“The True History
of God’s True Church”
According to PCG Pastor General and Book Author Gerald Flurry
“I will build my
Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” – Jesus Christ
“These were not empty words. This was an ironclad
guarantee of the survival of the only institution on Earth founded by the Son
of God.
Christ’s New Testament Church began just weeks after his
crucifixion. It set to work spreading Christ’s gospel message, commanding
repentance and preparing for the kingdom of god. But immediately, the gates of
hell rose against it. Satan-inspired individuals, groups and governments
attempted to silence the message. When that failed, the devil forged a
counterfeit: a false church that claimed Jesus’ name, but mixed the truth with
paganism and lawlessness to lead believers astray. Even more deceitfully, he
infiltrated the true church with false ministers to dismantle it from the
inside.
From its beginning, God’s Church has been in a war for
its life. Though backed by God’s power, it has been a small, persecuted band of
spiritual warriors struggling to fulfill God’s will in a world ruled by the
devil.
The historical record reveals a drama of stunning courage
and faith.
It also reveals a tragedy of shameful compromise and
cowardice. God preserved it so we could take instruction, correction, and
inspiration from the lessons His saints wrote with their tears, sweat, and
blood. It powerfully proves how divine protection and power are required to do
God’s work as we prepare for the return of the Church’s founder to this Earth.”
The above are the very own words of author Gerald Flurry
written at the back cover of the book titled “The True History of GOD’S TRUE
CHURCH and its 2,000-year war with the Great False Church”.
Gerald Flurry is pastor general of the Philadelphia
Church of God. He is the author of nearly 50 books and booklets, editor in
chief of the Philadelphia Trumpet newsmagazine and presenter on the Key of
David television program. He founded Herbert W. Armstrong College in Edmond,
Oklahoma and the Armstrong International Cultural Foundation, a humanitarian
organization that sponsors cultural events and archaeological activities in
Jerusalem.
His writings were a follow-up of Mr. Herbert W.
Armstrong’s book “Mystery of the Ages” wherein he portrays Mr. Armstrong as
some kind of a modern prophet or messenger of God claiming him as the bearer of
the truth about the True Church of God which Mr. Flurry referred to as the
Philadelphia Church of God. Mr. Flurry described in the book the biggest
Satanic False and Counterfeit Church he specifically referred to as the
Catholic Church.
As a Catholic at young age, I partly drifted away but
never abandoned the faith I grew up with, I started listening and learning from
several Born Again Christian Groups, from Baptist Church, 700 Club, and many
other Religious TV Shows. It took me years to have a better understanding of
other religions. Now I know which one really is the One, True, and Apostolic Church
of God – The Catholic Church that the Anglicans in Great Britain started addressing as Roman Catholic Church in the early years and later adapted by many churches worldwide and the
Vatican herself, even though the official name is still Catholic
Church have likewise adapted. However, there is nothing written in the Catholic Church’s Canon Law that says henceforth, the Catholic Church will no longer be named as such but will now be
called Roman Catholic Church. In the early years, Catholicism have divided into two, the Western and the Eastern Catholics. The West is now known as the Roman
Catholics and the East became the Orthodox Catholics.
The book “The History of God’s True Church and its
2,000-year War with the Great False Church” is an offshoot from the “Mystery of
The Ages” written by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong (Founder of the Worldwide Church
of God). Mr. Gerald Flurry took Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong’s doctrines and teachings
as the basis of writing his book, instead that of Jesus Christ’s
true gospels.
The purpose of the author is nothing new to me for I
already know many false teachers and messengers already abound from the early
days of Christianity up until now and will be so until the end of our days. These
false teachers and so-called messengers or ministers of God include writers and
authors of books as well.
Upon reading the book, I became concerned when it is
obvious the author was rewriting the beginning of the Catholic Church slowly directing
her to become the false and counterfeit church of Satan, and at the same time slowly pointing readers to the Philadelphia Church of God as actual True Church of
God.
The book is simply to promote to the readers and to justify
the author’s claim of PCH is from God as taught by Herbert W. Armstrong.
Because of what I read, as Catholic Silent Crusader, I decided
to write this article not to lie, to twist, or to make up things to suit my
ideals and beliefs. Rather, I am seeking for the truthfulness of the contents
of the book.
Instead of refuting Gerald Flurry’s book contents right
after reading it, I did some research and found the Worldwide Church of God (WCG)
published in the internet what they think of the “Mysteries of the Ages” and
why they stopped and discontinued its printing and publication.
Since, the book of Mr. Gerald Flurry almost based entirely
from Mr. Armstrong’s own “Mysteries of the Ages” book; it is safe to say that
the messages and doctrines are identical and the same. It is more about what
Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong’s own belief and not of the true and divine gospels of
Jesus Christ.
Here is what the
WCG says about the "Mystery of the Ages"
Overview of
Doctrinal Errors in Herbert Armstrong’s Mystery of the Ages
Shortly before his death in 1986, Herbert W. Armstrong,
founder of the Worldwide Church of God, compiled many of his older works into
one volume, titled Mystery of the Ages (MA). In 1987, the WCG discovered what
it considered to be significant discrepancies between MA and the Bible, and for
this and other reasons ceased printing the book. At the same time, the church
began to discover and review other biblical discrepancies with church doctrine.
By 1995, the church had undergone major changes in doctrine and scriptural
interpretation.
A historical note
about Mystery of the Ages:
In 1997, the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG) began
printing and distributing MA without permission. The Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals ruled that this was in violation of U.S. copyright laws and instructed
the trial court to enter an injunction against PCG prohibiting it from printing
and publishing MA and to hold a trial for the purpose of entering a judgment
for damages. Pending the trial, a legal settlement was reached in which PCG agreed
to pay WCG if WCG would dismiss the lawsuit and sell to PCG MA and certain
other works written by Herbert Armstrong. WCG accepted the settlement, and as a
consequence, we no longer own or distribute MA.
Following is a chapter-by-chapter overview (not intended
to be exhaustive) of what we consider to be the major faulty premises and
doctrinal errors of Mystery of the Ages.
Herbert Armstrong
titled the introductory section of his book "Author’s Statement"
(pages vii-xiii)
Herbert Armstrong’s teaching
Herbert Armstrong began Mystery of the Ages by providing
the background of his call to ministry. He presented himself as a man of wide
experience who “craved understanding” of “life’s deepest mysteries,” such as “Who
am I?” What am I? Why am I? Is the Bible God’s word? Does God exist? Following
months of virtually night-and-day intensive study, he says God revealed the
answers to him: God does exist and the Bible is his word, but the Bible is a
“coded” book, “not intended to be understood until our day in this latter half
of the twentieth century.”
Armstrong claimed that God revealed to him that the Bible
“is like a jigsaw puzzle—thousands of pieces that need putting together—and the
pieces will fit together in only one way.” Mystery of the Ages, he claimed, put
those pieces together. Traditional Christianity “has been deceived,” he wrote,
but God led him to restore the great mysteries of the Bible.
Problems
Armstrong’s characterization of “professed traditional
Christianity” as teaching a “great controversy” between God and Satan with
Satan winning is incorrect and misleading. He took the erroneous claims of
certain theologically deficient sectarian Protestant groups and held out those
claims as representative of all Christian teaching. In other words, he set up a
straw man by falsely characterizing the teachings of traditional Christianity
and then proceeded to tear down that straw man.
Armstrong’s premise is that all of traditional
Christianity and all Christian leaders have been deceived since the first
century, but that God raised him up in the “end time” to restore the original
truth. He supports his contention by labeling the Bible a “coded book” that no
one since the first century could understand until “our day in this latter half
of the twentieth century,” when God revealed the answers to him. In this way,
Armstrong sets himself up as the only conduit to God’s truth, so that failure
to heed him is failure to heed God’s word.
Comments on
Herbert Armstrong's “Preface” (pages 1-6)
Herbert Armstrong’s teaching
Armstrong sets out the basic questions of life: Who am I?
What am I? Why am I? He faults “rational, scientifically-oriented minds” and
“self-professed scholarly minds” for seeking purely materialistic, rather than
spiritual, answers to these questions. He then names the “seven mysteries”: God,
Angels and evil spirits, Man, Civilization, Israel, the Church, and the Kingdom
of God. All these are mysteries, he says, because the Bible is the “basic
mystery of all,” and he reiterates his basic formula that since the first
century no one has been able to decode it or put together the puzzle pieces
until God specially raised him up to do so.
Problems
Armstrong subtly equates all science and scholarship with
denial of God by failing to point out that not all “rational,
scientifically-oriented minds” or “scholarly minds” are atheistic materialists.
This technique presents Armstrong as the staunch defender of God and the truth
against all religion, science and higher education, which he brands as either
ignorant or intellectually vain or both. Having established himself as the only
one to whom God has given true understanding of life and the Bible, he can
proceed to label basic Christian topics as “mysteries” that only he is divinely
equipped to reveal.
“Introduction: How
the Seven Mysteries Were Revealed,” pages 7-30
Herbert Armstrong’s teaching
In this chapter, Armstrong begins by contrasting human
progress in science and technology with major global problems: proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction, poverty, ignorance, illiteracy, starvation,
disease, crime and violence, immorality, injustice, dishonesty, corruption in
business and government, continual wars and the threat of a nuclear World War
III.
He then sets forth “God’s truth” as the solution to all
these problems, the truth that no one has understood for nearly 1900 years, the
truth that God has now revealed to him alone to proclaim to the world. He
presents himself as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy of “the voice of him
that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord” (Isa. 40:3,
9-10), and the fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy, “Behold, I will send my
messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me” (Mal. 3:1).
Armstrong admits that these prophecies refer to John the
Baptist, but claims that they have a “dual application,” and refer also to him
(Armstrong), who, he claimed, would prepare the way for Jesus’ Second Coming
just as John the Baptist had prepared the way for Jesus’ first coming.
Armstrong cites his personal ministry in publishing and on radio and television
as the “lifted up” voice referred to by the prophets.
Next, he explains that people believe what they do
because that is what they have always heard and been taught since childhood.
They have “carelessly assumed what they believe without question or proof.”
Then he says he was the same way until God struck him down, and proceeds to
compare himself to Moses and Paul as one whom God specially called and gave
special revelation.
As he unfolds his experience of being broken and called
by God, he relates what he implies was a supernatural dream given to his wife
that predicted his ministry, and compares his call to those of Moses, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Jonah, Andrew, Peter and Paul. After God caused his business failures
to humble him, he says, he was challenged on the seventh-day Sabbath and
evolution, which prompted him to undertake “a determined almost night-and-day
research.” What was revealed to him by God during this study was that many of
the teachings of Christian churches were “the diametric opposite of Bible
truth.”
Armstrong’s research was “totally different from that of
students in a seminary,” whom, he declares, merely accept and memorize whatever
is taught. He, in contrast, was “called specially by the living God,” who
taught him in a way “unique in human life and conduct in our time,” His
teaching came from God, while the teachings of all other religious leaders did
not come from God. He compares himself to Paul’s being taught directly and
personally by Jesus Christ.
In discovering the “truth” of the Sabbath, Armstrong
cites how he gave up the world, friends, associates and everything in order to
be faithful to what God had specially revealed to him. As a result, he says, God
led him through the years to understand the seven mysteries.
Problems
The fundamental premise Herbert Armstrong maintains is
that he was given special revelation by God and specially called to be God’s
end-time representative. His religion requires one to trust the veracity of
these claims, because the only basis for his assertions that his teachings are
true is his claim that God revealed them to him and to no other religious
leader. He denigrates seminary training as false and deceptive and sets up the
results of his personal study as coming directly from God. He legitimizes
himself and his religion by branding traditional Christianity as utterly wrong,
in contrast to his own call and teaching, which he holds out as the revelation
of Jesus Christ.
Armstrong’s reasoning is circular: We can know
Armstrong’s teachings are the true message of the Bible because, unlike all
other religious leaders, he was taught directly from God; We can know Armstrong
was taught directly from God because his teachings, unlike those of all other
religious leaders, are the true message of the Bible.
“Chapter 1: Who
and What is God?”
Herbert Armstrong’s teaching
Once again, Armstrong establishes that not only the world
in general, but also all professing Christians do not understand who and what
God is. Only Armstrong, to whom God has given the special revelation of truth,
knows the answers. The answers are in the Bible, of course, but no one knows
how to put the Bible’s jigsaw puzzle pieces together except Armstrong. Consequently,
whatever Armstrong says about God must be true.
In Armstrong’s view, which we have learned earlier in the
book must be equated to God’s view, there are two Gods: One is God and the
other is the Logos, or Word, who was is God. They are composed of spirit, and
have the form and shape of a human being. The Logos, or Word, is the one
through whom God created the universe and the one who became Jesus Christ, at
which time the first God became the Father and the Word became the Son. God is
in charge and the Word is under him in authority, but still fully God and of
the “God kind.” The two of them are eternal and have co-existed together in
perfect love eternally. Together they form the one God Family, and their goal
is to create other Gods to join them as part of their God Family.
The Holy Spirit is not a third God, but rather the power
and mind of the God Family, which emanates from them and which they project in
order to create and to exercise their will over the creation.
This means that the Trinity doctrine, which limits God to
only three Beings, is a satanic, false and pagan doctrine designed to deny the
truth about the real God Family and the plan for humans to enter that Family as
full God Beings who are children of God after the God kind. The Trinity
doctrine did not come from the Bible, but from Satan, who established the Roman
Catholic Church through Simon the Sorcerer. By A.D. 70, all of Christianity was
corrupt and following the ways of Simon the Sorcerer. The Sabbath and Passover
were exchanged for pagan Sunday and Easter, and in the early A.D. 300s, “Dr.
Arius” and other bishops were having to oppose the false Trinity idea. But the
pagan Emperor Constantine had the last say, and the Trinity, along with pagan
Sunday and Easter Sunday worship, were forced on the church.
Through all this, the tiny true church stood for the
truth, but could not prevail against the powerful false church and Roman
emperor. All this was prophesied in Revelation 12 and 17.
Problems
Herbert Armstrong claims that God revealed this “truth”
to him. Only on the basis of faith in that claim could anyone embrace such
“truth.” The Bible supports no such thing. The Bible declares in no uncertain
terms that there is one and only one God, not a “God Family” composed of two
and ultimately billions of God Beings.
Articles about the
Trinity
In his attack on the doctrine of the Trinity, Armstrong
ignores its actual history, resorting instead to blustery, pseudo-authoritative
language to convince readers of his conspiracy theory. The doctrine of the
Trinity was developed over many decades of diligent Christian study of the
Scriptures, bringing together the apparently paradoxical biblical assertions
that there is one God and yet that Jesus Christ is both divine and human in one
person. The Bible describes the Holy Spirit as doing those things that only God
can do, attesting its divinity. The Bible also describes the Holy Spirit as
speaking, sending and revealing, attesting that it is personal. The doctrine of
the Trinity is a human explication of biblically revealed truth: 1) God is one
and only one; 2) The Father is God; 3) The Son is God; and 4) The Holy Spirit
is God. Together these plain, Bible truths mean that the one true God is one in
three and three in one: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The church does not
attempt to explain how this is so, but only that it is so. Armstrong’s
so-called revelation denies the biblical record.
Armstrong’s assertion that Simon the Sorcerer founded the
Roman Catholic Church and his interpretations of the confrontations between
Polycarp, Polycrates and bishops of Rome are historically inaccurate.
“Chapter 2:
Mystery of Angels and Evil Spirits”
Herbert Armstrong’s teaching:
God has revealed to Herbert Armstrong the long-hidden
truth about angels, Satan and the evil spirit powers. This revealed truth is
that God created the angels before the physical universe in order to have help
“in the work of creating, governing and managing what was to be created.” The
angels were given a “proving ground,” the earth, where they were to prove
themselves loyal and obedient to the government of God and build holy,
righteous character. Under Lucifer, the head angel, they were to rule over,
improve and develop the earth, like one puts varnish on unfinished furniture or
a baker puts the “icing on the cake.” If they had succeeded in that, then God
would have put the entire universe under them. However, the angels failed,
since one-third of them sinned by following Lucifer into rebellion against God.
Lucifer then became Satan and the rebelling angels became demons. God
discovered by the angelic rebellion that he could not trust the angels never to
sin, and realized that the only kind of beings he could trust not to sin were
members of the God Family.
The demons were doomed to eternal misery in sin, since
they cannot repent, nor can they be destroyed—not even by God, because God
cannot destroy spirit beings. So God decided to reproduce himself by creating
mortal humans in his image and giving them the potential of being born into his
God Family as God beings like him and the Word. If humans succeed by submitting
to God’s government and building “perfect, holy, righteous and spiritual
character,” they will become Gods and can be trusted never to sin, but since
they are mortal, if there is “sin unrepented of,” they can be destroyed, unlike
the demons.
Problems
The only basis for believing this scenario of humanity as
the “afterthought” following the failure of the angels is Armstrong’s claim
that it was revealed to him in the Bible. The Bible, contrary to Armstrong,
teaches that Jesus Christ was slain from the foundation of the world,
demonstrating that humanity’s creation and redemption was integral to God’s
plan from the beginning of the physical creation and not an afterthought
following angelic failure to rule the earth correctly.
“Chapter 3: The
Mystery of Man”
Herbert Armstrong’s teaching:
The Bible is a coded book, much like a jigsaw puzzle,
which was not to be understood until our time, when God revealed its truth to
Herbert Armstrong. What God showed him is that the angels were created to rule
the universe. But they failed in their first project, which was earth, by
following Lucifer, the head angel, into rebellion. So God decided to reproduce
himself and to do it by creating humanity. Man is to do what the angels failed
to do: “complete the finishing touches by improving and beautifying the earth,”
thereby restoring the government of God and building the holy righteous
character necessary to be born into the God Family as a full God being like God
himself.
Instead, man has ruined the earth and rejected God. So
God sent Jesus Christ the first time to reveal the Father, to live a perfect
life, to overcome Satan and to qualify to replace Satan as ruler of the earth.
Humans who, like Jesus, overcome Satan, self and sin, will sit with Christ in
his throne when he comes to set up the kingdom of God and restore the
government of God.
Problems
Can humans become Gods?
The terms “created” and “God” are mutually exclusive.
Creatures cannot become “God Beings.” God is uncreated and humans are created.
God is Creator, not created. By definition, a created being is not God.
The Bible teaches that the saints are children of God,
not literal Gods in a “God Family.” Armstrong’s comparison of human fathers and
children being of the same “kind” is misleading in reference to God and
children of God. Human children of God are created beings with whom God has
chosen in his divine freedom to have a relationship that is rooted in the
Father’s relationship to Jesus Christ. The Bible does not teach a God Family
consisting of two God Beings to which God is adding billions more “God Beings.”
The only “proof” for Armstrong’s claims is his insistence
that God revealed them to him. The Bible does not support his assertions.
“Chapter 4:
Mystery of Civilization”
Herbert Armstrong’s teaching:
This chapter is mostly a reiteration of previous chapters.
It includes a brief sketch of Bible history, focusing on Noah and Nimrod.
Problems
For the brief historical sketch, Armstrong embellishes
the biblical record of Noah and Nimrod, relying heavily on a book written in
1858 by Alexander Hislop, called The Two Babylons, a hopelessly flawed and
unsupported interpretation of ancient history.
“Chapter 5:
Mystery of Israel”
Herbert
Armstrong’s teaching:
This teaching is laid out in more detail in Armstrong’s
book, The United States and Britain in Prophecy, which Armstrong heavily quotes
in this chapter. Armstrong argues that after Israel divided into northern and
southern kingdoms following the death of Solomon, the Israelites and the Jews
became two separate peoples. The conquering Assyrians removed the northern
tribes from the land and spread them all over their empire, careful to keep
each of the ten tribes separate and distinct. In time each tribe migrated to a
different part of Western Europe and became the modern nations we see there
today. The tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh were the leading tribes, and they
settled in Britain. Manasseh then colonized North America and became the United
States. Armstrong sees this as fulfilling the promises to Abraham and Jacob of
physical blessings, i.e. land and prosperity. These promises, Armstrong
explains, were withheld from ancient Israel for 2520 years as punishment for
their sins. He marks the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 as the end of that
punishment. The reason no one knows who the ten tribes are today, Armstrong
says, is that they lost the identifying sign, which is the seventh day
(Saturday) Sabbath.
But God raised up Herbert Armstrong to call modern Israel
back to God and the Sabbath, and unless these nations respond they will undergo
horrible punishment at the hands of a united Europe, which is the Beast of
Revelation.
Problems
For this teaching, Armstrong relied heavily on the 1917
book, Judah’s Scepter and Joseph’s
Birthright by J.A. Allen. Contrary to Allen and Armstrong, after the
northern and southern kingdoms had fallen, the New Testament refers to
Israelites as Jews, and vice-versa. In the Old Testament, the terms Israel,
Jacob, Ephraim and Judah, while distinguishing between the north and south at
certain times, are also used interchangeably at times in reference to the one
people of God, consisting of 12 tribes, whom he brought out of Egypt through
the sea, and with whom he made an everlasting covenant.
No proof exists to support Allen and Armstrong in their
view that distinct tribes of Israel became the modern nations of Western
Europe. The only authority for this claim is Armstrong’s claim that this
information was “revealed” to him by God. Again, one must first trust Herbert
Armstrong’s claims of divine revelation if one is to give credibility to this
doctrine.
For more details information about the errors of
Armstrong’s lost ten tribes doctrine, please refer to www.gci.org/prophecy/usb
“Chapter 6:
Mystery of the Church”
Herbert Armstrong’s teaching
After a rehash of previous chapters, Armstrong reveals
the key mystery of the church: Herbert Armstrong is the God-trained and
God-ordained “end-time” apostle and leader of it, bearing the apostolic
authority of Peter, the “chief human apostle.” All other churches are part of
the great whore of Revelation and her harlot daughters—Satan’s churches. Only
those who are loyal to God’s government in the church, led by Herbert
Armstrong, will finally qualify to become God Beings at Christ’s return and
take part in the restoration of God’s government to the earth and in bringing
the rest of the world to salvation.
Problems
Armstrong’s brief “synoptic history of the church”
attempts to create in church history a continuous thread linking his own
authority and doctrines with the authority and doctrines of the Jerusalem
church. In it, Armstrong repeats the sectarian viewpoints of Sabbatarian groups
who preceded him and distinguishes himself as the final and most complete
expression of the one and only true church through the ages.
The only authority for Armstrong’s interpretations of
history, human destiny and God’s plan are his claims of divine revelation. His
claims to be the personal fulfillment of the prophecies in Malachi 3:1-5;
4:5-6; Revelation 3:7-13 and Matthew 24:14 exemplify how far he was willing to
take his heretical views.
For more on the error of applying the Israelite Sabbath
and annual Holy Days to Christians, please refer to www.gci.org/law.
“Chapter 7:
Mystery of the Kingdom of God”
Herbert Armstrong’s teaching
Jesus was a Messenger sent from God with a message, and
that message was the kingdom of God. This message had not been proclaimed to
the whole world for about 1,900 years, until the first week in 1953, when
Herbert Armstrong’s message at last reached across the Atlantic and into Europe
via Radio Luxembourg. All other churches today preach a message about Christ,
rather than the message Christ himself taught, which was the gospel of the
kingdom of God. False churches preach a “gospel of grace,” or a “gospel of
salvation,” or a “gospel about Christ,” etc. None of these are the true gospel,
and only by believing the true gospel can one be saved. The one and only true
gospel is that Christ will return and set up his government over the nations
and the universe.
Before concluding, Armstrong provides another strong
reaffirmation of his unique and prophesied God-ordained role as chief apostle
of the one and only true church, reminding readers that all doctrine in the
church, by God’s design, must come only from Christ through Armstrong.
Problems
Herbert Armstrong’s assessment that no church but his
proclaims the return of Christ and his ultimate reign over all nations and the
universe is without basis in fact. His assessment that the gospel is not the
gospel of grace, or of salvation, or about Jesus Christ, is in direct conflict
with the biblical record (Note Mark 1:1; Acts 20:24; Romans 1:1; 15:16, 19; 1
Corinthians 9:12; 2 Corinthians 2:12; 4:4; 9:13: 10:14; 11:7; Galatians 1:7;
Ephesians 1:13; 6:15; Philippians 1:27; 1 Thessalonians 2:8-9; 3:2; 2
Thessalonians 2:8; 1 Timothy 1:11; and 1 Peter 4:17).
Articles showing that the gospel is about Jesus Christ,
not merely a future kingdom
Armstrong’s view of himself as the one and only true
apostle of the one and only true church, through whom all doctrinal and
biblical truth comes from Christ to the church, lies at the heart of all the
heresy in Mystery of the Ages. Only when one accepts Herbert Armstrong’s call,
roll, office and stature as God’s one, true, end-time apostle to the world, can
one believe his unique interpretations of the Bible.
Christian faith is rooted in God’s self-revelation in
Jesus Christ, never in the veracity of claims made by any human to represent
him. Herbert Armstrong’s distinctive interpretations are rooted in his sense of
a personal divine call to be God’s sole authoritative, end-time representative
on earth, and largely based on his study of disreputable sources, who
possessed, like Armstrong, limited understanding of church history combined
with limited skills of biblical interpretation.
Reference: https://www.gci.org/aboutus/mystery
Constantine The Great - http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04295c.htm
Forged Document on Constantine The Great - http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05118a.htm
Simon Magus - http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13797b.htm
"Overview of Doctrinal Errors in Herbert Armstrong’s Mystery of the Ages
Shortly before his death in 1986, Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of the Worldwide Church of God, compiled many of his older works into one volume, titled Mystery of the Ages (MA). In 1987, the WCG discovered what it considered to be significant discrepancies between MA and the Bible, and for this and other reasons ceased printing the book. At the same time, the church began to discover and review other biblical discrepancies with church doctrine. By 1995, the church had undergone major changes in doctrine and scriptural interpretation.
The Worldwide Church of God (WCG) has to undergo major changes in doctrine and scriptural interpretation in 1995. In other words, by the looks of it, WCG believed now that somethings were not right about their doctrines and scriptural interpretation from the onset, thus major changes is in order.
Catholicism has the rightful and original doctrines and explanations of the gospels. There is no more needs to re-interpret and overhaul them.
The Worldwide Church of God (WCG) has to undergo major changes in doctrine and scriptural interpretation in 1995. In other words, by the looks of it, WCG believed now that somethings were not right about their doctrines and scriptural interpretation from the onset, thus major changes is in order.
Catholicism has the rightful and original doctrines and explanations of the gospels. There is no more needs to re-interpret and overhaul them.
May all find the One True and Apostolic Church of God before their times end.
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