Epilogue

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Normally, a biography ends with the death of the person who is the subject. For instance, when a great leader dies, his biographer would generally confine what he covers to contemporary events surrounding the life of the person whose accomplishments he is recounting.

George Washington died in the last week of 1799. It would be unreasonable for his biographers to continue the story of his life through the War of 1812, for instance. Similarly, since Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, his biographers would not consider it necessary to cover the impeachment of Andrew Johnson (his vice-president, who became president) in 1868, or the reconstruction of the South into the 1870s and beyond. Biographers understand that later events beyond their subject’s lifetime are generally not relevant to the description of the person’s life.

But there are exceptions. Consider this. If the South had been allowed to drift back into slavery because of Lincoln’s absence, many voices would have reminded the nation of his words. And Lincoln biographers would have felt it imperative to document the events that would have surrounded such a historic turning point, back into such an oppressive, disgraceful practice.

Likewise, because this is even more true of God’s servants, this book would be incomplete if it did not address the astounding events that took place after Mr. Armstrong’s death—events that forever changed the landscape of the Church he once faithfully led.

The Great Difference

In the ultimate sense, the work of God’s leaders transcends the time in which they live. Their task is to assist in the preparation of God’s people, who will carry on in the spiritual pursuit of an eternalgoal, in which—compared to the temporal affairs of men—the stakes are much higher. Miscalculation, weak leadership or lack of vision in the leader’s absence can lead to eternalcatastrophe, potentially for great numbers.

The apostle Paul was concerned with this when he warned of what would happen after his death. Notice: “...after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock” (Acts 20:29). Two verses later, he admonished the brethren to “...watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears” (Acts 20:31). History records that, after Paul died, the first-century Church went into apostasy, with most brethren ignoring Paul’s greatest warnings—to their own destruction.

After Mr. Armstrong’s death, the Worldwide Church of God continued, at least for a little while, to follow the truths that had been restored to the Church under his leadership. Like Paul at the end of his life, Mr. Armstrong had also, in essence, “warned with tears”—in his case, for more than the three years Paul referenced—of what could happen after his “departing.” He was most concerned with what could take place again if he were no longer in the picture.
His concerns proved to be well-founded.

In fact, as early as 1987, beginning with the meaning of the Passover symbols, changes started to occur—with these early errors often referred to as “clarifications.” Like all truths of God, changes invariably affected other doctrines. Altering or discarding one doctrine meant altering or discarding the others connected to it—and once these were changed, doctrines and traditions connected to them “had” to be changed as well.

One by one, all teachings were either slowly altered, almost matter-of-factly, and then done away with completely, or discarded outright. At first, these changes began slowly—but they eventually escalated, assaulting God’s people as fast as bullets coming from a machine gun. True doctrines fell like dominoes, to be replaced by one familiar pagan, traditional “Christian” counterfeit after another. To the delight of the false leaders of the Worldwide Church of God, most brethren ignored the changes, did not care about them or agreed with them. The grand strategy was to keep the changes coming so fast that brethren would be continually off-balance, unable to grasp what they meant or what should be done about them.

All doctrine was openly put on the table. Brethren were told that they could “believe anything, but just stay in the Church and don’t talk about it to others.” But, for instance, anyone who taught that Christians must keep the Sabbath was to be disfellowshipped. This was also true of ministers who spoke out against other changes.
Here are some of the things that took place in the Church after Mr. Armstrong’s “departing”:

All previous baptisms of new attendees from churches outside God’s Church were to be accepted as valid without question.

Many of the more doctrinally sound evangelists and senior ministers were demoted, retired, fired, or transferred far away.

The youth (Y.E.S.) Bible curriculum was replaced with a Protestant course containing teachings on Sunday observance, Christmas, and Easter. Y.E.S. classes were permitted during the regular Sabbath service time. Parents were discouraged from attending with their children. Pregnant teens were still considered Y.O.U. members in good standing, only restricted in sports involvement “for the good of the baby.”

Before both remaining Ambassador College campuses were closed, due to the church’s financial implosion, intercollegiate sports were re-instituted, bringing back the spirit of competition that Mr. Armstrong had preached against.

Church Bible studies were cancelled at the local pastor’s discretion. Secular speakers began to appear at the Feast of Tabernacles. Following the formats of the churches of the world, church services began to include much more “gospel” music and “prayer.” Sermonette time was seemingly used for everything but sermonettes—including testimonials, youth dramas, prayer, special music, extended announcements, films, etc. The traditional two-hour service was reduced to 90 minutes. The blessing of little children (an annual tradition) was to be done privately or not at all. New baptism, marriage and funeral ceremonies were released. A new hymnal was produced that included many Protestant “favorites.” Pentecostal-like prayer meetings were added and often held weekly, with both men and women leading. Eventually, all Feast sites were cancelled, and the entire format and meaning of the Holy Days were altered to fit traditional Christianity.

In addition, The Good News magazine, The Plain Truth Newsstand Program, The World Tomorrowtelecast, and the 32-lesson Bible Correspondence Course were eventually discontinued. All the books, booklets and articles that Mr. Armstrong had written were removed from circulation and cast from local Church libraries. All publications began to reflect sexual and political correctness. Terms such as man, mankind, manhood, spokesman, chairman and forefathers were changed to humanity,people, human beings, humankind, adulthood, spokesperson, chairperson, forerunner, ancestors, etc. Quotes from Protestant ministerial journals and secular experts filled all WCG literature and telecasts. Money, not faith, determined which doors the Church walked through.

In time, virtually every one of the Bible’s hundreds of true doctrines was cast aside in favor of the world’s popular counterfeits. With almost no exceptions, the Church’s teachings and traditions were changed or done away. Birthdays, make-up, and eating unclean meats were brought into the Church, as were crosses and the trinitarian view of God—replacing the true God, and effectively disfellowshipping Him from what could then no longer be His Church. Therefore, His Law—the Ten Commandments—eventually had to be cast aside and declared “non-binding” on Christians, supposedly now, according to Protestant belief, kept for them by Christ.

Those of the true Church—not to be confused with the corporate Worldwide Church of God—faced a life-changing decision: leave and, as Mr. Armstrong often said he would do if necessary, “walk across the street and start over,” or stay and be devoured by “grievous wolves” occupying the highest ranks of the ministry. Tragically, most chose the latter.

The Falling Away

Again, for years, Mr. Armstrong had thundered to the Church, “I don’t think most of you get it!” Little did he know how right he actually was.

About 80 percent of the Church membership—who had faithfully attended Sabbath services week after week, year after year, who were Spokesman Club and Graduate Club members, who had spent many Y.O.U. weekends with their teenaged children, who had sent their children off to Ambassador College, who had tithed and given offerings and contributed to special funds, who had served the brethren with song leading, opening and closing prayers, sermonettes, special music, hall set-up, who had maintained local Church libraries, and provided refreshments and security—left the truth with barely a second thought. Those who stayed in the WCG embraced their new “freedom” in rejecting tithing, God’s Sabbath, His annual Holy Days and feasts, and a host of other laws and principles of God.

Truly, the “sow had returned to her wallowing in the mire” and the “dog had returned to his vomit.”

Approximately 20 percent of the WCG membership remained partially faithful to varying degrees of truth. To do this, they had to leave the corporate organization. However, the vast majority of those who left voiced their pet ideas of what doctrines and traditions to keep and which to alter or throw away. Essentially, they agreed that Mr. Armstrong was right about many teachings, but wrong about others. The problem was they could not agree on where—particular doctrines—they believed to bewrong, and thus could not walk together. This brought splitting and re-splitting into more than 300 differing groups—“splinters.”

Some emphasize doing the Work over feeding the flock. Others claim the Work can only be done in a specific way, that it “must” be done on television and radio. Still others claim the Work is over—that it ended when Mr. Armstrong died. Amazingly, these believe they are honoring Mr. Armstrong, or even following his instructions, with this view.

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