Raising the Ruins (45 page)

65. Worldwide Church of God, “Transformed by Christ: A Brief History of the Worldwide Church of God.” Available at
http://www.wcg.org/lit/aboutus/history.htm
.

1. Herbert W. Armstrong, “Christ now moves to put God’s government back on the track,”
The Good News
, September 1979, 28.

2. Herbert W. Armstrong, “Recent history of the Philadelphia Era of the Worldwide Church of God,”
The Worldwide News
, June 24, 1985, special edition, 4.

3. Ibid.

4. Deposition of Ralph Helge at 149-50,
Worldwide Church of God v. Philadelphia Church of God
, No. CV-97-5306-JSL (C.D. Cal. April 20, 1999).

5. Personal interview with Aaron Dean, November 22, 2005.

6. Herbert W. Armstrong, Letter to Roderick C. Meredith, March 14, 1980.

7. Personal interview with Aaron Dean, November 22, 2005.

8. Ibid. Mr. Dean said that since Mr. Meredith had obviously been ruled out, the other candidates pretty much were the other men on the council—ministers like Leroy Neff, Herman Hoeh—even himself.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. Deposition of Ralph Helge at 140,
Worldwide Church of God v. Philadelphia Church of God
, No. CV-97-5306-JSL (C.D. Cal. April, 1999).

12.
Id
. at 136.

13. Herbert W. Armstrong, Co-worker letter, January 10, 1986, 1.

14. Personal interview with Aaron Dean, November 22, 2005.

15. “Worldwide Church of God Founder Names Successor,”
Associated Press
, January 15, 1986.

16. Herbert W. Armstrong, Co-worker letter, December 9, 1985, 1.

17. Ibid.

18. Deposition of Ralph Helge at 141,
Worldwide Church of God v. Philadelphia Church of God
, No. CV-97-5306-JSL (C.D. Cal. April 20, 1999).

19. Joseph W. Tkach, Co-worker letter, part 2, January 16, 1986, 1.

20. Aaron Dean, Sermon, March 24, 1996.

21. Larry R. Salyer,
Pastor General’s Report
, December 2, 1986, 4.

22. Ibid.

23. “Update,”
The Worldwide News
, January 26, 1987, 8.

24. “Spirit is catalyst of unity, says apostle in Pasadena,”
The Worldwide News
, February 9, 1987, 1; Jeff E. Zhorne, “Christ’s apostle ‘deeply inspired’ by trip to Jordan, Egypt, Israel,”
The Worldwide News
, March 9, 1987, 1.

25. Herbert W. Armstrong, “The 19-Year Cycles—What Happened January 7—What My Commission Is!”
Tomorrow’s World
, February 1972, 1.

26. Herbert W. Armstrong, “Six More Ministers Now Ordained,”
The Good News,
February-March 1955, 7.

27. Acts 8:18-19.

28. Personal interview with Aaron Dean, November 22, 2005.

29. Ibid.

1. Personal interview with Aaron Dean, November 22, 2005.

2. Jeff Zhorne and Michael Snyder, “The Passing of the Baton,”
The Worldwide News
, January 27, 1986, 3.

3. Personal interview with
Gerald Flurry
, January 9, 2006.

4. “Passing the Baton,”
The Good News
, May 1986, 13.

5. Jeff Zhorne and Michael Snyder, “The Passing of the Baton,”
The Worldwide News
, January 27, 1986, 3.

6. Joseph Tkach,
Transformed by Truth
(Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1997), 81.

7. Personal interview with
Gerald Flurry
January 9, 2006.

8. Personal interview with Roderick C. Meredith, January 9, 2006.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. Personal Correspondence Department L168, 1989.

12. Jeff Zhorne, “Milestones in the life of Joseph W. Tkach,”
The Worldwide News
, December 5, 1995, 5.

13. Joseph Tkach,
Transformed by Truth
(Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1997), 79.

14. Joseph W. Tkach, “A Boy from the Inner City,”
The Plain Truth
, June 1986, 1.

15. Jeff Zhorne, “Milestones in the life of Joseph W. Tkach,”
The Worldwide News
, December 5, 1995, 5.

16. Joseph W. Tkach, “Personal,”
The Worldwide News
, January 26, 1987, 1.

17. Jeff Zhorne and Michael Snyder, “The Passing of the Baton,”
The Worldwide News
, January 27, 1986, 3.

18. Based on a review of school archives by degreechk.com.

19. Worldwide Church of God, Intended preface to the e-publishing works, 2002, 1.

20. J. Michael Feazell,
The Liberation of the Worldwide Church of God
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), 24.

21. Ibid., 25.

22. Joseph Tkach,
Transformed by Truth
(Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1997), 12.

23. Personal interview with Aaron Dean, November 22, 2005.

24. Joseph Tkach,
Transformed by Truth
(Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1997), 83.

25. Personal interview with Roderick C. Meredith, January 9, 2006.

26. Deposition of Joseph Tkach at 380,
Worldwide Church of God v. Philadelphia Church of God
, No. CV-97-5306-CAS (C.D. Cal. dismissed April 14, 2003).

27.
Id
.

28.
Id
.

29. Herbert W. Armstrong,
Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong
, Vol. 1 (Pasadena, CA: Worldwide Church of God, 1986), 305.

30. Ibid.

31. Herbert W. Armstrong,
Mystery of the Ages
(New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1985), 280.

32. Deposition of Joseph Tkach at 380,
Worldwide Church of God v. Philadelphia Church of God, Inc.
, No. CV-97-5306-CAS (C.D. Cal. dismissed April 14, 2003).

33.
Id
. at 381-382.

34. Joseph Tkach,
Transformed by Truth
(Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1997), 35.

35. Ibid., 89. The wcg’s Personal Correspondence Department made this same point in a letter dated December 8, 1994, written by a wcg official: “From an ethical point of view, it is well-known by our critics, and we must face the fact, that Mr. Armstrong did not originate this teaching (that the tribes of Israel went to the British Isles).” Actually, Mr. Armstrong never made the claim that everything he wrote in
The United States and Britain in Prophecy
originated with him. Mr. Armstrong wrote, “
Very few,
indeed, have ever noticed that the promises to Abraham were twofold” (page 29). Later, he wrote, “
Few,
indeed, are the clergymen, theologians, or professed Bible scholars who know that [the fact that many prophecies about Israel do not refer to the Jews] today. Many refuse to know it!” (page 43). Repeatedly, he stressed that
only a few
have understood.

36. Herbert W. Armstrong, Bible study, Pasadena CA, July 19, 1980.

37. Ibid.

38. J. H. Allen,
Judah’s Sceptre and Joseph’s Birthright
(Merrimac, MA: Destiny Publishers, 1917), 13.

39. Herbert W. Armstrong,
The United States and Britain in Prophecy
(Worldwide Church of God, 1980), ix.

40. In chapter 9 of the third section, for example, Allen discusses the impossibility of America and Britain ever being conquered militarily. Then, in the last chapter of the book, “The Coming Exodus,” he reveals his total ignorance regarding Israel’s biblically prophesied captivity at the hands of the modern-day Assyrians.

41. Joseph Tkach,
Transformed by Truth
(Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1997), 66.

42. Ibid.

43. Ibid., 66-67.

44. Deposition of J. Michael Feazell at 20-21,
Worldwide Church of God v. Philadelphia Church of God
, No. CV-97-5306 CAS (C.D. Cal. dismissed April 14, 2003).

45. Personal interview with Roderick C. Meredith, January 9, 2006.

46. J. Michael Feazell,
The Liberation of the Worldwide Church of God
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), 138.

47. Joseph Tkach,
Transformed by Truth
(Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1997), 83.

48. Worldwide Church of God, “Transformed by Christ: A Brief History of the Worldwide Church of God.” Available at
http://www.wcg.org/lit/aboutus/history.htm
.

1. Personal interview with Aaron Dean, November 22, 2005.

2. Personal interview with Bob Herrington, November 18, 2005.

3. Joseph W. Tkach,
Pastor General’s Report
, September 29, 1987, 1.

4. Edward Glancy, “Ambassador considers addition of more majors,”
The Portfolio
, December 28, 1973, 1.

5. Herbert W. Armstrong, Co-worker letter, September 25, 1978, 4.

6. Herbert W. Armstrong, Co-worker letter, June 28, 1978, 6.

7. Ibid., 7.

8. Ibid., 8.

9. Herbert W. Armstrong, “Recent History of the Philadelphia Era of the Worldwide Church of God,”
The Worldwide News
, June 24, 1985, special edition, 3-4.

1. Joseph Tkach,
Transformed by Truth
(Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1997), 84.

2. Ibid., 21.

3. Herbert W. Armstrong,
Mystery of the Ages
(New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1985), 251.

4. Joseph W. Tkach, “God restored these 18 truths: How thankful are you for them?”
The Worldwide News
, August 25, 1986, 5.

5. Basil Wolverton,
The Bible Story
, Vol. 1 (Radio Church of God, 1961), viii-ix.

6. Ibid., 52.

7. Ibid., 53.

8. Herbert W. Armstrong,
The Plain Truth About Christmas
(Ambassador College Press, 1970), 10-11.

9. On page 7 of
The Plain Truth About Christmas
, Mr. Armstrong asked, “But if we got Christmas from the Roman Catholics, and they got it from paganism, where did the pagans get it? Where, when, and what was its real origin?” As Mr. Armstrong went on to explain, the church had taught for decades that these pagan customs originated in ancient Babylon, beginning with Nimrod and his wife Semiramis soon after the Flood.

Not true, according to a discovery made by wcg scholars a year after Mr. Armstrong died. “It started in ancient Egypt in the days of King Osiris and Queen Isis, about 3000 b.c. Yes, it stems from roots whose beginning was
long before the Flood!
” (
Pastor General’s Report
, February 10, 1987, page 7).

To say that it came from King Osiris and Queen Isis
before
the Flood is to completely disassociate these two from Nimrod and Semiramis. Mr. Armstrong always taught that Nimrod and King Osiris were one and the same. Likewise for Semiramis and Isis.

This is how the wcg explained the change to its ministers: “It should be carefully noted that these editings take account of the error of Alexander Hislop in
The Two Babylons
in which he confused Nimrod, in the second generation after the Flood, with Osiris … who lived around 3000 b.c., before the Flood” (ibid.). What’s interesting about this explanation is that neither Hislop nor his book are even mentioned in
The Plain Truth About Christmas
. Yet, Mr. Armstrong and Ambassador College graduates did draw upon this source, as well as many others, when researching the earliest beginnings of man’s civilization after the Flood. Now, all writing based on Hislop’s point that Osiris and Isis are the Egyptian equivalent of Nimrod and Semiramis would have to be changed.

“Theses or dissertations that were based on references to Hislop’s
The Two Babylons
need to have this erroneous assumption corrected as well. Note also that Isis is not Semiramis, a claim by Hislop that every historian would correctly reject as false” (ibid., page 8). According to Tkachism, Hislop was way off!

Joe Tkach Jr. later referred to
The Two Babylons
as an “anti-Catholic polemic.” He said, “Most scholars would not spend time and effort to demolish the conclusions of a polemic work with a narrow reading audience. Since, however, Alexander Hislop’s work has been rather widely circulated by certain religious groups [like the Worldwide Church of God, for instance], we should take note of its basic flaw. It has absolutely no chronological framework to support the author’s conclusions” (
Pastor General’s Report,
January 31, 1989, page 5). Poor, ignorant Alexander Hislop.

In
Mystery of the Ages
, chapter 4 is titled “Mystery of Civilization.” In that chapter, Mr. Armstrong referred to Alexander Hislop and his work on two occasions. Discrediting Alexander Hislop proved to be yet another way for Tkachism to take an indirect swipe at
Mystery of the Ages
.

Incidentally, Hislop’s scholarship stands up quite well against Tkach’s criticisms. His book
The Two Babylons
(first published in 1853) references more than 260 sources, including Gibbon’s
Decline and Fall
, Adam’s
Roman Antiquities
, Begg’s
Handbook of Popery
, Kennedy’s
Ancient and Hindoo Mythology
, Potter’s
Greek Antiquities
, and Stanley’s
History of Philosophy
. Hislop meticulously cited all his proof.

10. Keith Stump,
The History of Europe and the Church
(Worldwide Church of God, 1984), 42.

11. Herbert W. Armstrong,
United States and Britain in Prophecy
(Worldwide Church of God, 1980), 93.

12. Ibid., 147.

13. Ibid., 143-44.

14.
Pastor General’s Report
, November 15, 1985, 6.

15. Genesis 10:6 says that Cush was a son of Ham. According to
Easton’s Bible Dictionary
, as well as numerous other Bible helps, the Hebrew word Cush means
black
. Cush is often translated into English as Ethiopia. See the Moffatt translation for Genesis 10:6.