Chapter Four – “I Have Set Before You an Open Door”
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Mr. Armstrong had come to a crucial crossroads. He knew that he had to preach the truth God’s way—not the way men wanted it done. If he chose to bend to the will of the people, God could not use him. Mr. Armstrong had known of preachers who held back from preaching the truth of the Bible, because they knew it would upset some people, perhaps even causing some to stop supporting their ministry. Fear of losing financial support caused such men to be more concerned with preaching what people wanted to hear instead of what they needed to hear.
But Mr. Armstrong was different. Like Paul and other faithful servants of God, he was driven to preach what God wanted him to preach (I Cor. 9:16). To serve God, Mr. Armstrong knew that he would have to rely solely on Him for support, not people. So he rejected his $3 per week salary, choosing to trust God instead to provide for his every need (Phil. 4:19).
Even after severing direct ties with the Oregon Conference brethren, Mr. Armstrong continued to be friendly and cooperate with them. And many of them often attended the services he conducted at the Firbutte schoolhouse. The Sardis membership had, for the most part, always been friendly toward Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong. It was their ministers who attacked and persecuted them. They were jealous at his success in attracting followers, while their campaigns were fruitless. They did everything they could to attack his ministry and stop God’s Work.
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Bible Form of Organization
Andrew Dugger, the leading minister of the Church of God, Seventh-Day, had a falling out with his organization, and started his own church group in 1932, headquartered at Salem, West Virginia. Mr. Dugger and his new offshoot claimed that their form of government came directly from the Bible—“12 apostles, 70 elders” and a board of seven. In turn, this new group accused the organization it had splintered from of having an unbiblical form of Church government.
This puzzled and confused all the brethren as to what was actually the right form of Church government. Even Mr. Armstrong was uncertain:
“But in my days of trying to work with them, between 1927 and somewhere around 1941 to 1947, there was so much controversy over what constituted God’s church government that I, myself, became completely confused on that point. I could see that their systems were so wrong that I assumed that God’s Church is a spiritual organism, and not a church organization. I did not want to assume any rule or authority that I ought not, and consequently when troublemakers and wrong attitudes came into our little Church in Eugene, Oregon, I wielded no authority whatsoever, and the result was a church split in two” (“Personal,” The Good News, August 1969).
Since God had not yet revealed to him what kind of government should function in the true Church, Mr. Armstrong went along with what the brethren were practicing at the time—-a form of democracy, or congregationalism.
The Sardis brethren in the Willamette Valley were divided. One faction remained loyal to Stanberry, while the Oregon Conference was attracted to Mr. Dugger’s group and its “Bible form of organization.” Elders Ray and Oberg tried to steer the Conference into joining Mr. Dugger’s offshoot.
But Mr. Armstrong and those under him decided to leave it up to God to show them what to do. For about three years, they fellowshipped and cooperated with the Salem, West Virginia group—regularly sending minister’s reports, for example—but neither officially joined its membership nor came under its authority. Neither did Mr. Armstrong accept a salary or expense money from them. He was not fully convinced that Mr. Dugger had the “Bible form of organization,” as he had claimed. However, Mr. Dugger listed him as one of the “70 elders,” despite the fact that Mr. Armstrong had never joined them or worked for them.
Physically Poor—but Spiritually Rich
In these early years of the Great Depression, Mr. Armstrong and his family struggled to stay afloat in the turbulent financial waters of the times. Mrs. Armstrong wore hand-me-downs from her younger sister. Mr. Armstrong often had to walk or hitchhike to Church services, eight miles away. He owned only one pair of shoes—and they had holes in them. He only possessed one suit, which he wore virtually every day of the week as he conducted Church services and Bible studies, and counseled with people. The brethren were moved to take up a collection, and bought him a new suit.
But what Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong lacked in material possessions, they made up for with growing faith and increasing trust in God. Time and again, they learned through firsthand experience—through numerous miraculous answers to fervent prayer—that God provides for those who put His will and interests first.
Rejecting the Truth
With the exception of two or three families, none of the Sardis brethren would accept the truth God had revealed to Mr. Armstrong early in his calling: the observance of God’s annual feasts and holy days, the identity of the Anglo-Saxon peoples of the United States and Britain as descendants of the ten “lost” tribes of Israel, and other biblical teachings. The people of Sardis were content with the small number of doctrines they possessed and were not willing to change.
Mr. Armstrong had even tested Stanberry headquarters with biblical proof that they were teaching error. Privately, they admitted that he was right, yet they refused to correct their errors. They were too afraid of upsetting tithepayers, fearing that they might leave. Even the top leader privately admitted that new Bible truth had been revealed to Mr. Armstrong—but that minister, like the others, publicly rejected the truth, and even attacked Mr. Armstrong for preaching it.
And so, Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong kept the Feast of Tabernacles and the other annual festivals and Sabbaths of God by themselves. Seven years would pass before God revealed to them the true meaning and significance of His days. But, like the patriarch Abraham, Mr. Armstrong did not wait for an explanation before following God’s commands. Whenever God revealed His will to him, Mr. Armstrong obeyed without question.
A Door Is Opened
Immediately after Mr. Armstrong rejected his salary from the Oregon Conference, God opened a door to preach the gospel to a wider audience.
In October 1933, Mr. Armstrong learned that KORE, a local 100-watt radio station, offered 15 minutes of free daily broadcasting as a public service. This was an opportunity to instantly reach several hundred listeners at once! Mr. Armstrong immediately went down to the station, and was given free airtime the following week.
Looking back years later, he was amazed that “The ministers of the churches in Eugene had not considered the opportunity to get a Gospel message on the air of sufficient importance to rise early enough to be at the radio station at 7:45 weekday mornings. But to me, it was the most importantopportunity to proclaim God’s truth that had so far come to me” (“The History of the Beginning and Growth of the Worldwide Church of God, Chapter Four,” The Good News, August 1980).
Mr. Armstrong spent that week preparing extensive notes. For all he knew, this might have been a one-time opportunity. He was determined not to waste it.
Having never done a radio broadcast before, Mr. Armstrong worried that he would be struck by “mike-fright.” On the morning of the first broadcast, the program announcer did not arrive until 15 seconds before it was time to go on the air. Mr. Armstrong asked him for instructions, but all the man said was “Just stand up there in front of the mike, and start talking as soon as I announce you.”
During the brief announcement, Mr. Armstrong felt calm and secure. “Well,” he thought, “I don’t have any ‘mike-fright.’ I’m sure glad of that!”
He confidently spoke into the microphone: “Greetings, friends!”
And then he froze!
With all his might, Mr. Armstrong struggled to control his grasping for breath and fought to ignore the wild, heart-pounding fear that shot through his body. He forced himself to focus on his notes, and then he spoke carefully, deliberately, while trying to sound as calm and as natural as he could. After two or three minutes, his breathing was under control. Fear gave way to zeal—and for the rest of the program, he boldly preached the truth of the Bible, making it plain and easy to understand.
His 15-minute message struck at the heart of the gospel of the kingdom of God. Beginning with Genesis 12 ALL, Mr. Armstrong revealed that God had promised the entire earth to Abraham and his descendants for an everlasting possession—not heaven, as is commonly believed in the churches of traditional Christianity.
During the next morning’s broadcast, Mr. Armstrong knew that his case of “mike-fright” was a thing of the past. Throughout that week of radio broadcasts, he confidently preached about the world tomorrow and God’s soon-coming kingdom.
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