Struggling With Persecution and Attacks

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In between holding evangelistic campaigns, writing and publishing The Plain Truth magazine, broadcasting the radio program, and leading the Church at Eugene, Mr. Armstrong somehow made time for visiting new converts and prospective members. However, lacking local ministers to feed, protect and lead the flock—to counsel with them about their personal problems, and keep them from being deceived by “grievous wolves…speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:29-30)—many brethren gave up. Only a tiny few kept themselves from being conquered by man’s three deadly spiritual enemies: the world, the god of this world (II Cor. 4:4), and the self.

In May 1937, the three-station radio program, in association with high schools across Oregon and southwestern Washington, targeted high school students. This led to a youth camp meeting held in cooperation with the Salem, West Virginia Church of God group.

The son of one of the “twelve apostles” of that group told Mr. Armstrong that the Salem leaders were plotting against him. They planned to discredit him at the camp meeting and thus destroy theRadio Church of God program.

Mr. Armstrong boldly told his attackers that there would be no camp meeting. When one of the “apostles” protested, Mr. Armstrong reminded him that he had rented the campgrounds in his name, and that he also controlled the mailing list. And the vast majority of the attendees were of the congregations he pastored in Eugene and Jefferson. They would follow his lead. “On next Sunday, I shall announce to the radio audience that the camp meeting, to start that night, has been cancelled.nobody will come! Now tell me, please—how are you going to stop me from stopping the camp meeting, and saving the broadcast?”

Though he was reluctant, the man gave his personal guarantee that Mr. Armstrong would not be attacked at the camp meeting. And yet, whenever Mr. Armstrong preached at the meetings, the preacher speaking after him would do everything in his sermon to distort, undermine and rip apart whatever Mr. Armstrong had talked about.

Then came a ministers’ meeting, in which Mr. Armstrong was craftily betrayed by a man he thought was a friend. Speaking before everyone, this “friend” sadly announced that, since Mr. Armstrong was so overworked, the ministry was going to “help” him by relieving him of some of his “burdensome” duties and appoint one of their elders—one who happened to be hostile to Mr. Armstrong—to take over as pastor of the Jefferson congregation.

That was the last straw! Every member of the Eugene church and half the members of the Jefferson congregation, including the local elder and deacon, severed all ties with the Salem, West Virginia group. All cooperation with that organization came to a halt.

Over the many years, that group and its ministers dwindled into numerous, tiny splintering groups. “Then they split and re-split,” Mr. Armstrong later wrote, “until I lost all knowledge of how manysplintering groups there are” (“Personal,” The Good News, August 1969).

Sacrificing for the Work

The Armstrong family was under continual scrutiny by some in the Church. Though the Armstrongs were poor, reduced to wearing hand-me-downs, some actually criticized how they used their income, which came from the tithes and offerings of the lay members, as the Bible instructs.

One woman stopped tithing because she did not want “her” tithes (which actually belong to God— Mal. 3:8-10) to be used to buy silk stockings for Beverly and Dorothy Armstrong. The woman thought that cotton stockings were good enough. (Nylon stockings were not yet invented.) The Armstrong girls were in high school at the time, an awkward age for most who were growing into adulthood. To wear cotton stockings to school at that stage in their young lives would have made them social misfits, dooming them to all kinds of cruel taunts and ridicule. Mrs. Armstrong was determined to keep this from happening, so she humbly accepted worn silk stockings from other women, sewing up the runs in them.

In his autobiography, Mr. Armstrong wrote, “It was incidents like this that soured and prejudiced our children against God’s truth. Through the years most of the members of the church in Eugene lived better, economically, than we.”

In an April 1940 letter, Mr. Armstrong had to inform co-workers that funds were becoming so scarce that he had to take money intended for his family’s needs and use it for God’s Work. They were on the verge of losing their home. One of the Armstrong girls had to quit school. For quite some time, they had gone without much-needed clothing. He wrote, “I could tell you more, but do not want to talk about ourselves—our heavenly Father knows. We are willing and glad to make any sacrifice. but the point is, we have now come to the END, unless substantial help comes at once. The work cannot be held up by this method of personal sacrifice any longer. As long as it was only us who suffered, I said nothing. But now the Lord’s work will stop unless substantial help comes quickly. For the work’s sake I must appeal to our helpers. I would starve, before I would ask one cent as charity for myself. But I’m willing to humiliate myself in any way for the gospel’s sake.”

When he first began the radio program, he only envisioned taking the gospel throughout the Willamette Valley and maybe Portland. After getting on the air in Portland, he set his sights on Seattle, and then the Pacific Northwest. But it was in May 1940 that he began to think in terms of a national—even worldwide—-Work.

The heart-rending sacrifice of one particular married couple, listeners of the KWJJ broadcast, led to the Work being able to afford to broadcast from Seattle. Their offering was followed by three separate offerings of $100 each—the largest sums the Work had ever received. Besides these, three $50 contributions were sent, along with other offerings. The radio program came on the air Sunday, September 15, 1940, at Seattle’s KRSC, a 1,000-watt station. By November, more than 500 subscription requests came from the Seattle market, and overall mail response indicated a listening audience of 150,000, while the magazine had 3,000 subscribers. It took several days of volunteering from the brethren to write or type each mailing address.

THE EARLY YEARS

During the early years of proclaiming the gospel through the Radio Church of God program, Mr. Armstrong drove a tiring weekend circuit he called “a grind”—traveling all night from Eugene to Seattle, then back to Portland, returning to Eugene.

With radio stations in Eugene, Salem, Portland and Seattle, copies of The Plain Truth reached 4,000, with letters from housewives, laborers, farmers, office workers, businessmen, professionals—people from all walks of life.

As the leader of the Work, Mr. Armstrong sacrificed his time and energy to labor under a grueling routine: Leaving Eugene Saturday afternoon, he would travel 320 miles all night to Seattle. That morning, he would go to his hotel and sleep for a few hours. He would be awakened at 5 a.m., shower, shave and dress, and then go to the corner drugstore and buy a newspaper, where he would browse for prophetic news events, while drinking orange juice and coffee. He would finish a 30-minute radio script and make two copies (one for himself, the other for the station owner). Then he would check out of the hotel, and drive to KRSC, scan for last-minute news bulletins, clip them and write out comments, and then go on the air promptly at 8:30 a.m. At nine, he would rush back to his car and drive to Portland, stopping off for breakfast and lunch. He would arrive at Portland by 3 p.m., giving him one hour to check again for last-minute news. Then he would be on the air at 4 p.m., and afterward head for Eugene, arriving at 7:30 p.m. That evening, he would hold a campaign meeting, preaching a sermon every night of the week. During the day, Mr. Armstrong would work in the office answering letters and writing magazine articles, or he would go out and counsel with people, speak with prospective members, etc. On the Sabbath, he would conduct morning and afternoon services, and so the routine started all over again.

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