Mr. Armstrong's Successor
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Consider carefully. When Mr. Armstrong appointed his successor, he was well aware that this man was not an apostle! He still instructed him to continue doing the Work because, as he explained, everything was in place tocarry on. Against Mr. Armstrong’s instructions, and evidencing no fruit whatsoever, this man almost immediately took the office of apostle to himself. (He did this with the assistance of his Church Administration Director, who freely admitted to me that he crafted the announcement to the Church and ministry making the supposed “case” that appeared in The Pastor General’s Report for ministers and The Worldwide News for members.)
Some facts of history: Shortly before his death, in a series of private discussions, Mr. Armstrong repeatedly and emphatically denied his successor the office of apostle. Mr. Armstrong explained more than once that this office was not his to give!—that he simply could not do this!—that it was BEYOND HIS AUTHORITY! (It is fairly well known that this man vehemently sought the office of apostle through repeated requests to Mr. Armstrong.) However, Mr. Armstrong could and did officially confer on his successor all of his other titles and responsibilities. Mr. Armstrong told this man, before numerous witnesses, that only Jesus Christ could put him into that office—and that it would be evident if and when Christ chose to do this! He explained that, if this were to occur, it would only happen because the FRUITS of that office would be evidenced first. Remember, apostlemeans literally “one sent forth”—by JESUS CHRIST! (Again, THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD book covers this in much greater detail.)
Most who abandon helping to finish any of even the “works” of men have fallen into a kind of “creeping prophetic junk trap,” which slowly corrupts their basic understanding of Bible prophecy. A variety of splinter leaders have been ensnared by this trend. Sadly, when people escape these groups, they often seem unable to free themselves from this trap. (Certain sections of our book Is “That Prophet” Alive Today? discuss in the prophesied trend in the last days of men in the “church” taking offices to themselves.)
The Devil’s Role
The next statements demonstrate how strongly Mr. Armstrong felt about the real origin of “the Work is over” thinking. He clearly believed and repeatedly taught that the idea of discontinuing—or altering—the Work comes from Satan—because the devil most hates any message depicting his dethronement as the “god of this world” and his subsequent 1,000-year imprisonment!
II Corinthians 4:4 proves Mr. Armstrong’s insight into Satan’s attempts to thwart God’s Work. Let’s read it: “In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the GLORIOUS GOSPEL of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
None should ever lose sight of how badly Satan would love to block, attack and hinder God’s true Work today. His goal is to confuse or defeat outright those who once understood the Great Commission. No tactic should be considered beyond his reach.
Carefully mull the almost prophetic description Mr. Armstrong offers for what is occurring throughout the splinters today. We have certainly felt such attacks here:
“Today, as in the time of the first apostles, MANY DECEIVERS are gone out into the world. They will ACCUSE God’s Church and His Work. It is Satan the devil who is the accuser of the true brethren (Rev. 12:10).
“MUCH of the New Testament is WARNING God’s people of these snares of Satan to hinder—to attempt to DESTROY the very Work of GOD—the very Work which is THE REASON God has called you NOW—before He undertakes to SAVE THE WHOLE WORLD!
“Remember, Jesus taught us to LOOK TO THE FRUITS BORNE!
“Are they who falsely accuse—who seek to draw a following away from God’s Church for selfish purpose—proclaiming the Kingdom of God to the nations of the world? Are they fulfilling the PURPOSE for which God has called us now?”
“Why Did God Put You In His Church?”, GN, May 1974
Much of the division now existing between so many of God’s people, and within the organizations they attend, has little to do with the WCG’s false leaders. It is coming now from wolves, tares, flatterers, spiritual murderers, false prophets, hate-mongers, slanderers, libelers, accusers, politicians, destroyers, even entire small groups, as well as the outright lawless, all of whom also left the apostasy for the splinters! You must come to see that Satan sent his most effective agents to attack, confuse and divide there—where they could do the most damage going forward. This begins with the leaders, whom I have addressed in Chapter Twelve and elsewhere in this regard. (This is thoroughly examined and proven in our book Should Accusers Be Answered? – Do You Believe Obvious Lies?)
My ministry is a living testimony to the relentless nature of their false accusations. For instance, one of the biggest lies, coming from the modern Diotrephes leading the Living Church of God (LCG) is that The Restored Church of God is not doing the Work. Others state that we do not actually print our literature—that we are nothing more than an “online/Internet” ministry. These know we are both reaching growing millions andprinting literature—and outperforming all other organizations by far.
The above book goes much more deeply into the subject than you have ever gone before. In fact, you have never read anything like it.
Now notice:
“Jesus did not raise up His Church merely to form various local social clubs with NO PURPOSE other than to enjoy each others’ fellowship. He raised up the Church for a PURPOSE—to proclaim His GOSPEL—not merely in their own community, but AROUND THE WORLD—ALL NATIONS.
“But SATAN now influenced a great PERSECUTION against the Church to STOP the proclaiming of the KINGDOM OF GOD. He knows that Kingdom will remove him from the earth and from deceiving the world into accepting him as the god of this world.
“And THAT’S the ONE MAIN THING Satan wants to STOP! The HEAD of this Church, the living Jesus CHRIST, wants us always to keep the Great Commission FIRST in our minds—and NEVER to let other things crowd it out! For THAT’S what this is ALL ABOUT!
“Repeatedly, all through the Bible—especially in the New Testament, we are warned that our REAL ENEMY is Satan! He tries to get our minds OFF of our BIG Commission, by getting them on physical and material things that loom up as MUCH more important…until we CAN’T SEE THE REAL ISSUE.
“Then we shall, if loyal NOW to God’s Government, rule ALL NATIONS under, and with Christ, each having our part in that GOVERNMENT, and working with and under Christ as our HIGH PRIEST in then SAVING THE WHOLE WORLD, with no Satan around to attack us!”
Letter to brethren, March 18, 1974
“Satan will never let up trying to DESTROY the Work of the living God. It’s all recorded in the Bible—in prophecy. I have looked into God’s Book to see how it all comes out at the end…I find that WE (in God) WIN!”
Letter to brethren, June 25, 1985
It is fitting to conclude the answer to this question with the above exhortation. Everyone enjoys repeating the closing “win” portion of it, and I have referred to it often. The problem is that so few seem to remember the all-important context in which it was given! Also, notice this admonishment to the Church came less than seven months before Mr. Armstrong died. After having spent 52 long years battling Satan’s influence through those who attacked his every decision and action, Mr. Armstrong seemed to realize that he needed to warn all of God’s people one final time about Satan’s ongoing efforts to destroy the Work of God. His message was to be more prophetic than we could have then realized!
===5. How did Mr. Armstrong view the correlation between the one true Church, doing God’s Work and paying tithes only to the organization where God is working?===
Another central issue cannot be avoided. The next three statements make absolutely clear that what are God’stithes (remember, all tithes and offerings belong to God, not the one paying them) must be sent to the Church doing the Work and preaching the FULL RESTORED truth—the only organization Christ would be leading. They show the grave responsibility that individual brethren have to carefully put God’s tithes only where He is working, where the government of God is present. The next quote shows people must “come out” of unproductive “split up and divided” organizations of men.
Mr. Armstrong seemed to think that Philadelphia could become a smaller Work at the onset of the Laodicean Era because so many would have grown weary in “well-doing.” My other books directed to the splinters make plain that he placed uncompromised doctrinal truth as the only proper STARTING POINT for those remaining Philadelphian!
This must be clearly established and proven to the tithepayer before sending God’s tithes to an organization! Yet, so few give thought anymore to the fact that tithes belong to God—meaning to where He is working!
Mr. Armstrong understood even Sardis did a small, though terribly divided, “work.” So does Laodicea. He wrote this after leaving Sardis:
“We ought to be ASHAMED of the pitiful, puny, weak, feeble work that has split up and divided brethren, reached but so very FEW with the message, with almost no real conversions! All this, while leaders desiring power to RULE send out misleading, exaggerated, deceiving statements designed to convince tithe-payers that ‘the work is progressing.’ What a mockery! What a tragedy! What a pity!
“We praise God that many of the more spiritual HAVE COME OUT!”
“Did Christ Reorganize the Church?”, GN, Feb. 1939
“Some ministers are called of God, used of God—many are not.
“The tithe is HOLY. It is THE LORD’S—for HIS WORK. It should be placed where He IS WORKING…Ask God for WISDOM!”
“Are You Being Tested on this Point?”, GN, Feb. 1939
The following longer statement summarizes these points by stating that God’s organized true Church—the same as the Body of Christ (Col. 1:18-19, Eph. 1:22-23 and 5:23, Ephesians 5:30)—loyally stands together and finishes His Work. (This subject is thoroughly covered in my splinter book The True Church – One Organization, or Many?) Those who do not could lose salvation. They will not GET what they sought for themselves because they fell intogetting and stopped trying to GIVE God’s wonderful truth to others!
Now notice:
“What is the PURPOSE of the Church—its divine Commission? To proclaim this Gospel as a witness to the world. In other words, to carry on the WORK OF GOD, which Jesus, in person, started.
“After His resurrection, He gave His disciples this commission: ‘Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature’ (Mark 16:15).
“First of all, the true Church of God is a spiritual organism. It is NOT a human organization. This spiritual organism is the ‘Body of Christ’ existing for the PURPOSE of carrying on THE WORK OF GOD.
“Is it possible that one who has joined a sect, church, or denomination NOT doing God’s Work, might be truly converted, and led by God’s Spirit in him? The answer is YES—I have known of a few. But in every case, either they came INTO the organized spiritual organism Christ is using in the real Work of God—or, when their eyes were opened to further light and truth, they rejected it and LOST the Spirit of God. And this was amply demonstrated by the fruits. [Author’s note: All who were baptized in a splinter—any splinter—had better grasp this message.]
“Jesus said that His sheep do hear and RECOGNIZE His voice and His truth, and that they will follow Him!
“God has specially called and chosen you! And WHY? To stand loyally behind Christ’s apostle and HELP in whatever way He opens to you in spreading the Gospel of the Kingdom of God! Yes, you were specially called for a JOB to do! Not JUST to ‘get saved’—to receive eternal life in the Kingdom of God.
“Jesus pictured Himself (Luke 19 ALL) as a man going to God’s throne in heaven to be crowned and officially given God’s Kingdom. He gave each of 10 servants…a pound each. This represented giving each one at conversion one unit of the HOLY SPIRIT.
“On His return…He called each to accounting. One had increased the one unit of God’s Holy Spirit, in standing solidly back of God’s apostle in proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and helping, praying fervently and remaining loyal—in Bible study, increasing his own spiritual knowledge, 10 times what he started out with.
“…one had not grown in grace and in Christ’s knowledge nor had he contributed to GOD’S WORK by tithes, fervent praying or loyalty. HE HAD THE ONE UNIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT ORIGINALLY GIVEN AS GOD’S GIFT TAKEN AWAY. HE DID NOT GET HIS SALVATION OR ETERNAL LIFE.”
“Now Christ Moves Swiftly to Make Church Ready,”
GN, June-July 1979
There are other important things Mr. Armstrong taught about God’s Work, but they are so vital to understand, and in some cases involve so many related issues in which basic understanding has been corrupted within the Laodicean splinters today, that they require their own chapters.
The most badly corrupted doctrine is where to begin…
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