Was Herbert Armstrong REALLY the “Elijah to Come” as Some Claim?
founder
of the
prophesied
by Malachi to come in the “last days.”
Could
this
be true? Of course, he died in 1986,
some twenty years
ago. Much has occurred in the world since that
time. His
own
church has broken up, gone into apostasy, and been
divided
into hundreds of small groups, churches, cults, and
splinter
groups. What is the no-holds-bared TRUTH about
Herbert
Armstrong? Was he really a “prophet” of
God?
Here’s the
good, the bad, and the ugly – but the TRUTH.
In the book of Malachi, we read of
an astonishing prophecy. God declared:
“Lo,
I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and
terrible
day of the LORD comes. He will turn the
hearts of
parents
to their children and the hearts of children to their
parents,
so that I will not come and strike the land with a
curse”
(Malachi 4:5-6).
Many remnants of the Worldwide Church of God think Herbert
Armstrong was the end-time “Elijah.” The
so-called “Philadelphia Church of God” under Gerald Flurry makes this belief a
condition for baptism!
Was Herbert Armstrong the prophesied “Elijah” – that is, one
who was to come in the same office and likeness of the Old Testament
prophet?
What does the evidence show?
Although
God did use Herbert and Loma Armstrong to raise up a Work of God during these
end-times, restoring knowledge about the Sabbaths and annual Holy Days, and the
identity of the English-speaking peoples, when we examine the life and
teachings of Herbert Armstrong, and the church he built, we find serious errors
which we must not ignore.
Notice,
first of all, that “Elijah” was to come immediately before the “Day of the
Lord,” which prophecy reveals is the final time of awesome calamity and
judgment upon the earth, at the intervention of God Himself (see Zeph.1:14-16;
Isa.13:6-9; Joel 2:1-3, 30-32). Herbert
Armstrong died in January, 1986 – 20 years ago – long before the culmination of
prophetic events to occur at the end of this age.
What
about the prophecy that Elijah would “turn the hearts of the fathers to their
children” and vice versa?
Herbert
Armstrong’s own family deserted him and left the church he founded. His daughters left the Church years ago when
the Church legislated on the issue of cosmetics and make up. His son Garner Ted Armstrong, rebelled
against Herbert Armstrong in 1978 in a power struggle over who was to run the
Church.
The
Church has not had much success in dealing with its young people, and the
children of members. Most of them, fed
up, left the church and wanted nothing to do with it. Its lauded programs for its young people were
sadly lacking. The church never had a
true Bible Sabbath school for its young people.
Yet
the Elijah to come is to be one who “shall turn the heart of the fathers to the
children, and the heart of the children to their fathers” (Mal.4:6). Herbert Armstrong
did not even succeed with his own family!
The
church itself has had a terrible record in dealing with young people,
alienating them, and turning them off.
Herbert
Armstrong could hardly have been the Elijah to come who truly will bring families
back together. Because of the teachings
of Herbert Armstrong on divorce and remarriage, he did more to break up
homes and marriages than any other minister in modern times! And his neglect of spending time with his own
children as they grew up, and abuse toward them, set a tragic example for the
entire
In
addition to teaching a flawed divorce and remarriage doctrine for over thirty
years, causing the break up of families, even those with young children,
Herbert’s teaching about divine healing caused many thousands to avoid medical
examinations, medical doctors, and all drugs and medicines as instruments and
‘poisons’ of the devil. There were many
cases of young children and elderly people dying because of this abominable
teaching. (Write for our free booklet,
“Does God Heal Today?”).
These
facts alone would seem to prove conclusively that Herbert Armstrong, who
himself admitted at times that he was not a “prophet,” could not be the prophet
Elijah who is to come preparing the way for the Messiah.
If
he was NOT the prophet Elijah, this means that Gerald Flurry, of the so-called
Philadelphia Church of God, could not be his successor, “Elishah,” nor is he “that
Prophet” who was to come, as he himself so audaciously claims to be!
So
many today seem to almost worship the memory of Herbert Armstrong. Since his death on
Yet
the question remains – why did Herbert Armstrong ever appoint this man as an
“evangelist” in the Church during his later years? Why did he appoint him to be his “successor”
when he died? Why did he put so much
trust in this man, who has proved to be a heretic and false teacher who has
trampled on ALL the fundamental teachings that Herbert Armstrong imparted to
the Church?
Would
“Elijah” have made such an enormous error in judgment?
What
went wrong? Where did Herbert Armstrong
go astray? There is much more to the
saga and life story of Herbert W. Armstrong than many thousands of people
imagine. The truth will boggle your
mind. The evidence shows, today, in
retrospect, that Herbert Armstrong was a great teacher of many truths of God,
many of which he restored to the Church during these end times – but he was
also a deeply flawed man of God.
When
I think about the life of this man, and the Church and religious Work he built,
I feel much like David felt, when hearing of the deaths of Saul and
Jonathan. David lamented their deaths. He sorrowed for them, even though Saul had
totally disqualified himself from office.
David cried out, “How have the mighty fallen!”
Even
though Saul had been God’s selected, chosen “anointed,” he had begun abusing his office and finally
sinned greatly and totally disqualified himself from being the king of
So
I have pondered about the truth about Herbert W. Armstrong. The parallels between the lives of King
Saul and Herbert Armstrong are plentiful.
But there are other amazing Scriptural parallels, also.
Let’s
examine the “fruits” of the ministry of Herbert W. Armstrong, and determine
once and for all, whether he was indeed “the Elijah to come.”
If
indeed Herbert Armstrong came in the power and spirit of Elijah, a mighty
prophet, then we would think that his prophetic utterances would have been
inspired by the Spirit of God. What was
his “track record,” in terms of Bible prophecy?
In
1956-57, as a teenage boy, I became awestruck by the prophetic booklets written
by Herbert W. Armstrong – especially two called 1975 in Prophecy, and
When
I began attending the local Church in Tacoma, Washington, in 1957-58, and read
the co-worker letters and Church literature, Herbert Armstrong was preaching
that the original apostolic Church had two “19 year time cycles” to
spread the gospel – from 31 A.D. to 50 A.D., and from 50 A.D. to 69 A.D., the
year the Romans attacked Jerusalem.
Herbert Armstrong was fond of drawing an amazing parallel: He pointed
out that exactly “100 19-year time cycles later,” in 1931 A.D., he was ordained
to the ministry by the Church of God, Seventh Day. Because of doctrinal differences, he
separated from them and began a separate, independent work of God in 1934 A.D.
Then, he used to tell us, he preached to the United States for 19 years, but
expanded the broadcast to Europe in 1953 – exactly 19 years later. He theorized that the Church would have one
more 19-year time cycle to complete its work – by 1972 – and then it would be
carried to the wilderness to a place of protection during the Great
Tribulation, from 1972-1975, culminating in the return of Jesus Christ!
All
this seemed reasonable to my youthful, impressionable mind, in 1957-58. I entered an intensive study of Church
literature, and found Mr. Armstrong to be correct in many basic doctrines
taught nowhere else. So I began attending
Ambassador College, founded by Herbert Armstrong, in Pasadena, California, in
the fall of 1959. Four years later I
graduated and began working full-time in the Letter Answering Department, and
subsequently began writing articles for the Church publications.
Needless
to say, it was a major disappointment for most of us in the Church when 1972
came around, and instead of the Church fleeing to the wilderness as so
powerfully predicted by Herbert Armstrong for decades, nothing happened –
except the temporary disfellowshipment of Garner Ted Armstrong for supposed
“spiritual problems,” but which actually concerned sexual involvement with
young women other than his wife.
1975 In Prophecy!
In
the booklet by the above title, Herbert Armstrong struck fear into readers by
proclaiming a German-led European combine would “blast our cities and
industrial centers with hydrogen bombs” (p.14), and added, “It’s later than you
think!” He declared that “these
prophecies are as certain as tomorrow’s sun,” and went on to proclaim
confidently, “MILLIONS of lukewarm inactive professing Christians will
suffer martyrdom – and that BEFORE the anticipated push-button leisure-year of
1975 dawns upon us!” (p.20, emphasis mine).
Herbert
Armstrong was so confident of his accuracy that he asserted: “You have been
warned! . . . You can take this lightly, let it slip from your mind . . . If
you do, you have now read your fate -- and . . . I SAY TO YOU ON AUTHORITY
OF GOD ALMIGHTY THAT IT IS ABSOLUTELY SURE!” (p.31).
Now,
that is powerful “authority”! But did
Herbert Armstrong REALLY have “authority of God Almighty” to make that
prediction? Was he the powerful
“prophet” of God that he seemed to THINK he was?
Obviously,
Jesus Christ did not return in 1975, as so confidently predicted for almost 20
years! Herbert Armstrong’s prophetic
insight was in error – his prophetic timetable was shot to pieces! From that time onward, he did not attempt to
pinpoint the exact year, or even the approximate time, of Jesus’ second
coming.
Also
back in the early 1960’s, Herbert Armstrong became very interested in the race
for space – especially after the Russians put their first "sputnik"
satellite in orbit around the earth in 1957.
He wrote articles, gave sermons, and wrote a booklet entitled “Who Will
Rule Space?” In those years, Herbert Armstrong was very impressed with the fact
that human beings could not survive in outer space without a self-contained
“earth environment” – a “space suit.” To him, this indicated that man’s proper
habitat was the earth – not outer space!
Herbert
Armstrong sincerely believed that man would never “conquer space.” In fact, he
said several times, and even wrote, that if man attempted to “conquer space,”
that God would destroy him, even as He destroyed the tower of Babel when
mankind attempted to build it to “reach heaven” (Gen.11:4). Even so, Herbert
confidently predicted that God would thwart and frustrate man's attempt to
rocket into space. He said that if man
succeeded in going to the moon, he would not return alive!
As
the major proof text to support this theological idea, Herbert Armstrong turned
to Psalm 115, where we read: “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's; but
the EARTH hath he given to the children of men” (Psa.115:16).
Of
course, after the United States first successfully put men on the moon, in
1969, and several times during the 1970’s, this prediction and teaching of
Herbert W. Armstrong was again quietly shoved aside and dropped – forgotten,
except by those of us who personally heard his teachings in the late 50’s and
early 60’s.
Herbert
Armstrong was supposed to be renown for his knowledge and perception of Bible
prophecy. And I believe that he probably
did pick up much basic understanding of prophetic portions of the Bible during
his studies – such as the basic understanding of the book of Revelation, the
world kingdoms of Daniel 2 and 7, and their correlation with the beasts of
Revelation 13 and 17. I also believe
that he stumbled across a major Biblical discovery when a woman challenged him
whether he knew the locations of the “lost ten tribes” of Israel.
Notice
what the Scriptures say about self-appointed “prophets.” In the book of Deuteronomy, God told Moses:
“But if any prophet DARES to speak a message IN MY NAME when I did NOT COMMAND
HIM TO DO SO, he must die for it and so must any prophet who speaks in the
name of other gods” (Deut.l8:20).
This
is serious business, with God! He
THUNDERS rebuke against those who “presume” to speak a message “in His name,”
when He Himself has NOT given them the message!
He says the penalty for such a thing is – DEATH! If nothing else, it would at least appear
that Herbert Armstrong got carried away with himself, in his predictions, and
was very over-zealous in some of his pronouncements, claiming God’s inspiration
and authority for his own interpretations!
Isn’t
that plain? But notice further! God Almighty Himself goes on, explaining
further:
“You
may wonder how you can tell when a prophet’s message does NOT come from the
Lord. If a prophet speaks IN THE NAME OF
THE LORD and what be says does NOT COME TRUE, then it is NOT the
Lord’s message. That prophet has
spoken on his OWN authority (NOT GOD’S!), and you are not to fear him”
(Deut.18:21-22, Good News Bible).
If
Herbert Armstrong truly feared God, then it seems to me that he would not have
been so presumptuous and “positive” in his statements, when he was really only
theorizing or speculating! He had no
revelation from God, no “Thus saith the Lord,” no dreams or visions from the
Almighty. His predictions were based
entirely on personal Bible Study, as well as his own speculation, based on
various thoughts and ideas. But when he
went on to claim “AUTHORITY OF GOD ALMIGHTY” for his erroneous predictions,
then he stepped way over the line – and history has proved him to be in utter
error! In being so dogmatic, he
misinterpreted God's Word and sinned against God!
Now,
it is not a “sin” to speculate, or to make predictions based upon available
evidence. We all do that in various
aspects of our lives. Stock brokers do
it regarding the stock market. Farmers take their “best shot” at predicting the
weather, so they can know what crops to plant, and when to plant. Weather forecasters make predictions based on
latest available evidence also – and because of the vagaries and temperamental
nature of the weather, they are often forced to “eat their own words.”
The Fall of Ancient Tyre
It
seems that whenever Herbert Armstrong launched out on his own, and made
predictions, he was invariably shown to be in abysmal error. But sometimes he simply “copied” the errors
of other Churches, or organizations, or writers, but simply never gave them
credit! That is to say, he “plagiarized”
their writings and idea, and never gave them one line of credit, making any
reader to think HE was the sole author of the material!
A
case in point is one of the booklets which for many years was one of the staple
booklets of the Worldwide Church of God.
Titled Proof of the Bible, in early editions of this booklet
Herbert W. Armstrong wrote that one way critics might attempt to “disprove” the
Bible would be to REBUILD ANCIENT TYRE!
He quoted the Bible prophecies regarding ancient Tyre, claiming that
Tyre was prophesied to NEVER BE REBUILT!
In
the booklet, Herbert Armstrong boldly challenged skeptics, “Here is how you can
DISPROVE the Bible and the very existence of God. If there is no God, and IF the Bible is not
inspired! Just go over and build a small
city on the site of New Tyre.” Herbert said there is nothing to prevent
skeptics from building a city on that site, “except that the Bible they scoff
at says they CAN’T” (p.20).
Back
in the 1950’s I was impressed by these challenging statements, as I read
them. But one day, as I was visiting a
Church family near Portland, Oregon, in 1958, before I attended Ambassador
College, I noticed a small booklet lying on the kitchen table. Curious, I picked it up and began reading
it. I was rather shocked! As I read, it sounded like the very words of
Herbert Armstrong in his booklet on Proof of the Bible! Only this particular booklet was written and
published by the Seventh Day Adventist Church! I was dumfounded! I asked the lady about the booklet and she
assured me that she had received it from the Adventist Church. It was word-for-word identical, in most respects,
to the booklet Herbert Armstrong published later under his own name! Needless to say, Herbert Armstrong had
obviously “borrowed” the material, and used it wholesale, without giving any
credit to the original author! I thought
at the time that this was not good, but I put the matter on the shelf, and
decided that this one act did not of itself invalidate any of Mr. Armstrong’s
other teachings which I had proved from the Bible.
At
that point, I didn’t know quite what to think. But I assumed the booklet was
true, regardless of who really wrote it.
I really didn’t question it much at the time. It discussed ancient Biblical predictions
against Tyre and Babylon, claiming that since neither of these cities had been
“rebuilt,” as the booklet stated, and the Bible prophesied, that this proved
the Bible had to be inspired by God.
In
Ezekiel 26 and 27 God did foretell the fate of ancient Tyre. He said the city would be destroyed in an
awesome paroxysm: “How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited of seafaring
men, the renowned city, which was strong in the sea” (Ezek.26:17). God said,
“thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be
found again, saith the Lord” (Ezek.26:21).
As
the prophecy said, God did bring Nebuchadnezzar, and later Alexander the Great,
against Tyre, and destroyed the city. It
did become “a place to spread nets upon” (Ezek.26:14), “like the top of a rock”
(same verse). God said ancient Tyre
would be “built no more” (v.14).
The
Worldbook Encyclopedia points
out that Alexander the Great conquered Tyre in 332 B.C., and built a road or
causeway from the mainland to the island, creating a peninsula upon which the
present town of Tyre now stands.
Tyre became a part of the Roman, and then the Byzantine Empire. Christian crusaders occupied it from 1124
A.D. until Moslems captured it in 1291 A.D.
Says
the Jamieson, Fausset, Brown Commentary, the prophecy that Tyre would
become like a rock, and “be built no more” (Ezek.26:14), was “fulfilled as to
the mainland Tyre under Nebuchadnezzar.
The insular Tyre recovered partly after seventy years (Isa.23:17-18),
but again suffered under Alexander, then under Antigonus, then under the
Saracens, at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Now its harbors are all choked with sand,
precluding all hope of future restoration: ‘Not one entire house is left, and
only a few fishermen take shelter in the vaults’ (Maundrell). So accurately has God’s Word come to pass.”
Regarding
the phrase, “thou shalt be no more,” the Commentary points out, “not that
presently there was to be no more a Tyre, but she was no more to be the Tyre
that once she was; her glory and name were to be no more. As to Old Tyre the prophecy was literally
fulfilled, not a vestige of it being left.”
Adam
Clarke in his Commentary quotes Maundrell, who visited the place before 1825
A.D., as follows: “It is a Babel of broken walls, pillars, vaults, etc., there
being not so much as one entire house left!
Its present inhabitants are only a few poor wretches, harboring
themselves in the vaults, and subsisting chiefly on fishing; who seem to be
preserved in this place by Divine Providence as a visible argument how God has
fulfilled his word concerning Tyre, that it should be the top of a rock, a
place for fishers to dry their nets on.”
As
to the prophecy “yet shalt thou never be found again,” Clarke declares: “This
is literally true; there is not the smallest vestige of the ancient Tyre, that
which was erected on the main land. Even
the ground seems to have been washed away; and the new Tyre is in nearly a
similar state.”
Clarke
adds, “Notwithstanding the former destructions, Tyre was a place of some
consequence in the time of St. Paul.
There was a Church there (see Acts 20:3-4, etc.), which afterwards
became famous.”
Herbert
Armstrong would have done his cause much better service, and God greater
service, if he had been much less naive and accepting of Adventist literature,
copying their ideas and plagiarizing their material on “Tyre,” if he had only
done his own research, and used the Commentaries referred to above.
Attempting
to use the example of Tyre to “challenge the skeptics” was a foolish
device. Skeptics would argue that since
there was a city called Tyre which still existed in that area in the time of
the apostle Paul, and exists today, that this prophecy does not constitute
“proof” of the divine inspiration of the Bible.
Certainly not the way Herbert Armstrong claimed! He obviously misinterpreted the prophecy!
In
1973 Herbert Armstrong visited modern Tyre, and was forced to admit “there were
quite a number of new high-rise buildings.” Careless and uncritical exegesis in
his research on Tyre caused the Worldwide Church of God a great deal of dismay
and consternation, forcing them to withdraw the booklet from circulation in
1972.
Early Predictions that “Bombed”
Herbert
Armstrong, like many evangelicals, had a general sense of Bible prophecy. Like them, he saw that the Bible predicts a
union of 10 nations which will coalesce in the end time, and fight Christ at
His return. This belief, of course, is
not original to the Worldwide Church of God.
Many evangelical, Sunday-observing Churches also believe it!
However,
in his attempt to fit this fact into his own prophetic framework and timetable,
Herbert Armstrong often went astray.
In
the June-July 1934 issue of The Plain Truth, for example, he wrote:
“. . . the year 1936 will
see the end of the Times of the Gentiles . . . we may
expect the present worldwide
depression, time of trouble and fear of war to
continue until the year
1936! . . . quickly after that time, we may expect to see
the heavenly signs of the
sun and moon becoming dark, the stars falling . . .
which shall be followed by the
‘Day of the Lord.’” (page 5).
But 1936 came and went
– and nothing earthshaking happened.
Nothing like heavenly signs, stars falling, and the beginning of the
“Day of the Lord”!
In
the March 1938 Plain Truth, page 8, however, Herbert Armstrong was even
more bold. He audaciously asserted:
“Mussolini and the pope will hatch up an idea
. . . of setting up a world-
headquarters at Jerusalem – and
so Mussolini’s armies will enter into
Palestine (Daniel 11:41), and
eventually will capture just half of the city
of Jerusalem! (Zech.14:2).”
Notice
how clearly and forcefully Herbert Armstrong spells out the exact sequence of
future prophesied events! Unfortunately
for his dogmatic and unequivocal assertiveness, he was totally wrong! Again, his prophecies failed to come to
pass. Mussolini’s armies never got
near Palestine – much less to Jerusalem!
And suffice it to say, he and the pope never got a chance to capture
half of Jerusalem!
Herbert
Armstrong continued to make these kinds of predictions. In the January 1939 Plain Truth, page
4, he dogmatically prophesied,
“MUSSOLINI WILL FIGHT CHRIST!”
Was he
right in his prediction? Let history
judge. As everyone knows, Mussolini, far
from fighting Christ, was killed by partisans, and hanged, toward the end of
World War II. He was not the prophesied
“beast” of Revelation that Herbert Armstrong thought he was!
Herbert
Armstrong wrote in the August-September 1939 Plain Truth, page 6,
“Once
world war is resumed, it must continue on through the Great Tabulation,
the heavenly signs, the
plagues of the Day of the Lord, and to the Second Coming
of Christ, at the last battle, at
Armageddon! . . . But this you may KNOW!
THIS WAR WILL BE ENDED BY
CHRIST’S RETURN! . . . WE ARE JUST
THAT NEAR CHRIST'S COMING!”
(Emphasis mine).
Notice
again how dogmatic Herbert Armstrong was!
Did GOD ALMIGHTY inspire him to predict those errors? Did God mis-communicate His intentions to His
“servant”? Did God get His signals
crossed? Or was it Herbert Armstrong who
presumed to speak when God had not spoken?
Truly
Amos the prophet was inspired of God to write, “The Sovereign Lord NEVER
DOES ANYTHING without revealing his plan to his servants,
the prophets”' Amos 6:7). Obviously,
therefore, Herbert Armstrong did NOT understand the prophetic plan of God, did
not have God’s plan REVEALED to him – and therefore was not inspired of God
when he made these self-proclaimed, dogmatic prophecies during the 1930s! In retrospect, his prophecies seem utterly
foolish and uninspired.
During
World War II, Herbert Armstrong continued making false prophecies and
predictions based on his understanding of Scripture. In the August-September 1940 Plain Truth he
boldly asseverated,
“The Italians will
capture both Palestine and Egypt.”
Less true words were never misspoken! It appears to me that Herbert Armstrong was trying mightily to BE a prophet, but he never succeeded! God Almighty NEVER gave him this “gift”! But he never called it was it really was – mere speculation and guessing!
In the November-December 1940 issue (which, ironically, was one month before my birth), Herbert Armstrong continued his bold foray into Bible prophecy and its interpretation. He unerringly predicted,
“God has decreed that Joseph
-- Great Britain and the United States – are
to utterly consume and
annihilate the Turks from off the earth!” (p.7).
Although
the Turkish Empire was ended by the victory of the Allies during World War I,
in 1917, the nation of Turkey continued to exist, and still exists, today! This “blazing prophecy” of the heralded
“spokesman for God” also has failed to come to pass. In actual fact, there is NO prophecy of the
Bible that predicts the “annihilation” of the Turkish people from “off the
earth,” as Armstrong claimed.
At the beginning of World War II, when Britain was suffering its darkest hour, and Nazi invasion seemed imminent, it is interesting to note that Herbert Armstrong quickly got on the bandwagon of the pessimistic, and he joined in the chorus of nay-sayers and doom-predictors. With seemingly unshakable confidence and unflappable insistence, Herbert predicted:
“It is part of God’s
prophesied plan that Britain shall be invaded
and conquered” (Nov-Dec
1940, Plain Truth).
Herbert
certainly did not foresee the glorious “battle of Britain,” or the
stout-hearted courage and tenacity of the British people, led by Winston
Churchill! Rather, he thought the Nazis
would overrun England and Scotland, and conquer all the British isles.
When
Hitler then launched his blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union, Herbert Armstrong
again was not found wanting for words, to interpret the invasion in the light
of Bible prophecy. Seeing Hitler’s
troops initially cut through the Russians like a knife through hot butter, he
proclaimed “God’s truth” on the invasion.
Apparently he had learned nothing from his dismal record of continuous
mistakes. He tried his hand at prophecy
once again. He asserted:
“Bible
prophecy does indicate that HITLER MUST BE THE VICTOR IN
THE PRESENT RUSSIAN
INVASION! . . . Hitler will emerge from the
Russian campaign stronger
than ever, free to turn the entire might of his
forces against Britain – and America”
(Sept-Oct. 1941 Plain Truth, p.7).
As
history shows, far from winning his Russian winter campaign, Hitler’s armies
were defeated by the Russian winter at Stalingrad. Germany lost over a million soldiers in the
Russian invasion. The German army was
mired in the snow, ice, and mud at Stalingrad, and was forced to retreat in
bitter defeat.
Again,
Herbert Armstrong was diametrically in error – 180 degrees from the truth! But at least he was persistent – and consistently
wrong! He tried with all his bravado and
vocal strength to sound “authoritative” – but it made no difference! God never used him as a prophet, and his
predictions consistently failed to come to pass – even when pronounced with
great bombast and “authority”!
As
late as 1943, Herbert Armstrong was still whipping a dead horse. He wrote in the March-April 1943 Plain
Truth, page 6,
“But Hitler (or
his successor if there is one), and the False Prophet
shall fight against Christ!”
Talk
about “false prophets,” Herbert Armstrong’s batting average, during the late
1930’s and early 1940’s was on a scale of one to ten, hovering at absolute
ZERO! He was wrong every time! Hitler did not “fight against Christ” He had
no successor! There was none. Hitler died in a Berlin bunker, as the
Russians invaded the city, thus ending the “Third Reich” in flaming ruins.
Why Was Herbert
Armstrong So Wrong, So Often?
It
seems incredible that any man could have been so wrong about Bible prophecy –
and yet so insistent on proclaiming his own ideas and interpretations. What possessed him to do it? Why was he so smug and overconfident? Why didn’t he have more humility, and
willingness to admit that he could be wrong?
For
some reason, during the 1930s and 1940s, God had blinded the mind of Herbert
Armstrong from rightly understanding Bible prophecy. He allowed him to make a “fool” of
himself. Although Herbert’s booming
voice on radio may have sounded like the resonant tones of a Walter Winchell or
Gabriel Heater, or a Lowell Thomas, his prophetic words turned to mush. Nothing came to pass that he so officiously
and dogmatically foretold.
Why would God leave
him so completely in the dark?
I believe that God did use Herbert Armstrong in the very early 1930s on through the 1960s and 1970s to reveal much Biblical truth concerning the Sabbath, Holy Days, Plan of God, and some aspects of Biblical prophecy. God did use him, in a strong manner, to lay the foundation for the End-time Work of God. But why did God allow Herbert Armstrong during the explosive 30s and 40s, and even into the 50s and 60s, to make such flagrant prophetic blunders?
Notice what the
prophet Isaiah wrote:
“Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short
to save, nor his ear too
dull to hear. But YOUR INIQUITIES have separated you from
your
God; your SINS have hidden
his face from you, so that he will not
Hear” (Isaiah 59:1-2).
What were
the things that separated Herbert Armstrong from God, so that all his
prophecies turned out to be so much hog wash?
We will examine the facts of his life later in this article.
“a revolution
in the weather – leading to unprecedented famine BY AROUND
1970-72 . . . In its wake is
prophesied frightful disease epidemics!
A third of the
people of the U.S. and British
Commonwealth nations will die of this scourge”
(February 1962, Plain Truth).
In
February 1967 Herbert W. Armstrong himself was still loudly and dogmatically
making similar predictions. He asserted:
“The ‘Day of the Eternal’ – a time foretold
in more than thirty prophecies --
is going to start BETWEEN 5
AND 10 YEARS FROM NOW! . . . I am not
writing foolishly, but very
soberly, ON AUTHORITY OF THE LIVING
CHRIST!” (February 1967, Plain
Truth, p.47).
Was
he writing “foolishly”? Yes he was! Could he himself see it? No, he couldn’t . Did he really have “authority of the living
Christ” to back up his prediction? No he
did not. But his claim to the authority
of the living Christ to back up his erroneous pronouncements was,
unfortunately, typical of his on-going personal style. His ego could stand for no less “authority.”
He refused to admit he was really only speculating, or guessing. In his vanity and self-importance, he only
made matters worse. But the more
unreasonable his claims became, the more dogmatic and dictatorial his style,
the more overwhelmingly confident – the MORE WRONG and FOOLISH he became! Over and over again, he missed the mark – he
never once hit the nail on the head –
repeatedly, he was DEAD WRONG!
Eventually,
in his own mind, he thought of himself as the end-time “Elijah,” who would
restore all things! How he could begin
to believe this, in view of his prophetic errors and blunders, over many
decades, blows my mind! Yet for years he
was the only one teaching obedience to God’s Sabbaths AND annual Holy Days. He DID restore much truth. Apparently, God will use a person, in many
respects, even though he also ALLOWS them to make egregious errors from time to
time!
But let’s face it, honestly: Would an end-time “Elijah,” or one coming in the spirit and power of Elijah the prophet, have stubbed his toe so consistently and persistently in terms of Bible prophecy? Would he make so many thundering, shrill errors, often at the top of his voice?
What
do you think?
Some
lessons appear to be hard to learn. For
forty years Herbert Armstrong never seemed to learn from his past
mistakes. When one prophetic prediction
failed, he just offered up another one.
An endless stream of prophetic errors thus were paraded before the
public. Old errors were quickly
forgotten, and swept under the rug. New
errors sprung up like dandelions, spreading their pernicious seeds around the
world. But to the very end, it would
seem, Herbert W. Armstrong still insisted it was “BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE
LIVING CHRIST” that he made his predictions and prophetic interpretations!
That
sounds to me like it is bordering on blasphemy!
The
day is coming, of course, when he will “eat” those words – he will have to give
account for them before the very judgment seat of Christ Himself!
I
know that many people, today, virtually worship the memory of Herbert W.
Armstrong. In one way, I hate to have to
disillusion them. But truth is better
than error, no matter how much it hurts.
Bitter medicine is good, if it cures the patient’s disease.
No
doubt many of the basic teachings of Herbert Armstrong were scripturally sound
and valid. Some of his prophetic
insights in a general way were valid.
So are the insights of some evangelical teachers. But for some reason, Herbert could not
control himself – he often went to extreme excesses when it came to Bible
prophecy, and sometimes made a “fool” or “laughing stock” of himself – and
became an embarrassment to God and to Christ!
And to the Church! No wonder
these false predictions were always quickly swept under the rug so that no one
would know or remember, except the ‘old-timers’!
I
do not write these things to “expose” the man, or to ridicule him. In many ways, God did use him to restore much
truth during the past fifty years. Were
it not for his ministry, how many of us would have known about the Sabbath,
holy days, what it means to be “born again,” the purpose of human life, the
truth about heaven and hell, the immortal soul doctrine, and many other truths?
But
lets be candidly honest, and not ignore the truth. Herbert Armstrong was very human. And he was very fallible. He made many mistakes. I write these things, therefore, as the
apostle Paul said, “. . . that ye might learn . . . not to think of men
above that which is written” (I Cor.4:6).
Let’s
not put men on a pedestal, and worship them, or think of them more highly than
we ought! Don’t worship mere men –
worship God!
Why did
Herbert Armstrong make so many errors in prophecy? Why did his teachings turn families upside
down, and cause great hardship and grief, and even drive a number of men and
women to commit suicide?
On the
surface, he appeared to be a magnetic personality, with a gift of sounding
authoritative, with a writing skill to influence and convince people of his
understanding. He looked good, dressed
in a snappy business suit, with white hair, and an imposing manner. He gathered around himself all the
appurtenances of success – a Rolls Royce, a Jet airplane, and gained worldwide
audiences with princes and prime ministers and royalty. He looked the part of an imposing, important
man. And through his advertising and
promotional efforts, he built a church which grew to some 150,000 baptized
members and which received at its peak an annual income running over
$250,000,000 – no small accomplishment.
His flagship magazine, The Plain Truth, at its peak had a
circulation of about 6-7,000,000 subscribers (it was free).
Would an
end-time ‘Elijah’ be the head of a vast church organization, wealthy, with all
the accoutrements of success?
The original Elijah had none of those
things. In fact, he was a solitary
figure, not the head of a vast organization with great wealth. He abode in the desert (I Kings 17:12-7),
where the ravens brought him food for a time.
He abode with a widow woman of Zarephath, near Sidon, a Gentile
community, and subsisted miraculously on food God provided (verses 8-16). He was even used of God to raise a dead child
from the cords of death (verses 17-24).
None of
those things characterized Herbert W. Armstrong.
John the Baptist, who came in the spirit and likeness of Elijah, as the one preceding the first coming of the Messiah, also lived in the desert. He dressed in a camel’s hair coat, and ate wild honey and locusts (Matt.3:4). He did not possess chariots, or great luxurious possessions. He was a simple man, of simple tastes – but a man with a flaming spirit and powerful virtue – a man of righteousness and integrity, humility, and boldness. He never shirked his responsibility to PREACH the gospel to all who would hear, and even to REBUKE kings and politicians of his time (Matt..14:3-4).