A Fifteen-month Detour

Back to Herbert W. Armstrong

At this same time, the nation was in the midst of the Great Depression, affecting everyone. Low on funds, the board of the Oregon Conference could no longer afford the salaries of three full-time ministers. So Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Dailey were temporarily laid off, while Mr. Taylor was kept on.

Mr. Armstrong reluctantly took a temporary advertising job with The Morning Messenger, a fledgling daily newspaper in Astoria, Oregon. He knew that God had called him to the ministry, so Mr. Armstrong intended to keep this job only for a month. However, “Human reason is usually faulty,” he wrote. “But this did seem like the right decision. I was to pay a high price over the next 15 months to learn that lesson.”

Mr. Armstrong’s one-month job turned into 15 months. God waited until the end of February 1933 to give him another opportunity to return to His ministry. And afterward, Mr. Armstrong made sure to never again detour from the Work of God.

During the 15 long months from the ministry, Mr. Armstrong studied the subject of tithing. He learned that God owns the earth and everything in it (Psa. 24:1), and that He only requires man to pay ten percent of his income, plus offerings: “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me. But you say, Wherein have we robbed You? In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse: for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation. Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in My house, and prove me now herewith, says the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Mal. 3:8-10).

This is a test command—with many benefits for obedience.

Mr. Armstrong recognized his mistake, and began to tithe, along with giving offerings. That same day, a door of opportunity opened and the Armstrong household was able to reasonably stock up with food—including a thick steak dinner! Though they experienced another 14 years of poverty, never again did they go hungry from lack of food. Since they obeyed God’s tithing command, God kept His promise to provide for their every need—and more.
Over the years, Mr. Armstrong’s writings revealed the doctrine of tithing to countless people, many of whom sent reports of how God had wonderfully blessed them for their faithful obedience.

Back Into God’s Ministry

In late February 1933, God answered Mr. Armstrong’s prayers and led him back into the full-time ministry. Small amounts of tithes and offerings had trickled in to the Oregon Conference, adding up to enough funds to hire another minister—but only at $3 per week. However, the local membership, most of whom were farmers, agreed to supply the minister and his family with vegetables, grains and so forth, along with a limited supply of foodstuffs (sacks of whole wheat flour, beans, raw sugar, etc.). The congregation would also pay the house rent.

Mr. A.J. Ray, former president of the California Conference, was maneuvering to get his close friend, Elder S. Oberg, the position. But Mike Helms, a friend of Mr. Armstrong’s and president of the Oregon board, swiftly intervened and Mr. Armstrong was hired.

Sometimes, the Conference was unable to pay the Armstrongs’ rent, so Mrs. Armstrong would occasionally have to earn money by washing the landlady’s laundry.

Bearing Fruit

Mr. Armstrong followed the practice of thinking big. He wanted to hold a large city-wide campaign, along with Mr. Oberg.

But Mr. Oberg did not see the big picture. Instead, he and Mr. Ray wanted to hold a small campaign limited to a local Salem neighborhood. They had their way, and, as had always happened when Mr. Armstrong teamed with Sardis ministers, their tiny campaign bore no fruit.

Four months of meetings largely attracted “Pentecostal” and “holy roller” types, who only came to have a “good time,” not to hear the inspired preaching of God’s truth.

This, along with constant plots and backstabbing from Sardis ministers, frustrated Mr. Armstrong. On top of this, he had to deal with the death of his father, which happened that same year.

Finally, the fruitless campaign came to an end. Mr. Fisher, the chairman of the school board, asked Mr. Armstrong to start a campaign in the one-room, 36-seat Firbutte schoolhouse, out in the countryside west of Eugene. Mr. Armstrong agreed, and, working alone, maintained an average attendance of about 40 people during the six-week campaign. A sizeable number became members of the Church.

Meanwhile, the Conference had rented a 150-seat church in Harrisburg and assigned Mr. Oberg to minister there. His campaign yielded a much smaller audience. This fueled even more jealousy over Mr. Armstrong’s ministry.

Continuous Attacks

Mr. Oberg and Mr. Ray were warm and friendly to Mr. Armstrong’s face, but they constantly plotted against him, seemingly at every turn. They secretly spoke against him and his wife, sowing seeds of hatred toward him among certain brethren. These two preachers desperately wanted to get Mr. Armstrong thrown out of the ministry and take his meager salary and the other money used for his rent and food supplies.

In one of their plots, they planned to discredit him by falsely accusing Mrs. Armstrong of not being a neat housekeeper—supposed “proof” that Mr. Armstrong did not rule his household well, and therefore that he failed to meet one of the biblical qualifications of a true minister of God (I Tim. 3:1-7).
Their plan, however, backfired.

In another plot, Mr. Oberg and Mr. Ray spread the word that, while the brethren toiled and labored on their farms, Mr. Armstrong was living the “easy life.” They used innuendo to subtly suggest that he was lazy, and that the “only” work Mr. Armstrong had to do was preach sermons, visit and counsel with brethren and prospective members, conduct Bible studies, publish church announcements, and so forth. Incredibly, some were gullible enough to believe these attacks.

Milas Helms warned Mr. Armstrong of what was being said, and offered a way to counteract the plot: If Mr. Armstrong would chop down a large tree on the Helms farm, and split the wood, he could keep it for his household—a year’s worth of fuel. Mr. Armstrong gladly accepted. News of his hard labor spread and another plot came to nothing.

In yet another attack, Mr. Armstrong was accused of not preaching to prospective members the doctrine of avoiding unclean meats. To address this, he calmly explained in writing that he was aware that God forbids people to eat unclean meats, such as pork, lobster, crab, etc., and that these and other animals were not created for man’s consumption. To eat of their flesh was aphysical sin. Mr. Armstrong pointed out that eating unclean meats does not directly violate the Ten Commandments, unless someone lusts for it, breaking the Tenth Commandment (which, we could add for purposes here, would almost always be the case). Then, pointing to Romans 14:17—“For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit”—Mr. Armstrong explained that he was commissioned to preach the gospel of God’s kingdom to the general public, while teaching the details of doctrine to God’s flock, including clean and unclean meats.

Then he asked his accusers to show him from the Bible where he was wrong, or where the Bible teaches that God’s ministers must preach about unclean meats to those who are not being called.

The only answer Mr. Armstrong received was silence.

Double-crossed!

About a week before the end of his campaign at the Firbutte schoolhouse, Mr. Armstrong baptized Elmer Fisher’s brother Ernest. Mr. Oberg and Mr. Ray used this and other recent baptisms that Mr. Armstrong had performed, and proceeded to attack. They accused him of baptizing people before preaching to them the laws of clean and unclean meats.
Mr. Armstrong had to silently sit through an all-day, inquisition-like trial at a Conference business meeting in Harrisburg while his detractors preached against him. Yet, he was only allowed 15 minutes to speak in his defense.

He clearly explained his position, and then, due to circumstances that needed his presence back at the schoolhouse, Mr. Armstrong asked the board members and ministers to postpone making a decision until he could attend another meeting with them. All agreed.

However, the minute he and those who supported him (about half) had departed, Mr. Oberg and Mr. Ray broke their promise. They swayed the remaining people to establish a resolution requiring Mr. Armstrong to baptize people their way.

Learning of their decision, Mr. Armstrong wrote them back, telling them to keep the $3 per week salary. He neither resigned from the Conference nor was he removed from it. In fact, he continued his friendship and brotherhood with these people. However, Mr. Armstrong knew that he had to obey God rather than men. Unlike most preachers, he was determined not to bend to the will of the people over the will of God. He stepped out in faith and relied on God—not men—to supply his needs.

In the June 24, 1985 special edition of the Worldwide News, Mr. Armstrong wrote, “I continued to work with and fellowship with West Coast members of the Sardis era until 1942, when the rapidly growing work of the fledgling Philadelphia era required my full time. The present era was officially begun in October, 1933.”