WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD

Founded by Herbert W. Armstrong, the Worldwide Church of God was originally known as the Radio Church of God. It took its name and many of its basic tenets from the Church of God movement.

Armstrong, a former advertizing man, was ordained in 1931 in the Oregon Conference of the Church of God (Seventh-Day), a small splinter group which had broken off from the General Conference. In 1934 he began an independent radio ministry, the Radio Church of God; it was built around the weekly broadcast "The World Tomorrow," and Plain Truth, a free monthly publication. Broadcasting first from a small station in Eugene, Oregon, his following grew slowly but steadily. After World War II he moved his headquarters to Pasadena, California, and in 1947 founded Ambassador College. By the 1960s Armstrong and his son, Garner Ted Armstrong, were heard on hundreds of local radio stations, and at that time they began television broadcasts. In 1968 the name of the Radio Church of God was changed to Worldwide Church of God. The circulation of Plain Truth grew from 500,000 to 7.5 million between the 1960s and the 1970s.

Teaching and Turmoil. Originally, Armstrong denied the Christian teaching on the Holy Trinity, neither accepting Jesus Christ as a divine being nor acknowledging the Holy Spirit as a unique, divine person. During his tenure, the Church insisted on strict adherence to Old Testament ordinances, particularly with regard to dietary laws, Sabbath observance, and festivals. At that time, the WCG observed all seven Old Testament feasts: Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles, the Last Great Day, and the First Day of the Sacred Year, and regarded Christmas and Easter as pagan. Members were obliged to "triple tithe"; every year they were to give the WCG 10% of their income; another 10% was set aside for the Feast of the Tabernacles, their main festival; and every third year, members were required to give another 10% to the church for the maintenance of widows and orphans.

The most controversial of Armstrong's positions is his teaching of Anglo-Israelitism, a doctrine that affirms that England (Ephraim) and the United States (Manasseh) are what is left of the ten lost tribes of Israel. The racial overtones of the teaching were reflected in the Church's pattern of growth throughout the white world.

The 1970s were a difficult time for the WCG. It experienced internal discord and schism as a result of a reorganization of the ministerial staff, theological debate over a number of issues, including the dating of the feast of Pentecost, the question of divorce and remarriage among members, and scandal. In 1974 Garner Ted Armstrong broke with his father and was disfellowshipped. The younger Armstrong eventually founded the Church of God International. When the elder Armstrong died in 1986, Joseph Tkach became the Minister General, succeeded by his son, Joseph W. Tkach, Jr.

As schism developed in 1974, a number of former WCG members established a national fellowship, the Associated Churches of God, with headquarters in Columbia, Maryland. They issued a doctrinal statement that reaffirmed many of the principal teachings of the Worldwide Church of God, but rejected tithing in favor of free-will offering and outlined a form of congregational governance in place of the theocratic organization of the original WCG.

Under the leadership of Joseph W. Tkach, Jr., the WCG abandoned many of Armstrong's controversial positions, apologizing for its theological errors, and moving from a fringe group to a mainstream evangelical Protestant church. This included the affirmation of the doctrine of the Trinity (1993) and the renunciation of the Old Testament ordinances (1994). In 1997 the WCG joined the national association of evangelicals.

Bibliography: h. w. armstrong, The United States and British Commonwealth in Prophecy (Pasadena 1980); This Is the Worldwide Church of God (Pasadena 1971); The Autobiography (Pasadena 1967); Mystery of the Ages (Pasadena 1985). j. hopkins, The Armstrong Empire (Grand Rapids, Mich. 1974). d. robinson, Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web (Tulsa, OK 1980). Fundamental Beliefs of the Associated Churches of God (Columbia, MD 1974). f. s. mead, s. s. hill, and c. d. atwood, eds., Handbook of Denominations in the United States, 11th ed (Nashville 2001).

[a. pedersen/eds.]