Garner Ted Armstrong (February 9, 1930 - September 15, 2003) was an American evangelist and the son of Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of the Worldwide Church of God, at the time a Sabbatarian organization that taught strict observance of a seventh-day sabbath, holy days typically associated with the Jewish faith, and other observances derived from the Old Testament scriptures. February 9 is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from... is the 255th day of the year (256th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 258th day of the year (259th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Evangelism is the proclaiming of the Christian Gospel. ... Herbert W. Armstrong (July 31, 1892) – January 16, 1986 (aged 93)) was the founder of the Worldwide Church of God and an early pioneer of radio evangelism, taking to the airwaves in the 1930s from Eugene, Oregon. ... The Worldwide Church of God (WCG), formerly the Radio Church of God, is a Christian church currently based in Glendora, California, USA. Founded in 1933 by Herbert Armstrong as a radio ministry, the WCG under Armstrong had a significant, and often controversial, influence on 20th century religious broadcasting and publishing... Note: Judaism commonly uses the term Tanakh to refer to its canon, which corresponds to the Protestant Old Testament. ...

Armstrong initially became recognized when he succeeded his father as the voice of "The World Tomorrow," the church's radio program that aired around the world. A television program of the same name followed, aired mostly in North America, eventually giving way to a "Garner Ted Armstrong" broadcast, a half-hour program that mixed news and biblical commentary. His polemical message was unlike most other religious broadcasters of his day. Look up Polemic on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Polemic is the art or practice of inciting disputation or causing controversy, for example in religious, philosophical, or political matters. ... Religious broadcasting is broadcasting religious organizations, usually with a religious message. ...

Brief biography

Armstrong was born in Portland, Oregon, to Loma Isabelle (Dillon) and Herbert W. Armstrong.^[1] He was raised in Eugene, Oregon. He was the youngest of four children. Nickname: Location of Portland in Multnomah County and the state of Oregon Coordinates: , Country State Counties Multnomah County Incorporated February 8, 1851 Government  - Mayor Tom Potter[1]  - Commissioners Sam Adams Randy Leonard Dan Saltzman Erik Sten  - Auditor Gary Blackmer Area  - Total 376. ... Herbert W. Armstrong (July 31, 1892) – January 16, 1986 (aged 93)) was the founder of the Worldwide Church of God and an early pioneer of radio evangelism, taking to the airwaves in the 1930s from Eugene, Oregon. ... Nickname: Motto: The Worlds Greatest City of the Arts & Outdoors Coordinates: , Country State County Lane Founded 1846 Incorporated 1862 Government  - Mayor Kitty Piercy Area  - Total 40. ...

Following service in the United States Navy during the Korean War, Armstrong returned to Pasadena, California where his father had moved the church's operations in 1946. He enrolled in Ambassador College, founded by his father and supported by the church. Ambassador was state-approved but not accredited, and Armstrong eventually completed bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in the only discipline offered, theology. He was ordained a minister in 1955 and held key administrative posts in both the Worldwide Church of God and Ambassador College until he was disfellowshipped (excommunicated) by his father in 1978. Prior to his removal, he was executive vice president of the church and president of the college, and was widely considered to be heir-apparent to succeed his father as head of the church and its operations. USN redirects here. ... Combatants United Nations:  Republic of Korea,  Australia,  Belgium,  Luxembourg,  Canada,  Colombia,  Ethiopia,  France,  Greece,  Luxembourg,  Netherlands,  New Zealand,  Philippines,  South Africa,  Thailand,  Turkey,  United Kingdom,  United States Medical staff:  Denmark,  Australia,  Italy,  Norway,  Sweden Communist states:  Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,  Peoples Republic of China,  Soviet Union Commanders... Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. ... Ambassador College was originally established as an unaccredited liberal arts institution in 1947 at Pasadena, California by the Radio Church of God, a religious organization incorporated in the State of California by Herbert W. Armstrong to promote the beliefs of the Church of God. ...

Personality

Noted for his charisma, movie star looks, and for being a music enthusiast, he toyed with the idea of becoming a nightclub singer before following his father into ministry. He was at ease before cameras and microphones. In his radio and TV programs he skillfully mixed political, economic, and social news of the day with Bible-based commentary. Armstrong's voice, style and presentation attracted millions of listeners to the church-sponsored broadcasts. His voice was so widely known that his name was included along with many of the world's famous politicians and entertainers for mention on the record track The Intro and the Outro by the Bonzo Dog Band of the 1960s. The Bonzo Dog Band (also known as The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, The Bonzo Dog Dada Band and, colloquially, as The Bonzos) was a band created by a group of British art-school denizens of the 1960s. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969. ...

Armstrong's proclivity toward secular pursuits outside evangelism was evidenced by his appearance as a guest on the popular television variety show "Hee Haw" in the 1970s (Armstrong had arranged for "Hee Haw" co-host Buck Owens to entertain attendees at the WCG's annual convention one year), and his apparent authorship of a novel, "Churchill's Gold" (not to be confused with a book of the same name by James Follet), penned under the pseudonym William Talboy Wright -- a mixture of names from his grandparents: William Dillon (maternal grandfather), Isabelle Talboy (maternal grandmother), and Eva Wright (paternal grandmother).^[2]

Reversal of fortunes

The 1970s brought a series of reversals for Armstrong's career.

In 1972, Time magazine reported that Herbert Armstrong had said, without further elaboration, that his son was "in the bonds of Satan" and had been removed from church roles. ^[3] Speculation that the younger Armstrong had committed adultery and been gambling was not confirmed by his father. He was later accused of sexual assault by a former stewardess on one of the church's private jets. ^[4] Not long after disappearing from public view, Garner Ted was restored to his roles in the church, and returned to the airwaves. Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Ironically, the year 1972 had been prominent in Herbert W. Armstrong's prophetic views, as elaborated in a booklet called 1975 in Prophecy!. January 1972 was supposed to be the conclusion of the second of two 19-year "time cycles" which, according to the elder Armstrong, had begun in 1953 when The World Tomorrow began to be heard over Radio Luxembourg in Europe. According to his theory, at the conclusion of that second 19-year time cycle the members of the church were expected to flee to a place of refuge, which leading ministers had speculated could be the ancient city of Petra, carved into rock in Jordan. Following this flight, World War III supposedly would begin, with a United States of Europe rising up to overthrow both the United States of America and the United Kingdom. This fit with both of the Armstrongs' teachings of a theory generally referred to as British Israelism, outlined in the elder Armstrong's book The United States and Britain in Prophecy.^[5] 1975 in Prophecy! is a digest-size booklet warning of an upcoming nuclear war and subsequent enslavement of mankind, leading to the return of Jesus Christ as a benign dictator. ... January 7 - President Harry S. Truman announces the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb. ... The World Tomorrow is a now-defunct radio and television half-hour program which had been sponsored by the Radio Church of God (later renamed Worldwide Church of God while under the direction of Herbert W. Armstrong. ... Radio Luxembourg (1933-1992, 2005-)was an important forerunner of pirate radio and modern commercial radio in Europe. ... For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ... This article is about the Jordanian site of Petra. ... A nuclear holocaust is often associated with World War III For other uses, see World War III (disambiguation). ... The United States of Europe is a name given to one version of the hypothetical unification scenarios of Europe, as a sovereign federation of states, similar to the United States of America, both as projected by writers of speculative fiction and by political scientists and politicians. ... British Israelism (sometimes called Anglo-Israelism) is a Christian theology based on the premise that many early British people, Europeans and/or their royal families were direct lineal descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel and in some cases of the Tribe of Judah. ...

When the church's speculative prophecies about 1972 and 1975 did not occur, Garner Ted Armstrong favored dropping such an approach in favor of one centered on Christian living and an outline of church doctrines and practice. His establishment of a "Systematic Theology Project" was eventually jettisoned by his father, but a form of it was later adopted by a separate church that Garner Ted would establish^[6].

Stanley Rader

By the mid-1970s, Stanley Rader, an attorney and church accountant who had been a personal assistant to Herbert W. Armstrong since 1958, appeared to be stepping into the number two position of administration that had previously been thought to be solely Garner Ted's domain. Relations between the two became strained and a power struggle ensued.^[7] One conflict of interest that troubled Garner Ted was the fact that Rader had set up numerous privately owned, affiliated corporations over a number of years that were doing business with the church. Garner Ted, and others in the organization, were skeptical of Rader's legal and financial dealings and suspected that they were a bid to control the church's multi-million-dollar business. One objection to Rader's role was that, being Jewish, he had never been a baptized member of the church or a practicing Christian. That obstacle was removed in 1975 when Rader was baptized by the elder Armstrong. Stanley R. Rader (August 13, 1930 – July 2, 2002) was born as a Jew and raised to be observant. ... Jan. ...

Two rival plans

By the mid-1970s two different and rival views were developing regarding the work and future of the church.

One plan was formulated by Garner Ted Armstrong, who wanted to take the church in a direction built around a larger publishing and broadcasting platform that would go out under his name. Garner Ted was wary of prophecies built around specific dates, and he was reported to be against the idea of continuing to deliver messages that associated the U.S. and Britain with the Lost Ten Tribes. He experimented with turning the church's flagship magazine, The Plain Truth, into a tabloid-size newspaper in the style of the Christian Science Monitor. He envisioned a television broadcast along the lines of one that was later developed by the Christian Science Church, which created a short-lived nightly news program that was later seen on the Discovery Channel. Lost Ten Tribes, also referenced as the Ten Lost Tribes or the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, usually refers to the tribes of the ancient Kingdom of Israel that disappear from the Biblical account after the Kingdom of Israel was totally destroyed, enslaved and exiled by ancient Assyria. ... The Plain Truth is a U.S.-based magazine founded by Herbert W. Armstrong who also founded the Radio Church of God (later renamed the Worldwide Church of God), Ambassador College and The World Tomorrow radio and television programs. ... The Christian Science Monitor (CSM) is an international newspaper published daily, Monday through Friday. ... Christian Science is a religious teaching regarding the efficacy of spiritual healing according to the interpretation of the Bible by Mary Baker Eddy, in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (first published in 1875). ... Discovery Channel is a cable and satellite TV channel founded by John Hendricks which is distributed by Discovery Communications. ...

Meanwhile, Stanley Rader aided significantly in crafting a unique role for the senior Armstrong on the world stage: Herbert W. Armstrong was promoted to various governments as an "ambassador without portfolio for world peace." In that role he did not so much represent the Worldwide Church of God or Ambassador College as he did a completely new entity called the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation" (AICF). This foundation helped to finance the Tatum O'Neal motion picture Paper Moon; a new and slick commercial publication called Quest magazine; bought Everest House, a publishing company; and turned the Ambassador Auditorium, located on the college campus in Pasadena, into a performing arts venue that boasted an annual subscription series featuring world-renowned performers and celebrities from stage, screen and the recording arts. Gifts from the foundation helped Rader secure the audiences with world leaders for the elder Armstrong, whose message was less an overt Christian one than a more general one about peace, brotherly love, giving instead of getting, and a "great unseen hand from someplace" intervening in world affairs. Tatum Beatrice ONeal (born November 5, 1963 in Los Angeles, California) is an Academy Award-winning American actress best known for her film work as a child actress in the 1970s. ... Paper Moon is an American motion picture comedy that was released in 1973 and was directed by Peter Bogdanovich. ... Quest magazine was published monthly by the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation from July 1977 to September 1981. ... Ambassador Auditorium was built on the campus of Ambassador College in Pasadena, California as both a facility to be used by the Worldwide Church of God for religious services and as a concert hall for public performances celebrating the performing arts. ...

Garner Ted was known to disagree with this approach as well as the expenditure of funds on it and other foundation activities. It became an increasing point of division between father and son.

Father and son part ways

As Rader's influence with the elder Armstrong grew, so did the gap between Garner Ted and his father. On top of the historic allegations of Garner Ted's gambling and adultery, the disagreement between father and son over operations and certain doctrinal positions of the church boiled over. In 1978 Herbert Armstrong excommunicated his son and fired him from all roles in the church and college. Garner Ted moved to Tyler, Texas where he founded the Church of God International and the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association^[8], through which he would soon return to the television airwaves.[1] Tyler is the county seat of Smith County in East Texas, United States. ... For other organizations with the same name, see Church of God International The Church of God International is a splinter group of the Worldwide Church of God. ...

Garner Ted Armstrong never again had the media outreach that he had enjoyed in his father's organization, nor did his new church ever rival his father's in membership statistics. The Church of God, International, did, however, become a haven for some former members of the Pasadena church who took exception to Rader's role and/or the elder Armstrong's autocratic style. As a result, members of the Worldwide Church of God were forbidden by Herbert Armstrong from having any contact with Garner Ted, and his name was removed from a significant number of church publications.

More scandals, and another church

Garner Ted Armstrong continued his ministry through the Church of God, International in the years that followed. However, his reputation was again damaged when a licensed nurse in Tyler accused him of making sexual advances during two massage sessions. She was interviewed by then-CNBC television host Geraldo Rivera, who showed portions of videotapes she had made during the encounters.^[9] The fallout from the scandal was immediate and dramatic, and Armstrong was asked to step down from his roles with the Church of God International. His next move was to heighten the profile of his Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association and he established, in 1998, the Intercontinental Church of God,^[10] which he headed until his death in 2003 due to complications from pneumonia^[11]. This article is about CNBC U.S., the business news channel in the U.S.. For other uses, see CNBC (disambiguation). ... Geraldo redirects here. ... A series of scandals resulted in the destruction of the reputations of several famous Christian evangelists. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ...

Rather than selecting a new media spokesman, the evangelistic association continues to broadcast old programs made by Garner Ted on approximately 30 television stations and cable outlets^[12]. The Intercontinental Church of God and Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association are now led by Mark Armstrong, one of three sons of Garner Ted and Shirley Hammer Armstrong. Mark Armstrong is not an ordained minister, but functions as CEO of the organizations.

Footnotes

See Also

• Christian evangelist scandals

A series of scandals resulted in the destruction of the reputations of several famous Christian evangelists. ...

External links

• Intercontinental Church of God homepage
• Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association homepage
• Obituary, The New York Times
• Obituary, The Los Angeles Times