Chapter Eight – “Back on Track”

Next Part The Church and Work Go Forward—Again

Many of the rebellious liberals had been removed from headquarters and from the ministry. But damage had occurred. The Church had lost many members who had been deceived in the process.The Plain Truth magazine had been reduced to a cheap tabloid, and had to be restored to its original quality. The Work was no longer growing by an annual 30 percent growth rate, as it had done for 35 years, but rather declining. And the brethren had been receiving watered-down doctrines, mixed with psychology and the worldly opinions of “experts” and “educators.” Thousands stopped building spiritual character, and left the Church. Ambassador College had become more like the colleges and universities of the world. Mr. Armstrong had no choice but to shut down all three college campuses and start over.

Often called the “Liberal ‘70s” when looking back, this period was a turbulent time for the Church. In the aftermath, in the absence of the dissident leaders, peace returned, but the planted seeds of liberalism and Protestantism had become quietly entrenched among much of the ministry and membership.

The crises of 1974, 1978 (when Garner Ted Armstrong left), and 1979 (the attempted coup bringing the State of California against the Church) demonstrated that the Church was under continual attack. Remember, in 1977, Mr. Armstrong had nearly died—but was essentially brought back to life to restore the Church from the nearly successful liberal takeover.

God led Mr. Armstrong to recognize that he must “put God’s Church back on track”—in true doctrines and traditions. From that moment forward, Mr. Armstrong set out to do this. He repeatedly warned the Church of the importance of seeing the big picture. He would often exclaim, “I don’t think that most of you really get it!” He charged the brethren to “wake up!”—to put their hearts into the Work. He warned of a real danger facing them, in that many were not heeding his words, seeming to just be “putting in their time” at Sabbath services. During the last years of his life, Mr. Armstrong discerned a prevailing spirit of lethargy in the Church.

One by One

One by one, Mr. Armstrong restored doctrines again to the Church that had been watered down or discarded. He also set about to put the end-time Work “back on track.” This process consumed him and was the constant theme in the Church for at least 3½ years, from June 1978 until November 1981, when the use of cosmetics was again no longer permitted. During this period, the term “back on track” was used at least as often as Mr. Armstrong’s well-known reference to “the two trees.”
Here are some statements from Mr. Armstrong describing, in his own words, the process of putting the Church back on track:

“Jesus Christ moved swiftly, too, to set the RADIO and TELEVISION programs back on GOD’S track, rapidly adding more and more stations.

“Next came The PLAIN TRUTH—rooting out the secularism, and making it once again GOD’S magazine—and soon, hopefully, the finest magazine on earth, with multiplied circulation.

“And now—He has once again made God’s Feast of Tabernacles truly GOD’S FESTIVAL—the LARGEST ANNUAL CONVENTION OR CONCLAVE ON EARTH!”

“I am working diligently with The PLAIN TRUTH staff to make it the FINEST MAGAZINE published, and we want to expand our newsstand circulation, (now about 1 million in the U.S. alone—total circulation now close to 3 million copies)—and that all demands INCREASED EXPENDITURES. That’s part of the EFFORT we all must make, coming in on the home stretch to WIN THIS RACE and the PRIZE of eternal salvation in the Kingdom of God!”

“I now have plans to make The GOOD NEWS into a full color magazine like The PLAIN TRUTH, and let the newsprint tabloid paper go back to the name ‘Worldwide News’—with Church news, personal items, and things of personal interest—and with The GOOD NEWS becoming a magazine filled with ARTICLES—both devoted to Church interest, Bible teachings, and articles containing SPIRITUAL FOOD” (Brethren/Co-Worker Letter, October 23, 1978).

“In place of a ‘Co-Worker letter’ this month I am sending you all—in all parts of the world—a letter I have just written to our Brethren in AUSTRALIA.

“For the past two years I have been laboring very hard to be Christ’s servant and apostle in SETTING GOD’S CHURCH BACK ON THE TRACK. The entire Church had been derailed. A LIBERAL spirit from Satan had been injected into some in high positions under me at Headquarters in Pasadena. Instead of wholeheartedly OBEYING Christ through HIS WORD, THE BIBLE, there was creeping in, during years when I was in other parts of the world up to 300 out of the 365 days in the year, a LIBERAL spirit of SATAN.

“Those leaders to whom I had delegated the responsibility of ADMINISTERING the POLICIES and DOCTRINES Christ had set in God’s Church through His apostle, went way BEYOND the authority given them. They started CHANGING POLICIES and watering down God’s TRUTH, changing DOCTRINES, compromising—seeing HOW CLOSE they could go—and lead the Brethren in going—to the ways of SATAN! They wanted to be more LIBERAL—more like THIS WORLD OF SATAN.”

“But for two years Jesus Christ has been using me and those loyally still with and under me to SET BACK ON GOD’S TRACK God’s Church.
“AND THE CHURCH IS MOSTLY BACK ON THAT TRACK NOW.

“But there STILL remains among a FEW of us a tendency to LET DOWN—to lose our zeal—and even to become LUKEWARM. In some parts of the world there has been a little tendency creeping in of a spirit of COMPETITION. A few in Australia were thinking of the Work of God’s Church as ‘the AUSTRALIAN WORK’ separate from that in America, Germany, South Africa and elsewhere.

“When we first began building up the Church in England in 1960 I remember some speaking of God’s Truth as ‘an American religion.’ They wanted only an ‘English religion.’ What we should all want is God’s Truth” (Brethren/Co-Worker Letter, September 15, 1980).

Mr. Armstrong even periodically looked back and added powerful statements such as the following, from a long article recounting recent Church history, so that no one would ever forget the lessons the Church should have permanently learned from the 1970s:

“It is now clearly evident that God brought me back for a vital purpose, by CPR, from death by heart failure. Had I remained dead the Church of the living God would have been virtually destroyed by the liberal element that had crept in, especially in headquarters administration during my absence from Pasadena. During those liberal years, much of what was going on in policy changing and doctrinal liberalization had been carefully kept from me.

“The Church of God was being systematically liberalized, the broadcasting had gone from top to bottom in the world, and from spiritual effectiveness to almost total ineffectiveness. God says we are to judge by the fruits. During those liberal years, the Church was bearing virtually no fruit. The Plain Truth and publishing work also had become almost totally ineffective. Ambassador College had been destroyed as God’s college. In 1978, after my ‘resurrection’ from total heart failure, I had to completely close Ambassador College at Pasadena, starting all over again, as in 1947, with one freshman class. The colleges in England and in Texas had already been closed.

“It is very evident to those led by the Holy Spirit of God that there was a very significant reason why God brought me back to life at age 85 in 1977 to once again take over the reins and remove this liberal element—to once again recapture the true values and to prepare this Philadelphia era of God’s Church for the coming of Christ and the reign of the Kingdom of God.

“Today the bona fide Plain Truth circulation is over 7.5 million.

“The Youth magazine has gained an already large circulation nearing 200,000. The Good Newsmagazine circulation is projected to reach close to one million subscribers monthly by the end of this year. The Bible Correspondence Course has been rejuvenated with a present enrollment of approximately 130,000 students worldwide.

“God has revealed much vitally important new biblical truth. The Church has taken on a new spiritual vitality. Ambassador College is once again God’s college and students are serving in a number of important projects in other nations around the world. Many of the important new biblical truths will be covered in the new book Mystery of the Ages.”

“I want you, brethren, to think about and understand what happened to God’s Church in the 1970slest history repeat itself! I want you to see the ‘fruits’ of rebelling against God’s way and God’sgovernment” (“Recent History of the Philadelphia Era of the Worldwide Church of God,” Worldwide News, June 24, 1985).

Next Part The Church and Work Go Forward—Again

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