Raising the Ruins (46 page)

Read Raising the Ruins Online

Authors: Gerald Flurry

16. Herbert W. Armstrong, Co-worker letter, December 9, 1985, 1-2.

17. Richard Ames,
Pastor General’s Report
, December 27, 1985, 5.

18. Aaron K. Dean, “Education: What does God expect?”
The Worldwide News
, December 30, 1985, 1.

19. Ken Tate, “Pastor general addresses 4,600 during trip to Big Sandy campus,”
The Worldwide News
, March 24, 1986, 1.

20. “Texas campus to remain open, says chancellor in college forum,”
The Worldwide News
, April 21, 1986, 1.

21. Joseph W. Tkach,
Pastor General’s Report
, March 21, 1986, 1.

22. Joseph W. Tkach,
Pastor General’s Report
, April 18, 1986, 2.

23. “Texas campus to remain open, says chancellor in college forum,”
The Worldwide News
, April 21, 1986, 1.

24. Herbert W. Armstrong, “The 19-Year Time Cycles —What Happened January 7óWhat My Commission Is!”
Tomorrow’s World
, February 1972, 32.

25. Herbert W. Armstrong, Co-worker letter, September 17, 1982, 1.

26. Herbert W. Armstrong, Sermon, Pasadena CA, December 17, 1983.

27. Herbert W. Armstrong,
The Plain Truth About Healing
(Worldwide Church of God, 1979), 53.

28. Joseph W. Tkach, Sermon, Pasadena CA, January 18, 1986.

29. John 6:44.

30. Herbert W. Armstrong, “Congress of leading ministers hears defined and reemphasized spiritual organization of church,”
The Worldwide News
, March 6, 1981, 5.

31. Joseph W. Tkach, Sermon, Pasadena CA, January 18, 1986.

32. Joseph W. Tkach,
Pastor General’s Report
, January 24, 1986, 2.

33. Herbert W. Armstrong, Co-worker letter, September 12, 1985, 1.

34. Herbert W. Armstrong,
Mystery of the Ages
(New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1985), 289.

35. Ibid., 290.

36. Ibid., 290-91.

37. Ibid., 291.

38. Larry R. Salyer,
Pastor General’s Report
, December 16, 1986, 8.

39. Ibid., 9.

40. Herbert W. Armstrong,
The Incredible Human Potential
(Herbert W. Armstrong, 1978), 5.

41. Herbert W. Armstrong,
What Do You Mean
—
”The Unpardonable Sin
”? (Pasadena, CA: Ambassador College Press, 1972), 8-9.

42. Larry R. Salyer,
Pastor General’s Report
, December 30, 1986, 11.

43. To understand the significance of this change, we need some context. Mr. Armstrong taught that human beings are wholly physical—made from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). God, on the other hand, is entirely spirit (John 4:24). And yet, it says in Genesis 1:26, man was created in God’s image and likeness. God’s purpose, as revealed from the beginning, was to make mankind into God kind. Our incredible human potential is to be born into the family of God by a literal spirit birth, as described in John 3:3-6.

But how would this be brought about? How would God take an entirely physical creation and make it spirit? How would He bridge the gap between Himself and man? By creating physical man with a
spiritual attribute
called the “spirit in man” (Job 32:8). Besides giving man the power of intellect, putting us on a plane far superior to animals, this human spirit makes possible the transition of mortal man into spirit being in God’s Kingdom.

Of and by itself, the human spirit gives man a godly type mind, because it enables us to think and reason within the scope of physical, material things. But it is incomplete without another spirit—the Spirit of God. God gives His Spirit, as a gift, to those who repent of their sins, accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and are baptized. That’s when God’s Spirit combines with our spirit, making us the begotten children of God (Romans 8:16). The actual birth occurs when we are resurrected to spirit life at Jesus Christ’s return.

That leads us to one other vital purpose for the human spirit. “The spirit that is in every human acts as a mold. It preserves the human’s memory, his character, his form and shape,” Mr. Armstrong wrote on page 85 of
The Incredible Human Potential
. This “sculptor’s mold” is what God, as the Master Potter (Isaiah 64:8), uses when He gives us our spirit bodies at the resurrection.

On page 71 of the book, referring to the human spirit, Mr. Armstrong wrote, “It is that nonphysical component in the human brain that
does not exist in the brain of animals.
It is the ingredient that makes possible the transition from human to divine,
without changing
matter into spirit, at the time of resurrection.” These two sentences were combined as one in the 1986 version: “It is that nonphysical component in the human brain that is the ingredient that makes possible the transition from human to divine,
from
matter into spirit, at the time of resurrection.”

First, notice they left out the fact that this nonphysical component does not exist in animals. (They made a similar edit in
Never Before Understood—Why Humanity Cannot Solve Its Evils
where Mr. Armstrong said “man has mind, while animal has
only
brain with instinct.” They edited the word “only” out so as to leave the subject “open to future growth in understanding,” Larry Salyer wrote in the
Pastor General’s Report
(January 27, 1987)—presumably, in case their scholars later discovered a spiritual dimension to the animal brain.) Second, “without changing matter into spirit” was changed to “from matter into spirit,” which gives the passage an entirely different meaning. Now, instead of the Sculptor using
the mold
to create our spirit bodies, He instead uses
the clay
—changing it into spirit.

44. Larry R. Salyer,
Pastor General’s Report
, December 16, 1986, 10.

45. Herbert W. Armstrong,
Mystery of the Ages
(New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1985), 50.

46. Larry R. Salyer
, Pastor General’s Report
, December 30, 1986, 12.

47. K. J. Stavrinides, “Does elohim refer to a family of divine beings?”
The Worldwide News
, August 3, 1993, 4.

48. David Hulme, Letter of resignation to Joseph Tkach, April 17, 1995, 6.

49. Joseph Tkach,
Transformed by Truth
(Sister, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1997), 69-70.

50. Ibid.

Chapter 7: Riddled With Error

1. Deposition of Joseph Tkach at 155,
Worldwide Church of God v. Philadelphia Church of God
, No. CV-97-5306-JSL (C.D. Cal. April 20, 1999).

2.
Id
.

3. Herbert W. Armstrong,
United States and Britain in Prophecy
(Worldwide Church of God, 1980), 64.

4. Ibid., 65.

5. Ibid., 43.

6. Larry R. Salyer,
Pastor General’s Report
, February 10, 1987, 9.

7. Mr. Armstrong never said Jews were not Israelites—but most Israelites are not Jews. Furthermore, when the Bible speaks of these peoples as nations—and this fact is critical to understanding prophetic events—“Israel” refers the United States and Britain (and to a lesser degree, the nations of northwest Europe), whereas “Judah” refers to the people who reside in the land
mistakenly
called “Israel” today. Again, this is the whole point of Mr. Armstrong’s book! But it couldn’t survive the editor’s knife
in 1986
because it had become a “source of criticism.” During Mr. Armstrong’s ministry, more than 6 million people requested
The United States and Britain in Prophecy
. It was the most popular piece of literature Mr. Armstrong ever produced. Yet, within months of Mr. Armstrong’s death, Tkach’s editors lopped off the book’s central point.

8. Larry R. Salyer,
Pastor General’s Report
, February 10, 1987, 9.

9. Mr. Armstrong explained in
The United States and Britain in Prophecy
that, because of ancient Israel’s rebellion, God withheld their birthright promises, made unconditionally to Abraham, for a period of 2,520 years. In Israel’s case, the 2,520-year withholding, using Mr. Armstrong’s dates, means that God would then bestow the birthright blessings on the descendants of Israel from 1800 to 1803—the latter date being when the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory. Isolating Israel’s captivity date to 721 b.c., however, limits the end of the prophesied withholding to 1800. A slight difference, yes, but one that de-emphasizes the prophetic significance of the Louisiana Purchase.

The hazy date regarding Judah’s captivity is much more significant from a prophetic standpoint. Using the dates Mr. Armstrong researched, Judah’s 2,520-year punishment would have ended in 1917—which is the year the British took control of Palestine. While Mr. Armstrong does not refer to this specific prophecy in
The United States and Britain in Prophecy
, he does allude to another prophecy regarding Turkey and how God prophesied that they would have to give up the land of Palestine, which they did in 1917. Tkach’s editors left this entire section of the book (“Prophecy for Turkey”) out of the 1986 version.

Mr. Armstrong thoroughly explained the 2,520-year curse on Judah in
The Bible—Superstition or Authority?
…
and Can You Prove It?
—a booklet he wrote just after finishing
Mystery of the Ages
in 1985. In fact, Mr. Armstrong wanted the booklet sent to all those who requested
Mystery of the Ages
. He said it could even be the opening chapter of the book in future editions.

10.
Pastor General’s Report
, August 18, 1987, 10.

11. Joseph Tkach,
Transformed by Truth
(Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1997), 130.

12. “Anglo-Israelism” and “British Israelism,” incidentally, are terms Mr. Armstrong never used. Some groups who do foster racial prejudice use these terms. And certainly, Tkach Jr. and fanatical “cult watchers” throw these terms around to “foster rebuke” against people they deem to be racist. Mr. Armstrong was not racist—nor did he foster racial prejudice. He taught the Bible’s interpretation of the modern identity of nations as well as why those nations—
all
of them, whether Israelite or gentile—are headed for disaster unless we repent.

13. Joseph Tkach,
Transformed by Truth
(Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1997), 131.

14. Herbert W. Armstrong, Co-worker letter, August 14, 1978, 11.

15. Joseph W. Tkach, “As Passover Approaches … New Understanding of the Meaning of Christ’s Broken Body and the Church’s Teaching on Healing,”
The Worldwide News,
March 23, 1987, 1.

16. Herbert W. Armstrong,
The Plain Truth About Healing
(Worldwide Church of God, 1979), 66, 58.

17. Ibid., 65.

18. Ibid., 58.

19. Psalm 103:3; Isaiah 53:5; Matthew 8:17; 1 Peter 2:24.

20. Luke 22:14-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-30.

21. Romans 7:14.

22. Romans 6:23.

23. Joseph W. Tkach, “As Passover Approaches … New Understanding of the Meaning of Christ’s Broken Body and the Church’s Teaching on Healing,”
The Worldwide News,
March 23, 1987, 1.

24. Worldwide Church of God, “Healing,”
Systematic Theology Project
, 1978, 7.

25. Joseph Tkach,
Transformed by Truth
(Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1997), 144.

26. Joseph W. Tkach,
Pastor General’s Report
, March 18, 1987, 14.

27. Personal Correspondence Department L028, July 1987, 2.

28. Joseph W. Tkach,
Pastor General’s Report
, February 9, 1988, 2.

29. Ibid., 3.

30. Ibid.

31. Ibid., 2.

32. Herbert W. Armstrong,
Mystery of the Ages
(New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1985), 291.

33. Ibid., 348.

34. Ibid., 9.

35. Ibid., 51-56.