ted Armstrong made proposals that would have relegated the past failures to his father so that the son could present a new plan for the future. That plan included a transformation of church- sponsored media into the more mainstream approach similar to the plan adopted about that time by the Christian Science movement. Garner Ted Armstrong wanted to transform The World Tomorrow program into a daily news broadcast which it was suggested could be sustained by developing a flying television studio aboard a Boeing 707. For years he had rehearsed his style to copy that of Paul Harvey to the point that sometimes the similarity became obvious to the casual listener. He would have also turned The Plain Truth into a newsmagazine and since it had been styled after US News & World Report, to which it had already been to a minor extent. He later suggested that it should instead become a newspaper and actually converted it from a glossy magazine into tabloid newsprint. This experiment did not last.

Proposals by Stanley Rader

Because Stanley Rader had gained the financial confidence of Herbert W. Armstrong beginning in 1956, he was able to reverse the plans of Garner Ted Armstrong and inject his own instead. Using his inside knowledge and great personal influence on Herbert Armstrong, Stanley Rader remodeled the Worldwide Church of God to sustain any sudden and dramatic change which would once again damage the donation income flow, such as the scandalous public disfellowship of media draw Garner Ted Armstrong.

The membership and existing media were left in place with the existing doctrines sans any mention of time cycles or dates for end time prophecies. Indeed, the church attempted to go out of its way to pretend that the time cycles had never really been a part of the core message of the church — in spite of all of the broadcasts, editorial articles and the booklet called 1975 in Prophecy!.

1975 conversion

Stanley Rader, who still considered himself to be a Jew, was baptized into the Worldwide Church of God by Herbert W. Armstrong in 1975 using a hotel bathtub in the Mandrin Hotel in Hong Kong. This move allowed Stanley Rader to reposition himself as a toprank church evangelist in an attempt to quell misgivings by many in the ministry hierarchy and laity who felt that Rader's undue influence on Armstrong was troubling. Rader, the ever striving CPA, had become class valedictorian of his law school class at USC, a noteworthy accomplishment.

In the 60 Minutes interview with Mike Wallace, he more than proved able to defend himself, remarking humorously to Wallace, "I (Rader) don't take stupid pills." [1] Herbert Armstrong, by way of contrast, dropped out before finishing high school, and refused to interview with 60 Minutes. More importantly for Rader, this move also gave him an insider's semi-legitimate financial control of the Worldwide Church of God within governmental oversight restrictions on public nonprofit corporations. By becoming an evangelist in the Church, he would be able to defend himself much more effectively as to the ethics and legality of his highly questionable dealmaking with the Church, as the law grants a very wide latitude in conducting business affairs to the religious leaders of California non-profit religious corporations. This evangelist role gave him much more leeway to defend himself on conflict of interest issues than if he were merely an outside attorney or hired accountant for the Worldwide Church. Just four years later in 1979, Rader was to make use of the his newfound position as evangelist to defend the Church against the State of California's court ordered financial receivorship of his Church. His personal future, as well as his fortune, was at stake as the government investigated: a tangled web of improperly managed accounts, improper cash controls, deficient auditing procedures, representations to Arthur Anderson auditors on accounting and financial issues, Swiss bank accounts, corporate officers purchasing monetized silver and gold bullion from the Church at cost through the use of fraudulent book entriesj, showing that the investments were purchased on behalf of the officer (through the Church extension of free credit), financial misappropriations, embezzlement, conversion of funds by various executives and evangelists, unethical and illegal insider dealings, and finally, Church deals with corporations from which Rader himself controlled and benefited. [2]

Rader had incorporated several businesses he controlled which did millions of dollars of inside no-bid contracts with the Armstrong Church in the areas of aircraft leasing, travel, advertising, purchase of radio and tv station time, and other areas. This set up an inherent conflict of interest with the Church in that he controlled the accounting for the church, while he gave it important legal advice, doing business with it as a third party outside vendor, all the time while continuing to influence the elderly Herbert Armstrong. Only a handful of men had a complete picture and extensive knowledge of secretive church finances, one of which was the now ousted Garner Ted Armstrong. [3]

Rader advised Armstrong to resist the court ordered financial receivorship on a first amendment basis, and to reveal nothing substantial on the legalities or ethical handling of Church finances. At the same time, this move helped to protect Rader from any possible personal financial exposure or legal problems resulting from his professional conduct in his long standing deep-seated legal and financial relationships with Herbert W. Armstrong the Worldwide Church of God.

Ambassador for World Peace

Whereas the plan of Garner Ted Armstrong was to ease his aging father into retirement, the plan of Stanley Rader and his aide Robert L. Kuhn was to transform Herbert W. Armstrong from an elderly evangelist into casting him as a vital Ambassador for World Peace without portfolio. The diplomatic phrase "a minister without portfolio" may refer to an important government official who is not in charge of a particular department, but who still takes part in the decisions of government. His plan required the creation of a totally new and secular cover entity from which to operate, distanced from his Worldwide fundamentalist sect, which might prove unpalatable to prominent world leaders as he played out his role as quasi ambassador. In 1975, therefore, he incorporated the AICF Ambassador International Cultural Foundation which was actually funded from tithe money of church membership of the Worldwide Church of God.

As a consequence, the AICF foundation transformed Ambassador Auditorium on the Ambassador College campus from a church auditorium in which Saturday Sabbath church services were conducted, into a Carnegie Hall of the West, which began a concert series featuring the top names in classical music, jazz and the performing arts. PBS and other television networks made use of this glamorous new venue. The AICF also created a new glossy secular coffee-table commercial magazine called Quest magazine with a circulation of several hundred thousand copies; bought the book publisher Everest House and funded the motion picture Paper Moon starring Tatum O'Neal.

Herbert W. Armstrong, in the company of Stanley Rader, began introducing himself to any world leader who held political power willing to meet with the aging grandfatherly figure while receiving expensive gifts such as Stueben crystal during a Plain Truth photo op. Armstrong sold his new AICF portfolio approach to the church membership as being a "new phase" in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, that gospel message had now changed to a more palatable international mix of less of its Judeo-Christian elements and more of Buddhism. The message was now about giving and not getting and instead of referring to Jesus, Armstrong dusted off an old US News and World Report editorial headline about A Great Unseen Hand from Someplace as being the savior of the world.

Business relationships

Stanley Rader used his own professional legal accounting practice and also incorporated new companies with which to conduct profitable business enterprizes on behalf of the Worldwide Church of God. The companies largely owned and controlled by Rader included:

* Rader, Helge & Gerson who provided legal representation for the church;
* Rader, Cornwall, Kessler and Palazzo who provided accounting services for the church;
* Worldwide Advertising, Inc., which booked The World Tomorrow on radio and television stations;
* Mid-Atlantic Leasing, which leased light aircraft and a Gulfstream II, all paid for by the Worldwide Church of God, to enable Stanley Rader and Herbert W. Armstrong to fly around the world meeting kings, princes, presidents and prime ministers;
* Wilshire Travel, which made the travel bookings for Stanley Rader and Herbert W. Armstrong;
* Gateway Publishing, which printed books used by the church.

1978 excommunication

Behind the corporate scene Garner Ted Armstrong began to complain loudly to other ministers that Stanley Rader had taken over the church. Stanley Rader hit back and the continued gambling and sexual escapades of Garner Ted Armstrong, which had never stopped since his return to the church in 1971, were suddenly plastered all over the mainstream media in both news broadcasts and print media articles. Garner Ted Armstrong was denounced by his father and excommunicated for the final time.

For a very short time Stanley Rader emerged victorious because he seemed to have total control and his new secular entity was growing while the church was being downplayed. When Garner Ted Armstrong left the airwaves again, his aging father attempted to resume the task, but he was not successful because he had passed his prime and his religious message was discredited. However, as Ambassador for World Peace without portfolio, Herbert W. Armstrong continued making the rounds of visiting world leaders with Stanley Rader and delivering his new message about giving versus getting and the Great Unseen Hand from Someplace. Stanley Rader assumed that he had won the war for control of the church when he moved into Garner Ted's former office space. In 1979 Stanley Rader told a reporter:

Mr. Armstrong has said publicly very often that I am a son in whom he is well pleased. The only other one he ever said that about was Garner Ted Armstrong.

1979 retaliation

While Garner Ted Armstrong had been driven out of the Worldwide Church of God and from the airwaves, he attempted to reestablish himself with a new membership base that he created around his new home in Tyler, Texas. However, the organization and media reach that Garner Ted Armstrong was able to create was minuscule by comparison with the Worldwide Church of God and its annual multi-million dollar budget. Garner Ted Armstrong then began to engage in behind-the-scenes political activity in order to topple Stanley Rader from power, so that Garner Ted Armstrong could regain control of the Worldwide Church of God and its income.

In alliance with dissident Worldwide Church of God members who were not happy with Stanley Rader and his AICF activities, Garner Ted Armstrong and others managed to get the attention of the State of California to look into allegations of financial malfeasance and misfeasance by Stanley Rader and his business associates with regards to the income of the Worldwide Church of God. Concurrent with that activity the dissenters also managed to get the attention of Mike Wallace, famous for his tough interviews on the nationally-acclaimed CBS television series 60 Minutes. Wallace was given audio tapes in which even Herbert W. Armstrong appeared to be having misgivings about what Stanley Rader was actually trying to do in transforming the church from a religious organization into a secular enterprise. Garner Ted Armstrong told Mike Wallace that:

Practically everywhere you look, if the church has business it is performing or bills that it's paying, well, somewhere Rader is involved. How can this be? Why should it be?

Response by Stanley Rader

In an attempt to explain the church's lavish spending policies overseas, Rader told Mike Wallace:

Our policy was we would make friends wherever we went in order to help us to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ." Rader's plan was successful.

According to the American Lawyer magazine:

By 1976 the two had become constant companions - Armstrong called Rader his "best student" - and they traveled around the world together some 200 to 300 days a year.

Receivership

By 1979 California Attorney General George Deukmejian had opened an investigation into allegations that millions of dollars a year had been stolen from the church by Herbert W. Armstrong and Stanley Rader. These allegations resulted in the Worldwide Church of God being placed in court-ordered receivership for more than a year.

60 Minutes

Mike Wallace was able to convince Stanley Rader to appear on the 60 Minutes show on April 15, 1979. In speaking about himself, Armstrong, and the Worldwide Church of God, Rader said:

This is a state, and we are representatives of God, and I am Mr. Armstrong's Secretary of State.

Wallace then revealed that he had been given a secretly taped phone call in which Herbert W. Armstrong had alleged that Stanley Rader was deliberately trying to put himself in a position to take over as the church's spiritual leader following the death of Herbert W. Armstrong. This infuriated Stanley Rader who got up from the interview, told Wallace to leave, adding: You're contemptible.

On April 16, 1979, Herbert W. Armstrong wrote to his co-worker supporters in an attempt to explain what was going on:

Perhaps I will have a steward on our jet plane write an article of what he actually SEES me and Mr. Rader do on trips around the world. We are busy every minute. I am writing articles, letters, or proclaiming THE GOSPEL on my typewriter on the plane, in my hotel rooms almost every minute I am not out preaching to big crowds in Ghana, Liberia, Kenya, India, Japan, Thailand, Holland, South Africa, Jamaica, the Bahamas, the Philippines (many times), Costa Rica and many other countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, South America.

Rader's apparent victory

During this time Stanley Rader was the point man for Herbert W. Armstrong and he rallied other religious groups to his defense. With the backing of a nonprofit religious lobbying coalition forming against state intrusion, Stanley Rader was able to successfully introduce a bill into the California Legislature which generally restricts the Attorney General's authority to conduct civil, but not criminal, financial investigations into the activities of California religious and nonprofit organizations. Subsequent to the bill's passage into law, the California Attorney General then dropped its Worldwide Church of God financial receivorship investigation litigation.

Author

In 1980, Rader wrote a book called Against the Gates of Hell: The Threat to Religious Freedom in America. It was about the investigation by State of California into the finances of the Worldwide Church of God and which the National Council of Churches praised as "the seminal work on church/state relations in the 20th century." The book was published by the church's Everest House corporation.

Stanley Rader Sues Steven Spielberg

In a sensational case after the release of the first of the Indiana Jones films (Raiders of the Lost Ark), Rader sued producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg for $100 million. Stanley Rader claimed that both he and his associate Robert Kuhn of the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation had outlined a very similar plot for a movie. The plot, Rader alleged, had been shown to an artists' agent whose properties were later acquired by Lucas and Spielberg. Nothing came of the suit.

Resignation

Although Stanley Rader appeared to have won the financial receivorship, his plan to create the AICF cultural empire had come to a halt. In 1981 Stanley Rader resigned as General Counsel and Treasurer of the Worldwide Church of God. Armstrong paid Rader a special $250,000 bonus, after taxes, he said, as a result of his efforts in vigorously defending the church against the state receivorship. Also, Rader received substantial pension payments arising under his contractual agreement with the church. However, when Herbert W. Armstrong died in 1986, control was passed to Joseph Tkach Sr., a person alleged to be close to Stanley Rader. Joseph Tkach, Sr. then began a now evident process of slowly repositioning church doctrines over time. Before Tkach Sr. died, he appointed his own son, Joseph Tkach, Jr. to Pastor General as his familial successor. As of 2005, however, despite the State of California taking the Worldwide Church into a financial receivorship, a CBS 60 Minutes television investigation, no verifiable detailed account information regarding what happened to the multimillion dollar tithe donations and estate gifting to the Worldwide Church has ever been released.

Death of Stanley Rader

By the time that Stanley Rader died on July 2, 2002, which was just two weeks after being diagnosed with acute pancreatic cancer, the Worldwide Church of God had terminated its former broadcasts and created a separate ministry for its magazine which had renounced its previous editorial purpose. When virtually nothing remained of the former major doctrines of the church it joined a mainstream evangelical organization.

With its educational arm closed, the church then sold off its headquarters property in Pasadena, and planned moving into to a new office building on Financial Way in Glendale, California. Reportedly, the next strategic move may be to be to change again the name of the Wordwide Church association or perhaps its winding up and corporate dissolution, perhaps funding with the remaining assets a newly named non-profit entity, consistent with the newly amended bylaws of the California corporation sole.

Timeline of Change

* 1986 - Herbert W. Armstrong dies and transfers office of Pastor General to successor Joseph Tkach, Sr.

* 1988-1995 - Tkach, Sr. renounces many former church teachings.

* 1995 - Joseph Tkach Sr. dies; appoints his son Joseph Tkach, Jr. to office of Pastor General as successor.

* 1995-1997 - Tkach, Jr. renounces Lost Ten Tribes belief; Move to Sunday worship; Christmas,Thanksgiving, and Easter observance mandated in lieu of Saturday Sabbath, Feast of Tabernacles and Holy Days; Tkachian apology to members and world regarding previous "erroneous" teachings, Worldwide Church of God joins the National Association of Evangelicals.

* 2002 - Stanley Rader dies.

External links

* Against the Gates of Hell: The Threat to Religious Freedom in America by Stanley R. Rader On-line copy of Rader's book defending Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God
* Stanley R. Rader Resigns Article by Herbert W. Armstrong
* Stanley Rader obituary Article in the Los Angeles Times
* "The Devil and Stanley Rader" Article in The American Lawyer
* Stanley Rader on Sixty Minutes with Mike Wallace

Mentioned In
Stanley Rader is mentioned in the following topics:
Quest magazine Ambassador International Cultural Foundation
Worldwide Church of God Garner Ted Armstrong
United States in Prophecy Herbert W. Armstrong
Ernest L. Martin Michael Dennis Rohan
Ten Lost Tribes

[Cyborg]

Http://members.tripod.com/gavinru/rader.htm
The Ambassador Files

The Devil And Stanley Rader

How a Jewish lawyer from White Plains found Jesus, big bucks, and lots of trouble doing "the Work" in California.

By Henry Goldman

[From The American Lawyer, August 1979]

Sitting at the wheel of his Ferrari as it rumbles down Canon Drive in Beverly Hills, Stanley Rader, lawyer and accountant, smiles broadly and waves to an acquaintance on the street. He's just enjoyed an elegant lunch at Bistro Gardcas. His tailored clothes fit well, his mustache is neatly trimmed, his tinted glasses shade his eyes from the California sun. Relaxed and confident, Stanley Rader hardly seems like a man locked in a desperate battle with Satan.

Rader, 48, is general counsel and secretary-treasurer of the Worldwide Church of God. And if you talk to his employer and spiritual leader, church founder Herbert W. Armstrong, he will tell you that Satan (through the California attorney general's office) is attacking Rader and the church with an unholy vengeance.

The state of California began to investigate Armstrong, Rader, and the tax-exempt $130-million religious empire they control last November, around the time the Jonestown suicides focused attention on religious cults and the business of raising God's money. The investigation was helped along by disillusioned church members, who supplied investigators with documents suggesting that millions of dollars in contributions had been diverted to support the extravagant lifestyles of Stanley Rader and other church officials.

Armed with these documents, the attorney general went into the chambers of Superior Court Judge Jerry Pacht in Los Angeles last January and obtained, ex parte, an order placing the church's assets in receivership. Arguing that church funds are bound by a charitable trust, the state of California has filed suit against Rader, the Worldwide Church of God, Armstrong, and a host of church officials and related businesses. The suit asks for a full accounting of how Rader and others have spent church money, which streams in from all over the country at the rate of about $70 million a year.

So Rader spends much of his time these days driving his Ferrari back and forth between the campus of Ambassador College in Pasadena, where the church headquarters is located, and Beverly Hills, where he visits his battery of lawyers. He has answered the suit with a flurry of discovery motions, defamation suits, and appeals alleging violation of religious liberty. The litigation could cost the church thousands, perhaps millions, of dollars.

As the potentially massive legal battle takes shape, there is a growing line of people with questions to ask Stanley Rader, the resourceful man who rose from a job as part-time accountant for the church in 1957 to the top of its hierarchy by 1975. The questions come from ex-members, state investigators, and, most recently, from officials of the California bar and the state board of accounting, who are looking into charges that Rader has engaged in frequent conflicts of interest.

The American Lawyer, too, had some questions for Stanley Rader. But in three limited conversations with him - two by telephone and one outside his lawyer's office in Beverly Hills - he refused to discuss in detail the ethical issues raised by his conduct.

Nevertheless, Rader insists he will be vindicated. "All the documents are exculpatory," he says. And he promises "to make the attorney general eat his words, one at a time." As he puts it, "I like to make people eat their words."

For Rader, the stakes are high indeed. His current employment contract - reportedly negotiated directly between himself and Herbert Armstrong in 1976 - runs until the year 2003. It gives Rader a salary of $200,000 a year, unlimited expenses, and a chauffeur driven limousine. In 1983, the contract says, Rader will leave his job as chief advisor to the 86-year old Armstrong and become senior consultant to the church - at $100,000 a year plus travel and entertainment expenses - until the year 2003, when he turns 73.

"Both Church and Rader recognize that Rader's commitment to Church has resulted in tremendous professional sacrifices by Rader," the contract states. "Church recognizes the substantial, unselfish contributions which Rader has made to Church and its related entities, and now desires to... ensure Rader security."

If security was what Rader wanted, though, he had already achieved considerable success. By the time Armstrong had signed the contract, Rader had managed to use his position as general counsel and chief financial advisor to create his own niche of power within the church.

His old law firm - Rader, Helge & Gerson - still represents the church, and his old accounting firm - Rader, Cornwall, Kessler and Palazzo - does the church books. Rader set up Mid-Atlantic Leasing in Pennsylvania and two companies that leased three jet planes - two Falcons and a luxurious Gulfstream II - to the church.

He says it was necessary for him to create the leasing entities because "the church could not afford to purchase the airplane and could not lease it through normal channels, since lessors are reluctant to lease to churches, feeling that they do not want to be placed in the position of suing a church in the event of default." Rader also received indemnity from the church on tax losses that he might have incurred as lessor.

Moreover, Rader's Worldwide Advertising, Inc., earned commissions on the millions of dollars spent by the church to buy television and radio time for its nationally broadcast program, "The World Tomorrow." Rader's Gateway Publishing, Inc., has sold thousands of dollars' worth of specially printed books to the church - including presentation volumes to be given to world royalty. And he reportedly helped set up an in-house insurance company and an agency that booked hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel arrangements for church officials.

As Rader explains, "I don't take stupid pills." Said Judge Pacht to the Sacramento Bee: "He found Jesus, salvation, and money all at the same time."

But it was actually a long, steady climb to the top for Stanley Rader, who grew up in White Plains, New York, became an accountant after his 1951 graduation from UCLA, and 12 years later graduated first in his class from the University of Southern California Law School.

His initial contact with the Worldwide Church of God came in 1956, when he was working as an accountant for Hollywood advertising mogul Milton Scott, who bought radio and television time for the church. When Armstrong's accountant died in 1956, Scott sent Rader to Pasadena to help straighten out the church's books. Scott says that young Rader came back to the office enthusiastic about "the gold mine out there."

Today, Scott is a bitter man. He says Rader violated their confidential relationship by wresting the church's advertising business away from him. "Stan wanted the old man [Armstrong] to like him, and it worked," Scott says. "He gradually became indispensable... I had total trust in this man. He was my man. He just came in and blew me away."

It was in 1969 that Rader set up Worldwide Advertising, reportedly giving himself two-thirds ownership, with one-third going to his longtime friend and partner, accountant Henry Cornwall. Income from Worldwide Advertising in 1971 and 1972 provided Rader with $105,000 which he says he used for mortgage payments on his Beverly Hills home. But church documents suggest that Rader stopped making payments on the home in 1975. Meanwhile, from 1971 through 1977, the church poured more than $860,000 into the house for its mortgage, utilities, taxes, decor, landscaping, swimming pool maintenance, and housekeeping staff.

Rader says these payments were all in accord with his "executive expense benefits package," comparable, he says, to what ministers are given by the church. "But the difference between me and the ministers is that it was all reported on my 1099 as income other than wages," Rader says. "All of these expenses were incurred in connection with my maintaining the house for visiting foreign dignitaries."

Rader claims he paid the full purchase price on the house; but the bottom line is that the church bought the house in 1971 for $461,000 and Rader, holding title, sold it in 1978 - making, he boasts, a $1.2-million profit on the deal. "There's no secret about it," he says. "Real estate values jumped clear out of sight because of the combination of inflation and Arab oil money. I bought the house, it was mine." He adds that he "tithed" half of his profit after taxes to the church.

Whether Rader in fact paid all of his taxes on the compensation he received is a matter for the Internal Revenue Service, which has reportedly begun a criminal investigation into charges that he hasn't. But that wasn't the issue for accountant Jim Johnson, who worked in Rader's firm and later became deputy controller in the church's business office.

A member of the Worldwide Church of God who tithed 10 percent of his income to the church, as members are required to do, Johnson says he quit the church in 1974 because "it began to bear on me pretty heavily that dollars obtained from members were being misused." In a telephone interview from his Florida home, Johnson told how, in 1973, he wrote a memo to Albert Portune, a financial policy maker in the business office, outlining some of his charges against Stanley Rader.

"Several rather unusual and disturbing items of information have come to my attention about which I can no longer refrain from comment," Johnson wrote. He then discussed the different leasing companies, advertising agencies, payments for mortgages, and other "personal expenses."

He continued, "I am shocked at the material misrepresentations we have made in regard to our reporting to the body of Christ, not to mention creditors and other third parties who have been defrauded. In addition, I am greatly disturbed at the untenable financial relationships that Messrs. Rader and Cornwall have with the church." (The American Lawyer repeatedly tried to reach Cornwall for comment on his relationship with Rader and the church, but he did not return our calls.)

What particularly galled Johnson was a resort for church ministers that had been maintained at Lake Arrowhead in Southern California with money held in a special account for widows and orphans. "It was just like a hotel," he says.

Johnson says that Rader was often able to get by without showing financial statements to creditors, meeting only with the top officials from institutions like Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., and United California Bank and making the deals over backroom lunches at swank restaurants.

In 1975, Johnson went to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants with his charges. "I had to go to them," he says. "I'm a CPA, and it's required when you know something like that. I knew it was going to come out eventually." Nevertheless, the AICPA took no formal action, and officials there refuse to comment on the matter.

A few months after Johnson went to the AICPA, Rader changed his relationship with the Worldwide Church of God. For the first time, he became a church employee - and a church member. (As the story goes, Rader was baptized by Herbert Armstrong himself in the bathtub of a hotel room in Hong Kong, converting from Judaism.) Rader became secretary-treasurer of the church, and assumed positions of power in the church's Ambassador College and a related multi-million-dollar tax-exempt cultural foundation. He had already announced his departure from his Los Angeles law and accounting firms. (But the two firms still retain Rader's name on their letterheads.) Rader says he severed his ties to Worldwide Advertising before he became a church employee.

Rader's conversion meant that he could now combat the resentful murmurs of the church brethren who distrusted him and considered him an outsider. He had accepted Herbert Armstrong as God's only true apostle.

And he had accepted the Armstrong doctrine that we are living in the "End Times" - the last days before the imminent return of Jesus Christ, when the world's population will be destroyed in a holocaust and the repentant resurrected in a heavenly kingdom on earth.

Rader's conversion also cemented the close relationship he has nurtured with Herbert Armstrong. By 1976, the two had become constant companions - Armstrong called Rader his "best student" -

and they traveled around the world together some 200 to 300 days a year. Two years ago, the church bought a $150,000 house in Tucson for Rader's use so he could be near Armstrong, who suffered a heart attack in 1977. Although Rader says he considers Tucson his home, "and Barry Goldwater my Senator," he has treated travel between Tucson and his Pasadena home as tax-exempt business expenses because, he says, "It's travel done at the request of Mr. Armstrong."

During international travels with Rader, Herbert Armstrong, as head of the Worldwide Church of God, Ambassador College, and the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation (AICF), would entertain royalty and foreign leaders at lavish banquets. AICF publishes secular, glossy Quest magazine (circulation 300,000, initial investment $5 million), and sponsors a concert series with the likes of Artur Rubinstein, Renata Scotto, and some of the world's finest symphony orchestras.

(The musicians are flown to Pasadena to perform inside Ambassador Auditorium, a $10 million palace complete with tons of crystal chandeliers, polished rose onyx from Turkey, and Burmese teakwood lining the walls.)

AICF's activities, and its financial clout, lent Armstrong and Rader the credibility they needed to set up their meetings with various world leaders - meetings that were then well publicized in church publications. Less publicized, however, were the enormous travel costs that Armstrong and Rader incurred.

And very little was disclosed about the comings and goings of the mysterious Osamu Gotoh, a Japanese Christian evangelist hired as Armstrong's advance man. Gotoh spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on himself and foreign officials in the eight years he worked for the church before he was "terminated" in 1977.

A partial list of his expenses for the period from June 1975 to July 1976 includes $28,213 at Steuben Glass Company and $45,885 in just eight days at the Hotel Plaza Athenee.

For Stanley Rader, $10,130 in nine separate credit card transactions was recorded - all in the same day - February 25, 1976 - at the Jerusalem Hilton. One gala cocktail party and banquet at the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo, which Rader claims was given to raise money for charity, cost the church more than $22,000.

According to the former chief minister of the church, C. Wayne Cole, one Armstrong/Rader trip to Monte Carlo resulted in the rental of a yacht - "a 'two-story boat' is how Mr. Armstrong described it" - at a cost of $30,000 for ten days. (Rader denies this and calls Cole a liar.) And the credit cards also bought nightclub entertainment in Tokyo for $1,519 a night, and dinners at Perino's in Los Angeles amouting to thousands of dollars.

Rader's lawyer, Allan Browne, a partner with Ervin, Cohen & Jessup in Beverly Hills, has an explanation for the high living: "When the Pope goes abroad, he doesn't stay at a Travel Lodge. It's the same situation here. This church holds Herbert Armstrong to be God's only true apostle, and Mr. Armstrong has committed himself to a program of proclaiming the word of God around the world. And when visiting dignitaries come to Pasadena to meet with Mr. Armstrong, he doesn't take them to McDonald's. He takes them to Perino's.

But Armstrong's only living son, Garner Ted Armstrong, calls the first-class travel indulged in by his father and Rader "nothing more than glorified autograph hunts." While the two traveled the world, Ted was left behind to run the church's daily operations. He watched as Rader became second in command.

Ted says the pivotal event in his downfall occurred in 1977, when his father, then 84, married a receptionist working in the church's Pasadena headquarters. She was 38 years old, a divorcee - and a Rader ally.

"It's a classic situation," Ted says. "My dad is crowding 87. He's married this younger woman, and she and Rader are very close - in constant communication - and all his family is ostracized and kept from him."

In June 1978, Herbert Armstrong "disfellowshipped" his son after Ted tried to dump Worldwide Advertising as the agent for the church. Ted now makes his home in Tyler, Texas, where his new ministry is the Church of God, International. ("I'm just preaching the gospel, just as hard as I know how," he says.) He now champions the cause of full financial disclosure for all religious organizations.

The financial disclosure issue is a sore point with Rader. He says that such demands, when placed upon a church by the state, violate First Amendment guarantees of religious freedom. But evidence suggests that Rader does not like the idea of financial disclosure under circumstances he cannot control.

One month after Ted's ouster from the Worldwide Church of God, Rader sent him a letter offering $50,000 a year and free use of the church's cabin at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in return for Ted's promise "never to release, divulge, disclose... or in any other manner make known" certain "confidential" information about the church.

Attorney Browne says the letter is "in the nature of any corporate severance agreement, when an employee leaves the company under circumstances of bad will." Rader says the purpose of the letter - signed "in Jesus' name - was to "keep his [Ted's] bad mouth shut."

In any event, Ted refused to take the bait. Instead, he leaked the "hush money letter," as he calls it, to the growing number of dissidents within the church. Soon afterward, someone loyal to Ted in the church's headquarters leaked the Pastor General's report, a 27-page expense ledger that covers the year 1975-6 and details how Rader, Armstrong, and Gotoh went on a global spending spree that included gala cocktail parties in Monte Carlo, Tokyo, Paris, and Geneva.

This document and others helped the California attorney general persuade Judge Pacht and several other judges that receivership was the best way to effect an audit of the religious empire.

Days before the attorney general's agents entered the campus of Ambassador College last January and laid claim to the assets of the church, an uneasy mood existed inside. Word was out that a major lawsuit against the church was in the works. And Mike Wallace's office at "60 Minutes" had been making a lot of phone calls to church officials asking for interviews.

Rader - who had remained the feared outsider to many of the brethren, despite his conversion - took the brunt of the criticism the church received. For a 48-hour period last January, it even looked as if Rader might be on the way out. The church was ordered into receivership on January 2. The following day, Armstrong appointed chief minister Cole to supervise operations and cooperate with the investigation.

Earlier, Armstrong had confided to Cole that he wanted Rader to resign. The problem, Armstrong said, was that Rader had threatened to release damaging information about Armstrong and the church.

Cole made extensive notes of his conversations with Armstrong and even tape recorded some of them - apparently without Armstrong's knowledge. Cole says that in their December 10, 1978, conversation, Armstrong was concerned about Rader's quick temper. "He flies into a rage and screams at me," Armstrong allegedly said. "He gets into such a rage that he is opening himself up for a demon." Sixteen days later, Cole says, Armstrong wondered aloud whether Rader wanted control of the church: "... and he [Rader] is deliberately trying to put himself there," Armstrong said on the tape. "I don't know, I don't want to think that anyone has his eyes on fifty, sixty, seventy million a year, but that's quite a magnet."

Court-filed documents suggest the money had been a magnet for Herbert Armstrong, too. On March 31, 1970, for example, Armstrong had French porcelain vases delivered to his Pasadena mansion - total cost, $2,079.

The delivery came a day after Armstrong had sent the brethren a frantic letter pleading that the church desperately needed money and asking members to take out bank loans to "supply God's Work with IMMEDIATE CASH, which is the serious immediate need."

Perhaps it was Rader's knowledge of such things that persuaded Herbert Armstrong to reverse himself, reinstate Rader as the man in charge, and sack Cole, who had spent 25 years with the church until his disfellowshipment last January. After a brief stint driving a delivery truck, Cole now works for Ted Armstrong's Church of God, International.

Cole's tape recording of a January 2, 1979, conversation with Herbert Armstrong suggests that Armstrong was worried Rader might go public with information about the church leadership if he didn't get his way. "I don't know whether Stan is going to go along, or whether he'll just rant and rave and throw everything overboard," Armstrong said. "He made one statement about telling the world what he knows. I don't know what he knows that could harm the Work."

Rader knew enough to survive and prevail. Once back in control, he seized the offensive, charging that the imposition of receivership was "a classic confrontation between church and state." And he supported the hundreds of church members who barricaded themselves behind the entrance of the church's administrative offices, making an audit by state investigators impossible.

At last count, close to 17,000 church members (out of a total of about 80,000) have signed declarations asserting that "Mr. Armstrong is accountable only to God for his decisions, both spiritual and temporal. No other person - receiver, referee, or otherwise - is entitled to determine how God's tithes are spent."

And they've sent in more than $3 million in sureties, posting a bond that has enabled the church to delay the receivership - and the audit - pending appeals in the California courts and the U.S. Supreme Court, which could take months to be heard.

Rader says he's looking forward to the coming legal battles. He calls himself "a master litigator - it's what I do best," and says he has no regrets. "The church is now a household word," Rader says. "Contributions overall are up 10 percent. I would not have been the one to have designed a campaign to bring the church to the attention of the public in this fashion. But God works in mysterious ways."

[specter]

Now lets do the Catholic CULT

[specter]

BTW: the TRINITY is a PAGAN concept borrowed from Paganism by the Catholic Church and accepted by the Protestant wayward Daughter churches.

[Cyborg]

Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_wide_church_of_god

Worldwide Church of God
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This article or section contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. If you are familiar with the subject matter, please check for inaccuracies and modify as needed, citing sources.

The Worldwide Church of God is a religious organization that was founded in 1933 by Herbert W. Armstrong as the Radio Church of God. Armstrong was a minister in the General Conference of the Church of God (Seventh-Day), and his "church" (at the time, actually a small church congregation of adherents with a radio ministry) was initially not a separate entity, but a part of that conference. His ministerial credentials were later revoked, and he incorporated on his own.

For its first 50+ years, the Worldwide Church of God was a Sabbatarian church and observed other Old Testament laws relative to Holy Days and food laws (similar to Orthodox Jewish traditions). During that time the church also rejected the Trinity doctrine. After Armstrong died in 1986, the succeeding church administration, led by Joseph Tkach (1986–1995) and then his son, Joseph Tkach Jr. (1995–present) changed core doctines, bringing them more in line with historic Christian views. Various ministers of the church who objected to the doctrinal changes left Worldwide, leading to the formation of the Philadelphia Church of God (1989), Global Church of God, the Living Church of God (1993, 1998), and United Church of God (1995). Each church was much smaller than Worldwide had been, and Worldwide membership subsequently declined as well. However, the church has moved towards what they believe is greater acceptability in the evangelical community, becoming a member of the National Association of Evangelicals.

Beginnings as a radio ministry

The Worldwide Church of God is rooted in the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong, which in turn are influenced by the Adventist movement of William Miller and followers. In 1927 Armstrong was baptized into a church of this movement, the Church of God. Armstrong was ordained by the Oregon Conference of The Church of God in 1931, and began serving a congregation in Eugene, Oregon. He began his radio ministry on October 9, 1933. On November 4 of that same year, the Church of God split, and Armstrong sided with the faction that located its headquarters in Salem, West Virginia. See more at General Conference of the Church of God (Seventh-Day).

In 1934, Armstrong began publishing The Plain Truth as a companion to the radio ministry. The radio ministry became known as the Radio Church of God, and began to attract a following far beyond Armstrong's Eugene base. At the same time, Armstrong began to develop a theology which was distinct from the Adventist movement. This theology included a belief in the United States and the United Kingdom as part of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, and an observance of the Jewish Holy Days described in the Old Testament, which many Christian groups considered unnecessary to modern practice. For these budding beliefs, the Church of God revoked Armstrong's ministerial credentials in 1937.

Armstrong continued broadcasting, however, and on March 3, 1946 he moved to Pasadena, California and incorporated the Radio Church of God under California's General Nonprofit Corporation Law. This incorporation was amended on January 5, 1968, when the church changed its name to the Worldwide Church of God.
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Protegés

In 1947, Ambassador College was founded in Pasadena by the Worldwide Church of God. The campus of the college served as the headquarters for the church. It was here that Armstrong met Stanley Rader, CPA, in 1956. Rader states he was employed to sort the church's accounts, which he claimed by then become disorganized. Armstrong reportedly was so impressed with Rader's work that, under his encouragment and patronage, Rader furthered his education by going to law school. Rader then graduated as valedictorian of his 1963 law school class at the University of Southern California Law School. Rader continued this relationship as special legal and financial advisor to Armstrong's Ambassador College and Worldwide Church of God, working for them in a full-time capacity by 1969.

As Rader was beginning his career in service to the church, Armstrong had at least one son whom he was said to be grooming to take over as head of the church upon the elder Armstrong's retirement or death, Garner Ted Armstrong. Talented and charming with a high singing-voice, although rather short in stature at 5'4", Armstrong at one point expressed interest in an acting career as a Hollywood movie star on the silver screen. Any future plans, however , were put on hold as he served on a Navy destroyer during the Korean War. But upon returning, as he attended his father's Ambassador College, the tattooed war veteran Armstrong developed a strong, confident public speaking delivery, and showed star charisma as a leader. Armstrong's style of delivery developed and matured, guest hosting on the radio program, then on the televison version of the World Tomorrow, (in much the same way that such second generation televangelists as Franklin Graham,Robert Anthony Schuller and Mark Armstrong would later host their fathers' television programs). As the elder Armstrong reviewed audience ratings and incoming donations garnered from The World Tomorrow program hosted by his telegenic son, Garner Ted proved an increasingly obvious choice to become the magnetic media star of his church in the beginning stage of the televangelist era.
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The beginnings of change

The late 1960s saw the beginnings of change within the church. To some extent, these changes were long foretold (and perhaps even somewhat self-fulfilling): The broadcast of The World Tomorrow on Radio Luxembourg on January 7, 1953 prompted Herbert Armstrong to view his ministry in the context of two periods of nineteen years each. The first period covered the time from the start of the radio ministry until early 1953. The second period, then, would conclude sometime in late 1972. Armstrong and Ambassador College graduate Herman L. Hoeh first detailed this interpretation in a 1956 booklet, 1975 in Prophecy!. This interpretative vision of his ministry consumed Herbert Armstrong, who now repackaged his radio program as The World Tomorrow.

It also apparently had an impact on many others; including Michael Dennis Rohan, who cited Armstrong's work when questioned on the attempted destruction of the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem in 1967.

In 1966, Herbert Armstrong's wife Loma died. The next year, Armstrong decided to revamp the church's organizational structure; this culminated in the aforementioned Worldwide name change in early 1968.[1] [2] Whether Armstrong changed the church in response to the loss of his wife, or in preparation for the predicted events of 1972 and beyond, is not known; indeed, it may have been for a completely unrelated reason. However, these events seem indicative of fundamental change within Armstrong's ministry.[3]

In 1970, the first of many groups to splinter from the Worldwide Church of God were founded. Carl O'Beirn of Cleveland, Ohio led what may be the first group, the Church of God, away from the Worldwide Church of God. Others followed that year, including John Kerley's Top of the Line ministry; the Restoration Church of God; the Church of God in Boise City, Oklahoma; Marvin Faulhaber's Sabbatarian group (also known as Church of God (Sabbatarian)); and the Fountain of Life Fellowship of James and Virginia Porter.
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1972 and scandal

As 1972 approached, it became clear than the events forecasted by Herbert Armstrong would not come to pass. While the European Union was already an idea in the making, the various "states" of Europe were far from united, as the union itself was still another 20 years hence. (Even today, there is no Armstrong-styled United States of Europe in a position to be seized by a dictator wielding total power.) The Worldwide Church of God, however, experienced several scandals which could arguably be said to have brought Armstrong's second 19-year period to a close.

Garner Ted Armstrong began to lose favor with his father, Herbert Armstrong. The younger Armstrong was discontented with prophecies attached to a certain date, and wished to cease preaching the message that associated the U.S. and Britain with the Lost Ten Tribes. (This message would later be picked up by portions of the Christian Identity movement.) Garner Ted also spoke of greatly expanding the church's media ministry on the model of the Church of Christ, Scientist (with its widely-read Christian Science Monitor). Unfortunately for the relationship between father and son, Herbert saw a shrinking role for himself Garner Ted's plan, a perspective that eventually culminated in a total falling out.

In a report in the May 15, 1972 edition of TIME magazine, Herbert Armstrong was reported to have said that Garner Ted was "in the bonds of Satan". The elder Armstrong did not elaborate, but speculation was that Herbert had to come to grips publically with Garner Ted's alleged continuing problems with gambling and adultery with Ambassador College coeds. Garner Ted Armstrong was soon relieved of his starring role within the church.

While Garner Ted Armstrong was being removed, Stanley Rader had been orchestrating the church's involvement in a number of corporations which Rader established. Critics saw Rader's moves as an attempt to seize control of the church. Rader characterized his involvement as that of an adviser and claimed that his advice was opening doors for Armstrong that a strict theological role would not have allowed for. Herbert Armstrong approved establishing the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation (AICF), which Rader set up ostensibly to give the elder Armstrong a role as the "Ambassador for World Peace without portfolio". This role, however, appears to be not much more than a figurehead; though the Foundation did successfully fund the making of the Academy Award-winning Paper Moon.

As the church was experiencing internal crises, its external, public face was also crumbling. Church followers had anticipated the removal of church faithful to Petra, Jordan to await the prophesied apocalypse. By 1972, it was evident this was not to occur. When combined with Garner Ted Armstrong's very public removal from the church, this failure of prophecy caused many within the church to lose confidence and withdraw. The church hastened to restore public confidence, and returned Garner Ted as host of The World Tomorrow a mere four months after his ouster.
[edit]

The church continues

In spite of the scandals of 1972, the church continued in the 1970s with Herbert Armstrong still at the helm. In 1975, Armstrong baptized Stanley Rader, who until then had been a practicing Jew in spite of his association with the Christian church. Under Rader's influence, Armstrong began to de-emphasize the Christological aspects of church doctrine, instead preaching a message of peace, brotherly love, and "giving and not getting" that was arguably derived from Buddhism. The church began to teach of humanity's being guided by a "Great Unseen Hand from Someplace", a phrase Armstrong may have borrowed from an old editorial in US News and World Report.

Herbert Armstrong himself continued with his life. Widowed by the death of Loma eleven years earlier, Armstrong remarried Ramona Martin, a woman nearly fifty years younger than the octagenarian in 1977, and moved to Tucson, Arizona. While Armstrong administered church business through Stanley Rader from his Arizona retreat, the church continued to be headquartered in Pasadena.

With Garner Ted Armstrong resuming his role within the church, however, the rivalry between the younger Armstrong and Stanley Rader intensified. The adultery problems that reportedly drove Garner Ted from the church once, allegedly continued unabated.

In 1978, those problems were used to excommunicate Garner Ted Armstrong, disfellowshipping him a final time. Garner Ted moved to Tyler, Texas, and there founded a splinter group, the Church of God International. See more at Garner Ted Armstrong.
[edit]

More scandal

Garner Ted Armstrong blamed Stanley Rader for his two-time ouster from his father's church. Garner Ted and other former and discontented members of the Worldwide Church of God prompted the State of California to investigate charges of malfeasance by Rader and others involved with the AICF. By 1979, California Attorney General George Deukmejian had brought civil charges against the church, and the church was placed into an investigative financial receivership for one year.

The group of dissidents also gained the attention of Mike Wallace, who investigated the church in a report for 60 Minutes. Using documentary evidence obtained, Wallace brought to light lavish secret expenditures, conflict of interest insider deals, posh homes and lifestyles in the higher ranks, and heavy involvement of Stanley Rader in financial manipulation. Wallace invited Rader to appear on 60 Minutes on April 15, 1979. Rader began by answering many questions by Wallace with his confident, characteristic unabashed aplomb. However, Wallace completely surprised Rader with a secret tape recording, wherein Herbert Armstrong had alleged Rader was attempting to takeover the church after Armstrong's death, reasoning that the donation tithe money might be quiet a "magnet" to some evangelists. Perhaps sensing at this point would no longer do him any good to continue answering questions, Rader jumped up, told Wallace the interview was over abruptly, and left immediately to speak to the press waiting outside.

Rader, with the approval of Herbert Armstrong, was spending millions to fend off any financial audit or examination of the Church's income and expenditures by litigating the issue all the way from California to the United States Supreme Court, several times, unsuccessfully. Having lost in the courts, as a last ditch effort, perhaps to save himself from scrutiny and to prevent the receivorship from going into further testimony, Rader politically lobbied the California legislature with intense pressure from all sides to force the California Attorney General to drop the charges against the church and him. Under Rader's lobbying, the California State Legislature passed legislation known as the Petris bill, signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown, which effectively gave Rader and the Worldwide Church of God a special "legal loophole" from any outside judicial scrutiny or further civil investigation from the Office of the California Attorney General. Rader and Armstrong, then, were relieved of any further concern about civil liability or any outside exposure of their own internal financial dealings as the directors of a California religious corporation. In trying to defend his fight against the investigation, Rader wrote the 1980 self-exculpatory polemic Against the Gates of Hell: The Threat to Religious Freedom in America" arguing his legal fight with the Attorney General was allegedly more about religious freedoms than abuse of public trust or fraudulent misappropriation of tithe funds.[edit]

After Armstrong and Rader

Stanley Rader left his positions within the church in 1981. While Rader was able to legally, then politically stiffarm the judicial investigation of church finanial misappropriation, he could not spare the collapse of AICF. A lawsuit had been filed against Steven Spielberg and George Lucas alleging that the pair stole the plot for Raiders of the Lost Ark from AICF. When the lawsuit went nowhere, AICF collapsed. Meanwhile, the church was eager to sever its ties from AICF, as the Foundation had been producing works which were not in keeping with church doctrine. Rader parted church leadership amicably, and reportedly received a six figure financial package (or golden handshake) upon leaving his post.
[edit]

Joseph W. Tkach Sr. and Jr.

On January 16, 1986, Herbert W. Armstrong died in Pasadena. Shortly before his death, Armstrong named Joseph W. Tkach Sr., an associate of Rader, to succeed Armstrong as the leader of the church. As early as 1988, Joseph W. Tkach Sr. began to make some minor doctrinal changes. Tkach Sr. and his son, Joseph W. Tkach Jr., directed the church theology towards mainstream evangelical Christian belief. The new Tkach administration repudiated many of the former teachings, and even issued an apology regarding the Church to the wider Christian community. This flipflop caused much disillusionment among the membership, and another rise of splinter groups. During the tenure of the elder Joseph Tkach Sr., the church dropped in membership by about 50%.

According to Christianity Today, in 1986, the year Armstrong died, the Worldwide Church of God reported unverified income of $170 million a year, which was larger than the Billy Graham and Oral Roberts ministries combined.

Since Armstrong's death, the mandatory three tithe system to the Worldwide Church was abolished; afterwords church income has declined precipitously. Today the church headquarters is downsizing for financial survival. Facing possible bankruptcy, Tkach Jr. has banked millions of cash dollars by liquidating its high maintenance real estate properties, such as Ambassador College, and other auctionable inventory to pay for current headquarters expenditures.

What makes the implosion of the once-prosperous Worldwide Church of God unusual -- indeed unprecedented in modern American religious life -- is that Armstrong's followers haven't so much abandoned the church as the church's new leaders appear to have abandoned them.

Under the stewardship of Joseph Tkach Jr., a 45-year-old former social worker, Worldwide's leaders have set off a stunning exodus within its ranks by repudiating the revered founder and his most sacrosanct teachings.

But the upheaval that has engulfed the organization involves more than merely doctrinal disputes. Among the many who have left are those who view Tkach and his colleagues as opportunists who've commandeered the religion for personal gain.

"They stole the church!" declares Aaron Dean, a former close aide to Armstrong. Dean belongs to Arcadia-based United Church of God, which claims 18,000 members, making it the largest of dozens of breakaway groups. "If you're ethical and you're someone in power who no longer believes," he says, "you leave and go somewhere else. They've destroyed everything we stood for."

Such suspicions have mushroomed now that the new leaders have begun to dispose of the church's considerable real estate, including pricey spiritual retreats in southern Wisconsin and Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains. But in recent months, as they have embarked on a campaign to sell off the church's crown jewels, including even Armstrong's beloved Pasadena "world headquarters," the distrust has become almost palpable.

"I've come to the conclusion that the church under this group exists to perpetuate itself and to make money," says David Covington. Formerly one of Worldwide's top field ministers, he spent 25 years in the organization before resigning last year. Up to three-quarters of Worldwide's former 125,000 members have departed. The church's operating budget, which was $211 million as recently as 1990, has shrunk to $38 million. The church has had to lay off all but about 200 of its 1,200-plus headquarters staff, shut down Ambassador University, its sprawling Texas liberal arts school, and has drastically scaled back its half-century-old Plain Truth magazine. The new regime has even auctioned off the sterling silver Armstrong once used at lavish dinner parties for heads of state and other luminaries.

To further economize, the church has announced plans to erect a new edifice complex church Headquarters building on Financial Way in Glendora, California. Church marketing strategy and advertising has changed significantly since the days the Plain Truth magazine was distributed worldwide, to millions upon request, without charge, within the reach of Armstrong's profitable radio and television media empire. Formerly, church membership sent all tithe donations directly to headquarters in Pasadena, CA; meeting in rented halls on Saturdays such as public school buildings, dance halls, or Masonic Lodges. Under the new financial reporting regime, Worldwide Chairman CEO Joseph Tkach, Jr. permits local churches to use some funds for local purposes, such as contructing an actual local church building for use of the congregation. Pastor General Joseph Tkach, Jr. now positions Worldwide as a mainstream Christian evangelical church and towards that end, has become a member of the National Association of Evangelicals. As of 2005, 75% or more of all congregational donations stay in the local area, less a 20.0 - 25.0% apportionment to the headquarters administrative office, to be located in a new church building purchased in Glendora, CA.
[edit]

Current status

The Worldwide Church of God claims 64,000 members in 860 churches in approximately 90 nations of the world (as of 2004). Headquarters are in Pasadena, California with a move to Glendora, California in 2006 when the preparations of the denomination's new property are complete. The church has been a paid member of the National Association of Evangelicals since 1997.

[Cyborg]

********************************************************

ransformed by Christ

A Brief History of the Worldwide Church of God

In the early 1930s, Herbert Armstrong began a radio ministry, a magazine and a church that eventually became "The World Tomorrow," The Plain Truth, and the Worldwide Church of God. He had many unusual doctrines. These he taught so enthusiastically that eventually more than 100,000 people attended weekly services. After he died in 1986, church leaders began to realize that many of his doctrines were not biblical. These doctrines were rejected. Today the church is in full agreement with the statement of faith of the National Association of Evangelicals. Here is the story of how the church developed and how it changed.

The New Worldwide Church of God

Jesus Christ changes lives. He can change an organization, too. This is the story of how the Lord changed the Worldwide Church of God from an unorthodox church on the fringes of Christianity, into an evangelical church that believes and teaches orthodox doctrines. The story involves both pain and joy. Thousands of members left the church. Income is less than one fourth of what it once was. But thousands of members are rejoicing with renewed zeal for their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Chapter One: A Brief History of Our Growth

The story begins in Oregon, in the 1920s. Herbert Armstrong, a newspaper advertising designer, accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior. He described it in his autobiography:

Jesus Christ had bought and paid for my life by His death. It really belonged to Him, and now I told Him He could have it! From then on, this defeated no-good life of mine was God's. I didn't see how it could be worth anything to Him. But it was His to use as His instrument, if He thought He could use it....

In surrendering to God in complete repentance, I found unspeakable joy in accepting Jesus Christ as personal Savior and my present High Priest.... Somehow I began to realize a new fellowship and friendship had come into my life. I began to be conscious of a contact and fellowship with Christ, and with God the Father.

When I read and studied the Bible, God was talking to me, and now I loved to listen! I began to pray, and knew that in prayer I was talking with God. I was not yet very well acquainted with God. But one gets to be better acquainted with another by constant contact and continuous conversation. So I continued in the study of the Bible. I began to write, in article form, the things I was learning.

As Herbert Armstrong studied the Bible, he came to a number of unusual conclusions. Eventually, he began to preach and to lead small congregations of believers. In the early 1930s, he started a radio program and a small magazine.

Armstrong often focused on areas in which his conclusions were different from traditional doctrines. This aroused interest. He emphasized the unusual, the never-before-understood. With advertising flair, he created interest in various doctrines by teaching things that other preachers did not.

Most people did not accept his unusual views, but he persuaded a few people that traditional churches were wrong, and that he had the truth. This small group supported the radio ministry (called The World Tomorrow) and the magazine (called The Plain Truth). Finances were tight, but the ministry gradually grew along the Pacific Coast of the United States.

Move to Pasadena, California

In 1947, Herbert Armstrong moved his ministry to southern California, so that he could have better access to the radio industry. He also began a small school to train leaders for the church -- Ambassador College, in Pasadena. The ministry continued to grow as time was purchased on more and more radio stations.

Since the message went out by radio throughout North America, the people who responded to the message were scattered throughout the United States and Canada. Young graduates of Ambassador College were then sent to various cities to gather the believers into small churches.

The church grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s. The radio program was sent to England, Australia, the Philippines, Latin America, and Africa. Church offices were opened in numerous nations around the world. The name of the church was changed from "Radio Church of God" to "Worldwide Church of God."

But growth began to slow in the 1970s. Christ did not return in 1975, as many ministers had speculated. Minor doctrines were changed, weakening some members' respect for Armstrong's doctrinal accuracy. Armstrong's son (now deceased), widely considered to be an heir apparent, was accused of improprieties, and he eventually left with a few thousand other members to form a different church.

Another article about Herbert Armstrong

For photos of Herbert Armstrong, see Transformed by Truth

Nevertheless, many people continued to be attracted to Herbert Armstrong's style and teachings, and the church continued to grow slowly until Armstrong died in 1986 at the age of 93. He left a denomination that numbered 120,000 people in attendance every week. Annual income was 200 million dollars. Magazine circulation was in the millions every month, and the television program was one of the top two religious programs in America.

Unorthodox doctrines

As the Worldwide Church of God criticized traditional Christianity, it also attracted criticism. Many people considered Herbert Armstrong to be the leader of a heretical cult. Today, the leaders of the Worldwide Church of God reject Armstrong's doctrinal errors, but we do not hide our past. Rather, we acknowledge that our errors were deep and serious, but that Christ has rescued us from them. We turn our attention now to the doctrinal mix that made Armstrong both interesting and unorthodox.

Three doctrines were instrumental in Armstrong's conversion: 1) That God is the Creator, 2) That the Bible is true, and 3) That the Bible does not change the Sabbath to Sunday. Armstrong was guided to this third doctrine by a member of the Church of God (Seventh Day), a small group that has some similarities to the Seventh-day Adventists.

Armstrong was eager to obey God, and he saw in Scripture that God commanded his people to keep the seventh day as a Sabbath. Although most Christians do not keep the seventh day, no one was able to prove to Armstrong that God ever authorized his people to change or ignore this commandment. Armstrong felt that he had to choose between Bible and tradition, and he chose the Bible. However, he had no seminary training, nor any disciplined study of church history, biblical interpretation, or the original languages of Scripture.

He reasoned that if traditional Christianity could be wrong about such a major topic, perhaps they were wrong on other things, too. Armstrong became skeptical of all Christian tradition, since he could not find biblical proof for many traditional doctrines. This bias against traditional orthodoxy became part of the WCG culture, and it was an advertising hook that captured many people's interest.

Armstrong had a high respect for Scripture. If the Bible said it, he was willing to do it, no matter how difficult it might be. His zeal is commendable -- and his respect for Scripture made his message more believable. "Don't believe me," he often said, "believe the Bible. Blow the dust off your own Bible, and read what it says." Many people were surprised at what they found, when guided by Armstrong's writings.

Armstrong believed that Jesus is God, but he usually gave much more emphasis to God the Father. Armstrong emphasized God's role as Lawgiver, as One who is to be obeyed.

Armstrong accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, as a sacrifice for our sins, as divine. But he did not have the theological training to know how to reconcile the biblical data that Jesus is God and the Father is God and yet there is only one God. He mistakenly taught that God is a family, and that the Father and the Son are two beings in that family, and that when humans are resurrected, they will be born again as members of the God Family.

Armstrong did not see biblical proof that the Holy Spirit was a distinct person, so he taught that the Holy Spirit was an impersonal force. In this, his teaching was similar to the Jehovah's Witnesses, but there is no evidence that he obtained his doctrine from them. This anti-trinitarian view had circulated in several groups.

Armstrong preached that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, but he also stressed the necessity of obeying God. An emphasis on law-keeping formed another major component of WCG culture. Armstrong believed that if a person loves God, the person will obey God's commands. If a person does not keep the Sabbath, Armstrong concluded, then that person must not love God. Unfortunately, he viewed the Sabbath as the ``test commandment'' — in effect, a requirement for being considered a true Christian. Other churches were false churches, children of the devil.

In addition to the weekly Sabbath, the WCG observed seven annual Sabbaths, based on Leviticus 23. WCG members also avoided pork, shrimp and certain other meats (Lev. 11). They gave one tithe to support the ministry, used another to keep the annual Sabbaths, and in some years gave a third tithe to the church for its poor members. The financial requirements were high, but they also increased the levels of commitment. Where a person's treasure is, there the heart will be also. Members of the WCG had their hearts in the church and its work.

Armstrong taught that repentance involves a change in behavior, that Christianity involves a way of life. In the WCG, this focused primarily on prohibitions. WCG members were not allowed to vote, serve in the military, marry after divorce, go to doctors, use cosmetics, or observe Christmas, Easter and birthdays. All this emphasis on rules, however, meant that grace was rarely mentioned. Many members were legalistic in their relationship with God, and judgmental of other Christians.

Armstrong viewed himself as God's apostle, leading the one true church. Armstrong had supreme doctrinal authority. If anyone was disloyal, that person would most likely be fired and expelled from the church fellowship. (Legally, Armstrong was under the authority of a board of directors, but they always supported his decisions.)

Armstrong also had many unusual ideas about prophecy, and these may have been the most attractive doctrines of all. He taught that the United States and Britain are modern descendants of the northern ten tribes of Israel, and that therefore many biblical prophecies apply to the Anglo-Saxon peoples. He saw himself as an end-time fulfillment of prophecy, with a message of warning for the "Israelite" peoples.

The Great Tribulation would soon start, he warned in the 1930s, in the 1940s, in the 1950s, in the 1960s, in the 1970s, and in the 1980s — but the good news is that Christ will soon return and rule for 1,000 years. In fact, this prediction was so important to Armstrong that it became the center of the gospel. It was the reason the radio and television broadcasts were titled ``The World Tomorrow.'' The future utopia was the good news.

Obviously, there are a lot of doctrinal errors in this list. Equally obviously, we would not describe them as errors unless we understood why they were in error. We have worked hard to inform our own members about where we went wrong --- and we say "we" with all honesty, for all the current leaders of the church once believed and taught these erroneous doctrines. We have all criticized other Christians as false, deceived, children of the devil.

We have much to apologize for. We are profoundly sorry that we verbally persecuted Christians and created dissention and disunity in the body of Christ. We seek forgiveness and reconciliation.

Chapter Two: A Decade of Painful Change

Much of our doctrinal foundation was faulty. And yet part of it was true. Some of our members came from other denominations, but others were unchurched people who had little previous exposure to Christianity. Many people came to Christ in the Worldwide Church of God, accepted his death for their sins, and trusted in him for salvation. Many lives were transformed from sin and selfishness, to service and humility. A germ of life continued inside the crust of erroneous doctrines.

After Herbert Armstrong died, that germ of life slowly began to grow, breaking off the crust that had hidden it. It took many years --- and many tears. Here's the story:

Joseph Tkach Sr.

In 1986, shortly before he died, Herbert Armstrong appointed Joseph Tkach (pronounced Ta-cotch) to be his successor. Tkach had been a loyalist who supervised all the ministers. He did not have the magnetic personality that Armstrong did, and he assigned other people to present the television program and write the articles.

Click here for our current teaching on healing and birthdays.

The church continued to grow slowly. In 1988, Tkach made minor doctrinal changes. He taught that it was permissible for member to go to doctors, take medicines, observe birthdays and wear cosmetics. He realized that many of the prophetic speculations that had made the television program and magazine so interesting couldn't be proven from Scripture.

Questions also arose about some of the things that Armstrong had written, and some of his books were withdrawn from circulation until further study could resolve the questions. Some members were troubled that the church was no longer teaching the same things that Armstrong had, and in 1989, several thousand members left to form a new church that preserved Armstrong doctrines.

In 1990, the church peaked at 133,000 in weekly attendance. More doctrinal changes were made as Tkach realized that some of Armstrong's unusual beliefs, though sincere, were not biblical. The focus of the gospel is Jesus Christ and grace, not prophecy or the millennium. Budgetary reductions began to affect the television broadcast. More Armstrong literature was discontinued and/or edited.

In 1991, Tkach revised the church's explanation of what it means to be born again, noting also that humans will never become Gods. He also announced a study about the modern identity of the lost ten tribes, and accepted the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Membership, attendance, and income began to decrease slowly.

Click here for our current teaching on born again and the lost ten tribes.

In 1992, income continued to decrease, and a prominent minister and a few thousand members left to form yet another church.

In 1993, the church accepted the doctrine of the Trinity. The church declared that the cross is not a pagan symbol, that it is not a sin to have illustrations of Jesus, and that Christians may vote. Such changes may seem inconsequential to most Christians, but each change was significant for WCG members because each change attacked strongly held beliefs about how we ought to express our devotion to God. Our identity was based in how we were different from others, so each change had to be explained from the Scriptures and had to explain how previous explanations were not correct.

Click here for our current teaching on the Trinity and the cross.

In 1994, the television program was cancelled and employees were laid off. The church also explained to the members that true Christians can be found in other denominations.

Perhaps the most traumatic change came in December 1994: Tkach announced that Christians do not have to keep old covenant laws such as the weekly and annual Sabbaths, two and three tithes, and avoid pork, shrimp and other meats. In many ways, the Sabbath had been the foundational doctrine of the entire denomination, so this was the biggest change of all. (Click here for the text of the sermon Tkach used to announce these changes, and click here to see a menu of papers analyzing these doctrines.)

Click here for our current teaching on Old Testament laws.

Many members did not accept these changes. After decades of understanding their identity as Christians in terms of Sabbath-keeping, and after making many sacrifices in order to keep the Sabbath, they could not easily accept the idea that it really didn't matter.

In 1995, hundreds of ministers and 12,000 members left to form the United Church of God. Thousands more stopped attending any church, and many congregations were left with only half the members they used to have. Church income dropped another 50 percent, and hundreds of employees were laid off. Friends and families were split. It was a time of anguish and depression.

Something unexpected also happened: Many members, after struggling to understand the doctrinal change, began to experience a new sense of peace and joy through a renewed faith in Jesus Christ. Their identity was in him, not in the particular laws they kept. The Sabbath doctrine was changed in order to be more biblical; the result was that members became more spiritual. Members focused more on their relationship with Jesus Christ; they also had an increased interest in worship. Organizationally, this doctrinal change had catastrophic results. But spiritually, it was the best thing that ever happened to the WCG.

Another major change also occurred in 1995: Joseph Tkach Sr. died after a brief battle with cancer. He designated his son, Joe, as his successor, and the board of directors honored this appointment. A few additional doctrines were changed later in 1995: The church officially rejected the doctrine that the Anglo-Saxons descended from the tribes of Israel, and the church permitted the observance of holidays such as Christmas and Easter.

Joseph Tkach Jr.

It was a tumultuous decade. Now, the Worldwide Church of God is about half the size it used to be. The television ministry, once one of the largest in America, is gone. Circulation of The Plain Truth fell from a peak of 8,000,000 down to less than 100,000. The number of employees in Pasadena fell from 1,000 to about 50. Our reduced income forced us to remove some pastors from the payroll, and lay pastors were appointed for small congregations.

Ambassador College/University was forced to close because the church could no longer subsidize it, and its properties have been sold. The church's properties in Pasadena were greatly underutilized and were sold in 2004. An office building in Glendora has been purchased, and our offices will relocate there in 2005.

Evangelical churches also re-evaluated their stance toward the WCG. One of the first friendly groups was the Haggard School of Theology at Azusa Pacific University. Fuller Theological Seminary also helped. Cult-watching groups such as the Christian Research Institute complimented the church when it accepted the doctrine of the Trinity. In 1995, more evangelicals embraced us as brothers in the faith. We cite the International Church of the Four Square Gospel in particular. We are grateful for those early gestures of reconciliation.

In 1996, Joe Tkach wrote an article [click here for article] apologizing to members and to all who were hurt by the church's erroneous teachings and practices. He asked for forgiveness and cooperation. Also in 1996, Christianity Today published an article on the Worldwide Church of God --- "From the Fringe to the Fold," by Ruth Tucker [click here for article]. And in 1997, the church was accepted as a member of the National Association of Evangelicals. [click here for press release]

Our doctrinal changes took about 10 years—10 years of turmoil and tremendous reorientation. We all had to reorient ourselves, to reconsider our relationship with God. Our sharp drop in income required an immense change in organizational structure—and again, it was not easy, and it was not quick. In fact, the organizational restructuring took about as long as the doctrinal re-evaluation did.

Every congregation was reorganized, too. Most have new pastors—often serving without pay. New ministries have developed, often with new ministry leaders. Multilevel hierarchies have been streamlined, and more members have taken active roles as churches have become involved in their local communities. Local church advisory councils are learning to work together to make plans and set budgets. It is a new start for us all. In 2004, 18 independent congregations joined us, and we planted 89 new congregations.

Chapter Three: At a Crossroads

The apostle Paul, after his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus, immediately began to preach that Jesus is the Son of God (Acts 9:20). But he was not immediately accepted into Christian fellowship. The Christians in Jerusalem were skeptical, and it took a bridge-builder named Barnabas to bring him into the group (verses 26-27). Not long thereafter, Paul was sent away to Tarsus (v. 30).

God had great plans for Paul -- but it took quite a while for those plans to be implemented. Paul spent three years in Arabia, many more years in Tarsus. What he preached and whom he reached, we do not know. But it must have been a time for Paul to clarify his thoughts. He had heard the arguments of the early Christians; he knew well the arguments of the Jews who did not believe. And he was faced with undeniable evidence that Jesus was in fact the Messiah.

Paul had help from his new-found Christian friends. He already knew what they were teaching, and they taught him more, and yet he still had more to think about. Why did the Messiah have to die? Why did the Jews not accept the Messiah God had given them? Where had the Jewish religion led them astray? If one could be right with God under old covenant laws, then why did God have to send his Son to die? Paul had to think about all the implications -- thoughts we would later read in his epistles. It took many years to make a transition from a worship rooted in the Old Testament, to a faith based in the new covenant.

Paul, whom God had chosen to be a missionary to the gentiles, was waiting in the wings for many years. Luke tells us that Paul wasn't even around when the first gentiles came into the church (Acts 10). Paul doesn't enter the picture until after many gentiles had already become part of the church at Antioch (Acts 11:20-26). And it was only after some time in Antioch that Paul finally began to do the missionary work for which Christ had called him.

There are some similarities between the story of Paul and the story of the Worldwide Church of God. We have roots in the old covenant, and the new has been revealed. We have embraced the new with joy, and there have been Barnabas-like people who have helped reconcile us to other Christians, and who have helped teach us. And yet it is taking us some time to understand our identity and our role in the Christian world.

We do not have any delusions of grandeur, that we will be as great as the apostle Paul. We do not imagine that we will turn the world upside down. We do not think we will transform the church like Paul did. But we do expect God to use us to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Perhaps there is a niche out there that needs our particular experience. Perhaps God is preparing us for situations that do not yet exist. We do not know, but we remain ready to respond to God's leading.

Why do we exist?

When our foundational doctrines were changed, some people claimed that the Worldwide Church of God should just close its doors and tell all its members to go to authentic Christian churches. Ironically, we heard this not from other Christian churches, but from a few of our own members! They were angry and bitter that the WCG had caused such pain in their lives by teaching erroneous doctrines. They concluded that the WCG had been built on false pretenses and had no right to exist.

We acknowledge that many of our doctrines were erroneous. We acknowledge that the WCG would not exist without those erroneous doctrines. But we do not conclude that Jesus Christ rescued us as a group merely to have us disband. He has bought and paid for this church. It belongs to him, and we have told him that he can have it! If it is of any value to him, he can use it as his instrument, and we are happy to let him lead us. We rejoice in the fellowship we have with him, and we believe that he is already leading us into usefulness.

Our strengths as a denomination include a fresh awareness of the importance of grace, a high respect for Scripture, and a willingness to do what it says. We recognize that Jesus, as our Savior and as our Lord, gives us instructions for our thoughts, words and actions. We know that Christ makes a difference in the way we live. He transforms our lives in this age, as well as giving us eternal life. Of course, Jesus is not done with us yet. We are still being shaped and fashioned for his purpose. We praise him and worship him, and seek to know his will for our lives.

For further information on the history of the church, you may wish to consult one of the books listed below:

J. Michael Feazell, The Liberation of the Worldwide Church of God. Zondervan, 2001.
Joseph Tkach, Transformed by Truth. Multnomah, 1997 - this book is no longer in print, but is available on our website.
Walter Martin, Kingdom of the Cults. Bethany House, 1998. Earlier editions of this book were written before most of our doctrinal changes were made. The 1998 edition has an appendix documenting our transition into orthodoxy. The introduction to this appendix is available at http://www.wcg.org/wn/98apr/cult.htm.
willing_to_change.gif (5896 bytes)George Mather and Larry Nichol, Rediscovering the Plain Truth. InterVarsity, 1997.
Ruth Tucker, "From the Fringe to the Fold: How the Worldwide Church of God Discovered the Plain Truth of the Gospel." Christianity Today, July 15, 1996. This is available at http://www.wcg.org/wn/96aug27/ct.htm


For a chart showing our organizational roots, click here.

For a chart showing groups that have split off from us, click here.

Copyright 1998, 2005 Worldwide Church of God


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[Shabba-Doo]

Do ya really think that anyone is going to read all of this?

[specter]

I read the part about the trinity, and stopped there. Even boring for me.