Schism

Fallout

The Worldwide Church of God experienced several scandals which could arguably be said to have brought Armstrong’s second 19-year period to a close.

Garner Ted Armstrong began to lose favor with his father. The younger Armstrong was discontented with prophecies attached to a certain date (such as 1975) and wished to cease preaching the message that associated the US and Britain with the Ten Lost Tribes. Garner Ted also spoke of expanding the church’s media ministry on the model of the Christian Scientists and its widely read Christian Science Monitor.

In a report in the May 15, 1972, edition of TIME magazine, Herbert Armstrong was reported to have said that Garner Ted was “in the bonds of Satan.” The elder Armstrong did not elaborate, but it was speculated that Herbert had to come to grips publicly with Garner Ted’s alleged continuing problems with gambling and sexual relations with Ambassador College coeds. Garner Ted Armstrong was soon relieved of his star role within the church.

While Garner Ted Armstrong was being removed, Stanley Rader had been orchestrating the church’s involvement in a number of corporations which Rader established. Critics saw Rader’s moves as an attempt to seize control of the church. Rader characterized his involvement as that of an adviser and claimed that his advice was opening doors for Armstrong that a strict theological role would not have allowed for. Herbert Armstrong approved of the establishment of the AICF, which Rader set up ostensibly to give the elder Armstrong a role as the “Ambassador for World Peace without portfolio”.

As the church was experiencing internal crises, its external, public face was also crumbling. Church followers had anticipated the removal of church faithful to Petra, Jordan, to await the prophesied apocalypse. By 1972, it was evident that this was not going to occur. When combined with Garner Ted Armstrong’s very public removal from the church, this failure of prophecy caused many within the church to lose confidence and withdraw. The church hastened to restore public confidence and returned Garner Ted as host of The World Tomorrow a mere four months after his ouster. While Armstrong administered church business through Stanley Rader from his Arizona retreat, the church continued to be headquartered in Pasadena.

With Garner Ted Armstrong resuming his role within the church, the rivalry between the younger Armstrong and Stanley Rader intensified. The adultery problems that reportedly drove Garner Ted from the church before had reportedly continued unabated. In 1978, Garner Ted Armstrong was disfellowshipped a final time. Garner Ted moved to Tyler, Texas, and there founded a splinter group, the Church of God International.

Death of HWA

After being left a widower by the death of his wife, Loma, eleven years earlier, Herbert W. Armstrong married Ramona Martin in 1977, a woman nearly fifty years younger, then 38, a long-time member and church secretary who had a 15-year old son from a previous marriage. They moved to Tucson, Arizona.  The controversial marriage would last for only a few years. The Armstrongs separated in 1982 with Herbert Armstrong returning to live in Pasadena full-time, and the marriage finally ended in divorce in 1984.

In September 1985, with his failing health widely known, Armstrong delivered his final sermon on the Feast of Trumpets in the Ambassador Auditorium. He spent his final days confined to his campus home on South Orange Grove Boulevard.

Almost until his final days, there was uncertainty about who would succeed Armstrong in the event of his death. The church’s Advisory Council of Elders, acting on a clause in church by-laws added in 1981, was to select a successor after his death, yet Armstrong reportedly worried about the ramifications if certain individuals, such as his son Garner Ted or evangelist Roderick Meredith were selected. Finally, Armstrong opted to select the next Pastor General personally. Armstrong told the Church’s Advisory Council of Elders of his decision to appoint evangelist-rank minister Joseph W. Tkach on January 7, 1986. Tkach had worked closely with former church executive Stanley R. Rader prior to Rader’s retirement from active service with the Church, and had been ordained to the ministerial rank of evangelist along with Rader and Ellis LaRavia in 1979.

Only nine days after naming Tkach as his successor, Armstrong died shortly before 6:00 a.m. on January 16, 1986, at the age of 93. Initially, a small private service was planned, seeking to avoid sensationalism and deification. But when rumors circulated that protesters might attempt to demonstrate during the funeral, the church leadership quickly decided to invite the public, including the thousands of local church members. Approximately 4,000 people attended, including a number of local political figures. He was buried in Altadena’s Mountain View Cemetery between Loma and his mother, Eva Wright Armstrong. Long-time church member and one of the first graduates of Ambassador College, Evangelist Herman L. Hoeh officiated at the graveside service and Tkach gave the closing prayer.

Shortly before his death, Armstrong named Joseph W. Tkach Sr. to succeed him as leader of the church. As early as 1988, Joseph W. Tkach Sr. began to make doctrinal changes. Doctrinal revisions were made quietly and slowly at first, but then openly and radically in January 1995. They were presented as “new understandings” of Christmas and Easter, Babylon and the harlot, Anglo-Israelism, Saturday Sabbath, and other doctrines.

In general, Tkach Sr. directed the church theology towards mainstream evangelical Christian belief. It was extremely difficult for many members of the church to understand and accept the doctrinal changes. This caused much disillusionment among the membership and another rise of splinter groups. During the tenure of the Joseph Tkach Sr., the church dropped in membership by about 50 percent. His son, Joseph Tkach Jr., succeeded him after his death in 1995. Under Tkach Jr.’s administration, the church issued an apology for past errors in doctrine.

Eventually all of Herbert Armstrong’s writings were withdrawn from print by the Worldwide Church of God. In the 2004 video production Called To Be Free, Greg Albrecht, former dean of WCG’s Ambassador College, declared Herbert Armstrong to be both a false prophet and a heretic. While the WCG leadership has apologized over false teachings, no overt move has been made towards publicly admitting the past doctrines of the church were in accord with the beliefs of the brethren.

Joseph Tkach Sr. and the Schism of 1995

Joseph W. Tkach was the appointed successor of Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of WCG.  Tkach became president and pastor general of the church upon the death of Armstrong in 1986. Tkach spearheaded a major doctrinal transformation of the Worldwide Church of God, abandoning Armstrong’s unconventional doctrines and bringing the church into accord with mainstream evangelical Christianity. His son, Joseph Tkach Jr., continued his work and in 1997, WCG became a member of the National Association of Evangelicals.

During Tkach’s tenure, the changes he implemented stirred much controversy and significant dissent among those who continued to follow Armstrong’s theology. The dissenters labeled the changes as “heresy” and many left to form new church organizations.

Initially there were few visible changes within the church. Tkach continued Armstrong’s tradition of travelling abroad, although his emphasis was more on visiting church members and operations than on Armstrong’s agenda of visiting world leaders to attempt to “witness” to them.

The church entered a period of rapid growth during the early years of Tkach’s administration. In fact, the membership peaked during his tenure at 126,800 members in 1988. The finances were stable, largely due to the church’s teaching that members should tithe, giving a tenth of their gross income to the church. The church magazine, The Plain Truth, continued to serialize the final and most controversial book by Armstrong, Mystery of the Ages. Tkach also continued, at least in public, to promote the church’s unique doctrines.

Tkach did not have the charismatic personality of his predecessor. Unlike Armstrong, who kept a strong hold of the reins, Tkach delegated many tasks, including the presentation of the church-supported television broadcast, The World Tomorrow and the authoring of articles and booklets produced by the church. Although Tkach was not known as a theologian, and made no claims as such, eventually he was to have profound impact on the theological foundations of the WCG.

The first major change under Tkach’s tenure was the WCG’s doctrine on healing. Previously the church taught that true believers were healed by faith in God and not by doctors. Tkach asked the church leadership to study the question. Once Tkach was satisfied with the results of the study, he officially softened the church’s teaching on the matter, encouraging members to seek proper treatment while retaining faith in God as healer.

Another officially published doctrinal change was that women in the church would be allowed to wear makeup. In the earliest years of the denomination, Armstrong announced the prohibition of makeup for women. In the 1970s that prohibition was lifted, but in 1981 Armstrong reinstituted the teaching. In 1988 Tkach lifted the ban for good.

The first major sign of dissent occurred in 1989 when a WCG minister, Gerald Flurry, published a manuscript outlining what he and others believed were disturbing trends in the work, including the beginnings of the doctrinal departure from what had been established by Armstrong. Flurry and another minister, John Amos, were disfellowshipped and went on to form the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG). Despite this, Tkach continued to implement additional changes in thinking including: the de-emphasis of observing world events primarily through the lens of prophetic interpretation, the removal of the prohibition of interracial marriage, the allowance of work on the Sabbath, the acceptance of the trinitarian doctrine; the acceptance of the validity of other Christian denominations, among many other changes. Older Armstrong publications that supported the church’s once unique doctrines were allowed to go out-of-print.

The doctrinal changes in the church occurred gradually, but by 1994, most of the concepts of Armstrongism had been discontinued. The major bombshell was dropped during what is now called the “Christmas Eve Sermon”. Tapes of Tkach’s sermon, dated January 7, 1995, were delivered to local congregations for viewing. In this sermon, he publicly declared that the Worldwide Church of God was a “New Covenant” church and, therefore, not bound by the terms of the “Old Covenant”. Tkach officially dropped all doctrines based on Mosaic Law, making observance of such practices an individual choice. He also dropped the requirement of tithing, which had a significant and immediate impact on church finances.

Major changes brought about major defections among ministers and members, which in turn contributed to a further drop in church revenue. In order to bring the finances in order, major changes in the church infrastructure were implemented. The World Tomorrow, which had seen record numbers of viewers in the early years of the Tkach administration, was stopped. The Plain Truth publication runs were reduced. Staff at the church headquarters were laid off. The famous, church-subsidized Ambassador Auditorium concert series was cancelled and it was eventually sold-off.

The Christmas Eve sermon only served to accelerate the departure of church members. Splinters started to spring up all across the world made up of those clinging to Armstrong’s doctrinal vision. Although revenues continued to drop, Tkach remained steadfastly committed to the changes that he had implemented.

In 1995 Tkach had surgery that revealed he had cancer. As Armstrong had done before him, Tkach named a successor to become pastor general in the event of his death. In this case, it was Tkach’s son, Joseph Tkach Jr. Tkach died on September 23, 1995.

Joseph Tkach Jr. and Reconstruction

Joseph Tkach Jr. is president and pastor general of Grace Communion International. Since assuming his responsibilities in 1995, Tkach oversaw a period of radical change in the WCG that began during the administration of his father, Joseph W. Tkach.

Joseph Tkach, Jr. was born on December 23, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois. He spent most of his childhood in Chicago until his parents moved to Pasadena, California in 1966. He attended the WCG’s private university, Ambassador College, from 1969 to 1973, when he received a bachelor of arts degree in theology. He was ordained a minister of the church in 1976.

With the support of several key leaders in the church, Joseph Tkach Jr. continued the doctrinal transformation of the WCG that had begun under his father. In the process, he encountered a mixture of acceptance and resistance from members within the church. External acceptance came from other ministries such as those of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, but there were many skeptics who were not convinced the church had gone far enough with its changes, or that they really believed in these changes. There was much thought that these doctrinal transformations were expand the church’s appeal to the mainstream and generate more money for the organization.

Aided by several influential individuals within mainstream Christian churches, the WCG was able to forge positive relationships with other Christian organizations and individuals. WCG became a member of the National Association of Evangelicals in 1997. That same year, Tkach published a book outlining the process of transformation in the WCG. Transformed by Truth is now out of print, but is available for online reading at the WCG Web site.

While Tkach remains a board member of Plain Truth Ministries, it is now a separate ministry headed by Greg Albrecht. The magazine, a once-formidable arm of the WCG’s media empire, has been radically altered. Where Armstrong printed millions of copies monthly and distributed the publication free, The Plain Truth is now a subscription-based magazine with a modest circulation. Tkach also produces regular video commentaries, titled “Speaking of Life,” that are available on the WCG website.

Name Change

On April 16, 2009, the Worldwide Church of God announced the official change of name to Grace Communion International.