This material is part of a Field Guide profile of The Worldwide Church of God (WCG) Under Founder Herbert Armstrong. Click here to go to the main page of the WCG profile.
This installment of the Memoir is Part 1 of a 4-
Contents: (Click on a section to jump to it)
Part One: The "Pre-
Matt 24:21
For then shall be great tribulation,
such as was not since the beginning of the world
to this time,
no, nor ever shall be.
In 1953, Ambassador College thinker Herman Hoeh thought up an idea that really grabbed the attention of Radio Church of God (and Ambassador College) founder Herbert Armstrong.
Here is how Armstrong explained it to his supporters in a "Co-
Listen now to an ASTOUNDING fact! God has set TIME running in cycles of 19 years.
Just once every 19 years the days, divided by the sun; the months, divided by the
new moons; and the years, divided by the revolution of the earth around the sun,
all come into exact conjunction. Thus God's NATURE runs in 19-
It took just ONE COMPLETE CYCLE of 19 years for this work to grow from nothing until
it carried the very Gospel of Jesus all over the North American continent in mighty
POWER! That 19-
The very start of the second 19-
Now HERE IS SOMETHING STARTLING! Herman Hoeh, in his eye-
Now if this chronology is correct, that means Christ shall return some very few years
PRIOR to 1982! NO MAN KNOWS THE DAY, HOUR, OR YEAR OF CHRIST'S RETURN. But we CAN
know exact dates of one or two other events. Jesus also still has to complete the
confirming of the COVENANT-
Then, besides, there are two other 3 1/2-
It could begin sooner. This date is hypothetical, not definite. But apparently it
cannot begin LATER than that date. One chronology sets this disaster TEN YEARS from
now! But March-
NOW SEE WHAT THAT MEANS! That date is exactly 19 years from March-
WHAT A TREMENDOUS SIGNIFICANCE THAT HAS! Think of it! God allowed us one exact complete
cycle of 19 years for proclaiming CHRIST'S GOSPEL to all North America-
It took one cycle of 19 years to spread this work to all North America. There remains
exactly one more 19-
Surely I have NEVER before had anything so startling-
Herbert had been predicting the imminent Return of Christ since at least 1934. In
that year he had declared in his new Plain Truth magazine that the world had already
entered the time period referred to in the Bible as the "Tribulation," and that Jesus
would return in 1936. (So it’s not quite clear why this 19-
But when his 1936 scenario didn't play out as he had expected, he didn't give up. Throughout the period of WWII he kept proclaiming that The End was at the door, encouraging the listeners to his World Tomorrow radio program and the readers of the Plain Truth to send generous, even sacrificial, donations to him quickly so that he could warn the world before it was too late.
When the war ended with peace rather than Armageddon, he was no doubt puzzled. But it barely slowed him down in his predictions. At first he insisted in the pages of the Plain Truth that Adolf Hitler was still alive, hiding in South America and ready at any moment to "rise again" to take the reins of a resurrected Roman Empire in Europe that would bring a time of Great Tribulation to the world. But as the years after the War drug on, it became obvious that this was becoming less and less likely.
And then came Hoeh's astounding discovery of the alleged prophetic "nineteen year time cycle" pattern of history. Finally Armstrong had something that he could once again use to convince his supporters that they needed to sacrifice financially to help him tackle the "herculean task ahead."
It is now the year 2010. The period of Tribulation foretold in the Bible did not begin in 1972. Yet even at that point in time, Herbert Armstrong never stopped speculating that the End was, as he put it over and over, "nearer than we have supposed." After the failure of the 1972 scenario, he kept implying he was still working on the "herculean task," and he still badgered his supporters for those "sacrificial offerings."
His most avid and loyal "evangelist," Gerald Waterhouse, loudly proclaimed to WCG congregations in public relation trips around the world that they would be leaving en masse for a "place of safety" very, very soon, before the Tribulation began. And their leader in that place would be Herbert Armstrong. For, he insisted, Armstrong would be alive at the return of Christ. As Waterhouse put it bombastically over and over—"If Herbert Armstrong would die, brethren, God is a LIAR!"
Yet in spite of Waterhouse's assurances, Armstrong died in 1986. The members of the church group that he founded never did "flee" to that fabled Place of Safety. And the empire he built on those sacrificial offerings to help in that "herculean task" has since crumbled to ruins.
And in spite of Armstrong's 50+ years of assuring his audience that the Tribulation spoken of in the Bible was imminent, it has not yet come upon the world.
But in a very real way, a good case could be made that a Tribulation
did begin in
1972. For in that year a "time of trouble" began
for the Armstrong Empire that continued
for a whole decade—and beyond.
This Memoir is a summary of what it was like
to be a part of the WCG in that Time
of Trouble.
Sources of Information
A number of books and many articles have been written, from the 1970s to the present,
that include coverage of the time period of 1972-
The objective of this Memoir, as well as the whole Worldwide Church of God profile on this Field Guide website, is to pull together all of these perspectives, and provide a central source for documentation of just what was happening in those years within the organization, how it affected all of those involved, and how it was viewed by both insiders and outsiders.
Many of the books and articles from that time period are no longer in print, and/or
no longer easily obtained by those interested in investigating this part of WCG history.
And although there really is a large collection of information and documentation
available on the Internet regarding this time period, it is very scattered and piece-
The following full books regarding the WCG are in my personal library, and have been
consulted for information which is included in this Memoir, including some direct
excerpts.
Armstrongism: Religion or Rip-
McNair, Marion
Pacific Charters, Orlando FL
1977
Marion McNair was one of the earliest students at Ambassador College, graduating in 1954, and one of the first men to be ordained to the rank of "evangelist" in Herbert Armstrong's organization. This book, written shortly after he resigned in disgust from the organization, contains some of the most extensive documentation and details available in print on the development of Armstrong's ministry from the earliest days in the 1930s while he was still affiliated with the Church of God, Seventh Day, right up to the time of the upheavals after the failure of the 1972/1975 prophetic scenarios.
The Armstrong Empire: A Look at the Worldwide Church of God
Hopkins, Joseph Martin
William B Eerdmans Publishing Co, Gr. Rapids, MI
1974
At the time of writing the book, Hopkins was a Professor of Religion at Westminster
College, contributing editor to The Presbyterian Outlook, and an author of articles
published in a number of magazines and journals including Christianity Today. This
book is exceptionally objective—and meticulously and copiously documented—in its
description of the history, practices and doctrinal beliefs of the WCG, compared
to many others written by Protestant authors critical of WCG doctrine. Although the
author does spend some time dissecting the doctrines and presenting counter arguments
from his point of view of scripture, he does not engage in erecting "straw men" about
HWA's teachings, as have a number of other more sensationalistic books. He documents
most of the concepts that he addresses with quotes directly from WCG materials, and
presents a summary of doctrinal WCG beliefs in an appendix that was, he notes, prepared
by an Ambassador College graduate. He also presents an extensive collection of interviews
with and comments by present and former members of the WCG, as well quotations from
a wide variety of other authors who had done research on the organization.
The Broadway to Armageddon
Hinson, William B
William Hinson, Hohenwald TN
1977
Hinson had been involved with the Radio/Worldwide Church of God since 1962. He was ordained as a deacon in 1965 and as an elder/minister in 1969. He left in disgust in 1976 and wrote and compiled this book. A number of the chapters are collections of memoirs of other former members, resignation letters from ministers and members, personal correspondence between those in leadership positions in the Armstrong movement and so on. One of the most valuable contributions of this book is its emphasis on personal stories of unnecessary suffering among the membership brought on by the unbiblical, ungodly and unethical teachings and policies of the Armstrong system. Most of the other books critical of the movement focus rather on theological arguments about HWA's doctrines, or exposes of the unethical or immoral financial, sexual, administrative and other shenanigans of the leadership.
The Daughter of Babylon, The True History of the Worldwide Church of God
Renehan, Bruce
A 130 page book available free in its entirety for download from the Internet.
Renehan was a member of the WCG for 23 years. He first became involved with the organization in 1969, and was employed at the Pasadena HQ in 1970, working for the church for seven years. This book gives a broad overview of the history of the church, with quite a bit of documentation. But its particular emphasis is on the author's research into the WCG's notion of "church history." WCG writers constructed an idiosyncratic view of history which they used to establish the work of Herbert Armstrong as the head of the "Philadelphia Era" of an unbroken sequence of "church eras" through history that allegedly included the Waldenses and other obscure religious groups of the past 2000 years. Renehan offers extensive historical documentation which brings many facets of this scenario into question.
Herbert Armstrong’s Tangled Web
Robinson, Dave
John Hadden Publishers, Tulsa OK
1980
The description of the late Dave Robinson from the back cover of the Tangled Web book:
He began to listen to Herbert Armstrong on the radio from a Mexican station in 1949 and became a heavy financial contributor soon after. He met HWA the next year and became a member and supporter of what was then the Radio Church of God. He supported Herbert Armstrong for a full three decades.
In 1969 he went to work full-
Among the responsibilities carried by Dave were those of administrator, counselor, lecturer, security chief, and minister. He was a confidant of many of those men who have either been removed from the church altogether or have been relegated to dishonor within that organization.
He writes from firsthand knowledge tempered with deep disappointment and has come to agree completely with Solomon who advised against putting trust in men.
Robinson's book contains the most intimate view of the inner workings of the organization, and the most candid of descriptions of many of the principle players in the saga, of any of the books available on Armstrongism.
The Truth Shall Make You Free
Tuit, John
The Truth Foundation, Freehold Township NJ
1981
Tuit began reading the Plain Truth in 1957, and began contributing to the Radio Church of God in the early 1960s. He became a baptized member of the Worldwide Church of God in 1975. In 1978 he became so totally disillusioned with the leadership of the WCG after Garner Ted Armstrong's ouster that he cooperated with a handful of other members to organize the suit against the WCG that resulted in the imposition of the Receivership in January 1979. Although he does touch upon a variety of details about the history, doctrine and practices of the WCG, his book adds little to the collection of this information available from many other sources. However, the book is the most effective chronicle available of the events leading up to and during the Receivership because Tuit had first hand knowledge of much that went on behind the scenes.
Another source of information which provided extensive documentation for the contents
of this Memoir is the Ambassador Report, a periodical publication created by a number
of former Ambassador College students to provide documentation and exposés on what
they believed to be serious problems within the Armstrong organizations. .
Many rank and file members of the WCG at the time assumed, because of what they were told from the pulpit, that the Ambassador Report was just a “scandal sheet” dealing with unsubstantiated rumor and innuendo and slander. And that it was written and published by hateful, disgruntled former members of the church with an unjustified ax to grind. Nothing could have been further from the truth. It was started by people who cared deeply about the organization, who had solid information and documentation on very legitimate concerns, who wanted to bring truth to light and “clean up the Church.”
The complete collection of Ambassador Reports from 1976-
This collection is such a valuable source of documentation on the history of the Worldwide Church of God that it should not be ignored by those looking for a complete perspective on that history, whatever one might think of the rest of the material on the website that is hosting the collection.
http://www.hwarmstrong.com/ar/index.htm
Other information for this memoir has come from articles from newspapers and magazines of the time period, including the Pasadena Star News, the Los Angeles Times, Time magazine, and others.
A number of websites have been invaluable as a source of information and documentation, particularly for such items as copies of resignation letters from former WCG ministers and members and other items that have circulated through "underground" grapevines for the past 35 years.
Finally, much of the information and evaluation included in this Memoir is just what is implied by the word memoir … my own personal memories and thoughts and opinions.
History in general is, in many ways, not a "science," but an art. Any given day in history has billions and billions of events and human interactions occurring all over the globe. Anyone who attempts to distill out of these a limited number of items to focus on is engaged in an act of creativity, "freezing" a moment in time and space and some of its elements into a picture that can be contemplated by others.
I have no doubt that anyone else—including members of my own family and my closest friends—who lived through this same period in WCG history would vary widely in the items they noticed, and how they reacted to them and evaluated them, and what connections they saw between them.
But over the years I have been asked over and over such questions as "Why did you leave the WCG in 1978?" or "Why are you so critical of the ministry of Herbert Armstrong?" The best answer to that and many related questions is to show the reader the WCG world at that time from my perspective. This Memoir will document those events that occurred at the time that affected my perspective, and share my personal evaluation of how these things lined up with what I understood then … and understand now … from common sense and my own study of the Bible.
Some of this evaluation will be affected by hind-
After considering all of the information and documentation and opinions in this Memoir, the reader is free to draw his/her own conclusions regarding the validity of my perspective regarding any given matter.
Part 1: The Pre-
In 1956, Ambassador College published and began aggressive distribution of a booklet authored by Herbert W Armstrong titled 1975 in Prophecy. The date in the title was based on the prophetic speculations of WCG evangelist Herman Hoeh and endorsed by Armstrong. The details of the booklet outlined a view of the interpretation of the visions in the book of Revelation that was extremely literal, and this was emphasized by inclusion of graphically ghoulish illustrations by Basil Wolverton. Wolverton, a member and elder in the Radio Church of God, had a long reputation as an illustrator for fantasy and horror comic books, and the illustrations for 1975 in Prophecy would have been at home in any such horror comic of the decade.
Armstrong regularly offered the booklet on his World Tomorrow radio program, in the pages of the Plain Truth magazine, and in display ads purchased in commercial magazines such as Capper's Farmer. Here is a short excerpt from the beginning pages of this booklet:
FANTASTIC push-
YOUR own future is laid bare, now, in prophecy! The curtain of the future is drawn
back. Prophecies that were closed and sealed tight now stand REVEALED. This mystifying,
neglected third of the Bible now becomes plain. Mysteries of God, never before understood,
now become crystal-
…PHOTO CAPTION: This scene of utter destruction -
The original illustrations for the booklet were in black and white, but a colorized version of this picture, created by Wolverton's son Monte, can be seen on the Internet .
In fact, colorized versions of most of the illustrations for this booklet and for a companion booklet, The Book of Revelation Unveiled at Last, can be seen on that same site, starting at the following address. Please be advised these pictures are not for those with weak stomachs.
The booklet continues:
… MAN does not know the WAY to peace and happiness and joy. What man is bringing
on the world is the diametric opposite -
A reader of this booklet who was convinced the author may know what he was talking about would have been left with virtually no doubt about just when the author expected all this to come to pass. The wording throughout is extremely dogmatic and bombastic.
This booklet was one of the most-
At that mighty moment of earth's history [in the midst of the Great Tribulation], hundreds of thousands will remember the TRUE MESSAGE FROM GOD that they had heard going out freely to the world at THIS time, on The WORLD TOMORROW program. Yes, hundreds of thousands who take it lightly today, or put it out of mind because it's different from the teachings of their worldly churches, will then REMEMBER and cry out to God for mercy!
And these hundreds of thousands shall learn that God's mercy, truly, is greater toward
us than the heavens are high above the earth! For God will hear their repentant cries,
and place them under His divine protection from the indescribably terrible PLAGUES
which are then yet to come! For these are the plagues that GOD shall send -
… And now, finally, a last word to you who read this warning message -
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Your immediate future is of your own choosing. You can take this lightly, let it
slip from mind, allow yourself once again to be absorbed in the mechanics of today's
complex society that you put this out of mind. If you do, you have now read YOUR
FATE -
Or, you may heed the warning, realize the truth -
You may escape the Great Tribulation. No PLAGUE will come near you.
And, finally, given the precious gift of eternal life, you shall be used in God's Kingdom teaching and ruling those human beings made joyous in that PEACEFUL WORLD TOMORROW! The decision is now YOURS!
Sucked In
An ad that included an offer for a free copy of this booklet appeared in the December 1957 issue of Capper's Farmer magazine. Also offered on the same coupon that could be clipped out and mailed to Ambassador College was a free subscription for the Plain Truth magazine, and another booklet titled Will Russia Attack America? (The answer: No. Germany at the head of a United Europe would, with Russia part of another power axis that would eventually fight that European "resurrection of the Roman Empire.”)
A year or so later, my husband George (in about tenth grade at the time) was rummaging in a pile of magazines in his mother's attic, and came across a copy of that magazine. His mother had kept it for the Christmas cookie recipes. Thumbing through the magazine, he spotted the ad from Ambassador College. Although active in his Congregational Church, he wasn't particularly "devoutly religious." Nor did he know or care much about prophecy at the time. But the price was right—free—so he clipped out the coupon and sent it in.
For the next several years he received the Plain Truth, and skimmed through the issues. He remembers after all these years being impressed with the 1975 booklet, and mentally accepting many of the speculations of Armstrong. But perhaps because of his youth, and perhaps because of the fact that 1972 seemed a long way away yet, with enough time for him to "get serious" later, he didn't pursue sending for any more booklets from Armstrong.
During the short time of our courtship in 1965 (one month), he never brought up the topic of religion. So I was surprised a few days after our wedding when he brought home a stack of Plain Truth magazines and suggested I should consider seriously some of the ideas in them.
I was an agnostic at the time, in my Freshman year of college and studying Evolution
in my Natural Science required course. I grudgingly worked my way through some of
the magazines, initially finding the prophetic claims and other content laughable.
But a main feature in the Plain Truth at the time was a series of unexpectedly persuasive
anti-
I began sending for every booklet and article offered in the magazines, as well as
Ambassador's 52-
I eventually wrote asking for someone to come to counsel us for baptism. We did not realize that there was an actual church, with congregations throughout the country. We thought it was just an “evangelistic” organization, sort of like the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. And thus we just expected some representative of Ambassador College to come baptize us and then ride off into the sunset, leaving us alone to muddle along as best we could.
The organization was literally concerned so much about possible “persecution of true Christians” that would precede the expected Tribulation period coming soon that they kept all mention of the Church and its congregations out of public notice. You had to be baptized–or very close to it–or a family member of a baptized person to be “invited” to come to the worship services of what was called the Radio Church of God. (The name was changed to the Worldwide Church of God in January 1968.)
I was baptized at the end of January in 1968, and George was baptized in August that year. At that point we became totally immersed in the mandated lifestyle and the doctrinal teachings of the Worldwide Church of God.
Living with the End in SIght
In recent years I have learned that, by 1968, many in the leadership of the Worldwide Church of God were beginning to seriously doubt the dogmatic predictions for the Tribulation to begin by 1972. But this notion had been the centerpiece of the Church's teachings since 1953, and the average member in a field congregation in 1968 was totally unaware of the growing doubts of many in the ministry.
Instead, many such men still reinforced the speculation through sermons and Bible studies. At one of the first Bible Studies George and I attended in 1968 the minister took careful pains to chart for us the "interpretation" of the mysterious incident of the "handwriting on the wall" in the biblical Book of Daniel. Although the text itself gives no indication the message on the wall was to be taken as a "prophecy regarding the distant future," we learned that night that it indeed was.
By an elaborate system of numerology, the words on the wall were given numerical values based on the coinage of the time. And these values were added up … and were determined to indicate that "the Times of the Gentiles" (spoken of elsewhere in the Bible) were to last 2520 years and then the End would come.
I still have the notes in my old KJV Bible I took that night, with the date 539 BC (Fall of Babylon) next to the incident, and the indication that 2520 years from 539 BC would come out to 1982. This doesn't seem to line up with Hoeh's earlier speculation. But by 1968, someone had come up with an ingenious way to get back to 1975—one merely "subtracted" seven years from 1982. And the reason given for the subtraction was the incident when Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, became "like an animal" for seven years. This made no real sense to me at the time, and it certainly makes even less now. But I noted it down carefully and "took it on faith" that my Prophecy Teachers knew what they were talking about.
In recent years, some admirers of Herbert Armstrong have tried to claim that he never really "set a date" for the beginning of the Tribulation, but always just indicated that "maybe" it would be at or by a certain time. Thus, they suggest, it was just the fault of his listeners for taking his speculations and making them, just in their own minds, actual dogmatic, prophetic predictions.
But this is not being honest with the historical record. Armstrong made dogmatic statements over and over from 1953 on through the late 1960s that unmistakably state absolutes about his prophetic scenario. (Samples of such prophetic statements can be seen in Herbert W Armstrong–The Man and the Myth on this site.)
Those ministers who were doubtful toward the end about this prophetic scenario—perhaps
even the man who first taught prophetic date details to me at a WCG Bible study—were
extremely careful to never express those doubts publicly, lest they incur the wrath
of Herbert Armstrong. Armstrong seemed to publicly indicate, howbeit very subtly,
some doubts himself, even as early as 1969, about the dates regarding which he had
previously been dogmatic. But he still regularly hedged even those doubts with broad
hints that prophecy probably was still on track for the nineteen year time cycle
prophecies to be fulfilled. And thus only he was allowed to ever-
One minister who seemed to never flag in his certainty that Armstrong would be shown
to be accurate was evangelist Gerald Waterhouse. I remember one strange speculation
that Waterhouse made in one of his long-
Sadly, this insanity actually made sense to many in the church. I can't remember now if I bought this scenario at the time, but I had certainly gullibly bought into many almost as goofy between 1965 and 1971, so I cannot mock any who may have thought Waterhouse was making sense with his plane truth speculation.
As the fall of 1971 approached, there were clearer and clearer references by Armstrong
to the "possibility" that the Church might have "more time" to finish some aspect
of "The Work" that remained. But after so many years of dogmatic statements about
1972, many members of the WCG seemed to have their minds in a fog. And thus many
were still fully convinced that they would be leaving soon to be whisked to that
Place of Safety, where they would receive their final training for their role in
the soon-
Actually, not even Armstrong ever dared to go into too many details explaining just how over 100,000 people including men, women, and children could successfully set up "camp" in the Jordanian desert! What about water, what about latrines and sanitation in general, what about food supplies, what about shelter?—the caves there couldn't possibly house all of the 100,000!
Speculation on all these sorts of problematic issues were rife in conversations among many brethren in the Church. Would God send manna again? Would water come from a rock like it did when Moses hit it? But many just assumed if Herbert Armstrong said it was going to all be taken care of, God would back up Armstrong's word, no matter what kind of miraculous intervention might be needed.
And this miraculous intervention surely had to come soon. For Armstrong had bombastically
declared in 1953 that "…the MILITARY INVASION that shall END all true Gospel preaching
is apparently to strike at the precise END of this second 19-
If the invasion was to begin by the spring of 1972, and the Church was to be long gone and carefully tucked away in that Place of Safety before the first bombs dropped, then when would the "fleeing" happen? Many speculated that it would be in the fall of 1971, with perhaps the whole church leaving directly from the numerous Feast of Tabernacles sites around the country where thousands of WCG members gathered in conventions every fall to celebrate that biblical festival.
Even though the church did not teach a "rapture to heaven" before the tribulation,
the notion of the "Place of Safety" was very similar. You might say it was a "snatching
away" (the definition of the word rapture) that was just sideways instead of upwards.
And just as with some evangelical Christians today who believe in a pre-
In fact, as is clear in the passages quoted from the 1975 in Prophecy book earlier, Armstrong did indeed teach that any not totally zealous for the truth as he taught it would not be "counted worthy to escape" the coming Tribulation.
And so, many breathlessly awaited the 1972 start of the Tribulation period. And it did, indeed, start. But it wasn't a Tribulation on the nations of Britain and America as Armstrong had taught.
It was a Tribulation on the Worldwide Church of God and the ministry of Herbert Armstrong.
Unless otherwise noted, all original material on this Field Guide website
is © 2001-
Careful effort has been made to give credit as clearly as possible to any specific material quoted or ideas extensively adapted from any one resource. Corrections and clarifications regarding citations for any source material are welcome, and will be promptly added to any sections which are found to be inadequately documented as to source.
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Personal from the Webauthor:
Memoir of the Tribulation
A personal perspective of the 1972-
"Tribulation Time" of the Worldwide Church
of God
