Herbert W. Armstrong

Herbert W. Armstrong was recognized and respected by leaders in government, industry and education around the world. Until the time of his death in January 1986, he was pastor general of the Worldwide Church of God and editor in chief of The Plain Truth magazine, which he began publishing in 1934.

He was a pioneer in religious broadcasting in the twentieth century. Millions around the world heard his voice on The World Tomorrow radio and television program for over 50 years.

In 1947 Mr. Armstrong founded Ambassador College in Pasadena, California. He was also founder and chairman of the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation, known for its cultural, charitable and humanitarian activities. Herbert Armstrong visited more than 70 countries proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God, and was highly honored by heads of state in such critical areas as Japan and China, Africa, Israel and Egypt. Even in his 90s, Mr. Armstrong continued to write, broadcast and preach the good news that God will intervene to save mankind in this generation! Among his many books are The United States and Britain in Prophecy and his final work, completed in 1985 just months before his death, Mystery of the Ages.

Mr. Armstrong often described the Bible as a jigsaw puzzle. More than any other book he authored, Mystery of the Ages summarizes his entire life's work and puts the pieces of that puzzle together. He felt a tremendous need to get the book to "the largest audience possible." Mr. Armstrong never lived to see that goal realized.

After he died, the Worldwide Church of God, which he founded in 1934, denounced Mr. Armstrong as a heretic and rejected his teachings. As a result, church membership plummeted. More than 70 percent of his followers were driven out or excommunicated from the Worldwide Church of God due to sweeping doctrinal changes. Ambassador College, The World Tomorrow program and almost all of the Ambassador Foundation’s projects are now no longer operational. Gone also is the world-renown concert series held in the magnificent Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, California. The Plain Truth magazine circulation, which topped 8.4 million free copies per month in the late 1980s, has shriveled to less than 150,000 paid subscriptions.

When these doctrinal changes were in their early stages, Gerald Flurry, an ordained Worldwide Church of God minister since 1973, became alarmed and plunged into a yearlong study of the Bible to find the cause of the betrayal he was witnessing. The result was a book titled Malachi’s Message to God’s Church Today. In 1989, nearly four years after Mr. Armstrong’s death, Mr. Flurry was excommunicated from the WCG for continuing to believe and teach what Mr. Armstrong taught. Mr. Flurry immediately founded the Philadelphia Church of God, headquartered in Edmond, Oklahoma.

Since that small beginning, the Philadelphia Church of God has grown dramatically. With over 6,000 people attending Church services in 67 countries, the Philadelphia Church of God proclaims the same gospel message that Herbert W. Armstrong gave to millions.

After Mr. Armstrong died the Worldwide Church of God removed Mystery of the Ages from circulation, stating that it was their “Christian duty” to keep his works out of print. In 1996 a grueling six-year-long court battle began when the Philadelphia Church of God began printing Mystery and giving it away free. The court case ended with the Philadelphia Church of God owning the copyrights to Mystery and 18 other works by Mr. Armstrong.

This shocking, gripping story of the doctrinal hijacking and spiritual destruction of the Worldwide Church of God, and the ensuing court battle over the works of Mr. Armstrong is told in the new book, Raising The Ruins—The Fight to Revive the Legacy of Herbert W. Armstrong, by Stephen Flurry. (Available now in bookstores.)

The PCG has taken on the battle cry of Herbert Armstrong: taking a book that unlocks the entire Bible to “the largest audience possible.” Through its weekly television program The Key of David and its flagship magazine The Philadelphia Trumpet the Philadelphia Church proclaims the good news that World peace is coming! It is true that we live in dangerous times—so dangerous, in fact, that an ominous future for humanity lies ahead unless an Unseen Hand from someplace intervenes forcibly in human affairs. But beyond that sobering warning is the wonderful, inspiring good news of the Bible—that God will step in and, in fulfillment of His unshakable promises, set up a world government to bring peace and prosperity to all peoples, nations and races.

That is the universal message of transcendent hope that the Philadelphia Church of God proclaims to the world.