This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007)

Grace Communion International (GCI), formerly the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), is an evangelical Christian denomination based in Glendora, California, United States. Since April 3, 2009, it has used the new name Grace Communion International in the US. The GCI claims 42,000 members in 900 congregations in about 90 countries as of April 2009 and is a member of the National Association of Evangelicals.^[1]

Founded in 1934 by Herbert W. Armstrong as a radio ministry named Radio Church of God, the WCG under Armstrong had a significant, and often controversial, influence on 20th century religious broadcasting and publishing in the United States and Europe, especially in the field of interpreting biblical end-time prophecies. Within a few years after Armstrong's death in 1986, the succeeding church administration, led first by Joseph W. Tkach, Sr. and then his son, Joseph Tkach, Jr., transformed the denomination's doctrines and teachings to be compatible with mainstream Evangelical Christianity. As a result, the WCG experienced schisms when some members and ministers formed churches that conformed to most, if not all, of Armstrong's teachings.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Radio Church of God 1.2 Worldwide Church of God 1.2.1 Ambassador International Cultural Foundation 1.2.2 Scandal and conflict 1.2.3 Receivership crisis 1.2.4 Death of Armstrong and doctrinal reform 1.3 Name change of 2009 2 Beliefs and practices 3 Structure 3.1 International 3.2 Regional and local 4 Finances 5 Related denominations 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 9 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Radio Church of God

The Worldwide Church of God was rooted in the teachings of Armstrong, which some^[who?] say stem from his earlier involvement in the Adventist movement of William Miller and followers though Armstrong himself disputed this.^{[citation needed]} He claimed that his teachings were the true teachings of the Bible, which he said had been replaced over the centuries by tradition through the seminaries and mistranslation. In 1927, Armstrong was baptized and began to lead a church of this movement, the Church of God. Armstrong was ordained by the Oregon Conference of the Church of God (Seventh-Day) in 1931 and began serving a congregation in Eugene, Oregon.

On January 7, 1934, the Radio Church of God radio program began broadcasting on KORE in Eugene with Armstrong as host. It was essentially a condensed church service on the air, with hymn singing featured along with Armstrong's message, and was the launching point for what would become the church. Armstrong taught British Israelism (that the British and American people were descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel and that God was not a Trinity but a family, Father and Son. This family did not include the Holy Spirit as it was believed by Armstrong to be the essence of God, not a separate person.

In 1933, the Church of God (Seventh-Day) split, and Armstrong sided with the faction that located its headquarters in Salem, West Virginia.^[2] In 1937, the Church of God (Seventh-Day) revoked Armstrong's ministerial credentials, but he continued broadcasting. Armstrong moved to Pasadena, California, and he incorporated his church first on March 3, 1946 as the Radio Church of God. He prophesied that the apocalypse would begin in 1936 (later postponed to 1943, then 1972, then indefinitely).

His message has been described by some critics^[who?] as an eclectic mixture of cultic doctrine, Jewish observances and Seventh-day Adventism. The church strictly observed Saturday Sabbath, annual festivals described in Leviticus and strongly advocated the clean meats of Leviticus 11. Members were asked to give up to 10 percent of their incomes to the church as a tithe, while also being told that another 10 percent was to be saved for annual festival observances, and every third year an additional 10 percent had to be sent to the church. Dating outside the church was strongly frowned upon, there was a dress code for members while attending services, and the church believed that God did not intend certain things to be meant for human consumption. Those who refused to follow the church's guidelines were excommunicated. Members were influenced by church teachings not to wear make-up nor celebrate birthdays and were taught that the Bible warned believers not to celebrate traditionally accepted holidays such as Christmas, Easter and Halloween.^[3]

A major component of Armstrong's theology was British Israelism—the view that America and Britain are the descendants of ancient Israel. Armstrong rejected as nonbiblical the traditional Christian views of heaven, hell, eternal punishment and salvation. Armstrong also taught that members of the church would actually become members of the God family themselves after the resurrection.^[3]

In 1947, Ambassador College was founded in Pasadena by the church, and the campus served as the church's headquarters. It was here that Armstrong met Stanley Rader in 1956. Rader stated that he was employed to sort the church's accounts, which he claimed had become disorganized. Armstrong reportedly was so impressed with Rader's work that, under his encouragement and patronage, Rader furthered his education by going to law school. Rader then graduated as valedictorian of his 1963 law school class at the University of Southern California Law School. Rader continued this relationship as special legal and financial advisor to Ambassador College and the Worldwide Church of God, working for them in a full-time capacity by 1969.

Armstrong had a son whom he was grooming to take over as head of the church upon the elder Armstrong's retirement or death, Garner Ted Armstrong. The younger Armstrong began to guest host the radio and then the television version of The World Tomorrow. As the elder Armstrong reviewed audience ratings and incoming donations from The World Tomorrow program, Garner Ted proved an increasingly obvious choice to become the public voice of the church.

The late 1960s saw the beginnings of change within the church. The broadcast of The World Tomorrow on Radio Luxembourg on January 7, 1953, led Herbert Armstrong to view his ministry in the context of a prophetic interpretation that set the date of Christ's return at 1975, with the Great Tribulation beginning in 1972.^[4] This interpretation produced by Armstrong and Ambassador College graduate Herman L. Hoeh would be consummated with the publication of the 1956 booklet 1975 in Prophecy!. This interpretative vision of his ministry consumed Herbert Armstrong. It also apparently had an impact on many others, including Michael Dennis Rohan, who cited Armstrong's work when questioned on the attempted destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in 1967.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Worldwide Church of God

On January 5, 1968, the corporate name of the church was changed to Worldwide Church of God.^[5][6]

In 1970, the first of many groups to splinter from the Worldwide Church of God were founded. Carl O'Beirn of Cleveland, Ohio led what may be the first group, the Church of God (O'Beirn), away from the Worldwide Church of God. Others followed that year, including John Kerley's Top of the Line ministry; the Restoration Church of God; the Church of God (Boise City) in Boise City, Oklahoma; Marvin Faulhaber's Sabbatarian group also known as Church of God (Sabbatarian); and the Fountain of Life Fellowship of James and Virginia Porter.

[edit] Ambassador International Cultural Foundation

During the sixties "Armstrong had sought to put into stronger action what he termed God’s 'way of give'".^[7] To Armstrong and his students, this was generally said to include "the way of character, generosity, cultural enrichment, true education: of beautifying the environment and caring for fellow man." He began undertaking humanitarian projects, selecting underprivileged pockets around the world, which eventually led to the creation of the church-run Ambassador International Cultural Foundation (AICF) in 1975. The Foundation’s efforts reached into several countries, providing staffing and funds to fight illiteracy, create schools for the disabled, set up mobile schools, and provide funding and staffing for several archaeological digs at biblically significant sites. The auditorium he built for the church hosted, at highly subsidized ticket prices, hundreds of performances by noted artists such as Luciano Pavarotti, Vladimir Horowitz, Bing Crosby, Marcel Marceau, and Bob Hope. ^[8]

Quest is a defunct periodical that was published monthly by AICF from July 1977 to September 1981. It began life under the working name of Human Potential and was a project directed by Stanley Rader. It was conceived as the secular publication of AICF funded by the church. The publishers hired a professional staff unrelated to the church to create a high quality glossy publication devoted to the humanities, travel and the arts. The original concept name and design of Human Potential began in the aftermath of the failed prophecies of the Armstrong as outlined in 1975 in Prophecy!, written by Armstrong and illustrated by Basil Wolverton.

It was because AICF, through its activities such as this publication, seemed to represent the exact opposite of the views and values of its ultimate sponsor that the Worldwide Church was increasingly involved in splits and divisions among its ranks. These defections created dramatic losses in income for the church which in turn undermined the sponsored activities of AICF. Due to falling funds the church began to cut back on its funding of AICF, and because the publication, which was also supported by paid commercial advertising and a subscription price, never became a profitable enterprise its assets were eventually sold off to other interests.

[edit] Scandal and conflict

As 1972 approached it became clear that the events predicted by Herbert Armstrong would not come to pass. While the European Union was an idea in the making, the nations of Europe were far from united, as the union itself was still another 20 years in the future. The Worldwide Church of God, however, experienced several scandals which could arguably be said to have brought Armstrong's second 19-year period to a close.

Garner Ted Armstrong began to lose favor with his father. The younger Armstrong was discontented with prophecies attached to a certain date and wished to cease preaching the message that associated the US and Britain with the Ten Lost Tribes. Garner Ted also spoke of greatly expanding the church's media ministry on the model of the Church of Christ, Scientist with its widely read Christian Science Monitor.

In a report in the May 15, 1972, edition of TIME magazine, Herbert Armstrong was reported to have said that Garner Ted was "in the bonds of Satan."^[9] The elder Armstrong did not elaborate, but it was speculated that Herbert had to come to grips publicly with Garner Ted's alleged continuing problems with gambling and adultery with Ambassador College coeds. Garner Ted Armstrong was soon relieved of his star role within the church.

While Garner Ted Armstrong was being removed, Stanley Rader had been orchestrating the church's involvement in a number of corporations which Rader established. Critics saw Rader's moves as an attempt to seize control of the church. Rader characterized his involvement as that of an adviser and claimed that his advice was opening doors for Armstrong that a strict theological role would not have allowed for. Herbert Armstrong approved of the establishment of the AICF, which Rader set up ostensibly to give the elder Armstrong a role as the "Ambassador for World Peace without portfolio".

As the church was experiencing internal crises, its external, public face was also crumbling. Church followers had anticipated the removal of church faithful to Petra, Jordan, to await the prophesied apocalypse. By 1972, it was evident that this was not going to occur. When combined with Garner Ted Armstrong's very public removal from the church, this failure of prophecy caused many within the church to lose confidence and withdraw. The church hastened to restore public confidence and returned Garner Ted as host of The World Tomorrow a mere four months after his ouster.

Despite the scandals of 1972, the church continued to grow in the 1970s with Herbert Armstrong still at the helm. In 1975, Armstrong baptized Stanley Rader, who until then had been a practicing Jew in spite of his association with the church. Some^[who?] felt that, under Rader's influence, Armstrong began to de-emphasize the Christological aspects of church doctrine, instead preaching a message of peace, brotherly love, and "giving and not getting".^{[citation needed]}

Others^[who?] say that this approach was to announce the coming Kingdom of God and mankind's duty to that end. The church began to teach of humanity's being guided by a "Great Unseen Hand from Someplace".^{[citation needed]}

After being left a widower by the death of his wife, Loma, eleven years earlier, Armstrong married Ramona Martin, a woman nearly fifty years younger, in 1977 and moved to Tucson, Arizona. While Armstrong administered church business through Stanley Rader from his Arizona retreat, the church continued to be headquartered in Pasadena.

With Garner Ted Armstrong resuming his role within the church, the rivalry between the younger Armstrong and Stanley Rader intensified. The adultery problems that reportedly drove Garner Ted from the church before had reportedly continued unabated. In 1978, Garner Ted Armstrong was disfellowshipped a final time. Garner Ted moved to Tyler, Texas, and there founded a splinter group, the Church of God International.

[edit] Receivership crisis

Garner Ted Armstrong blamed Stanley Rader for his two-time ouster from his father's church. Garner Ted and other former and discontented members of the Worldwide Church of God prompted the State of California to investigate charges of malfeasance by Rader and others involved with the AICF. By 1979, California Attorney General George Deukmejian had brought civil charges against the church, and the church was placed into an investigative financial receivership for one year.

The group of dissidents also gained the attention of Mike Wallace who investigated the church in a report for 60 Minutes. Using documentary evidence obtained, Wallace brought to light lavish secret expenditures, conflict of interest insider deals, posh homes and lifestyles in the higher ranks, and the heavy involvement of Stanley Rader in financial manipulation.^{[citation needed]}

Wallace invited Rader to appear on 60 Minutes on April 15, 1979. Wallace showed Rader a secret tape recording in which Herbert Armstrong had alleged Rader was attempting to take over the church after Armstrong's death, reasoning that the donated tithe money might be quite a "magnet" to some evangelists. Rader abruptly ended the interview.^[10]

Rader, with the approval of Herbert Armstrong, was spending millions to fend off any financial audit or examination of the church's income and expenditures by litigating the issue all the way to the United States Supreme Court, several times, unsuccessfully. Having lost in the courts, Rader lobbied the California legislature to force the California Attorney General to drop the charges against the church and him. Under Rader's lobbying, the California State Legislature passed legislation known as the Petris bill, signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown, which changed the applicable law of California so that the Attorney General had no authority over churches in such circumstances.^{[citation needed]}

Rader and Armstrong, then, were relieved of any further concern about civil liability or any outside exposure of their own internal financial dealings as the directors of a California religious corporation. In trying to defend his fight against the investigation, Rader wrote the 1980 self-exculpatory polemic "Against the Gates of Hell: The Threat to Religious Freedom in America" arguing that his legal fight with the Attorney General was more about religious freedoms rather than about abuse of public trust or fraudulent misappropriation of tithe funds.

The church received a minor vindication of its position when, in denying a request for fees by the dissidents' attorney, Hillel Chodos, the Second Court of Appeals over turned the decision on procedural grounds and added as dicta, "We are of the opinion that the underlying action [i.e., the State-imposed receivership] and its attendant provisional remedy of receivership were from the inception constitutionally infirm and predestined to failure."^[11]

Stanley Rader left his positions within the church in 1981. While Rader was able to legally, then politically, prevent the investigation of church finances, he could not prevent the collapse of AICF. A lawsuit had been filed against Steven Spielberg and George Lucas alleging that the pair stole the plot for Raiders of the Lost Ark from AICF. When the lawsuit went nowhere, AICF collapsed. Meanwhile, the church was eager to sever its ties from AICF, as the Foundation had been producing works which were not in keeping with church doctrine. Rader parted church leadership amicably, and reportedly received a six figure financial package upon leaving his post.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Death of Armstrong and doctrinal reform

On January 16, 1986, Herbert Armstrong died in Pasadena, California. Shortly before his death, Armstrong named Joseph W. Tkach Sr. to succeed him as leader of the church.

As early as 1988, Joseph W. Tkach Sr. began to make doctrinal changes. Doctrinal revisions were made quietly and slowly at first, but then openly and radically in January 1995. They were presented as "new understandings" of Christmas and Easter,^[12] Babylon and the harlot,^[13] Anglo-Israelism,^[14] Saturday Sabbath,^[15] and other doctrines.

In general, Tkach Sr. directed the church theology towards mainstream evangelical Christian belief. It was extremely difficult for many members of the church to understand and accept the doctrinal changes.^{[citation needed]} This caused much disillusionment among the membership and another rise of splinter groups. During the tenure of the Joseph Tkach Sr., the church dropped in membership by about 50 percent. His son, Joseph Tkach Jr., succeeded him after his death in 1995. Under Tkach Jr.'s administration, the church issued an apology for past errors in doctrine.^{[citation needed]}

Eventually all of Herbert Armstrong's writings were withdrawn from print by the Worldwide Church of God. In the 2004 video production Called To Be Free, Greg Albrecht, former dean of WCG's Ambassador College, declared Herbert Armstrong to be both a false prophet and a heretic.^[16] While the WCG leadership has apologized over false teachings, no overt move has been made towards publicly admitting the past doctrines of the church were in accord with the beliefs of the brethren.^{[clarification needed]}

[edit] Name change of 2009

On April 16, 2009, the Worldwide Church of God announced the official change of name to Grace Communion International. ^[17]

[edit] Beliefs and practices

Under Armstrong's leadership, the Worldwide Church of God was considered by many to be theologically a cult with unorthodox and, to most Christians, heretical teachings.^[18] The WCG rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, regarding it as a pagan concept absorbed into mainstream Christianity.^[19] Critics also claimed that the WCG did not proclaim salvation by grace through faith alone, but rather required works as part of salvation. The late Walter Martin, in his classic The Kingdom of the Cults, devoted 34 pages to the group, claiming that Armstrong borrowed freely from Seventh-day Adventist, Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormon doctrines. ^[20]

After Armstrong's death, the church's new leadership began a process of theological revision. As a result, it is now considered within the evangelical mainstream as shown by its acceptance into the National Association of Evangelicals. Its doctrinal summary highlights mainstream Christian beliefs such as the Trinity, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that faith in him is the only way to receive salvation and the Bible is the inspired and infallible word of God.

[edit] Structure

[edit] International

Grace Communion International has a hierarchical polity. The ecclesiastical policies are determined by the Advisory Council of Elders. Members of the Advisory Council are appointed by the President. The President, who also holds the title of Pastor General, is chief executive and ecclesiastical officer of the denomination. A Doctrinal Advisory Team may report to the Advisory Council on the church's official doctrinal statements, epistemology, or apologetics. The President may pocket veto doctrinal positions he determines to be heretical. However, the President is also a member of the Doctrinal Advisory Team, and so he is aware of and involved in the activities of that committee.^[21] Historically, Presidents, as chairmen of the board of directors, have appointed their own successor. This and the President's power to appoint and remove members of the Advisory Council have remained an areas of concern even among those who applaud the church's doctrinal changes.

The Church maintains national offices and satellite offices in multiple countries. Pastor General Joseph Tkach, Jr. periodically travels worldwide in personal appearance campaigns to congregations in diverse intercontinental areas, such as Great Britain, Africa, and the Philippines. However, membership and tithe income originates primarily from the eastern United States.

[edit] Regional and local

In the United States, denominational contact with local assemblies or local church home small group meetings, i.e. cell churches, is facilitated by district superintendents, each of which is responsible for a large number of churches in a geographical region (such as Florida or the Northeast) or in a specialized language group (such as Spanish-speaking congregations).

Local churches are led by a senior pastor, pastoral leadership team (with one person designated as a congregational pastoral leader), each of which is supervised by a district pastoral leader. Some senior pastors are responsible for a single local church, but many are responsible for working in two or more churches. Salary compensation for the paid local church pastor, if available, is determined by the local church.

Most local church groups retain the long-standing traditional policy of meeting in leased or rented facilities for meetings or services. The trend since 2000, however, has been to adopt a local church setting blending into the local milieu with headquarters retaining administrative oversight functions. As of 2005, the church established a new computer system of financial checks and balances for church budgets at the local level. Also, GCI now mandates a local Advisory Council, which includes a number of volunteer ministry leaders (some of whom are also called deacons), and often additional elders or assistant pastors.

[edit] Finances

The early Worldwide Church of God used a three-tithe system, under which members were expected to give a tithe or ten percent "of their increase," usually interpreted as a family's income.

• The first tithe, 10 percent of a member's total income, was sent to church headquarters to finance "the work", which was all operations of the church, as well as broadcasting and publishing the church's message.
• The second tithe was saved by the individual member to fund the member's (and his family's) observance of the annual holy days, especially the 8-day-long Feast of Tabernacles. Unlike the first tithe, these funds were not sent into the church but retained by the member.
• A third tithe was required only in the third and sixth years of a personal seven-year tithing cycle, and it was also sent to headquarters. The third tithe was used to support the indigent, widows, and orphans as needed.

In contrast to many other churches' religious services, the practice of the WCG was not to pass around offering plates during weekly church services but only during holy day church services (seven days each year). These funds were considered "freewill offerings" and regarded as entirely separate from regular tithes. The church also gathered funds in the form of donations from "co-workers," those who read the church's free literature or watched the weekly TV show but did not actually attend services.

Under Joseph W. Tkach Sr., although still strongly recommended, the mandatory nature of the church's three-tithe system was abolished, and it was suggested that tithes could be calculated on net, rather than gross, income. Afterwards, church income declined precipitously (membership also dropped at the same time). Today the GCI headquarters has downsized for financial survival. Facing possible bankruptcy, the church liquidated its high maintenance real estate properties, such as Ambassador College, and other auctionable inventory to pay for current headquarters expenditures.

To further economize, the church sold its properties in Pasadena and purchased an office building in Glendora, California. Formerly, the church's membership, meeting in rented halls on Saturdays such as public school buildings, dance halls, hotels and other venues, sent all tithe donations directly to the headquarters. Under the new financial reporting regime, local churches are permitted to use some funds for local purposes, such as constructing local church buildings for use by the congregations. As of 2007, 85 percent or more of all congregational donations stay in the local area, with 15 percent going to the church's headquarters in Glendora for ministerial training and support, legal services, and denominational administration.

[edit] Related denominations

From the 1970s through to the 1990s several groups that adhered to Armstrong's teachings separated from the Worldwide Church of God. Due to the significant doctrinal changes which occurred in the WCG throughout the 1990s, the largest percentage of ministers and members left the WCG during this decade. This resulted in the formation of many denominations, most notably the Philadelphia Church of God (1989), Global Church of God, the Living Church of God (1993, 1998), United Church of God (1995), and the Restored Church of God (1998). The United Church of God (UCG) is the largest of these denominations.^[22]

• Church of God International (org. 1978)
• Philadelphia Church of God (org. 1989)
• Twentieth Century Church of God (org. 1990)
• Church of God (Philadelphia Era) (org. 1991)
• Church of the Great God (1992)
• Global Church of God (1992; now defunct)
• United Church of God (1995)
• Church of God Fellowship (1992)
• Living Church of God (1998)
• Restored Church of God (1998)
• Worldwide Church of God Organizational Splits—External link with full chart to 1996

[edit] See also

• Armstrongism
• Christian apologetics
• Christian View of the Law

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Frank S. Mead, Samuel S. Hill, and Craig D. Atwood, Handbook of Denominations in the United States. Abingdon Press, 2001. ISBN 0-687-06983-1.
• J. Michael Feazell, The Liberation of the Worldwide Church of God. Zondervan, 2003. ISBN 0-310-25011-0.
• Gerald Flurry, Malachi's Message to God's Church Today. "A thorough explanation of how and why the Worldwide Church of God rejected Herbert Armstrong's teachings, and how to hold fast to Herbert Armstrong's teachings."
• Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults. Revised and Updated Edition, Bethany House, 2003. ISBN 0-7642-2821-8. See Appendix A, pp. 471–494.
• http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/relmove/nrms/philcog.html
• Tarling, Lowell R. (1981). "The Armstrong Churches". The Edges of Seventh-day Adventism: A Study of Separatist Groups Emerging from the Seventh-day Adventist Church (1844–1980). Barragga Bay, Bermagui South, NSW: Galilee Publications. pp. 41–62. ISBN 0 9593457 0 1. 

[edit] External links

• Grace Communion International official website
• Statement of beliefs
• Writing of H.W. Armstrong
• Archive of the Ambassador Report publication published from 1975 through 1999
• Critical commentary
• Exit & Support Network—aiding those spiritually abused by Worldwide Church of God and offshoots
• God's Work NOW Holding fast to the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong
• Herbert W. Armstrong Searchable Library
• Bad News Religion: The Virus That Attacks God's Grace by Greg Albrecht, World Publishing (2004), ISBN 0529119544
• Journal: News of the Churches of God independent non denominational monthly newspaper.
• Plain truth about Malachi's message
• "Called to be Free" Documenting how the doctrinal changes in WWCG occurred after Armstrong's death. From the point of view of current WWCG leadership.

v • d • e Sabbath-keeping churches Sabbath-keeping churches, Adventist Seventh-day Adventist Church  · General Conference of the Church of God (Seventh-Day) · Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement · Adventist Church of Promise · Sabbath-keeping churches, non-Adventist Church of the Great God · Living Church of God · Philadelphia Church of God · United Church of God · Global Church of God · World Mission Society Church of God · Worldwide Church of God · Church of God International (USA) · True Jesus Church ·