Notes from Plain Truth Issues (1963)

Continuing from Post 1, Post 2 and Post 3 let us continue looking at what The Plain Truth was saying during the Kennedy Administration. Many Armstrongites tend to view the time between the founding of the unaccredited Ambassador College in 1947 and the first suspension of Garner Ted Armstrong over adultery in 1972 as a sort of golden age for Armstrongism. But when one actually looks at what was happening in that time it is clear that it was no golden age. In this time HWA's organization, which was then named the Radio Church of God, bore the seeds for Armstrongism's current splintered state. Dogmatism. False prophecies. Fear of a frightful future. Scorn for the outside world. Superstitious fear of doctors and medicines. Such terrible flaws were present within HWA's organization in 1963. In this post we look at issues of HWA's recruitment magazine, The Plain Truth, from its January 1963 issue until the January 1964 issue which was published after the assassination of President Kennedy.

(Please note: In regards to page the cover page is not included so when reading PDF files of these issues of HWA's recruitment magazine add two more pages to get the reference.)

And so we begin.

January 1963

A letter from an exchange student from Japan says his foster family describes HWA's organization as being "very fanatical." 

When I was in Denver, Colorado, as an exchange student from Japan, I listened several times to The World Tomorrow and wrote for a subscription to The Plain Truth; however my foster family in Denver said it was very fanatical and wouldn't let me read it or listen to the program anymore. But I still remember the three or four messages I got to listen to were such an inspiration and blessing to me and now that I am back home in Tokyo, I am writing you for a monthly subscription to the magazine. If you have any subject you need prayer for, do let me know, too.

Now I cannot endorse forcing people to not read or listen to what they want as this person say happen. In this instance it did not work as this person wrote for a subscription after no longer living with this foster family. This person needed to be persuaded that HWA's organization was not worth listening to. I have no direct experience with this situation. 

But this anecdote does illustrate how important it is to share what happened in the world of Armstrongism to encourage others not to walk on the path of Armstrongism. Back in 1963 there was little critical information about Armstrongism available to the public. This foster family would have little, if any, access to printed critical information. Nevertheless they knew enough about HWA's organization to warn this person that they were "very fanatical."

This letter shows that even in 1963 HWA's organization was gaining a bad reputation as being "very fanatical." Those words actually describe Armstrongism very well.

There is also a letter from Florida claiming a miraculous healing had occurred.

You will recall that my niece was in a terrible automobile accident. [Injuries are then described.]... On October 5th I took the anointed handkerchief and placed it on her forehead and all her injuries, asking for her full and complete recovery. She is almost completely well now!  

The editors of HWA's recruitment magazine then mention this.

This was written on October 29, 1962, only 24 days after an anointed cloth was received.

This is what is known as "faith healing." For decades HWA taught that it was wrong and sinful to rely on doctors and medicine for healing. Instead he told his followers to pray to the God of Armstrongism. Many people suffered because of this fanatical rejection of medical science that HWA taught for so long. Some even died. This is a particularly awful and dreadful aspect of Armstrongism that the public deserves to be warned about. 

HWA's personal article boasts that this issue celebrates the 29th anniversary of the start of his recruitment radio broadcast, The World Tomorrow. And yet at the time HWA taught his followers that were forbidden from celebrating the anniversaries of their births and that of their children, namely birthdays. Birthdays are the anniversaries of one's birth.

HWA has an article overseeing the political situation of the world and insisting that it points to the second coming of Christ happening in a very short time. From 1953 onward HWA taught that the Great Tribulation would begin in 1972 with Christ returning three and a half years later in 1975. He mentions Franz-Josef Strauss.

Gene Hogberg has an article discussing political developments in Europe.

David Jon Hill has an article about the Armstrongite hell. It is hell expect there is no consciousness of it for those sent to it. Functionally speaking these are the same.

Herman Hoeh has an article about Germany being present in his Armstrongite interpretation of the Bible. He cites some Iraqi official to claim that the Nazis did go underground and are hiding to seize power any moment now. No such conspiratorial rise to power ever happened.

L. Leroy Neff has an article condemning the ritualistic recitation of the Lord's Prayer.

Garner Ted Armstrong has an article advising people how to have happy, enduring families. Garner Ted Armstrong had a prosperous life because he lived off of tithe payers for most of his adult life. 

Roderick Meredith has an article telling people how to understand the Bible. How is this to be done? By accepting the interpretation of the Bible provided by HWA's organization.

HWA's autobiography discusses the early days of the unaccredited Ambassador College. Features photo of the cover of the January 1947 issue of HWA's recruitment magazine, The Plain Truth, which promoted it before it opened.

February 1963

Garner Ted Armstrong has an article discussing Japan's rapid economic development since the end of World War II in 1945. And so began Armstrongism's long history of scare mongering against Japan in the post-World War II era. It continues in some of the more authoritarian Armstrongite splinter groups to this day.

HWA has an article reciting his peculiar version of the born again doctrine. HWA taught that a Christian is only born again after Christ's return when, according to him, all true Christians, the Armstrongites, will be supernaturally transformed into God beings. The transformation into God beings was taught by HWA to be the moment one is born again.

Garner Ted Armstrong has an article hysterically insisting that Indonesia, then under the rule of President Sukarno, was plotting to conquer Australia. Little did he know President Sukarno would be overthrown in a military coup just two years later and the military rulers launched a purge killed about half a million people destroying the Indonesian Communist Party as a viable political force. Indonesia thereupon allied with the United States.

HWA's autobiography discusses his tithes funded trip to Europe in 1947 under the pretext of trying to establish a second campus for his unaccredited Ambassador College in Lugano, Switzerland. This installment discusses their journey through Britain and France. Page 27 features passport photos of HWA and Loma Armstrong.

Roderick Meredith has an article saying it is important to know what a true Christian is. HWA's organization taught that only the members of HWA's organization were the only true Christians. In this way a Christian is redefined to mean a member of HWA's organization, which was then called the Radio Church of God.

Albert Portune has an article discussing the topic of the secret rapture. HWA's organization taught that there is no secret rapture, instead they taught that members of HWA's organization would flee to a "place of safety" on Earth. Among the Armstrongites this "place of safety" is often identified with Petra in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

The Question and Answer insists that the word Deutsch is derived from a name the Armstrongites insisted was given to Assur, the father of the Assyrians. The author stridently said, "By their own admission they are Assyrians!" (p. 45.) This is all nonsense. Germans are not Assyrians.

March 1963

Letters. One letter scare mongers that there are "pressure groups" out there conspiring to hamper the recruitment efforts of HWA's organization.

HWA discusses President De Gaulle blocking Britain's attempt to join the European Economic Community. President De Gaulle would continue to do so as long as he was in power.

Gene Hogberg has an article about winter weather.

Garner Ted Armstrong has an article insisting that true Christians, by which he means Armstrongites, are still bound by certain Jewish religious rules such as observing the seventh day Sabbath. Neither HWA nor Garner Ted Armstrong were ever professionally trained in how to understand ancient Christian history so they failed to understand that early Christianity reached a consensus that those who were not Jews did not need to become Jews to be Christian. Their identity as Christians existed independently of the Jewish religion. The Armstrongs' promotion of their misunderstanding have caused thousands of people to badly misunderstand this issue.

The Question and Answer assures readers that the early Christians were not Communists, that is it is insisted that, according to HWA's organization, they did not live as a commune. Another question says that Rahab is rightfully counted as one of the righteous even though she lied to protect spies from the ancient Israelites.

Gerhard Marx has an article discussing political developments in West Germany with the goal of reinforcing HWA's dogma that Germany would in the near future transform Europe into a mighty European Empire fated to militarily conquer the United States shortly before Christ's return.

HWA's autobiography discusses HWA and Loma Armstrong's journey into Switzerland in 1947 under the pretext of trying to establish a second campus for HWA's unaccredited Ambassador College in Lugano, Switzerland. Here their journey through Switzerland is discussed.

HWA has an article about living the abundant life. It is easy to do so when one convinces thousands of people to tithe to an organization under his complete control.

Roderick Meredith has an article telling the readers it is important for them to know who is the "true church." Of course HWA's organization, which then called itself the Radio Church of God, taught that it was the "true church" and every other church was false. In this a Christian was redefined as a member of HWA's organization.

April 1963

In the letters section there is a letter mentioning earthquakes. Within Armstrongism it is taught that earthquakes and other natural disasters are a sign of divine anger against sinners. This is a superstition. Earthquakes happen because there are a lot of tectonic activity underground usually along fault lines. But some refuse to accept what is happening and scare people by exploiting natural disasters to insist that some supernatural force did it and that this supernatural force can somehow be manipulated into not letting an earthquake occur where you are. 

HWA has an article about colleges. He says most colleges will be obsolete in fifteen years. This is a reference to his prophecy of 1972-5, dates he taught to his followers since 1953.

Garner Ted Armstrong has an article scare mongering about the "new Germany," continuing to promote the false prophecy that very soon Germany would lead a future European Empire into militarily conquering the United States. Franz-Josef Strauss is mentioned.

HWA has an article saying that Jesus Christ died on the cross on a Wednesday and was in a state of unconsciousness, which is known in related Adventist sects as "soul sleep," until being resurrected late Saturday afternoon. HWA taught that after death humans are in a state of unconsciousness until God resurrects later. In other related religious movements this is named as "soul sleep" but HWA always refused to use this name. This is similar to what is taught among the Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses, both of which are ultimately derived from the Millerite Adventists of the 1830s-1840s. 

Roderick Meredith has an article telling readers they need to be baptized by immersion as part of the process of joining HWA's organization.

HWA's autobiography discusses HWA and Loma Armstrong returning home via Britain and a particularly stormy Atlantic Ocean in 1947.

Raymond McNair has an article bemoaning the supposed decline and fall of the British Empire. Because of their embrace of British Israelism the Armstrongites have never properly understood the disintegration and subsequent reorganization of what used to be the British Empire. It fell because no one needed it anymore. The colonized peoples realized there was nothing special about British people compared with other people. Neither the colonized or the colonizers could justify why one nation should rule over so many others. Britain no longer needed a mighty military or to rule over the seas when they were allied with the United States and western Europe. Even the British 1% did not need it anymore. But the Armstrongites, blinded by British Israelism, think the fall of the British Empire was a terrible wrong and a sign of the Armstrongite God's wrath when it was no such thing.

McNair's article features a bigoted photo caption mocking a Hindu religious ceremony on page 27.

The teeming multitudes of India are part of the British Commonwealth--in name only. In this scene are thousands of religious Hindus in the Jumna River bathing on "body cleansing day." Waters are consider holy even if sewage-ridden.

J. W. Robinson has an article saying that farming is about to go down the drain due to genetic diseases afflicting livestock and other such things. Fifty-eight years later farmers continue to farm.

May 1963

Herman Hoeh has an article scare mongering about the rise of the United Arab Republic with Iraq agreeing to join Egypt and Syria in this union. These events are also used to scare monger about Germans working in the Middle East. Little did HWA's organization know this union of Arab states would collapse just a few months later. The union between Egypt and Syria only lasted five years (1958-63).

Garner Ted Armstrong has an article vilifying colleges as producing mental illness and making people mentally unbalanced. This is done to promote his own (unaccredited) college, Ambassador College. This is an exercise in discredited the accredited competition.

Raymond McNair has an article continuing to bemoan the supposed decline and fall of the British Empire.

Page 29 features a photo of Allied soldiers moving bodies of some of the victims of Nazi crimes from Bergen-Belsen in 1945.

Roderick Meredith has an article insisting that those who tithe to HWA's organization will be blessed with financial blessings.

Herman Hoeh has an article insisting that HWA's organization have all the answers you need regardless of what any historian should happen to say based on their analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Again this is an exercise of preemptively discrediting information that could contradict the teachings of HWA's organization 

J. W. Robinson has an article continue to say that farming is in big trouble.

June 1963

Garner Ted Armstrong had an article bewailing the supposed lose of power, influence and prestige for the United States in the Caribbean. Throughout the rest of the Cold War era the United States would exert much trouble to combat any perceived attempt among not only the Caribbean nations but in all of Latin America. To this day the United States maintains a dominant position within the Caribbean. In 1983 the US even invaded Grenada and deposed a leftist government there. The US blockade against Cuba remains in force to this day. The Armstrongites in 1963 completely failed to foresee such things because they cannot see the future.

David Jon Hill has an article scare mongering about volcanos. One is reminded of ancient wisdom: Do not be bewildered by the signs of the heavens. The same attitude should be taken in regards to natural seismic activity.

Roderick Meredith has an article saying the future European Empire fated to militarily conquer America is rising up and about to fulfill its Armstrongite devised destiny any moment now. Fifty-eight years the Armstrongites are still waiting for this supposed catastrophe.

Herman Hoeh has an article assuring his readers that there is a way of escape from the dire future the Armstrongites kept scaring everyone with. HWA's organization taught that their members would be supernaturally protected by the Armstrongite God and would be moved to a "place of safety," which was often identified with Petra in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

In Hoeh's article it is implied that Adolf Hitler was demon possessed. But Armstrongites seem to ignore a problem with this idea. If Adolf Hitler was demon possessed as Hoeh alleged here wouldn't that mean that Hitler was innocent of his countless crimes? If Hitler was demon possessed then that implies that he was not responsible for his crimes. Shame on the Armstrongites for minimizing the guilt of Adolf Hitler and the genocidal regime he led by claiming that Hitler was demon possessed.

Gene Hogberg has an article condemning brutality in sports.

Garner Ted Armstrong has an article stating that Paul's writings are to be viewed as divinely inspired and condemning the idea that Paul was presenting his own ideas in his writings preserved in the New Testament.

July 1963

Gene Hughes has an article discussing France's plans to conduct nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific.

Garner Ted Armstrong has an article discussing the Abomination of Desolation.  

Roderick Meredith has an article claiming to reveal the true identity of the False Prophet mentioned in Revelation. He taught it would be the final Pope.

Raymond McNair has an article saying society outside of HWA's organization is uncivilized and uncouth.

David Jon Hill has an article stating that the Armstrongite interpretation of the gospel is embedded within the Old Testament. Many within the Jewish community would vociferously disagree with that assertion.

L. E. Torrance has an article seeking to refute evolution by saying the idea of evolution has itself evolved.

L. E. Torrance has an article advising readers how to get prosperous employment.

August 1963

Roderick Meredith has an article about race relations. It is hard to convey the madness and fanaticism of this article. Only by reading of the article can one grasp the horror of this article. Everything about the article is written under the assumption that in just a few years (1972-5) everything will drastically change after Christ's return. It is asserted that keeping races separate is the natural way to manage race relations from the perspective of humanity and the Armstrongite God. (By the way, that is wrong.) The Armstrongite God will solve race relations after 1975 by separating the races into their respective homelands. Meredith condemns the civil rights movement as a plot to permit interracial marriage. The article is presented as forging an enlightened third way beyond segregation and equality. It is no such thing. It is clearly in favor of segregation. Shame on HWA's organization for stirring up and encouraging opposition to the civil rights movement back in this time as was done in Roderick Meredith's article above.

Herman Hoeh has an article saying President Kennedy's visit to the Federal Republic of Germany did not go very well. It is insisted that the Germans applauded President Kennedy simply because they were ordered to do so. They only showed actual enthusiasm in response to a visit by President De Gaulle. President Kennedy's visit is portrayed as a desperate and futile attempt by President Kennedy to stop West Germany from getting closer to France.  

Garner Ted Armstrong has an article providing a brief background of HWA's organization. In this article he denies that HWA's organization was influenced by the Jehovah's Witnesses.

[Garner Ted Armstrong quotes a letter:] "My wife is a Jehovah's Witness and I am a Catholic. My wife thinks you are now or were at one time a Jehovah's Witness. I honestly don't have any idea what your religion is...," writes a man from Missouri. His wife is wrong--neither my father nor I have ever been remotely connected to the Jehovah's Witnesses--or any of their writings. (p. 9.)

Anyone familiar with the teachings of the Jehovah's Witnesses know that many things taught by Herbert Armstrong and his imitators are very similar to that of the former. Fixation on the second coming. Soul sleep. Not going to Heaven after death. Pyramidology. Jesus lacking divinity while living as a human. Denial of the Trinity. Relegating the Holy Spirit to merely an impersonal force. Condemning Christmas, Easter and birthdays. The superstitious condemnation of vaccines and medical science which the Jehovah's Witnesses also adhered to from 1921 until 1952. The God Family doctrine. Etc. 

Back in the June 1953 issue of his recruitment magazine, The Plain Truth, HWA also denied a link with the Jehovah's Witnesses. But in that article he admitted he had read some of their writings but he implausibly insisted that he arrived at similar conclusions independently of what the Jehovah's Witnesses said. What nonsense. It is quite clear that Herbert Armstrong was influenced by the Jehovah's Witnesses no matter how many times this quite evident link is denied.

Also Garner Ted Armstrong assures his readers that his father's autobiography can be trusted.

Herbert W. Armstrong ... strives to give readers of [The Plain Truth] the real inside story about himself! It's TRUE--It's ACCURATE! I know because I well remember many of these personal incidents he related. (p. 23.)

Garner Ted Armstrong was born in 1930. Many things HWA described in his autobiography occurred before Garner Ted Armstrong was even born or was too young to understand what was happening. There is of course no way Garner Ted Armstrong could possibly verify much of what his father stated in his autobiography. It is shameful that Garner Ted Armstrong would pretend otherwise.

Page 22 features a photo of recruitment writings being moved onto a vehicle after being produced by Ambassador Press. Page 26 features a photo of Garner Ted Armstrong in his office. Page 27 features a photo of Herbert Armstrong in his office. It also shows what is described as being the newly designed seal of HWA's unaccredited Ambassador College.

Dibar Apartian has an article insisting that the interpretation of Bible prophecy accepted within HWA's organization explains what will happen to France. He discusses widespread tax evasion. France's nuclear weapons program. He alludes to the date 1972 which was then taught by HWA's organization to be the year the Great Tribulation would begin. He also scare mongers about a future European Empire.

Knowing that Apartian spoke French fluently it is strange to see him write of a French speaking man's talk to him as though it were written by one unfamiliar with French.

[The French customs inspector] smiled with half admiration and half sarcasm. "Americans rich," he went on, "they do big things. But then, they have much, much money." (p. 12.)

David Jon Hill has an article asking, what is the Devil's religion? In the world of Armstrongism this is largely a question that cannot be answered in a straight forward manner.

Ronald Kelly has an article scare mongering about world hunger. Little did he know scientific advances in the Green Revolution already underway would prevent such a feared famine from occurring.

September 1963

Gene Hogberg has an article insisting that the United States will very soon suffer an economic catastrophe. Fifty-eight years later the Armstrongites are still waiting for this feared catastrophe. The economic downturn in 2020 caused by the Covid-19 pandemic is most emphatically not what the Armstrongites like Gene Hogberg warned about.

Garner Ted Armstrong has an article complaining that society is falling apart by glorifying the "goof-off." He moans and complains about people on social welfare. He even indulges in fat shaming. This is yet another tirade that the economically deprived will have heard over and over again.

Herman Hoeh, doctor of an unaccredited college, has an article saying that archaeological discoveries agree with HWA's organization's interpretation of the Bible. He even says that the archaeologists are lying about their discoveries to prevent the people from following rules described in the Bible.

I am finding anew in this Ashdod digging that archaeological reports do not disclose all that is found in archaeological diggings. Archaeologists dig up much more evidence than you hear about. ... Neither archaeologists nor ministers want to accept anything that supports the Bible--because they are unwilling to accept the Bible at face value. (p. 7.)

What men dig up are facts. Facts are fine. But it is the THEORY of how facts are to be understood that is in error. They go to the Philistines to understand the Bible, not to the Bible to understand the remains left by the Philistines. I am finding that out here first-hand! (p. 46.)

Hoeh's article also features this photo caption that refuses to mention that it was the State of Israel which expelled "the Arabs [meaning the Palestinians] and Egyptians" from Ashdod. Many of the descendants of those Palestinians are now refugees living in the blockaded Palestinian Gaza Strip.

The village of Ashdod as it looked before the Arabs and Egyptians were expelled in 1948. Dr. Hoeh is assisting in the excavating of this Biblical city. (p. 7.)

Gene Hogberg has an article discussing the Sino-Soviet Split. It would be nine long years before President Nixon took advantage of this split and embarked on establishing diplomatic ties with China (and thus gained the possibility of playing off China against the Soviet Union).

Leslie McCollough has an article discussing the tragic and ever present problem of people dying by suicide.

HWA's autobiography discusses about "Christian Fundamentalism" while discussing an early faculty member of the unaccredited Ambassador College. HWA condemns Christian Fundamentalists for not obeying the law, namely certain rituals and rules as HWA selectively taught them. HWA failed to understand that Christians are under no obligation to observe Jewish rituals and rules to be a Christian.

Lynn Torrance has an article saying that evolution could not possibly be true because it contradicts the stance of HWA's organization regarding early history.

October 1963

HWA has an little article insisting that they, meaning his organization, do not take any stance regarding the civil rights struggle which is idiosyncratically referred to as "the race issue."

HWA has an article about the civil rights struggle that was then so prominent in the public affair of the nation. HWA condemns "forced integration." This is one of the most important and consequential challenges facing the United States and Herbert Armstrong, pretender prophet, failed his nation and society by choosing to side with racial segregation. His hollow denials of taking sides rings empty.

Roderick Meredith has an article written from the Middle East. He denounces President Nasser and says he has a lot of influence in Lebanon. He scare mongers about German scientists aiding the development of Egypt's military. He cites the division of Jerusalem between Israel and Jordan as being in accord with Armstrongite predictions of the future. He states that he will soon cross the armed border from Jordan into Israel in Jerusalem soon. He also presents an interpretation of the Second Coming contrary to what is often taught among the Armstrongites: Meredith said that Christ would return to stop the European Empire and the Communists (Russia, China and various allies) fighting each other at Jerusalem. 

Garner Ted Armstrong has an article encouraging people to have more self-confidence.

HWA has an article insisting that polygamy was not practiced in the Old Testament era even though it clearly was. HWA also advances a bizarre interpretation of II Samuel 11-12 while failing to note that those chapters are a foreshadowing of Absalom's revolt. In Talmudic Judaism polygamy was allowed but it was not viewed as a mitzvot (righteous deed).

The Question and Answer discuss how to talk about intimate relationships with teenaged children.

Robert Boraker has an article scare mongering that the Europeans are plotting to change things in Ireland.

November 1963

There is a brief article discussing the retirement of Chancellor Adenauer.

Herman Hoeh has an article discussing Pope Paul VI's call for church unity. The Armstrongites teach that the Roman Catholic Church are fated to seize control of the Protestant churches and impose a forced unity submitting to the final Pope who is identified by the Armstrongites with the false prophet mentioned in Revelation. In reality no such thing is being except in the minds of marginal fanatics.

C. Wayne Cole has an article discussing the establishment of Malaysia as an independent nation state. It is implied that Malaysia would soon fall to "Communists." More specifically it is implied that Malaysia would soon be conquered by Indonesia. At the time Indonesia was ruled by a left wing government that HWA's organization viewed as being essentially Communist. Very soon war would indeed erupt between Indonesia and Malaysia but, little did the Armstrongites know, peace was soon restored, Indonesia's President Sukarno would soon be overthrown with much bloodshed and Malaysia continues to this day as an independent nation.

Roderick Meredith has an article seeking to make the reader become doubtful about his or her own religion in order to convince them to join HWA's organization.

HWA has an article complains that many people do not view Jesus Christ in ways contrary to how HWA's interpretation of Jesus Christ. 

HWA's autobiography continues in this issue. Page 14 features a photo of the first four students of the unaccredited Ambassador College. One would split away from HWA's organization in 1974 after changes over Pentecost and Divorce and Remarriage, namely Cole. One would remain in WCG after the Tkach changes, namely Hoeh.

Robert Gentet has an article assuring his readers that dinosaurs existed before Adam because this aligns with what HWA's organization teaches. HWA taught that the Earth was created twice. There was a first creation in which the Earth was populated with Angels. That was when the dinosaurs lived. But then Lucifer rebelled against the Armstrongite God becoming Satan the Devil and caused the Earth to be destroyed. After that first catastrophe the Armstrongite God recreated the Earth but this time added human beings on it. This recreation, HWA and his imitators say, is what is described in Genesis 1-2.

Roderick Meredith has an article saying that women must not be placed in positions of authority over men in a church. He also states that prophets have no administrative authority over lay members. To this day many of the Armstrongites, which are mainly male dominated, do not allow women to be placed in positions of authority, such as being a minister, within their organizations.

Allen Manteufel has an article reporting from a conference of teachers in Chicago.

December 1963

Letters regarding the "race issue" published in this issue of HWA's recruitment magazine was discussed in a previous post.

Garner Ted Armstrong has an article fearfully warning Americans that West Germany is developing rapidly. The rise of Ludwig Erhard to the Chancellorship is also discussed. This is portrayed as a dire development. HWA's organization taught that Germany would lead a future European Empire fated to militarily conquer the United States in the Great Tribulation which was said to begin in 1972.

Roderick Meredith has an article presenting ten reasons why the Armstrongite Christ simply must return soon. It is insisted that many Western cities would soon be destroyed by nuclear weapons. Among other things Roderick Meredith insists that "race war" is about to occur.

Albert Portune has an article condemning Christmas just like the Jehovah's Witnesses.

The Questions and Answer responds to a person who speculates that going beyond Earth is somehow contrary to religion. That is the sort of people HWA's recruitment magazine appealed to.

L. E. Torrance has an article saying the Great Flood described in Genesis 6-9 did happen because it aligns with what HWA's organization taught about this subject.

January 1964

This was the first issue published after the assassination of President Kennedy.

HWA has a personal article describing how he heard about the shooting and death of the President while teaching a class in his unaccredited college.

HWA has an article predicting what was likely to happen in 1964 in such a way as to promote his prophesies that the end of the world as we know would occur in 1972-5. He implies that the newly installed President Johnson might be the last President of the United States. (He was not.)

Garner Ted Armstrong has an article bemoaning the problem of killing in the United States.

The Questions and Answers discusses the allegedly impending fall of the United States and Britain which is falsely compared with the fall of the Western Roman Empire. That is a false equivalence. Also another question asks if there was any prophetic significance to the murder of the President.

HWA's autobiography discusses how his unaccredited Ambassador College allowed him to get his recruitment magazine reliably published every month by adding personnel from students of his unaccredited college.

Herman Hoeh has an article calling for people to respect governmental authority. The murder of the President is blamed on a widespread contempt for political authorities.

Roderick Meredith has an article discussing how the unaccredited Ambassador College heard about the assassination. He mentions how he and Garner Ted Armstrong heard about the assassination.

There is an article detailing how members of HWA's organization reporting reactions to the assassination in West Germany, Australia, the Philippines, Britain, Canada, apartheid South Africa and Switzerland.   

An article written back in the January 1956 issue of HWA's recruitment magazine by a "Wartime Naval Intelligence Officer" is reprinted to scare monger that the Soviet Union is plotting to make a more destructive nuclear weapons.

L. E. Torrance has an article continuing to promote the interpretation of the Great Flood taught by HWA's organization.

***

And so this post ends.

There was no golden age of the supposed Philadelphia era. All the ingredients for the current degraded state of Armstrongism were all well present back in the height of the "golden age" of Armstrongism in 1962-4.

There is no need to listen to false prophets.

Notes from Plain Truth Issues (1962)

Continuing on from Post 1 and Post 2 let us now take a look at what was written in The Plain Truth, the recruitment magazine for HWA's organization which was then called the Radio Church of God back in 1962. 

Among people influenced by what was taught in HWA's organization, the Armstrongites, the period between the founding of Ambassador College in 1947 and the first suspension of Garner Ted Armstrong over an adulterous affair in 1972 tends to be viewed as a sort of golden age when all was well in the organization. But once any person actually looks at what was happening one will see it was no golden age. Many of the problems that continue to afflict the Armstrongite organizations were already well present within HWA's organization. Authoritarianism. Dogmatism. Racism. Homophobia. McCarthyite paranoia. A scorn for anything contrary to what was taught by HWA's organization. Superstitious loathing of medical science and doctors. Tithing with the expectation of gaining divine favor. False prophecies that did not occur as was foretold.

A major reason why the organization was so united was that HWA and Co. had been teaching since 1953 that the Great Tribulation would begin in 1972 with Christ's return occurring three and a half years later in 1975. With this prophecy the people in the organization had a common goal and a shared feeling of excitement to encourage them to expand the organization. But by 1972 the cracks began to show in HWA's organization. 

But that happens later. For now in this post we focus on 1962, the year in which civilization as we know it was almost destroyed as a result of the intense rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union in the height of the Cold War.

March 1962

The letters section features this response.

The truth is very different and sometimes, for the natural man, very difficult to believe until you have proved it for yourself. The real reason most people don't agree with God is that they are unwilling to do what he says. (p. 2.)

In the personal Herbert Armstrong talks about the costs of distributing and delivering a mass circulation magazine such as his recruitment magazine, The Plain Truth.

David Jon Hill has an article fearfully describing the rise of West Germany.

Herbert Armstrong also has an article denouncing psychology. He denounces it as "idiotic." He shrilly insists that psychologists have been brainwashed.

Herbert Armstrong mentions a prediction that the world would end on February 2, 1962. What fools! The Great Tribulation was clearly going to start in 1972 with Christ's return occurring three and a half years later in 1975, according to HWA and Herman Hoeh at this time.

They got some "Swedish biochemist" to do a guest lecture at Ambassador College to say, "It is UNNATURAL to get sick." What utter nonsense. Then why does every other creature on Earth gets sick as well?

Herman Hoeh has an article insisting that historians were not seeking the truth and cannot be trusted because they say things contrary to what HWA's organization teaches.

Lynn Torrance has an article hysterically entitled "German Rationalism Exposed!" condemning various German scholars for interpreting in ways contrary to what was taught by HWA's organization.

Let's see. Plain Truth readers of this issue were told not to listen to psychologists, historians or "German rationalism." That is a lot of people to ignore. This is one of the characteristics of cults, they try to control what information you have access to.

April 1962

There are letters. There's a rhetorical one. In one a retired policeman requests a few free booklets to check if it is not a racket. Little does he know the racket comes in later after one voluntarily sends a donation and when the interested readers is told to tithe to HWA's organization.

There's a homophobic letter from San Francisco, California written in response to an article by Roderick Meredith. When this was written the LGBT community had little protection from the widespread social stigma imposed upon them at this time. At this time same sex attraction was even considered a disorder by the American Psychologist Association although psychologists at this time were starting to rethink such things.

"I have read 'The Shocking Truth About Queer Men' several times. The facts on the existence of effeminates are obvious and self-evident, but your analysis of the reasons and your quotations from the Bible are quite amazing. This may be the reason why I have been attracted to you. Most so-called Christian churches are effeminate in their very nature. They don't teach religion in a manly way. They paint Christ as a weak-kneed cream-puff.

"I am also amazed at the youth in your organization and I am sure that many of your listeners and followers are young people. I am 33 myself. Your religion is the most down to earth religion I have ever heard."

Here's a rhetorical letter from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

You are either the biggest fraud in this century or the nearest thing to divine truth since Paul. If you are the former, God will deal with you in due time in His own way. If you are the latter, you are and could be the greatest blessing to this hellbent world that has happened in this century. I am persuaded you are the latter. 

Garner Ted Armstrong talks about John Glenn's orbiting of the Earth.

Herman Hoeh promotes their teaching that Jesus died after being stabbed with a spear citing an unusual reading of Matthew.

Roderick Meredith has an article assuring potential students that Ambassador College is wonderful. You have got to join.

Garner Ted Armstrong has an article explaining why Jesus was born in 4 BC (before Christ). In the article he cites Alexander Hyslop's anti-Catholic polemic, The Two Babylons, a thoroughly discredited book. It is presented in an alarmist manner as evidence of living in a paganized world.

Lynn Torrance's denunciation of "German rationalism" continues.

Garner Ted Armstrong gives parenting advice. Similar article appear in many issues of HWA's recruitment magazine at this time. In 1963 Garner Ted Armstrong would release a booklet entitled The Plain Truth About Child Rearing which was promoted within HWA's organization. Many survivors of Armstrongism say this booklet contributed to creating a culture of harsh, even abusive, treatment of children within HWA's organization in which corporal punishment was widely encouraged. Knowing these facts we reach the conclusion: Don't take parental advice from Garner Ted Armstrong's dreaded writings about child rearing. 

May 1962

Here's a letter from a lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia.

I am a lawyer by training and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the articles in The Plain Truth. You really enlightened me about being born again. I have checked you in the Bible and see that you are so right. I am glad that I am not as confused in Georgia Law as some so-called Theologians are about the Bible! (p. 2.)

Walter Martin in his book, The Kingdom of the Cults, was utterly unimpressed with HWA's interpretation of being born again. He even stated that he believed that HWA was maliciously lying about this doctrine. HWA had no professional training in reading the New Testament in Greek.

Here's a letter from Northern Ireland.

What you have been revealing from the Bible certainly seems to be taking place before our very eyes. It pays to watch world events. I read your magazine every month. There is nothing to compare with what you preach, and it is backed up by Scripture. (p. 2.)

Little did this person know but in just a few years Northern Ireland would be plunged into a protracted civil war. 

In response to a letter commenting on the stance of HWA's organization that there would be no war between the United States and the Soviet Union an editor of the recruitment magazine wrote this:

Many people wonder if this year will see war with Russia. Do you know? If not, write immediately for the free article 'Will Russia Attack America?' (p. 23.)

Later that year the United States and the Soviet Union very nearly went to war over Cuba. 1962 is the year civilization as we knew it nearly got destroyed. Thankfully the possibility of nuclear war is now much less likely.

Herbert Armstrong finds himself having to apologize for errors in his March 1962 personal regarding the cost of magazine distribution.

Gene Hogberg has an article scare mongering about elections in Argentina that favored Peronist candidates. The rise of left wing political parties in Latin America are portrayed in a hostile manner.

Herbert Armstrong denounces the idea that the law was nailed to the cross.

Garner Ted Armstrong warns of Europe rising up.

Garner Ted Armstrong has an article asking, how do you believe what you believe? Here this is a recruitment trick designed to make people doubt themselves in order to make them more likely to just go along with what HWA's organization says.

J. W. Robinson has an article saying that Jesus had four younger brothers and at least two sisters who were the children of Joseph and Mary after Jesus' birth.

Roderick Meredith has an article stating that baptism by immersion is necessary.

The Question and Answer discusses sports, namely which sports are allowed or not. What about gambling? In my experience LCG opposed gambling so it is reasonable to assume the same of HWA's organization in 1962. The other question concerns when Jesus was born.

Lynn Torrance has an article entitled "The real origins of Communism!"

Herman Hoeh has an article denouncing evolution because it contradicts what HWA's organization says on this topic.

Robert Boraker has an article speculating if West Germany was somehow colluding with the Soviet Union.

June 1962

Here's a letter from a serviceman in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina who said he just cannot find anything wrong with what HWA and followers are saying in their recruitment which is designed to persuaded to join HWA's organization.

For some time I have been studying religions and searching for one that really made some sense. Then one day a friend of mine told me about your program and I tried you out. At present I have been listening for almost 2 months and I do not know whether to fully believe you or to take what you say with a grain of salt. I must admit that what you say is quite logical but at the same time I am afraid that what you say might really prove to be true. Last night I sat down with the March Plain Truth and I spent almost 3 hours trying to prove that what you said was false but at the end of that time I found that I could not tear down one single sentence out of any article. Instead I found more truth in it than I had at first. (p. 2.)

They print a letter from minister who read up some of their recruitment writings are concluded, "Now I am certain it is the true gospel." 

Herbert Armstrong says Moscow was worried about East Germany's slugging economy. This topic is then used to promote his scare mongering about a future European Empire.

Gene Hogberg has an article discussing President Kennedy ordering the steel business to not raise the price of steel.

Jack Elliot has an article entitled, "What's wrong with science?" What is wrong? Namely scientists are not saying what HWA's organization says.

Roderick Meredith has an article about mental health. This is not a good idea. 

Herman Hoeh moans about the national debt reaching a trillion dollars.

Garner Ted Armstrong has an article entitled, "The CURSE of TELEVISION." Once again HWA's organization is trying to control what information their followers are accessing.

Albert Portune has an article asking "Is sin obsolete?" Of course not, is the answer provided by HWA's organization.

July 1962

There are letters. This is one letter condemning modern child rearing because HWA's organization told this person to view it that way. One letter from Burma (Myanmar). One Canadian letter says all the articles sound the same which, strangely enough, is meant as a compliment. One letter compliments the recruitment magazine for their "scoop" on the rise of the European Common Market.

Herbert Armstrong denounces Britain's attempt to join the European market. Little did he know that President de Gaulle would carefully keep Britain out. Britain would not enter until 1972. HWA then recites his teaching of a future European Empire. While reciting this teaching he says this:

Meanwhile the chief bishops of the Church, at Rome, became more influential than civil rulers. In 554 A.D., at the behest of the chief Bishop of Rome, now called the Pope, Justinian restored the Empire in the west. He was crowned by the Pope. He knelt before the Pope, acknowledging his supremacy. (p. 25.)

How did Herbert Armstrong know that Justinian was crowned by the Pope? How did he know that Justinian bowed before the Pope? It would be good to know if there are any historical sources to back up these claims of his. I welcome clarification. But until someone does so I am saying this: I think Herbert Armstrong made those details up.

Herbert Armstrong has an article saying education will be so much better after Christ returns.

Herman Hoeh has an article scare mongering about President de Gaulle stoking up nationalist feelings in France.

Lynn Torrance has an article scare mongering about the Communists. He confidently insists that the political moves of the Soviet Union in international relations can be easily explained by reading some statements Lenin made decades ago in a drastically different political setting.

Well-meaning people speculate, theorize, and rationalize that what the communist leaders have written they do not mean, but history clearly shows that they have not deviated from this blueprint, from this plan of world conquest--one iota. (p. 4.)

Back in Lenin's time, aside from World War I, America tended to adopt an isolationist stance regarding European politics and tried to stay out of their squabbles. This approach was abandoned only after the Pearl Harbor attack and Hitler's declaration of war against the United States which was decades after Lenin's time.

On page 16 there is a photo of a university building with this mean spirited caption. In this context "materialists" is used as sort of like a euphemism for Atheists, just slightly more specifically connected Communists.

This massive, cold-appearing University of Freiburg, Germany, teaches German rationalism. How many cold-blooded materialists has it produced?

Roderick Meredith has an article promoting what he calls seven laws of radiant health. His seventh law is avoid bodily injury. What profound words! How could anyone outside of HWA's organization figure out something like that?

Herman Hoeh again has an article denouncing historians for not agreeing with HWA's organization's teachings regarding history.

J. W. Robinson and Gene Hughes has an article denouncing radiocarbon dating as a "fraud" because they were being used to justify an interpretation of history contrary to what was taught by HWA's organization.

August 1962

There are letters. 

• One letter is from a person who listened since 1934 and only asked for a subscription now. 

• Another from South Africa is written in a humble manner. 

• One letter from Ireland speaks of gross materialism and praises HWA's recruitment magazine for being free. 

• One letter denounces TV and says it will be removed from the house. 

• There are four letters praising tithing insisting that it will miraculously give good financial fortune to any tither. 

• One letter from Detroit is from a person who says he is not interested in ordinary programs anymore after listening to what was produced by HWA's organization. 

• One letter from Ohio letter praises a positive approach in the pages of the recruitment magazine not knowing that Armstrongism is very negative about society outside of its influence and control.

L. E. Torrance has an article denouncing a supposed proposal within the Kennedy Administration to seek some sort of agreement with the Soviet Union.

Garner Ted Armstrong has an article superstitiously denouncing ill health as a curse.

Autobiographical installment mentions the marriage of his younger daughter.

L. Leroy Neff has an article advising readers how they can listen to their recruitment radio broadcast if they are having trouble listening to it.

Garner Ted Armstrong has an article explaining why his readers need a church, specifically HWA's organization.

Roderick Meredith has an article saying that Christ's return is necessary.

David Jon Hill has an article assuring readers that hell fire is not real. Instead HWA's organization taught that one is annihilated for all eternity in the Lake of Fire. It tends to escape the notice of Armstrongites that this is functionally speaking the same thing. HWA merely removed consciousness from his interpretation of the eternal punishment, imitating the Jehovah's Witnesses. As he did with many doctrines. 

September 1962

There are letters. One letter says there really is no follow up by HWA's organization. The follow up only happens after you pay. To use an unwitting letter to imply that there there is no follow up is deceptive. 

One letter from Tasmania letter says HWA's organization are the warning sent by God and this person knows this because the Armstrongites told him to believe that.

Herbert Armstrong denounces Pablo Picasso as a bad painter. He cites Picasso's confession. HWA assures his readers it is genuine. It was fake. HWA cited a fabrication to denounce Pablo Picasso.

Herbert Armstrong has an article telling his readers what the twenty-first century will be like. Back then he was saying that Christ would return in 1975.

Dibar Apartian has an article about France becoming more nationalistic because, can you believe this, a nation will pursue its own interests and sometimes those interests will contradict those of another nation. How horrifying.

David Jon Hill has an article telling his readers why the vast majority of people of the Jewish community do not choose to be Christians.

On page 20 in Herbert Armstrong's autobiographical installment he mentions a Catholic bishop, namely Bishop Hunt of Salt Lake City, giving an address during the founding of the United Nations. At the time HWA very talked up that address as a sign of the rise of the future European Empire. But here it is presented as just another detail. This detail of history was no longer useful to him in scaring his followers of some coming catastrophe.

Herbert Armstrong has an article insisting that Christians are supposed to observe the seventh day Sabbath, Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, contradicting the vast majority of Christians throughout history. This is a useful wedge issue which is used to cause readers to become disillusioned with their churches since the vast majority of churches worship on Sunday. However when Christianity began to be accepted among non-Jews a consensus was reached that it is not necessary to become submit to Jewish religious rules in order to become a Christian. This may be seen in Acts 15 and Paul's letter to the Galatians which, contrary to what some Armstrongites have mistaken thought, is actually a polemic condemning "Judaizers" who were telling non-Jewish Christians at that time that they needed to be circumcised to enter the Christian faith. 

Roderick Meredith has an article presenting what is called "the inside story" of The World Tomorrow recruitment radio broadcast.

Herbert Armstrong has an article about fasting. HWA's organization taught followers to fast as a religious ritual. Fasting is one of the rituals associated with the Armstrongite Day of Atonement and it is also encouraged to be done on a somewhat regular basis as a religious ritual.

October 1962

Here's one letter from a person in Cincinnati, Ohio who had lost faith in his church after paying attention to HWA's recruitment materials.

My wife and I have requested that our membership in a local church be dropped because the minister said you probably preach the second coming of Christ. When questioned on his views of German Rationalism, he said he agreed with the rationalistic approach. His entire philosophy of 'religious belief' seemed to me, at least, to be based on a theory that the Biblical truths are merely of historical interest, and that modern psychology and rationalistic beliefs are the answer to the present day unmoral and amoral outlook.

Here an anonymous letter from a person excited after hearing HWA saying they are preparing a history book.

On a recent broadcast you mentioned a new and unique history book that is about to be published--unique in the fact that it considers the fact that God intervenes in the making of history! I wonder if you would inform me of the title so that when it comes out, I can acquire a copy. 

The recruitment magazine's editors responded as follows:

Only the Compendium has been written. When the entire book is published, it will be announced.

This is clearly referring to Herman Hoeh's Compendium of World History. It was never released to the public. It was largely based on a book publicly available since 1952. In his later years Hoeh himself would disavow this book. Only with the innovation of the Internet has this narrative of Armstrongite pseudo-history (Volume 1 and Volume 2) become available to the public.

Herbert Armstrong has article insisting his supposed future European Empire will soon change everything. HWA taught that this future European Empire would rise into great power and militarily conquer the United States and take Americans as slave labor back to Europe in the three and a half years just before Christ's return. Fifty-nine years later the Armstrongites are still waiting.

HWA's autobiography reaches 1945.

Page 15 features portraits of Richard David Armstrong and Garner Ted Armstrong taken in 1945 when they were about seventeen and fifteen years of age respectively.

Herbert Armstrong continues to tell his readers what the 21st Century will be like. In this article HWA recites his interpretation of Ezekiel 38 and 39. He interprets those passages as predicting a massive invasion of what used to be Mandatory Palestine by the Soviet Union, China and others allied with them. HWA asserted that the Holy Land at this time would be inhabited by Americans, British and Jews recently liberated from the future European Empire. HWA insists this invasion would occur a few years after the return of (the Armstrongite) Christ. HWA asserts that (the Armstrongite interpretation of) Christ will supernaturally kill them off in an instant and in this manner the rule of the Armstrongite God Family will spread over all humanity.

Herbert Armstrong continues to insist that Christians are supposed to worship on the seventh day Sabbath, namely Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, instead of Sunday. This is one way how he denounces and vilifies the vast majority of Christian churches 

Roderick Meredith continues his account of the recruitment broadcast of HWA's organization, The World Tomorrow. The article contains a photo of Dibar Apartian on page 45.

In that article Meredith boasts about Herman Hoeh's upcoming world history book. It was never published for the general public. Why would they refuse to publish revelation from the Armstrongite God? Was it too costly to publish? They published HWA's autobiography but not Hoeh's "World History." Or maybe they realized that even they, the leaders of HWA's organization, could not bring themselves to publish such a flawed book. Apparently it was largely influenced by some other author. Hoeh himself in his latter years would disavow this narrative work of his.

Here's Meredith writing up about himself.

About Your Author

... As I told you last month, I came to Ambassador College in the fall of 1949 after having had one year of college in Missouri first. Later becoming student body president, I graduated from Ambassador College in 1952 and soon found myself immersed in conducting baptizing tours from coast to coast and up into Canada, preaching, teaching, writing and editing. 

I have had the privilege of taking three trips to Europe, and one through Central and South Africa. And I have conducted six evangelistic campaigns--two here in America, and four in Great Britain. I have been blessed with a wonderful wife and three children--and have found that serving in this great Work of God is the most interesting, challenging and rewarding career on earth today!

For unlike the ordinary preachers or college professors, those of us directly in God's Work have the realization that we are in a tremendous CRUSADE. Although countless overtime hours are taken out of the night, sacrifices are made in many ways, nevertheless there is tremendous JOY experienced in seeing human lives really CHANGED from wretchedness and sin, to lives filled with peace, overflowing love and happiness. (pp. 46-47.)

Meredith said, "I ... have found that serving in this great Work of God is the most interesting, challenging and rewarding career on earth today!" But how could he know that? He spent his entire adult life working for Armstrongite organizations.

November 1962

This issue features a lot of letters responding to the German language arm of HWA's organization which was headed by Herman Hoeh at this time.

Meredith continues describing the radio broadcast of HWA's organization, The World Tomorrow. Includes a write up of his uncle, C. Paul Meredith, the doctor of veterinary medicine.

Robert Boraker has an article scare mongering that Nazis at the time in 1962 were plotting to unleash World War III on the world. At one point there is an article heading entitled, "The Germans Lack Imagination."

On page 8 is a photo of several books presented as further evidence that the Germans are plotting to launch a third World War against the United States. (Please note: Links are not endorsements.) Here they are: Book 1 (1945), Book 2 (1942), Book 3 (1961) and Book 4 (1944). Boraker also cites Book 5 (1944) and Book 6 (1953). So four books written before 1946 are presented in 1962 by Boraker to insist that the Nazis have gone underground and will rise up again to conquer America. He is imitating what HWA said in his booklet, 1975 in Prophecy (1956). What nonsense. Fifty-nine years later the Armstrongites are still waiting for the European attack.

Garner Ted Armstrong has an article scare mongering about Germany rising up as a great power.

HWA's autobiography heads into 1946. It features a photo of Eva Armstrong (née Wright), HWA's mother.

Herman Hoeh has an article saying that historians are wrong to say that humanity has existed for more than six thousand years because this contradicts HWA's interpretation of Genesis 1 and 2. Hoeh's article contains racist photo captions describing inhabitants of New Guinea.

His "world history" is presented as being "forthcoming." It was never released to the public by HWA's organization.

Roderick Meredith has an article saying you need to change because the Armstrongite Christ is about to return.

December 1962

There are letters. Four letters are responses to the German language arm of HWA's organization. Two letters condemn the banning of traditional holidays like Christmas, Easter and Halloween by HWA's organization for their followers. One letter from Sarawak is from a person who reads them from the public library.

Here's a letter from a person from Fort Bliss, Texas who says he studied the Sabbath issue for himself.

I accepted your often-quoted challenge of 'Prove it for yourself' and took a seven-day leave from the army purposely to determine the truth of the Sabbath Day. For one week I poured through historical literature from the greatest minds of the centuries, and the product of my search, without a doubt, firmly convinced me that the true Sabbath is not, as I have always been led to believe, Sunday, but rather the traditional Jewish Sabbath; Friday sunset to Saturday sundown.  

HWA was not trained in how to understand early Christian history so he failed to understand what happened and tragically passed on his misunderstandings onto thousands of people. The first Christians were Jews so they celebrated the Sabbath because they were Jews. But once non-Jews started accepting Christianity the question was asked, Are they Jews as well? The consensus in the early Christian church was, No, they are not. That is why in Acts 15 the council in Jerusalem did not tell non-Jewish Christians to observe the Sabbath. They were told to do other things but not that. There is no need for a Christian to observe Jewish religious rules such as the Sabbath.

A juvenile girl in Texas writes them a letter asking them to no longer send her the recruitment magazine.

Would you please stop sending me The Plain Truth magazine. I am just 15 years old. I don't read your magazine and I don't understand it, besides my pastor said it was not good to read. You are wasting God's money by sending it to me. 

The recruitment magazine's editors petulantly responded to this juvenile girl in this manner. They let themselves sound like a bully. 

Well, of course, you can't understand it if you don't read it. But your pastor wouldn't know anything about The Plain Truth unless he were a regular reader himself!

There are all sorts of reasons why a pastor in Texas may have become aware of HWA's organization and realized he needed to guide the lay members of his church away from HWA's organization.

Here's a tragic letter from Albright, West Virginia. It is from a person who has decided to start tithing to HWA's organization even though this person's financial situation has progressively gotten worse and worse.

We havn't been tithing for some time, but we should have been. After we quit tithing, things did get rough. It seemed as if there was always something popping up to take twice the amount of our tithes. And we have gotten further in debt than we ever were before. Things aren't any better than they were a year ago, but I have decided to tithe anyhow. In fact, things are a lot worse, but this time I have already promised God that I will tithe, even if I starve to death.

HWA's organization responded to this letter with an ad for the reader:

More of our readers need the booklet, "Ending Your Financial Worries." 

Garner Ted Armstrong has an article assuring that his readers that he knew that the United States and the Soviet Union could not possibly go to war during the Cuban Missile Crisis because HWA's organization had insisted that a future German-led European Empire would militarily conquer the United States instead. In reality those two great powers got very close to going to war. It is entirely possible that the Cuban Missile Crisis could very well have sparked off a full scale nuclear war unleashing destruction on a vast scale in 1962. It is good that such a dreadful thing did not occur. The sheer horror of mass nuclear destructions makes it an most unattractive option for political leaders and people of conscience.

Herman Hoeh has an article discussing a border war between China and India. At this time HWA's organization taught that India would be conquered by Communists so that they would be part of the invasion described in Ezekiel 38 and 39. It was said by HWA's organization that this would take place several years after Christ's return.

HWA's autobiography discussed acquiring the property that would become the unaccredited Ambassador College. Page 16 contains photos of the Armstrong family.

Herman Hoeh has an article denouncing Christmas as forbidden to be observed by the followers of HWA's organization.

Herman Hoeh has an article insisting the vast majority of Christians are wrong to worship on Sunday but rather they must observe the seventh day Sabbath, Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. Unfortunately many Christians do not know how to respond to this rhetoric attack against the vast majority of Christians. When non-Jews began to accept Christianity it was decided that these non-Jewish Christians did not need to become Jews in order to be Christians. This may be seen in Acts 15 and Galatians which is actually a polemic condemning "Judaizers" who insisted that Jewish ritual law must be observed if one wishes to become a Christian. An Armstrongite will say, But the Sabbath was in the Ten Commandments so you cannot change it. Armstrongites don't want to change but the New Testament did.

And anyway the real purpose of HWA's organization telling their readers, You must worship on the Sabbath, is get them to leave their churches and join HWA's organization. One of the duties of members is to pay three tithes to HWA's organization. It is a trick to control the reader and then live off of them.

Herman Hoeh has an article insisting that the Christian practice of worshipping on Sunday was derived from ancient Babylonian mystery religions which were imported into Christianity shortly after the time of the Apostles in a grand conspiracy inspired by Satan.

This epistle, or letter, is filled with many inaccuracies, triflings and absurdities. It is a complete contrast to the inspired New Testament epistles. It is written in confused, mysterious language. Yet this is the kind of rubbish that is used to support Sunday. Its origin is of the Devil himself. (p. 24.)

Or, to say it in a less emotional way, worshipping on Sunday is contrary to what HWA's organization teaches therefore Hoeh forbids his readers from doing so in this article. 

Herman Hoeh has an article scare mongering about the rise of West Germany. HWA's organization taught that the Germans are descendants of the ancient Assyrians. 

Page 27 features photos of actual modern day Assyrians in the Middle East. It is insisted that they look like Germans and do not look like Arabs.

Roderick Meredith has an article asking if you really understand your own religion. This is a recruitment trick designed to make you doubt yourself and let him answer your questions for you.

Herbert Armstrong has an article telling readers that (his interpretation of) God is fair.

***

And so 1962 ended with civilization still intact and 1963 began. But this post ends here.

There is no need to listen to false prophets.

Gerald Flurry Praising Rod Meredith in 1964

From October 1964, page 2.

Before he started up his own Armstrongite splinter group Gerald Flurry first wrote under the name Jerry Flurry.

In 1964 Jerry Flurry wrote two articles in Church of God News, Northern Midwest District, October 1964. An article on page 2 lists officers of the St. Louis Spokesman Club. On page 3 he has an article lauding the speakers in the Armstrongite Feast of Tabernacles in Big Sandy that year.

On page 3 Jerry Flurry praises Roderick C. Meredith's sermons at the Armstrongite feast. Later Gerald Flurry would start up his own Armstrongite sect and denounce all other Armstrongites as false for not being in his organization.

Below is Jerry Flurry's article about the spokesman's club.

***

St. Louis Club Spokesman Club Officers

by Jerry Flurry

When Mr. Dean Blackwell comes to town, many activities usually occur. One of the most exciting events was the change of Spokesman Club officers.

The following men were appointed as officers of Section "A" Spokesman Club: Jerry Flurry, President; Jim Malone, Vice-President; Jim Carrington, Secretary; Lee Welshams, Treasurer; and John Thompson, Sergeant-at-Arms.

The new "B" club officers are: Roger Malone, President; Gerald McCormick, Secretary; Walter Darling, Treasurer; and Dick Pierson, Sergeant-at-Arms.

Mr. Hal Baird once asked us all a very pertinent question: "Can you picture a king who can't speak?" The answer is obvious. Mr. Dean Blackwell said in his sermon the following Sabbath that if we were not attending the Spokesman Club, we might just as well write "LAZY CHRISTIANS" in our notes, because that is EXACTLY what we are!

The new officers are filled with enthusiasm about their opportunities to serve in this significant way. The Spokesman Club is a vital part of God's work. When a job needs to be done, a spokesman is usually chosen—one who can take the "Message to Garcia."

***

On page 3 of the same publication Jerry Flurry has an article praising the Armstrongite yearly convention they call the Feast of Tabernacles held that year.

Here is the article below.

***

THINK-BIG-THEME At Big Sandy Feast

by Jerry Flurry

"This is the 1964 Feast of Tabernacles, and this is God speaking!" So began Mr. Norman Smith in one of his earlier sermons to set the theme for an entire feast that admonished us to THINK BIG NOW! Mr. Smith told us how God has, since the time of Moses, spoken through men and unless we believed this, we were wasting our time at the Feast.

Between 7500 and 8000 people motored to Big Sandy to attend this festival. The weather was hot and humid when we arrived, but a good rain cooled things off in the latter part of the week.

Last year, about the time of the feast, deep cracks veined much of the land around Gladewater. However, this year floods were raging in other towns around Gladewater, but God protected his people from them.

Mr. Roderick Meredith opened the feast, and in his first full length sermon told us to RULE our thoughts and emotions, our mouths and our time. We were told that our motto should be, "anything good is accomplished by God—ALL mistakes are ours." Our accomplishments are to be considered as dung (Phil. 3:8).

People there for the first time were absolutely awed by the content of the messages and by the authority with which God's ministers spoke. Of course, the old-timers weren't exactly unmoved when such vivid pictures of the coming Kingdom were portrayed.

Many spokesmen were used, and the organization was smooth—displaying the fruits of the clubs. Men were told to do a job and they did it.

After talking to many of the spokesmen club officers and members, they agreed that there has been much growth in the clubs. However, ONE main problem is a failure of many men to THINK BIG. No doubt this reflects a problem in the whole church and is why God gave us so many sermons on striving for the RIGHT GOAL.

Mr Meredith told us when we saw the sun and moon to think how we would shine like them in a few years. We must think in terms of the universe. If we are to be Gods, we must think and act like Gods. As Mr. Herbert Armstrong said, "The only way to the top is the hard way."

In the future, little men with little purposes are going to persecute us more severely. Mr Meredith told us how this stage of the church has suffered less than any other. Perhaps this is why so much emphasis was placed on THINKING BIG—unless we do, we can't possibly endure to the end.

***

In 1971 Jerry Flurry also wrote the following two articles for WCG's recruitment magazine, The Plain Truth.

• Dear Mom and Dad: I'M COMING HOME, Plain Truth, April 1971.

• Unmasking the White Collar Criminal, Plain Truth, July 1971.

In 1973 Gerald Flurry was ordained as a minister of HWA's organization. In 1989 the organization fired him and he started up his own Armstrongite organization and has has lead it ever since. Flurry's organization has always had a reputation for being particularly strict. It is widely reported that PCG members are even taught to shun the members of the other Armstrongite organizations, even close family members. But the organization works well for Flurry. Recently Flurry's organization has bought an airplane for Flurry's use.

Notes from Plain Truth Issues of 1959-1961

Recently I took a look through some old Plain Truth issues that were published from 1959 until 1961. Let's take a look.

August 1959

This issue features a letter from what was then called Southern Rhodesia, namely modern day Zimbabwe.

Pastor in Africa writes  

“I am a trained pastor . . . and a regular reader of your interesting magazine, The PLAIN TRUTH. I would suggest that all God’s ministers who need both human and divine guidance in matters of true religion read this unique magazine every month. When I was reading the ‘Exciting News about Ambassador College,’ I became deeply moved by a desire to train in this unique college-God’s own college.”  

Gatooma, Southern Rhodesia

September 1959

This featured a letter from a person who seemed to be influenced by some sort of Adventists.

No More Truth Since 1844?

“Dear Mr. Armstrong:

“I hear your program over WKYB almost every day. We enjoy it so much. I have been writing you for sometime and asking questions, and I sure do appreciate the answers I have gotten. Since I first read your PLAIN TRUTH it has opened my eyes.

“I have been a member of a denominational Church for three years. Last summer my husband and little girl were baptized. She is eleven years old. And since we have been listening to your preaching and the scripture you read, we feel like they don’t have the message for today. We want to do the will of God above all things.

“My Pastor wanted me to say that we would stop listening to you, but I told him we wouldn’t. He says you couldn’t have the last message because it didn’t come about at the appointed time (1844) and that it wasn’t world wide. But we are reading our Bible and praying to have a clear understanding. God says if you want wisdom ask of God. So we are doing that. We have decided to send you our tithe.”

Woman from Paducah, Kentucky.

Editor’s Comment: Many scriptures were purposely closed and sealed until the “time of the end”-this 20th century, not 1844 during the Advent Movement! The WORLD TOMORROW broadcast is world-wide, reaching every inhabited continent with great power.

December 1959

This issue featured a letter from India.

From Far-off India  

“I feel so thrilled to read The PLAIN TRUTH. It is positively an eye opener. It was my husband who brought this magazine into our home, and I have been regularly reading it for the last many, many years. I have kept all my copies very carefully - they are very precious to me.”  

Lady from Poona, India

February 1960

This issue featured a letter from South Africa.

Man from South Africa  

“I have the pleasure of informing you how much I have benefited from your lectures, and am still enjoying them very much. I must say there has been a great change in my life since I have read and studied The PLAIN TRUTH.”  

Man from Johannesburg, South Africa

March 1960

This issue featured many letters from outside of the United States.

A letter states that one congressman from Alabama was quite impressed with HWA's recruitment magazine.

Congressman Impressed 

“Our congressman saw my December issue of The PLAIN TRUTH and was so impressed I gave it to him. In a few days I received a letter stating he really read and enjoyed every word. He is a true American.” 

Reader from Alabama

This issue also published a letter from Singapore during which the editor once boasted that their recruitment writings were free. The idea behind giving such writings away is that a certain percentage of people will respond by sending money to them. This marketing model worked quite well for HWA's WCG.

From Far-away Singapore 

“I am so thankful I came across your magazine not long ago in a fish-seller’s shop. It was while I was seeking some magazines I was very interested in that I accidentally came across your PLAIN TRUTH. So I bought some of the magazines (including The PLAIN TRUTH) from the fish-seller’s wife for 40 cents. I found it very interesting. It was so interesting that I kept reading them from the morning till midnight. I didn’t mean the whole day, I got to have my breakfast and lunch. It was a real blessing to my heart, I do thank God that I had found the truth from this magazine.” 

Editor's Note: This is the only way you can buy a copy of The PLAIN TRUTH. This magazine is sent entirely free to all who request it.

April 1960

This issue featured the following letter.

TV Out-Radio IN  

“Dear Mr. Armstrong:  

“We had our little radio for 12 years and didn’t play it much-only to get the news, because we had TV that kept us entertained. But my husband was out on strike for 8 weeks and our TV went out. Not wanting to get it fixed, we started playing the radio and happened on your program one evening, and have listened ever since. That was last September and the TV is still not fixed. We really don’t miss it and now we get to bed earlier.”  

Couple from Bell, California

Little did they know that HWA condemned workers' strikes and harshly discouraged his followers from joining workers' unions.

June 1960 features pictures noting HWA's first foray into radio broadcasting in October 1933. From 1953 onward the Radio Church of God was quite fixated on 19 year time cycles. It was taught that the Radio Church of God had been given two 19 year time cycles (1934-72) to preach their teachings before the German led European Empire would conquer America in the Great Tribulation. This time period was claimed to begin with the first radio broadcast of HWA on January 7, 1934. However they chose to ignore the fact that HWA began to broadcast over the radio back in October 1933.

July 1960 scare mongers about some sort of death ray was on the verge of being made. Seeing that article I could help but be struck that Armstrongism seems to make more sense in the Cold War era than today.

The issue also features a letter from New Zealand.

My Mind is Open 

“My knowledge of the quality of the READER’S DIGEST plus my respect for it assures me I should write to you again asking you this time to be so good as to send me ‘1975 in Prophecy.’ I do not believe, I do not disbelieve-my mind is open.” 

Hastings, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand

Here's another letter from South Africa.

Truths Are Shattering 

“Thank you very much indeed for sending all the booklets I have requested. These truths are shattering, but I think at last I have found, through God’s help, something I have been looking for for such a long time-the true way of God.” 

Woman from Transvaal, South Africa

August 1960

An individual from South Dakota wrote a letter taking HWA and Co. to task for demonizing Germans. This is a shameful and racist tendency that still continues to be promoted in some Armstrongite organizations.

“Dear Mr. Armstrong: 

“I have followed your broadcasts and years ago your T.V. lectures closely, and value the guidance I received in my lifetime search for the truth. However, I have been disturbed very much by one predominant factor in your teachings which is not compatible with the teachings of Christ. 

“In your magazine, The Plain Truth, Volume XXV No. 3 of March, 1960, your son Garner Ted Armstrong quotes on page 9 Lewis Nizer, in the last chapter, describing the German people as a whole to be determined in their criminality in waging aggressive wars against mankind. He emphasized this by stating that they always were, still are, and always will be, aggressors against mankind. And he specifically quoted that not the German leaders including Hitler were responsible, but the German people as a whole. 

“Even if this was not a distortion of true history, the accusation as such and the publishing of this accusation in your magazine, The Plain Truth, will influence people, good people, to hate rather than to love as Christ did when He stated dying on the cross ‘Father forgive them, for they know not what they do’ . . . My wife and I were . . . born and raised in Germany, and our three sons were also born over there, and I can truthfully state that the bringing up of children is much closer to the Christian ideals and principles than the bringing up of children here in the United States. I personally was drafted into the war of 1914-18, and remember the strict disciplinary measures, including the death penalty we were threatened with if we were to plunder the dead or for committing any sacrilege; where when I came over here I was struck by the foul language that was used by the soldiers on this continent. 

“Notwithstanding the facts, even if the German people were determined aggressors, I do not believe that it is right to inject hatred into the Christian congregation against anybody, regardless of the reason. 

“I know, Mr. Armstrong, that you are very busy, but I would appreciate it if you could at your convenience, answer this letter personally, because it is so important to all of us. 

“Yours in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

From South Dakota

There is then followed by a long editor's comment. This is letter and the response to it is all that is printed in the letters section in this issue. Clearly this letter struck a nerve at Radio Church of God headquarters.

September 1960

The recruitment magazine's serialization of C. Paul Meredith's narrative, "Satan's Great Deception," ends in the September 1960 issue. It is essentially an Armstrongite imitation of Alexander Hyslop's nonsensical anti-Catholic polemic, The Two Babylons, which was made in the 1850s.

October 1960

This issue featured a letter from the Bahamas crediting an article from the recruitment magazine with helping her quit smoking. It is unfortunate that Armstrongism had so many other negative effects on people's health such as poverty due to tithing, authoritarianism, harsh treatment of children, fixation on World War III starting in 1972, avoiding doctors and medicine due to HWA's anti-medicine superstition, etc.

Desire to Smoke Gone!  

“I was in the habit of smoking for 21 years and after I read ‘Should Christians Smoke?’ it left a deep impression on my mind and from March the 6th the ‘feeling of pipe’ are gone.”  

Woman, Andros Island, Bahamas 

In response to the letter below an editor of this recruitment magazine insisted that India would have been doomed to be conquered by China except the Radio Church of God needed to preach to India first. What lunacy!

India Calling Out for Help  

“We, the people of this part of the world, will be very happy if you can make arrangements to have The WORLD TOMORROW sent to us. The number of religious broadcasts that come to our part of the world only mislead and confuse us. We, like the people of Macedonia, can only call out for help -we want the broadcasts, we want baptism, and we want to give you our tithes.”  

Family from Bombay, India  

Editor’s comment: The only reason Red China has not yet engulfed India is that the Gospel of the Kingdom must yet reach the people of India in power!

This issue also featured a letter from a person who wrote down 97 pages of notes while going through the Radio Church of God's indoctrination course.

Has 97 Pages of Notes 

“I really was glad to get hold of lesson #3. It is such a good lesson that I have 97 pages of notes to it. I could have got more in them but I wish to stay within the lesson and not get too far from it.” 

Man from Columbus, Ohio 

Editor’s comment: If you haven’t enrolled for the Correspondence Course send your request today!

October 1960

This issue contains a brief article insisting that the Radio Church of God is suffering persecution because some people happen to criticize them. It is shrilly insisted that such information is all untrue.

Other false accusations have been published with wide circulation. These have reached Britain, Australia, and other countries. Not one of these purported reports on this work or on Mr. Armstrong which has come to our attention contains true facts-every one we have seen has been an irresponsible and reprehensible piece of slander and defamation of character intended to injure, based on heresy and false reports, without having verified the TRUTH!  

If any readers wane the true facts, either as to the background of this work, the personal history of Mr. Armstrong, or as to what we believe and teach, the place to learn it is not from enemies who prove themselves irresponsible and careless with the truth, but direct from us. We will not lie to you. But it is well to remember that one who does not hesitate to misrepresent and twist the facts about us would also misrepresent and twist the truth of the BIBLE! (p. 13.)

One feature of cults is that they try to control their followers' access to information. One way to do this is to train their followers to instantly dismiss information contrary to group dogma as not worth consideration, as may be seen above.

November 1960

Garner Ted Armstrong wrote an article in this issue entitled "How to Rear Children." Later in 1963 the Radio Church of God would release a certain booklet written by Garner Ted Armstrong entitled "The Plain Truth About Child Rearing" which featured advice that encouraged parents to be harsh towards their children. This was a particularly dreadful aspect that Armstrongism that so many children raised up within this organization were forced to endure.

December 1960

This issue features a letter from New Zealand.

Birds, Strawberries and a Scarecrow! 

“I notice that a certain organization accepts no responsibility for the expression voiced in your broadcasts. The wise bird knows that the best strawberries are where the scarecrow stands.” 

Man from New Zealand

An individual from Canada then living in England took HWA and Co. to task for demonizing Germans, a shameful and racist tendency that is still present in some Armstrongite organizations to this day.

Regrets “Criticism” 

“I enjoy your challenging articles but regret your criticism of Germans. We should be glad West Germany has become strong for the West. Had the U.S.A. not helped her she would have fallen under Communist sway like East Germany and would have been made strong for the East. Let’s hold out a friendly hand to this ally and keep our criticism for the Communists who must enjoy your attacks on West Germany.” 

Canadian now living in England 

Editor’s Comment: This is a typical example of seeing only one enemy at a time. We have never “criticized” the German people; but on the contrary respect them highly. God‘s commission to us is to cry aloud and warn this nation of the destruction to come. If you are not aware of Germany’s role in these future events, write immediately for the booklet “1975 in Prophecy” and the article “Germany in Prophecy.”

January 1961

This issue featured a spectacularly xenophobic statement that (white) Australians wold soon become "slaves of the Japanese and Chinese" by 1967. Also a Plain Truth editor insisted that this statement was "absolutely right". What shameful foolishness!

Australians Face Slavery! 

"It is reported today chat George Bilainkin says in perhaps five or six years, Australians will be slaves of the Japanese and Chinese! The PLAIN TRUTH has already said it!" 

Editor's Comment: Mr. Bilainkin's comment is absolutely right except that it cannot happen before this work is completed. The gospel of the Kingdom must first blanket Australia!

This issue also contains an article by Roderick C. Meredith remarking upon West Germany's economic growth.

***

Seeing that around this time President Eisenhower was succeeded by President Kennedy this post ends here.