Worldwide Church of God

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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 the “church” (at the time, actually a small church congregation of adherents with a radio ministry) he created was initially not a separate entity, but a part of that conference.

After Armstrong died in 1986, the church administration, led by Joe Tkach Sr. (1986–1995) and Joe Tkach Jr. (1995–present) changed doctrine, leading to the formation of the Philadelphia Church of God (1989), Global Church of God, now Living Church of God (1993, 1998), and United Church of God (1995). Worldwide membership is much smaller than it was prior to 1986, owing to the changes in doctrine. Due also to the change in tithing, church income is also down. 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.

Contents

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Timeline

Main article: History of the Worldwide Church of God

  • 1892—Herbert W. Armstrong is born in Des Moines, Iowa.
  • 1909—Armstrong drops out of high school during his junior year. Under the guidance of his uncle, he became self-educated in his chosen field of advertising.
  • 1917—Armstrong marries Loma Dillon.
    • between 1917 and 1927—Loma meets a woman who eventually convinces her Saturday (and not Sunday) is the Sabbath. Armstrong was shocked she would believe this. After intense research into the subject, he came to believe this was correct.
  • 1927—Further study into Christian beliefs leads Armstrong into attending the Church of God.
  • 1930
  • 1931—Armstrong begins his ministry in Eugene, Oregon.
  • 1933
  • 1934
  • 1937—After a dispute concerning what to tell prospective members before baptism, Armstrong withdraws entirely from the Church of God. He claims to put his trust in God to provide the needs of his family and further claims a determination to preach the truth beholden to no man.
  • 1939—The World's Fair is held in New York. This inspires Armstrong to rename his radio program as “The World Tomorrow”.
  • 1946—Because of the growth in radio stations, Armstrong felt it was esential to move where he could have access to modern radio recording studios. He therefore relocates to Pasadena, California.
  • 1947—Ambassador College (AC), a Bible College used to train ministers for his “Radio Church of God”, is founded by Armstrong in Pasadena. He chooses not to have “worldly” acceditation.

1950s—The Plain Truth becomes a monthly publication. Until then, publication had been sporadic.

  • 1953
    • January 7—“The World Tomorrow” is broadcast on Radio Luxembourg.
    • Armstrong begins to view his ministry in two epochs of 19 years each (1934–1953 and 1953–1972).
  • 1956
  • 1966—Loma Dillon Armstrong dies.
  • 1967—Michael Dennis Rohan attempts to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. Rohan claims to have been inspired by Armstrong and his ministry.
  • 1968
    • January 5—Church changes name to Worldwide Church of God.
  • 1969—Stanley Rader begins full-time employment with the church.
    • Evangelist Roderick C. Meredith informs the leadership that members should not interpret the 1975 in Prophecy! booklet as predicting that Christ will come in 1975.
  • 1970s—During the decades of the 60s and 70s, the church distributes millions of copies of The Plain Truth to the public without charge.
  • 1970—Carl O'Beirn breaks with the church, founds Church of God at Cleveland, Ohio.
  • 1972—Armstrong suggests that the year 1972 could be the beginning of the apocalypse of the Book of Revelation.
    • March 15—Church is featured in a report by Time magazine, in which Armstrong announces his split with son Garner Ted. Garner Ted Armstrong, Vice President at Ambassador College, reportedly had been committing adultery with AC undergraduate coeds, and gambling with church funds.
    • July 20—Garner Ted Armstrong is returned to full executive duties, including hosting “The World Tomorrow” program on radio and televison, with his father's approval, despite serious reservations within the church ministry.
  • 1973—The film “Paper Moon” is released. It is financed by the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation (AICF), a corporate foundation funded by the church and set up by Stanley Rader.
  • 1974—A change in church doctrine allows members to divorce and remarry under certain circumstances that the church determines are biblical.
  • 1975—Herbert Armstrong baptizes Stanley Rader in a hotel bathtub. Rader, formerly a professing Jew, becomes an ordained church evangelist.
  • 1977—Herbert Armstrong marries Ramona Martin and moves to Tucson, Arizona.
    • July—The article “Plain Truth About Healing” is published;. The ministry makes gradual allowances for childhood vaccinations, treatment by physicians, use of prescription medication, surgery, blood transfusions, pain medication, and antibiotics.
  • 1978—Garner Ted Armstrong is thrown out of the church by his father for a second and final time. He leaves to form the Church of God International in Tyler, Texas.
  • 1979
    • California Attorney General George Deukmejian, after receiving complaints from disgruntled members, begins an investigation of the church and associated enterprises over charges of financial wrongdoing. Church goes into financial receivership. Under the direction of church attorney Stanley Rader, the church litigates against the receivership, but is denied relief in 16 different petitions to the California Court of Appeals and 11 separate petitions to the California Supreme Court.
    • April 15—Rader defends himself and the church on the television program “60 Minutes” with Mike Wallace.
    • The State of California Law Board and the Board of Accountancy begin an investigation into possible professional ethics violations charges against Stanley Rader involving multiple grounds of inquiry.
  • 1980—John Robinson, ordained minister of the Worldwide Church, publishes a book on the Worldwide Church entitled Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web. The church tries to legally suppress publication of the book on the basis that it published private facts, but fails.
  • June 3—United States Supreme Court denies church appeals of receivership case for the third time and permits receivership to proceed in California courts.
  • 1981—Jack Kessler, CPA and attorney-at-law (a member of the church's accounting firm Rader, Cornwall, Kessler) sends a published letter to the Board of Directors and Council of Elders of the church, regarding headquarters accounting procedures.
    • California State legislature passes a special bill specifically exempting religious organizations such as the Worldwide Church from further financial scrutiny from the California Office of the Attorney General after intense lobbying by Stanley Rader and other church sympathizers. This effectively keeps states from intruding into churches throughout the state.
    • Rader writes Against the Gates of Hell: The Threat to Religious Freedom in America in defense of his refusal to cooperate with the financial receivership.
  • 1981
    • Herbert W. Armstrong pays Stanley Rader a $250,000 bonus after taxes for Rader's legal work in resisting the governmental receivership of the church.
  • 1981–1986 The Worldwide Church of God has its greatest growth during this period. Armstrong is recognized internationally by world leaders as an ambassador for world peace. The Plain Truth magizine and the radio and television programs have their greatest number of subscribers and viewing audience.
  • 1986
    • January 16—Herbert W. Armstrong dies; Joseph W. Tkach Sr is appointed as his successor to Pastor General.
  • 1986-1989—Under Tkach Sr.'s leadership, the church begin to make changes to its doctrine. The church commission, doctrine of divine healing, and many other doctrinal positions are revised. Major doctrinal works previously produced by the church are withdrawn from publication by the church, including what Herbert Armstrong called a summary of his life's work, Mystery of the Ages.
  • 1989—Gerald Flurry and John Ames, ministers, are disfellowshipped after their paper (later published as Malachi Message) reveals the massive changes in doctrine being made by the Tkachs. Flurry and Ames form what becomes The Philadelphia Church of God.
  • 1991—Tkach Sr. revises teaching on new birth, suggesting that the Holy Spirit is a person.
  • 1992—Evangelist Roderick C. Meredith leaves and eventually forms the Global Church of God.
  • 1993—Tkach Sr. distances the church from its former binitarian view of God and accepts the doctrine of the Trinity.
  • 1994
    • Tkack Sr. teaches that true Christians may also be found in other denominations; that Christians are no longer under the Old Covenant laws; that members are permitted to eat pork. He further removes other dietary restrictions.
  • 1995
    • Many ministers leave and form the United Church of God.
    • Joseph W. Tkach Sr. dies; his son, Joseph Tkach Jr., is appointed as Pastor General.
    • Tkach Jr. rejects Anglo-Israelism doctrine; members encouraged to observe Christmas and Easter as holy days, to vote in govermental electons, and to serve in the Armed Forces or in law enforcement. The requirement of the triple tithe (30%) donation of personal income to church is abandoned.
  • 1996—Tkach Jr. apologizes to members and others for the church's “erroneous” teachings.
  • 1997—Tkach Jr. publishes Transformed by Truth, defending the administrative and doctrinal changes made by him and his father.
  • 1997—The Worldwide Church of God is permitted to join the National Association of Evangelicals.
  • 1997—The Philadelphia Church of God reprints Mystery of the Ages (MOA). Worldwide Church of God files a lawsuit to stop its publication, citing copyright infringement.
  • 1999—Tkach Jr. announces employee retirement fund
  • 2000
    • September 18—The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rules that the Philadelphia Church of God infringed on the Worldwide Church's copyright to MOA, awards damages to Worldwide Church of God, and remands case to lower court for determination of damages to be paid and a possible permanent injunction.
  • 2003
    • April—The Worldwide Church of God agrees to end the lawsuit over MOA by selling the copyright to MOA and nineteen other Worldwide-copyrighted religious tracts to The Philadelphia Church of God for $3 million.
    • September 13—Garner Ted Armstrong dies in Tyler, TX.
  • 2005—Tkach Jr. implements new churchwide financial system. Headquarters server network controls Worldwide flow of financial data. Tkach Jr. later announces that the church wishes to change its name.
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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 Glendora, California. The church has been a paid member of the National Association of Evangelicals since 1997.

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Current organizational structure

The Worldwide Church of God is established under a hierarchical, non-voting form of government. The chief ecclesiastical and chief corporate executive officer of the denomination is termed the Pastor General. Historically, Pastors General, as chairmen of their board, have appointed their own successor without representative vote from the membership. Ecclestical or corporate governance issues are within the decision-making jurisdiction of the Pastor General, who has the power to appoint, as well as terminate, the Council of Elders and the board members of the corporation, with or without cause or notice. The denomination's ecclesiastical policies are determined by its Advisory Council of Elders (ACE), which is, in turn, appointed and controlled by the Pastor General. A Doctrinal Advisory Team may report to the Advisory Council on the church's official doctrinal statements, epistemology, or apologetics. Under ecclesiastical bylaws, the Pastor General may “pocket veto” doctrinal positions he determines to be heretical, e.g., on the issue of the ordination of women as pastors.

The Worldwide Church of God maintains national offices and satellite offices in multiple countries. Pastor General Joseph Tkach, Jr. periodically travels worldwide in personal appearance campaigns to congregations in diverse intercontinental areas, such as Great Britain, Africa, and the Phillipines. However, membership and tithe income originates primarily from within the eastern United States.

In the United States, contact with local assemblies or local church home small group meetings, i.e., cell churches is facilitated by district superintendents, each of which is responsible for a large number of churches in a geographical region (such as Florida or the Northeast) or in a specialized language group (such as Spanish-speaking congregations).

Local churches are led by a senior pastor or a pastoral leadership team, each of which is supervised by a district superintendent. Most local church groups retain the long-standing traditional policy of meeting in leased or rented facilites for meetings or services. The trend since 2000, however, has been to adopt a local church setting blending into the local milieu with headquarters retaining administrative oversight functions. Some senior pastors are responsible for a single local church, but many are responsible for working in two or more churches. Church government now mandates a local Advisory Council, which includes a number of volunteer ministry leaders (some of whom are also called deacons), and often additional elders or assistant pastors. As of 2005, the church established a new computer system of financial checks and balances for church budgets at the local level. Salary compensation for the paid local church pastor, if available, is determined by the church treasurer in California. [1]

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Original Worldwide Church of God splinter groups

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References

  • Frank S. Mead, Samuel S. Hill, and Craig D. Atwood, Handbook of Denominations in the United States. Abingdon Press, 2001. ISBN 0687069831.
  • J. Michael Feazell, The Liberation of the Worldwide Church of God. Zondervan, 2003. ISBN 0310250110.
  • Gerald Flurry, Malachi's Message to God's Church Today. "A thorough explanation of how and why the Worldwide Church of God rejected Herbert Armstrong's teachings, and how to hold fast to Herbert Armstrong's teachings."
  • Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults. Revised and Updated Edition, Bethany House, 2003. ISBN 0764228218. See Appendix A, pp. 471–494.
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See also

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External links