Steady Opposition
Back to Herbert W. Armstrong
Next Part A Fifteen-month Detour
Naturally, Mr. Armstrong wanted to share this wonderful revealed knowledge of truth with others. The next time he visited brethren in the Willamette Valley, he received another invitation to speak, and that Sabbath morning, he preached that God is our Healer, and still heals today.
However, during the afternoon services, a visiting minister attacked Mr. Armstrong’s sermon, twisting scriptures to drive his point home. This was the first of many attempts by ministers to accuse and attack him. Yet, in spite of this attack, the lay members liked Mr. Armstrong and appreciated his message.
Due to his training in writing advertising copy and magazine articles, Mr. Armstrong routinely transformed his daily Bible studies into articles for his own benefit. He then submitted several of them to The Bible Advocate, a magazine published by the Church of God, Seventh-Day, and his articles began appearing on the front cover.
However, after a (seemingly) friendly visit with a minister from headquarters, Mr. Armstrong’s article submissions were soon rejected.
Mr. Armstrong began to regularly meet with a small group of Church of God brethren who assembled every Sabbath in Oregon City, just outside Portland. Lacking a local minister to guide and teach them, they studied their “Sabbath-school lessons” from quarterlies published by Stanberry headquarters.
Almost immediately, they asked Mr. Armstrong to lead them in studying their lessons, and—because of his drive, growing knowledge of God’s Word, and his ability to organize his thoughts and explain ideas in plain, easy-to-understand language—he was soon delivering “sermons” (more like informal talks) every Sabbath.
G.A. Hobbs, an elderly pillar of the congregation, learned that The Bible Advocate had stopped publishing Mr. Armstrong’s articles. Mr. Hobbs wrote a scorching letter of protest to Stanberry. The editor of the magazine explained that Mr. Armstrong’s articles were being rejected at the request of that visiting minister. Since Mr. Armstrong was not a member of their organization, the minister felt threatened and reasoned that it was dangerous to give him such standing and prestige in the eyes of the local brethren. Mr. Hobbs sent back a fiery response—and Mr. Armstrong’s articles were immediately reinstated.
Contents
A Lesson in Humility
At this time, with only one laundry account to rely upon, the Armstrongs went through very difficult financial times, often going hungry and not having enough money to pay their electric and gas bills. Many times, lacking carfare to take his family, Mr. Armstrong had to travel alone to Sabbath services in Oregon City. There were even times that he had to walk the entire trip.
His family’s situation became so desperate, Mr. Armstrong fervently prayed for God to open a door and provide them with money or a way to earn it.
About an hour or so later, a woman they had never seen before came to their home and told Mr. Armstrong about an opportunity to make money. It involved throwing two truckloads of wood into someone’s basement. In Portland, this was the kind of odd job that was given to people who were “down and out”—the poorest of the poor. To be seen doing this kind of work was a humiliating blow to someone who had once run a successful Chicago advertising business.
But Mr. Armstrong did not allow pride to get in the way. His family’s survival was far more important. He also realized that God was teaching him a valuable lesson in humility. Mr. Armstrong determined to do the best job he could—striving to do it god’s way.
As he stacked the wood into a neat and orderly pile, Mr. Armstrong winced every time someone passed by, for he knew they thought he was nothing more than a bum.
“Each passerby knocked off a little more of that vanity. But I just prayed silently to God about it, and thanked Him for the lesson, and asked Him to help me to be humble and industrious.”
When Mr. Armstrong was finished, he was paid double for doing such fast and orderly work.
Looking back years later at these and many other humbling lessons, Mr. Armstrong recognized that God had been preparing him to fulfill a great commission—a role that required someone of outstanding talent and training, but also of great meekness and humility. He knew that every human being has an idol that must be torn down before God can use him. In Mr. Armstrong’s case, God was tearing down “an egotistical sense of self-importance—a cocky self-assurance—a passion to become successful in the eyes of the material world.”
As He does with all His servants, God was developing His holy, righteous character within Mr. Armstrong, which could only be done through time and experience. While Mr. Armstrong grew in thespiritual riches of biblical knowledge and understanding, God withheld material blessings from him. For 28 years, Mr. Armstrong’s self-confidence was being replaced with total reliance and dependence on God.
Family Additions
Back when Mrs. Armstrong had been healed of her near-deathbed illness in August 1927, she and her husband had claimed God’s promise to completely heal her of everything, including her inability to bear more children.
And so, walking by faith, they had another child—a baby boy. Richard David Armstrong was born on October 13, 1928. “That day,” Mr. Armstrong wrote, “was the happiest day of my life. I was simply filled to overflowing with gratitude to a merciful, loving God who so richly lavishes on us His grace and blessings completely beyond all we can anticipate or hope for—if we yield our lives to Him and do those things that are pleasing in His sight—if we seek first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness!”
The Armstrongs were so grateful to God that they dedicated young Richard to His service. And, 15 months later, God gave them another son—Garner Ted.
The Oregon Conference
Near the end of 1930, the Oregon members of the Church of God (half of whom were opposed to the leadership at Stanberry, Missouri) formed the Oregon Conference. Like other state conferences, its purpose was to create a local treasury and keep their tithes and offerings in the state, instead of sending them off to headquarters. It also established a democratic form of church government: Ministers were employed by, and under the authority of, lay members—in other words, government from the bottom up.
Similar to the question of “Where is God’s true Church?”, Mr. Armstrong was perplexed about Church government. Without the clear understanding that would come to him several years later, he went along with the Conference’s idea of “bottom up” government.
Even though he was not a minister, the newly elected officers asked Mr. Armstrong to hold an 11-night evangelistic campaign in Harrisburg, Oregon. This was the first time he ever preached before the general public, and it yielded fruit: Four new converts asked to be baptized.
Since he was not ordained, Mr. Armstrong consulted with a visiting Stanberry minister, who was confined to his bed due to a broken leg. Both men examined Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 2:37-41, and the example of the deacon Philip in Acts 8 ALL, who baptized those to whom he preached in Samaria. Both men concluded that Mr. Armstrong had God’s authority to baptize these four new converts. So he baptized them.
This brought him criticism from certain church leaders at Stanberry because the Oregon Conference had paid for Mr. Armstrong’s expenses, even though he was not a member of the Church of God, Seventh-Day. This was only the beginning of much more opposition to come.
The campaign stirred things up in the local religious community, and got the attention of a pastor in neighboring Junction City, who invited Mr. Armstrong to hold a campaign there as well.
Ordained Into Christ’s Ministry
In the spring of 1931, the Armstrongs moved to nearby Salem. In the summer, the Oregon Conference asked Mr. R.L. Taylor, a minister visiting from California, to hold an evangelistic campaign down in Eugene. The board members were impressed by his preaching style. Mr. Taylor gladly accepted, but on one condition: that Mr. Armstrong be put into the full-time ministry and join him in the campaign.
Again, when God first called him, the very last thing Mr. Armstrong wanted to become was a minister. However, after having preached a great deal for about three and a half years, he was zealous to serve God in whatever role He determined.
In June 1931, Herbert W. Armstrong was ordained by the Oregon Conference of The Church of God (which was separately incorporated from Stanberry headquarters). Mr. Armstrong was never a member nor under the ministerial authority of Stanberry.
Employed as evangelists at $20 per week, Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Taylor set off to hold their campaign. Yet, contrary to the success he had during his first campaign, Mr. Armstrong was surprised that this one bore no fruit. People came to hear the preaching, but were not moved to do anything about it. He was perplexed.
Then came one stormy, water-soaked night that kept people from attending—everyone except for Elmer and Margaret Fisher, successful farmers who lived seven miles west of Eugene. Since no one else had shown up, services were cancelled. Mr. Taylor decided to go home, but Mr. Armstrong stayed to conduct a Bible study for the Fishers. Upon their request, he revealed to them and explained the New Testament passages about the Sabbath. And, because of his patience, hospitality, and ability to make things plain, Mr. and Mrs. Fisher decided to keep God’s Sabbath.
During the Eugene campaign, the Oregon Conference hired another minister, Elder R. Dailey. He and Mr. Armstrong were assigned to conduct a campaign in St. Helens, about 25 miles north of Portland. Despite newspaper ads and advertising circulars, the campaign was a failure.
With the Conference’s permission, they switched to Umapine. After two weeks of campaign meetings, Mr. Taylor rushed off to attend a Conference business meeting, fearing that he was about to be laid off. But Mr. Armstrong chose to stay behind and continue the campaign—which, when he worked alone, had produced a small congregation of five local members, including four new converts.
They did not have a trained and experienced local minister to lead them, so Mr. Armstrong organized this small group into a local Sabbath school, and appointed one of them to act as superintendent and teacher. The tiny flock lasted for a while after Mr. Armstrong left. However, without a faithful shepherd to lead and protect God’s flock from “grievous wolves” (Acts 20:29), they scattered into the wind.
These and other events would lead Mr. Armstrong to understand two things:
(1) When he teamed with ministers of the Sardis Era, no fruit was borne. But whenever he worked alone, God blessed him with growth. (Years later, Mr. Armstrong asked Mrs. Runcorn and others if there had ever been a single true convert resulting from the efforts of any of the Stanberry ministers. They all answered no.)
(2) God’s people need faithful, loyal ministers to teach, protect, feed and guide them—otherwise, they cannot spiritually and doctrinally survive. Many unsuccessful attempts to start and maintain thriving congregations would prove this point time and again.
Next Part A Fifteen-month Detour
Back to Herbert W. Armstrong