Sabbath Message by Wade Cox

Sabbath 4/12/27/120

This week we continue on with the examination of false prophecy within the Churches of God and those churches that are non-Trinitarian affiliates or offshoots, or have been influenced by the Churches of God. We take up where Herbert Armstrong is commencing to make his silly and outrageous false prophecies after his credentialing by the Church of God (SD) as a minister of theirs in 1932. He was dismissed in 1940 for introducing the Hillel Calendar and corrupting the Passover among other matters.

We will follow the careers of the false prophets of the Radio Church of God (RCG), later the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), and the Watchtower and Bible Tract Society or Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs). This section will cover from 1934 up until 1975 after the great failure of their prophecies regarding the advent of Messiah.

The false and silly statements emanating from the Pentecostals commenced to intrude onto the world stage, usually through the US media, after 1975. Towards the end we will see more of their false prophecy emerge and that will be covered in the next section. Once again, or as usual, it appears that not a dint in their credibility ensues when what they say will happen, fails to materialise. It is as though being a false prophet is essential to the acceptance of a minister and the wellbeing and feelings of security of the public, and particularly the US public.

The old US circus buff said there is one born every minute and it sure seems like it. Remember the aim is to destroy the reliability and influence of Bible prophecy and the demons gave their power to this end.

1934
In 1934 the Plain Truth Magazine, a new magazine started by Herbert Armstrong, began making its false prophecies or false predictions. It said: “Christ will return in 1936.” That was fair, wasn’t it? After all, according to Revelation 11, the Witnesses had to be in Jerusalem for 1260 days and after that, lie in the streets for three and a half days dead according to Revelation. As they had not even arrived by then, Armstrong must have concluded that they were already here. Later he claimed, or had claimed for him, that he was one of them. However, there will be more of that later.

In 1934 Herbert took a leaf out of the Watchtower system and said:

"...the year 1936 will see the end of the Times of the Gentiles.... we may expect the present worldwide depression, time of trouble and fear of war to continue until the year 1936!... quickly after that time, we may expect to see the heavenly signs of the sun and moon becoming dark, the stars falling.... which shall be followed by the 'Day of the Lord."' (Herbert Armstrong The Plain Truth, June-July 1934, p. 5.)

In 1934/35 the PT claimed that Mussolini would become the world dictator. This silly fixation continued for some time.

1935
By 1935 it was obvious that the Germans were not going to accept the limitations of the 1918 Armistice. Hitler and the Nazis were well and truly a force that was bent on changing the map of Europe and that was obvious. Our prophets were to commence:

"...the scriptural evidence and the physical facts strongly indicate that such witness work is now almost done; and when it is done the universal war will begin. Universal war is absolutely certain to come and that soon, and no power can stop it. ...during the few remaining months until the breaking of that universal cataclysm the powers that rule the nations of the earth will continue to make treaties and tell the people that by such means they will keep that world peace and bring about prosperity. (Universal War Near, 1935, p. 3, 26-27)

False prophecy and the prevention of the birth of the children of Bible students.
At the same time the JWs were discouraging having children. This bizarre notion was to be adopted by the Radio Church of God, later the Worldwide Church of God, under Armstrong. It came from a complete misunderstanding of the nature of the way in which the millennial system would be introduced. No other doctrine, with the exception of the RCG/WCG healing doctrine, was to be more damaging, anti-Biblical and demonically inspired than this teaching. This came to be the dedicated aim of the Nazis in Europe. World War II was on the horizon and only a fool, or Neville Chamberlain, thought it might be avoided. Both Armstrong with RCG and also Rutherford and the JWs jumped on the bandwagon.

The prevention of marriage was aimed at the prevention of the birth of children. It is directly a doctrine of demons and identified by the Bible as such a doctrine. In no other aspect, other than the healing doctrine, are these false prophets identified with the demons so directly (see the papers The Doctrines of Demons of the Last Days (No. 48) and Vegetarianism and the Bible (No. 183)).

1938
In 1938 the JWs were still at it.

"...mark the words of Jesus, which definitely seem to discourage the bearing of children immediately before or during Armageddon....It would therefore appear that there is no reasonable or scriptural injunction to bring children into the world immediately before Armageddon, where we now are." (Watchtower, Nov. 1, 1938, p. 324)

By this time, blind Freddy knew war was imminent. Armstrong tried to fit the events into the Bible scenario and it seemed at first to fit. At any rate, it fitted well enough for him to use it to his own advantage. In 1938 he said:

"Mussolini and the pope will hatch up an idea between [them] of setting up a world headquarters at Jerusalem-and so Mussolini's armies will enter into Palestine (Daniel 11:41), and eventually will capture just half of the city of Jerusalem! (Zechariah 14:2)." (Herbert Armstrong The Plain Truth, March 1938, p. 8.)

Not to be outdone the JWs decided to have another try at getting the story right.

"They had preached that in an early time God would overthrow "Christendom". Many had emphasized the year 1925 as the date, and then when that date did not materialize the date was moved up to 1932. Again, 1932 came and ''Christendom'' was not destroyed, and now it was discovered that "Christendom" would be spared for a while longer for the sake of the Jonadab class, and this made the proud "elective elder" crowd very mad." (Watchtower Feb. 15, 1938 p. 54)

In 1938 the false prophets started telling people not to get married and have children. The British Commonwealth had been down this track in WWI and saw how silly it was and how much damage it did, and so many got married before the war. However, that did not matter to the false prophets:

"Would it be scripturally proper for them to marry and begin to rear children? No, is the answer, which is supported by the scriptures....It will be far better to be unhampered and without burdens, that they may do the Lords will now, as the Lord commands, and also be without hindrance during Armageddon. … Those... who now contemplate marriage, it would seem, would do better if they wait a few years, until the fiery storm of Armageddon is gone." (Face the Facts, 1938, p. 46, 47, 50)

They also clung to the failed prophecies as proof of some underlying truth.

“As far back as 1880 The Watchtower pointed to A.D. 1914 as the date marking the end of the world, at which time great trouble would come upon the nations; but at that time it was not seen by God's people on earth that the trouble would be the battle of Jehovah against Satan's organization. For many years it was believed by them, and so stated in The Watchtower, that "the time of trouble" would be a terrific clash between the various elements of the earth, such as capital and labor. Not until 1925 was "the time of trouble" Scripturally understood." (Watchtower, p. 35, Feb 1, 1938)

1939
Judge Rutherford, our intrepid follower in the shoes of the false prophet Russell, thundered out in 1939:

"The abundance of Scriptural evidence, together with the physical facts that have come to pass showing the fulfilment of prophecy, conclusively proves that the time for the battle of the great day of God Almighty is very near and that in that battle all of God's enemies shall be destroyed and the earth cleared of wickedness." … "Likewise today, all the nations and peoples of earth are face to face with the greatest emergency. They are being warned as God commands, that the disaster of Armageddon is just ahead." (J. F. Rutherford, Salvation, 1939, p. 310, 361)

The JWs saw this as a way of linking 1939 to 1914 and saving face in the sequence of what was to happen. Herbert Armstrong decided that this coming war had to be the war of Armageddon, and so he simply attached the prophecies to the war and the major figures in WWII became the Biblical players. Nothing could have been simpler, and nothing could have been more wrong. He had very little, if any, understanding of the actual prophetic sequence. Both he and the JWs were wrong continually and have no claim to prophecy.

"Once world war is resumed, it must continue on thru the great Tribulation, the heavenly signs, the plagues of the Day of the Lord, and to the Second Coming of Christ, at the last battle, at Armageddon!... But this you may know! This war will be ended by Christ's return! And war may start within six weeks! We are just that near Christ's coming!" (Herbert Armstrong, The Plain Truth, Aug. 1939, p. 6.)

The Watchtower and Bible Tract owners and leaders told the world once again what they had done regarding Beth Sarim in San Diego. After all it was good advertising.

“At San Deigo, California, there is a small piece of land, on which, in the year 1929 there was built a house, which is called and known as Beth Sarim. The Hebrew words Beth Sarim mean 'House of the Princes'; and the purpose of acquiring that property and building the house was that there are those on earth today who fully believe in God and Christ Jesus and in His Kingdom, and who believe that the faithful men of old will soon be resurrected by the Lord, be back on earth, and take charge of the visible affairs of earth. The title to Beth Sarim is vested in the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in trust, to be used by the president of the Society and his assistants for the present, and thereafter to be forever at the disposal of the aforementioned princes on the earth.... It stands there as a testimony to Jehovah's name; and when the princes do return, and some of them occupy the property, such will be a confirmation of the faith and hope that induced the building of Beth Sarim” (Salvation, 1939, p. 311)

On his bandwagon in the same parade, Herbert made the definitive prophecy in 1939 that: "Mussolini will fight Christ!" (Herbert Armstrong, The Plain Truth, Jan. 1939, p. 4.)

Herbert then began to prophetically unfold the course of the hostilities. Nothing Herbert Armstrong said was ever right. He had no idea whatsoever of any of the actual actions and results in the course of the war. "Ethiopia & Libya will join USSR in WW2" (PT 1939). Any student of the British Commonwealth knows that Ethiopia and Libya were conquered and taken from Italy by Commonwealth Forces within 2 years. The USSR was an ally. Libya was simply part of the theatre of operations. They themselves did nothing.

Herbert decided that Mussolini was the lynch pin in the Satanic plan and he tried to link Franco and the Spanish to him. In the PT in this year they stated: "Franco will give his power to Mussolini." In fact, Franco avoided direct conflict and stayed in power for 30 years after Mussolini died. In the December 1939 PT they said: "Hitler will give his power to Mussolini." What a profound misunderstanding of the events of WWII and the nature of Hitler and the Nazi Party in Europe.

1940
The phoney war of 1939 was over and the world got down to some serious slaughtering. The US was still deciding what to do. US business liked and backed Hitler. IBM helped him compile records of the unwanted bits of European society, liked the Jews and the Gypsies etc., so they could tidy all that up.

Another false prophet prophesied the end of the world in 1940 or 1941? A Bible teacher from Australia, Leonard Sale-Harrison, held a series of prophecy conferences across North America in the 1930's. He predicted that the end of the world would happen in 1940 or 1941.

Genocide
Armstrong and the RCG advocated the concept of genocide in 1940. This demonic idea was “in the air,” being spread by the prince of the power of the air, and it was taken up by those claiming to be prophets of God.

In 1940 Armstrong said:

"God has decreed that Joseph-Great Britain and the United States-are to utterly consume and annihilate the Turks from off the earth!" (Herbert Armstrong, The Plain Truth, Nov.-Dec. 1940, p. 7).

That would have helped a neutral Turkey to trust in their position. Fortunately Turkey did not pay attention to his raving nonsense, if they even knew of his existence.

Wrong understanding of the promises to Abraham and Bible prophecy.
In 1940 Armstrong said:

"It is part of God's prophesied plan that Britain shall be invaded and conquered ...." (Herbert Armstrong, The Plain Truth, Nov.-Dec. 1940.)

He assumed that the promises God made to Israel would be carried out in WWII to Britain and the Commonwealth. He was warm and comfortable in the USA, which was still some way off from Pearl Harbour.

In 1940 Armstrong made the mistake of adding up numbers of troops and assuming outcomes. He had not studied Cressy and Agincourt or the multitude of battles fought since then. The Aug-Sept PT stated: "Mussolini will conquer Egypt & Palestine." This was three months before the collapse of the Italian forces. Armstrong had been taken in by the newspaper reports of the seemingly hopeless position of the British in Egypt. Many people have made the mistake of underestimating the Commonwealth forces. When Italy declared war on June 10, 1940 against Britain and France, the British position in North Africa seemed hopelessly outmatched. UK Army General Percival Wavell commanded 40,000 Dominion soldiers caught between 200,000 Italian troops in Libya and 250,000 to the south in Ethiopia and Somaliland.

Armstrong took a bet on the outcome and, like many in the US, was completely wrong.

Wavell made a bold gamble on June 10th, sending a small force into Libya to show the flag. This was the opening battle in a long campaign that was to see the outcome see-saw between the Axis and the Allies.

The Italians under Marshal d’Armata Rodolfo Graziani invaded and occupied British Somaliland on August 17, 1940, possibly cutting off American merchant transit through the Red Sea and cutting off the British from India. On September 13, Graziani reluctantly invaded Egypt under pressure from Mussolini. This date was the latest publication date for the PT. It seemed as though the Italians in Somalia were in a position to control the Red Sea and cut off the British from India, and hence Armstrong began to bark.

Wavell sent 30,000 troops on December 9th under UK Army General Richard O’Connor to reclaim Sidi Barrani in Egypt, 65 miles inside Egypt’s border with Libya. The Italians had heavily fortified the town, but the British caught them by surprise and took 20,000 prisoners. The enterprising O’Connor then turned the large-scale raid into a full-scale invasion of Libya, taking more prisoners and occupying Tobruk, Benghazi, and the whole of the Libyan province of Cyrenaica. 130,000 Italian prisoners marched towards Egypt.

Then, a major shift in the balance of power occurred. Wavell was ordered to cut back his forces and send them to Greece. Hitler sent the Afrika Korps to help the Italians, led by the effective Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel. Rommel arrived on February 12, 1941. Technically under Italian command, Rommel led an armored attack that smashed through the smaller British force, capturing O’Connor and almost all of the British conquests except for the embattled port of Tobruk. The British settled in for a long siege.

Churchill overruled his advisors and sent precious military supplies and weapons to Wavell, who tried twice to beat his way through Rommel to Tobruk. Rommel developed new doctrines of desert warfare, using anti-aircraft guns against tanks and employing Blitzkrieg tactics to outflank the British. Wavell had to resign in the face of these defeats. The tactics of armoured fluid penetration were developed by the English Captain Basil Lydell-Hart after WWI, but the UK and US had ignored them to their cost. The Germans made them required reading, hence the development of “blitzkrieg”. Only the British Gen. Sir Percy Hobart had bothered to study him.

General Sir Claude Auchinleck arrived in November 1941. The UK Desert Force became the UK Eighth Army. In Operation Crusader, he lifted the 242-day siege of Tobruk, drove Rommel back against El Agheila, and destroyed a quarter of the Afrika Korps and almost half of the Italian Army in Libya.

But the British were hard pressed to supply both Auchinleck and the island of Malta. Rommel consolidated his forces, resupplied, and burst forth from El Agheila, taking Benghazi and driving on Tobruk. The British fell back on the Gazala Line, a series of forts linked by minefields.

Both sides paused to regroup and strengthen their forces. On May 26, 1942, Rommel renewed the attack, but was blocked by strong resistance and caught between two strongpoints on the Gazala Line. Rommel, the “Desert Fox,” wheeled on the British. He smashed the defenders of Bir Hacheim and took Tobruk on June 17. Rommel captured 30,000 defenders and the supply dump there.

Hitler promoted Rommel to Feldmarschall. Rommel said: “It would be better if he sent me another division,” when he was told of his new rank. The British fell back on their first line of defense in Egypt, Mersa Matruh. Rommel pursued them. The line fell at the end of June 1942.

Rommel and the Axis lines of communication were stretched, despite capturing huge stores of British supplies along the way. Rommel could not break the El Alamein line, the last defense before Alexandria. Churchill sacked Auchinleck and replaced him with General William Gott, who was killed in a plane crash while taking command.

Churchill, shaken by the fall of Tobruk, searched for a man to replace Gott who could save Alexandria and the whole of Egypt from surrender. He chose British Lieutenant General Bernard Law Montgomery, who spent a lot of time reorganizing and retraining the Eighth Army. On August 31, 1942, Rommel struck the El Alamein line, and was repulsed by heavy artillery fire.

The Anzac and the Indian divisions were to play a major part in the fall of the Axis forces in Africa. The so-called British Eighth Army was a cohesive Commonwealth force that destroyed the Axis in North Africa. Oil was critical to the war effort. Russia and the Middle East were all part of the same military objectives.

The Battle of El Alamein and the defeat of the Italians should have taught Armstrong a very serious lesson about prophecy, but it seems he was undeterred. The US churches seem to follow outside news and present their “guesstimates” as prophecy. They are seldom correct.

Armstrong’s views of the UK and the British Commonwealth were as bizarre as they were wrong. He claimed in 1940 in the PT: "Christ will come after 3.5 yrs of tribulation in October 43." In the April/May 1940 PT: Armstrong said: "Today England is a dictatorship as absolute as that of Hitler or Mussolini." Churchill was to say: “Democracy is a completely unworkable system but it is the best we have.”

In 1940, others also jumped on the bandwagon of WWII as the war of the end.

"The year 1940 is certain to be the most important year yet because Armageddon is very near. It behoves all who love righteousness to put forth every effort to advertise The Theocracy while the privileges are still open." (Informant, April, 1940, p. 1)

“The Kingdom is here, the King is enthroned. Armageddon is just ahead. The glorious reign of Christ that shall bring blessings to the world will immediately follow. Therefore the great climax has been reached. Tribulation has fallen upon those who stand by the Lord.” (The Messenger, Sept. 1940, p. 6)

In 1940 Rutherford said:

“The prophecies of Almighty God, the fulfilment of which now clearly appears from the physical facts, show that the end of religion has come and with its end the complete downfall of Satan's entire organization." (J. F. Rutherford, Religion, p. 336, 1940)

Rutherford and the Watchtower said in September 1940:

“The witness work for The Theocracy appears to be about done in most of the countries of "Christendom. ... Now the totalitarian rule has suppressed the Theocratic message, and it should be expected that when they quit fighting amongst themselves all the totalitarian rulers will turn their attention to the complete suppression of everything pertaining to the Theocratic Government. What, then, does it mean that the Theocratic Government is now suppressed in many nations? It means that the hour is rapidly approaching when the "sign" of Armageddon will be clearly revealed and all who are on the side of Jehovah will see and appreciate it.." (Watchtower, Sept. 1, 1940, p. 265. [White, p. 335 quotes from the 1942 Yearbook (p. 29), completed by Rutherford just before his death: "The record as herewith published would, on the face of it, show that the Theocratic witness work on earth is about done."])

In 1940 Herbert continued on with more of the same false prophecy: “Nazis will conquer Britain”. “Turkey will turn traitor to Britain” (PT). As we know, Turkey remained neutral. False prophecy and claims followed one upon another with Armstrong and his ministry.

1941
In 1941 Herbert Armstrong made further errors that indicated that he had confused the actions of Hitler in Operation Barbarossa and the actions of the King of the North in Daniel, where news from the east and the north alarmed him and he went out to utterly destroy many. The area of Russian operations was in the Ukraine and Stalingrad. These areas were northwest of Jerusalem and not northeast.

"Bible prophecy does indicate that Hitler must be the victor in his present Russian invasion!... Hitler will emerge from this Russian campaign stronger than ever, free to turn the entire might of his forces against Britain-and America!" (Herbert Armstrong, The Plain Truth, Sept.-Oct. 1941, p. 7.)

The views of Herbert Armstrong show a profound ignorance of Bible timing and prophecy as they applied under God’s Calendar. The JWs likewise under Rutherford were just as ignorant and ill advised.

In 1941 Rutherford was still advising that children could and should be deferred.
"Armageddon is surely near, and during that time the Lord will clean off the earth everything that offends and is disagreeable. ... From now on we shall have our heart devotion fixed on The Theocracy, knowing that soon we shall journey forever together in the earth. Our hope is that within a few years our marriage may be consummated and, by the Lord's grace, we shall have sweet children that will be an honor to the Lord. We can well defer our marriage until lasting peace comes to the earth." (J. F. Rutherford, Children, 1941, p.366)

"Receiving the gift, [Rutherford's book, Children] the marching children clasped it to them, not a toy or plaything for idle pleasure, but the Lord's provided instrument for most effective work in the remaining months before Armageddon." (Watchtower Sept. 15, 1941, p. 288)

1942
In 1942 the view of the JW system was that this was indeed Armageddon:

"Now, with Armageddon immediately before us, it is a matter of life or destruction. Those who would be of the Lords other sheep that shall compose the great multitude of Armageddon survivors and live joyfully on earth forever must find the answer to a very personal question, and very important." (Watchtower, April 1, 1942, p. 139)

"The New World Is At The Doors...The time is short. Those who do not inform themselves and who do not now choose the new world which Higher Powers shall establish will never live to enter into blessings and glories." (The New World, 1942, p. 10)

"The Lord Jesus has now come to the temple for judgment, and the remnant of the members of 'his body' yet on earth he has gathered into the temple condition of perfect unity with himself (Malachi 3:1-3), and hence those faithful men of old may be expected back from the dead any day now. The Scriptures give good reason to believe that it shall be shortly before Armageddon breaks. In this expectation the house at San Diego, California, which house has been much publicized with malicious intent by the religious enemy, was built, in 1930, and named 'Beth Sarim,' meaning 'House of Princes.' It is now held in trust for the occupancy of those princes on their return. The most recent facts show that the religionists of this doomed world are gnashing their teeth because of the testimony which that 'House of Princes' hears to the new world. To those religionists and their allies the return of those faithful men of old to rule with judgment over the people shall not bring any pleasure. But to the people whom the angels sang about, 'men of good will,' it shall be an occasion for unbounded jubilation, and they shall rally to the side of those princely representatives of the kingdom of heaven." (The New World, pp. 104-105, 1942)
1942 Such activity in publishing God's kingdom and clearing his name of the Devil's reproaches by religion was mistakenly given a place secondary to the making of the bride of Christ class ready for the marriage with him in heaven, in 1914 as some thought. (The New World; 1942; 2,000,000 ed.; p. 273-274)

“Before the Lord's Messenger came to the temple and began interpreting God's will and teaching, the Job class had been darkening counsel by words without knowledge, it not then being due time for the disclosure of such knowledge. Some of the consecrated ones thought they must be taken home to heaven at a time certain in order to help God run the universe.” (The New World; 1942; 2,000,000 ed.; p. 308)

"The faithful acts of the men who were known as fathers in Israel are recounted in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Genesis 12:1-3; 28:13,14; Acts 7:2-5....These men will be the visible representatives of the Theocracy, which is the government created and built up by the almighty God as his capital organization and which shall rule the world. Further proof that these princes will shortly take office upon earth as perfect men is found in the prophecy of Daniel. But go thou thy way till the end be; for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days (Daniel 12:13). Daniel's lot is that of these princes. Proof is now submitted that we are now living at the end of the days, and we may expect to see Daniel and the other mentioned princes any day now!" (Consolation, April 27, 1942, p. 13)

Armstrong transferred his views regarding Mussolini to Rommel, and then Hitler and the Nazis. His views of the war could not have been more completely wrong.

In 1942, Herbert Armstrong said in the PT that Rommel would conquer Jerusalem & Egypt with the help of the German army coming through Caucasus and southern Russia. The fact of the matter is that the German forces were destroyed in Stalingrad and some 100,000 taken into captivity. The Germans suffered heavy losses all over the Eastern Front in the period August 1942 - Feb 1943; The British Eighth Army destroyed Rommel's army at El Alamein in Nov. 1942 and it then advanced across Africa to join up with the Americans who had landed in the west in Tripoli. The Australians moved through Palestine to Syria and defeated the French Foreign Legion under the Vichy French, who had earlier declared for the Nazis. The Axis forces never set foot in Palestine. The Australian Desert Force (Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF)) then returned to the Pacific to join their countrymen, who had just inflicted the first land defeat on the Japanese in Papua, New Guinea. With the Americans they fought their way north to defeat Japan. New Zealand, India, South Africa and Canada (who had not fought in the desert) remained with the British and defeated the Axis forces in Germany, and also the Japanese in Burma, although many South Africans had been taken captive at the fall of Tobruk.

Herbert Armstrong’s understanding of the timing of the Return of Christ and the events of the Nazis in WWII was profoundly ignorant, both biblically and politically. Only in the US of the pre-Cold War era could he have uttered his silly prognostications.

1943
In 1943 Armstrong predicted the battle of Christ and the False Prophet linking them with Hitler.

"But Hitler (or his successor if there is one), and the False Prophet shall fight against Christ!" (Herbert Armstrong, The Plain Truth, March-April 1943, p. 6).

The major false prophet to survive that fiasco was Armstrong.

Similarly, his knowledge of the Bible as it related to the advances of science was abysmal. He also said in 1943:

"Man cannot by airplane or rockets or other means get above the air envelope which is about our earthly globe..."(The Truth Shall Make you Free, p. 285, 1943 edition).

The advances in the V1/V2 system, no doubt, promoted his comments. However, later in 1943 he came to realise that WWII may not be the final war as Nazi Germany was getting the worst of it. He thought the war would take years and years to end as we see from his 1944 comments, but he began to hedge his bets so as not to appear a complete fool. Although that had not seemed to worry him in the past and it seemed not to bother him afterwards.

He continued on in 1943:

"The final war will come as a most sudden and complete surprise...Nevertheless, the appearing of the 'desolating abomination in the holy place' is an unerring proof that the unknown day and hour of the beginning of the final war is dangerously near." (The Truth Shall Make You Free, 1943, p. 341)

1944
In 1944 the establishment of the United Nations was seen:

"…as one of the most positive evidences that 'the kingdom of heaven is at hand' and that the end of the world arrangement is now near. Jesus foretold the setting up of that anti-Christ organization." (The Kingdom Is at Hand, 1944, p. 342)

Armstrong began to transfer the hysteria of the bogeymen to Japan as Germany was decimated in 1944: "We have made but the slightest dent in Jap defenses in the Pacific and at the present rate, it will take us about 20yrs" to defeat them (PT).

1945
He then ascribed atomic powers to Japan when even Germany had lost the race to develop them.
He said in July 1945: “Although Germany is destroyed, Japan will develop atomic bombs to destroy America.”

All this was in spite of the fact that the US atomic bomb had already tested in Los Alamos. The key components were manufactured in Washington State, which was just north of HWA who was in Oregon. He had no prophetic indications that these things would happen as they did. In August 1945, there were two US A-bombs dropped on Japan. That act brought the Japanese to surrender and ended the war. It was almost as though he caught snippets of news and gossip and turned them against his own people, even when it was they that were developing them.

Post war delusion and false prophecy
After the war the prophecies were still unfulfilled and it seemed as though they had to be done through a revival. Any one with even a cursory reading of the Bible knew that fact, so it was a safe starting point. However, Herbert let his ignorance override simple logic and the increasing technology of the day.

1946
He continued on, after the war, in 1946:

"…the disaster of Armageddon, greater than that which befell Sodom and Gomorrah, is at the door." (Let God Be True, 1946, p. 194)

Over the next decade he was to make a series of silly claims that showed his ignorance of science but his grasp of advertising.

1946/7
In the PT he claimed that Germany would develop super-V2 rockets to destroy America's cities.

He also claimed in 1946/47: “There will be no Jewish state in Palestine.” His reasoning was that since Britain & America are really Israel, Palestine must be kept for them in the Millennium. The fact that they were Judah seemed to be lost on him. Also, the birthright promise to Zebulun of “Calling the People to Jerusalem” was completely lost on him (See the paper Calling the Peoples to Jerusalem (No. 238)).

1948/49
In the 1948/49 PT he claimed that Germany would become a nuclear superpower within five years. The reality was that the Soviet Union tested A-Bombs from 1949 and in 1953 tested its first H-Bomb. He had no grasp of the prophetic development of the last days. Germany was partitioned and not allowed to develop anything that might be construed as being dangerous by an occupation force of WWII Allies.

1950
In 1950 in the PT he said: “When Germany becomes united, it will immediately turn on America, arm to the teeth with nuclear weapons, and make the whole world tremble.” The fact was that German unification was not to occur for another forty years. Germany remained an ally of America in the NATO alliance and Germany remained democratic. To date, its policies are reserved and at present concentrating on the establishment of the European Economic Community. The reality is that Britain and the US have become the military arm of the UN and its expansionist globalisation. He saw none of that.

As late as 1950 Armstrong stated that man would never get into space. As we all know, the Russians were the first into space in April 1961 with Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, and the Americans followed thereafter. The US placed men on the moon in 1969 and brought them safely home again.

In the 1950 PT Herbert Armstrong said the: “US will never win another war.” The Vietnam War was the major example of this prediction, but he got all the rest wrong. The US has had the following “victories:” 1982 Grenada; 1989 Panama; 1991 Iraq. The then rated 4th largest army in the world was destroyed in 40 days. They had to go back into Iraq and, whilst they won a quick victory, they are embroiled in a bitter insurgency campaign that threatens to be as bad as Vietnam; and they appear set to take on Iran in the near future. To do that, they will have to reintroduce conscription.

1951/52
In the early 1950s, Herbert Armstrong predicted in the PT that a native Egyptian would never rule Egypt. This showed a profound ignorance of Bible prophecy and the Book of Ezekiel (see the paper the Prophecy of Pharaoh’s Broken Arms (No. 36)). In 1953, Gamal Abdel Nasser took power. Herbert allegedly responded by claiming that Nasser was a light-skinned Arab and not a real Egyptian. In 1956, the Suez Crisis established Egyptian sovereignty, as should have been expected from the time frames indicated by Ezekiel and Daniel. In 1970, Nasser died and was replaced by Anwar Sadat, a black native Egyptian from southern Egypt. Thus, Armstrong’s prophecy and then his rationalization were again proven wrong.

The JWs were still aware that they had got it wrong regarding 1914 but they were trying to rationalise their errors as well for their credible masses. They said in 1951:

"Under the guidance of God's spirit of freedom the magazine today known as the Watchtower but known back there as Zion's Watch Tower, began to be published in July, 1879. In the first year of its publication it pointed to the date 1914 as marked in the Bible." (What Has Religion Done For Mankind? 1951; p. 308)

Not to be outdone, the RCG under Armstrong began to say in the first half of the 1950's PT circulation that Christ would return in 1957. This theme was just moved ahead as each date arrived and passed, and they were proven once again to be false prophets.

1953
In 1953 his minions said:

"Yes, it seems that God is allowing us another 19-year cycle to complete the carrying of his gospel of the kingdom to this sick and dying world.... There is a tremendous job to be done in the very short period that lies ahead of us." (Herman Hoeh, The Plain Truth, June 1953, p. 13.)

He seemed to be trying to justify their simply staggering record of consistent failed prophecies.

In 1953 they said:

"After almost six thousand years of human sorrow, suffering and death, at last permanent relief is near at hand and will be realized within this generation." (New Heavens And A New Earth, 1953, p. 7).

A generation is forty years and at the very outside the time frame ended in 1993. That effectively marked the end of the organisational structure of the WCG and marked its Trinitarian adoption so, in a sense, the world got some relief from their false prophecies, as their lamp-stand was removed from that time.

In the "Middle East in Prophecy" article HWA predicted Russia and China would never split but would remain united until Christ's coming. They split in 1958 and remained bitter enemies for more than thirty years, fighting many border skirmishes and conflicts. They remain apart but cooperate on some economic issues as Russia does with the West. The Armstrong prophecies seem to show no ability to look past the politics of the time in which he is writing.

In a 1953 PT article, HWA predicted that the anti-Communist rising in East Berlin would lead directly to a restored Nazi Germany. The rising was crushed. Fifty years later, no Nazis have taken power in Germany. The youth trained under that system and influenced by its thinking are more dangerous, but they have acted in a circumspect manner as leaders.

A 1953 PT article by Herman Hoeh was to say: "Kremlin plans for 20 years in Korea." Eisenhower settled the war within one month

1955
The Armstrong ministry, all of them, were consistently wrong on prophecy.

"In the light of the fulfilment of Bible prophecy it is becoming clear that the war of Armageddon is nearing its breaking-out point." (You may survive Armageddon into God's new world, 1955, p 331)

"God Almighty has spoken through His servants the prophets that He will punish our people for their sins. He will let our own lust cause such droughts, floods, pestilences and famines that we will be totally consumed and carried away captive to other nations as slaves within twenty years." (Herman Hoeh, The Plain Truth, Oct. 1955, p.16).

At that time the improvements in agriculture were important in staving off third world food shortages. Hoeh and Armstrong simply used the problem of the time without understanding the technical solutions.

In the 1955 January PT: Herman Hoeh said: "We face a national catastrophe by 1975... We will be totally consumed and carried away captive to other nations as slaves within twenty years." This was just utter drivel.

Herman Hoeh also said in a 1955 PT article: "Within 20 years this nation will be toppled by worst drought in its history" The food surplus over that period was significant and in 1975 the US had one of greatest grain surpluses and sold it to Soviets

In an attempt to vague up the 6000-year period, the JWs began to play with the life period of Adam to cast some doubt on the period of the 6000 years. They had made a mess of it previously, as we might recall from above.

In 1955 they said:

"The very fact that, as part of Jehovah's secret, no one today is able to find out how much time Adam and later Eve lived during the closing days of the sixth creative period, so no one can now determine when six thousand years of Jehovah's present rest day come to an end. Obviously, whatever amount of Adam's 930 years was lived before the beginning of that seventh-day rest of Jehovah, that unknown amount would have to be added to the 1976 date." (Watchtower, February 1, 1955, p. 95).

As they did not follow the 4004 period initially because it did not suit them, so they appear to have wished to vague up the matter so they can continue calling the false dates as it suits them.

1956
Not to be deterred, Armstrong and his minions still kept spouting his false prophetic nonsense. In the 1956 PT they said: “Britain will collapse into famine and anarchy within 3-5 yrs.”

Also in 1956, Herman Hoeh said:

"This seven years of national trouble takes us-if the dates which appear so definitely indicated by these prophecies are correct-from 1965 to 1972!" (Herman Hoeh, The Plain Truth, April 1956, p. 22.)

In the howler of all time, in 1956, they had the gall, after twenty-five years of consistent false prophecy in which they did not get one prediction right, to say:

"But who today understands what the prophets foretold? Why, only the ministers today whose word comes to pass!-those who are appointed and guided by God to preach the truth! Those whose utterances do not come to pass have not spoken the prophecies truly. We give you here the record of what we have been proclaiming for the past 2 years-a message which no other voices, to our knowledge, have been proclaiming.... But what we have been warning you about is happening!-precisely as we have stated.... This is how you can know that our work is not of men but of God!" (Dec. 1956, p. 3.)

In the 1956 April PT, Herman Hoeh said: "PLAGUES coming - and, according to this prophetic warning, in about two years from now." He also said: "We have about reached our population peak, despite the guesses of our political and industrial planners." He obviously had no idea. The U.S. population in 1956 was approximately 180 million. The U.S. population had increased by 50% by 1998 to some 270 odd million. In the same issue Hoeh said "Many of you will remember that over three years ago we told you of the strong indication that the last half of this - God's - Work of spreading the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to all the world would probably end in 1972."

Thus, from this time, they then promoted the 1972 “Place of Safety” doctrine and the 1975 end of the current world order scenario. Their understanding of Petra as the Place of Safety was based on false doctrine developed by biblical illiterates of a number of denominations. Herbert Armstrong did very little original research and plagiarized most of his work. The quotations were never acknowledged. He stole much of his writing, often word for word, in great slabs, from G. G. Rupert, and from J. Allen’s work, Judah’s Sceptre and Joseph’s Birthright.

In 1956 and onward after Suez, the Radio Church of God (later WCG) began to say that Britain would never regain the sea-gates she lost. Britain had announced her east of Suez policy over this period. In 1982 Britain went to war with Argentina and retook the Falkland Islands, which was theoretically a seagate commanding the South Atlantic. So again, this is a false prophecy.

In 1956 the PT published many false predictions. They predicted Otto Von Habsburg would take over Hungary after the 1956 Hungarian revolution. The revolution was crushed.

In the April 1956 PT, an article by Herman Hoeh said: "Disease epidemics threaten US in 2 years."

In a 1956 PT, an article under "Who will bury who?" predicts that Communism in Russia will outlive the United States. As we know, it did not. It collapsed in 1991.

In a 1956 PT they said that Franz Josef Strauss would be the beast and the man of strife in the book of Hosea.
It is a matter of history that Strauss never became leader of Germany. He was defeated by Helmut Schmidt in 1982 and died in 1988. He was a great ally of the US & Israel all his life.

In 1956 and onward, after Suez they said that Britain would never win another war. History has shown that to be wrong, although they are becoming more embroiled in these recurring Middle East problems now. The problem is not the war but winning the peace.

Herman Hoeh said, "In another 10 years for fear of Communist terrorism it won't be safe to live in Asia or Africa." By 1975, U.S. forces were finally driven out of Vietnam and Indochina, but U.S. military bases remained secure everywhere else in Asia. The only part of the world in those years where American civilians faced a real threat of personal terrorism was the Arab Middle East -- Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia were fine. Again, these were predictions totally contrary to reality.

Herman Hoeh, still in 1956, referred to "the coming Fascist-religious revival of Europe that will conquer us within a prophetically indicated 17 years." In 1973 President Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger proclaimed the "Year of Europe". The European Community expanded to include Britain and Ireland among others. Needless to say, there was no fascism, and no conquest. The challenge to the United States comes from the Arab and other oil producing nations who quadrupled the price of oil, crippling European economic growth.

The prophecies were the total opposite of the reality.

1957
Garner Ted Armstrong, another of the team given to making these false prophecies, stated:

"Two years ago, Mr. Herman Hoeh showed in this magazine how God's word prophesied disease epidemics would strike the United States in two short years! Those epidemics are beginning now! And they will grow much worse! God prophesies that finally, within the next fifteen years, fully one third of our whole population will die of disease and famine!" (Garner Ted Armstrong, The Plain Truth, Dec. 1957, p. 23.)

Roderick Meredith, one of the team of “prophets,” said:

"There is no other church or work on the face of this earth that either understands or dares to proclaim these vital warnings!... This is the very Work of God!... You are now being warned!" (Roderick Meredith, The Plain Truth, Aug. 1957, p. 6.)

In 1957 the Armstrong team said that Britain would never join the European Common Market but in 1973 Britain joined the European Common Market. Another false prophecy made and broken in two Sabbatical cycles.

In August, Roderick Meredith reportedly said: "At the conclusion of the drought and floods we are now just beginning to suffer, this nation is going to be punished by horrifying DISEASE EPIDEMICS - plagues." When? He approvingly cites a 1956 Plain Truth title, 'Disease Epidemics Threaten USA in 2 years!" Clearly, 1958 was meant. Meredith continued, "In addition to those warnings ...we will soon find that hoof-and-mouth disease will spread COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL!" In the same article, he continued on to prophesy:

"After 1965 we are destined to run into increased trouble with the Gentile nation[s]. America and Britain will begin to suffer from trade embargoes imposed by the Brown and Oriental races and by the coming German-dominated 'United States of Europe.' ...We will begin to experience the pangs of starvation and of scarcity of goods."

This prophecy by Roderick Meredith was not only wrong, it was completely the reverse of what happened and showed no understanding whatsoever of the coming globalisation of the world economy that was so necessary to the formation of the prophetic beast power. There were no trade embargoes in this period but rather great material prosperity. The Arab oil producers did make an embargo in 1973-4 but Armstrong and his team, such as Meredith, seemed not to recognise what was happening and rationalised it. They appear not to have had the capacity to project the matters into the future and see their likely effects on world activities given Bible prophecy.

Not to be outdone, just in case something might happen in 1957, in April 1957, The Watchtower magazine quoted Mihran Ask, a pastor from California, as saying that in 1957 (January) that: "Sometime between April 16 and 23, 1957, Armageddon will sweep the world! Millions of persons will perish in its flames and the land will be scorched.”

In a 1957 PT article they predicted that the Treaty of Rome, creating the European Common Market, would lead to a Catholic/Nazi dictatorship by 1962. Another false prophecy seen and failed.

1958
In October 1958 Herman Hoeh, wrote the article entitled "U.S. and Britain and Nazi UNDERGROUND Behind Arab Crisis." There was never any Nazi influence on the Arabs in this “Arab Crisis”. The Nazis were anti-Semitic and the Arabs were Semites. They would have to be simple-minded fools to be supporters of the Nazis. Herman Hoeh seemed not to really understand the background and ramifications of what he was saying. The crises in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq in 1958 were fueled by a wave of Arab socialism. As some have observed, the ideology is still reflected all these decades later in the Ba'athist ideologies of Syria and Iraq. They were supported for political advantage by the Communist powers and especially the Soviet Union.

The WCG preoccupation with the European and Catholic dominated beast power taking over Jerusalem has led them to cry wolf many times.

In 1958 Herman Hoeh indulged in some more fanciful raving supported by Armstrong. He reportedly said:

"Germany's coming Führer-who will lead within probably 13 years from now a 10-nation union in Europe (Rev. 17:12-13)-is 'the king of the north.' He will 'stretch forth his hand upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape' (Dan. 11:42). There is going to be a falling out between Nasser and his German supporters. Nasser's Nazi advisers are yet to turn upon him. Germany will take over the Suez from Egypt. Germany will take over Syria's oil pipelines, now under Nasser's control." (Herman Hoeh, The Plain Truth, Oct. 1958, p. 4.)

The idea that the EEC would be “ten nations” comes from a misunderstanding of the ten of the heads of the system. Clearly the Armstrong team had no idea of the scope of the EEC and its final form and impact. If they had, they would not have made so many silly and embarrassing false prophecies concerning it.

1959
Rod Merdith’s message echoed the delusion. They uttered false prophecy after false prophecy and Rod Meredith tried to claim the opposite.

"We have been daring, as no other church on earth, to proclaim definite, specific prophetic events to occur-and they have been happening!... For the specific prophesied events which this Church alone proclaims will soon be demonstrated as a physical reality! There will be no reasoning or argument about this. You will see and feel these things happen!" (Rod Meredith, The Plain Truth, June 1959, p. 32).

As current affairs reporters, they were equally abysmal failures. In a 1959 PT article by Herman Hoeh they said: "Red China plans spring invasion of India." They meant spring of 1959, not later. We are still waiting.

In another 1959 PT they said it would be: "Doom for US within 10-15 yrs"

The Decade of the 1960s
In the early 1960's they published in the PT that: “Man will never walk on the moon.”

During the 1960s, the PT published a theme of false prophecy seemingly aimed at the reality of the current alliances and activities that were in effect frustrating the plan of the demons for the destruction of the world system. It is as though voices spoke out of their mouths on a consistent basis that ran counter to a reality of which they did not approve.

The Plain Truth Magazine (PT) repeatedly claimed 1972 would be the year of Christ's coming.

Both HWA and his son GTA claimed in the 1960 PTs that the radical Arab threat to the oil fields would lead Germany and Japan to rearm because America could not protect them. In the 1991 Gulf War, the opposite happened and both nations were reluctant to do that when requested.

In the 1960 PTs they claimed that the United States would never be able to reverse the tide of Communism in the world. Communism died of its own accord in its own excesses in Russia, and the Chinese have now taken action to prevent the same problems and adopt remedial capitalist systems.

In the 1960s PT articles Rod Meredith took up the theme that: “Turkey will prevent the United States Sixth Fleet from fleeing from Nazi European air attacks and will stab America and Britain in the back. It will later be destroyed for this treachery.” He was completely wrong and his predictions were not only false, they misread the entire structure and thrust of NATO. No doubt it will be projected yet again into the future, but the thrust will still be false.

In the 1960s PTs they also produced false prophecy on the agricultural system. They said that the new wheat and plant strains of the high-yield "Green revolution" would cause more famine, not less. The opposite happened. Food yields in the hard pressed and developing nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America soared over the next 20 years and outstripped population growth.

In the 1960s PTs they said that all the soil of the U.S. Midwestern "Breadbasket" states would erode by 1972. That erosion would lead to large-scale famine. The facts are that Midwest soil erosion was largely reversed in the 1980s. The Reagan administration’s Department of Agriculture program to plant trees and to take anti-erosion measures in the region responded to the problem, and they were proven wrong yet again.

The entire system of the Radio Church of God and its ministry uttered false prophecy on a continual basis.

1960
In 1960 they said if John F. Kennedy were elected president, the Pope would have a crucial foothold to seize power in America.

In the same year 1960, Piazzi Smyth, a past astronomer royal of Scotland, wrote a book circa 1860 titled Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid. It was responsible for spreading the belief in pyramidology throughout the world. This is the belief that secrets are hidden in the dimensions of the great pyramids. He concluded from his research that the millennium would start before the end of 1960 CE.

In 1960 Ted Armstrong joined the others in barking false prophecy at an increasing rate. He saw himself as the heir apparent to a business empire of false prophecy and it did not seem to matter what you said, as long as you said something. It did not seem to matter if it came true or not; they still paid their money.

"All of these internal troubles, combined with the rapid rise to power of a frightening huge combine in Europe, are going to spell out great disaster for the United States and Britain in the '60's.... It is going to happen! No amount of reasoning, 'spiritualizing away,' arguing, doubting, scoffing, or disbelieving is going to change it! Almighty God, in His inviolate Word, thunders from His great throne in the universe that these very prophecies are going to come to pass!" (Garner Ted Armstrong, The Plain Truth, Mar. 1960, p. 10).

1961
In 1961, the JW system was still bleating out garbled messages. They said:

“Like Elijah of old, they became quite disconsolate, uncertain of life, thinking the end of existence and work was at hand. This was especially the case since the remnant was part of the virgin class espoused to Christ as his Bride and she failed to realize her hopes of being glorified to heavenly life with him both in 1914 and now in 1918.” (Let Your Name Be Sanctified; 1961, p. 313).

Still trying to predict the rise of the European system within their paradigm, in the 1961 PT sequence HWA prophesied that the Berlin crisis would lead to the collapse of America and the rise of a united Nazi Germany. The reverse happened. The strong U.S. response to the Berlin crisis confirmed U.S. leadership in Europe for more than three decades. Germany remained divided for almost thirty years. When it united, it did so as a democratic nation within the EEC and an ally of the US in NATO.

1962
In a 1962 PT article, HWA showed his complete ignorance of economics. He claimed, "There is no boom in sight" – when the US was at the beginning of the biggest growth period in its history, and perhaps that of the world.

In 1962 the failure of Armstrongism to understand what was happening both technologically and prophetically was illustrated by the following statements:

"In Joel 1, in Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21 and John 13-in Revelation 6, and in other prophecies, a revolution in the weather-leading to unprecedented famine by around 1970-72 is prophesied. In its wake is prophesied frightful disease epidemics! A third of the people of the U.S. and British Commonwealth nations will die of this scourge." (The Plain Truth. Herbert Armstrong, Feb. 1962, pp. 5, 7.)

This aspect of prophecy was taken from the Book of Revelation but completely misapplied. Global Warming and its role was not even mentioned, let alone comprehended or understood as part of the sequence.

Ted Armstrong was establishing his father as a true prophet so that he might continue in his footsteps. He did that well enough, as neither he nor his assistants got anything right either.

In 1962 he said:

"It doesn't take an understanding of certain 'Bible doctrine,' or necessary agreement with it, to admit to yourself candidly that what Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong was faithfully proclaiming back before, during and right at the close of World War II, and what he and others who have since come to join him in this great work of God have been proclaiming day in and day out ever since-is actually happening before your very eyes!" (Garner Ted Armstrong, The Plain Truth, Nov. 1962, p. 21).

1963
In his first article, in the March 1963 PT, Gene Hogberg said the worst weather in a decade meant the start of the famine cycle. It seemed that each had to follow the leader in false prophecy. They reinforced and believed the false statements of each other as proof of reality.

In 1963 the JWs were not going to be left out of the false prophecy race either:

"Of what significance is this today? It means that by the fall of 1963 mankind has dwelt upon this earth 5,988 years. Does this mean, then, that by 1963 we had progressed 5,988 years into the 'day' on which Jehovah 'has been resting from all his work'? (Gen. 2:3) No, for the creation of Adam does not correspond with the beginning of Jehovah's rest day. Following Adam's creation, and still within the sixth creative day, Jehovah appears to have been forming further animal and bird creations. Also, he had Adam name the animals, which would take some time, and he proceeded to create Eve. (Gen. 2:18-22; see also NW, 1953 Ed., footnote on Vs. 19) Whatever time elapsed between Adam's creation and the end of the 'sixth day' must be subtracted from the 5,988 years in order to give the actual length of time from the beginning of the 'seventh day' until now. It does no good to use Bible chronology for speculating on dates that are still future in the stream of time." (All Scripture is inspired of God and Beneficial, 1963, page 286).

No chronology was identified that demonstrated this sequence and the Ussher system was never checked. Had it been checked, it would have shown this statement to be yet another false prophecy.

In the November 30, 1963, co-workers letter Herbert Armstrong said: "We have only eight years to finish the Work." In a co-workers letter of November 22, 1963, he had said that: "In eight years all of our ministers will be silenced." He meant that religious persecution would silence the ministry of the Worldwide Church of God. At least it might have spared us all this false prophecy.

1964
In 1964 Ron Kelly joined the ranks of the false prophets and said:

"The unification of Germany? Perhaps it will take place sooner than we expect! The unification of ten nations in Europe is certain to be brought about within a very few years." (Ron Kelly, The Plain Truth, Sept. 1964, p. 20.)

They decided that H Bomb warfare had to occur so, to fit it into their time frame, they said in a 1964 co-workers letter that it was "only 7 yrs before H-bomb warfare breaks out"

1965
In a 1965 PT article they said that by 1969 Britain would be helpless & impoverished, seeking help from Germany.

Roderick Meredith said in 1965 that:

"Frankly, literally dozens of prophesied events indicate that this final revival of the Roman Empire in Europe-and its bestial persecution of multitudes of Bible-believing Christians-will take place within the next seven to ten years of your life!" (Rod Meredith, The Plain Truth, Feb. 1965, p. 48).

In the same issue, Rod Meredith reportedly said that there was "documented proof Hitler did not die in his bunker"

In May 1965 he went on to say:

"Bible prophecy indicates that the final attack on the U.S. and Britain by this coming 'Beast' power could easily be launched perhaps as early as the spring of 1972-or earlier ...." (Rod Meredith, The Plain Truth, May 1965, p. 45).

Rod Meredith claimed that a "trade embargo by the European Common Market will ruin Britain and US."

1965 was to be littered with silly and false statements that showed no prophetic insight whatsoever. Some were just bizarre. They said that East Jerusalem would remain in Gentile hands until Christ's coming, and less than two years later the Israelis conquered it.

The May 1965 PT claimed that: "Hitler will be falsely resurrected by the Pope".

In the 13 December 1965, co-workers letter, Herbert Armstrong said: "We are in the grand smash climax - only 6 years left."

Herman Hoeh’s prophecy runs out of time and is proven false, like everything else he said. "The sword of Communism and of the revived fascism in Central and Southern Europe will begin (by 1965) to bring us to our knees." Forty years later it is still an unrealized false prophecy.

In the late 1960's they began to claim that by the mid 1970's Britain would have lost all her sea gates. Britain established her East of Suez policy at this time and, after helping Malaysia and Singapore establish as major nations, withdrew from there. Britain relinquished Hong Kong at the end of the 200-year lease period at the end of the 20th century but still holds bases on Gibraltar, Cyprus, Ascension, Mauritius, and other places. It was announced publicly but they had to turn it into a prediction on their part, and got it wrong even then.

1966
In a 1966 PT article by Dale Schurter we were all told to “prepare for famine in US within 3-5 yrs.”

The failure of the RCG/WCG ministry to understand the jubilee calendar or farming at all meant they gave out wrong advice and then used that wrong advice as proof that there would be famine and things would not work.

Herbert Armstrong taught against fertilizer and hundreds of WWCG farmer members were bankrupted as a result of following his teaching that it was sinful. Their failure to restore the jubilee calendar also meant that the farmers never were in sync with the true calendar.

Roderick Meredith reportedly said in a 1966 sermon that within three years, by 1969, society would have collapsed in America. He said that millions would flee into cities. Why one would go to the city in a social collapse is baffling to the observer, but he said it. It did not happen, as we all know.

In 1966 the Ussher chronology was again thrown away and people came up with 1975 as the end of the 6000-year period. What they based it on is as mysterious as the calculations of the JW system previously.

"According to this trustworthy Bible chronology six thousand years from man's creation will end in 1975, and the seventh period of a thousand years of human history will begin in the fall of 1975 C.E Six thousand years of man's existence on earth will soon be up, yea within this generation. The rein of Christ...to run parallel with the 7th millennium ..." (Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God, 1966, p. 29-30)

So in 1966 we see that the JWs were running with 1975 as well as the RCG. This seemed to be a case of “my dog barks when my neighbour’s dog barks.”

"Discussion of 1975 overshadowed about everything else. 'The new book compels us to realise that Armageddon is, in fact, very close indeed,' said a conventioneer." (Watchtower 15/10/1966, p 629)

In 1966 they ran with this book and used it as proof of a new (and equally false) system.

"In this twentieth century an independent study has been carried on that does not blindly follow some traditional chronological calculations of Christendom, and the published timetable resulting from this independent study gives the date of man's creation as 4026 B.C.E. So six thousand years of man's existence on earth will soon be up, yes, within this generation." (Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God, p29, 1966

It seemed to be based on a date of 4026 BC ending the 6000 years in 1975. If we took the creation of Adam in 4004 BCE, which is according to the Ussher chronology, then we take the fact that Adam was created as a man and we can arrive at a notional date of the Jubilee in 4024. This may well be the assumption that was used, but the dates were two years out as the JWs often are. The capacity for them to plagiarise from one another and their lack of historical education probably is at the root of this error. Thus, the jubilee 1977/8 is the one meant. The problem is then extended to the fact that the earth was not cursed for another jubilee. That is, it was not commenced until the end of Adams period of accountability, until he was thirty years of age. Thus, the end of the 6000 years is, at the earliest, to end in the jubilee of 2027 and not in 1977. If Herbert Armstrong and the Watchtower and Bible Tract Society were keeping God’s Calendar correctly, and the jubilee system, they would never have made this or the previous errors (see also the paper God’s Calendar (No. 156)).

1967
Both churches and ministries carried on in this vein in 1967.

"Just think, 1975 marks the end of 6,000 years of human experience.....Will it be the time when God executes the wicked?....It very well could be, but we will have to wait to see.'”(Watchtower, 1/5/1967, p 262)

"The 'Day of the Eternal'-a time foretold in more than thirty prophecies-is going to strike between 5 and 10 years from now!... I am not writing foolishly, but very soberly, on authority of the living Christ!" (Herbert Armstrong, The Plain Truth, Feb. 1967, p. 47.)

So Herbert Armstrong claimed to speak on the authority of Christ and made Christ complicit in this false prophecy.

In the July 5, 1967 co-workers letter, HWA stated that: "The Jews will demolish the Dome on the Rock"

He also made agreements with powers that would have no power to do what he arranged within a short period. These facts showed he really had no prophetic knowledge of even the short-term realities.

He was to say:

"Right now, just prior by not more than five to seven years, to the coming terrible Day of the Lord, the living Christ has moved swiftly to open the all-important door that has been closed since the days of the original apostles! ...Almighty God has opened to The World Tomorrow [broadcast], exclusively, the gigantic door of superpower radio from Jerusalem!... We have signed with the Hashemite Government of Jordan, a five year binding contract.... And when this time came, to whom did God open up these precious radio facilities? Not to Roman Catholics... nor the Protestants! Nor the Coptics (sic).... No, He has opened it exclusively, by binding contract with the Government of Jordan, to His Work.... This proves which voice on earth today is God's own voice.... If you ever had any doubts whatever about where the real Work of God is, you ought to be sure now!" (Ibid, p. 6) (Herbert Armstrong, Co-worker letter of April 17, 1967, pp. 3-4).

Armstrong said:

"There will very soon be a Temple in Jerusalem, with daily sacrifices once again being offered.... Jerusalem will be surrounded and captured...by the Fascist-Nazi armies of the European Empire, already starting to rise now out of the Common Market." (Herbert Armstrong, PT. June 1967, p. 2.)

In the same year in the PT he said:” The Israelis will make a deal with the Vatican to build a Third Temple by 1972.”

In 1967 at the Passover, speaking at Bricket Wood, England, Herbert Armstrong said that within the year, Jordan would conquer west Jerusalem from Israel. The reality was that within six weeks Israel conquered West Jerusalem and took it from Jordan.

1968
The JWs said in 1968:

"The immediate future is certain to be filled with climatic events, for this old system is nearing its complete end. Within a few years at most the final parts of Bible prophecy relative to these last days will undergo fulfilment resulting in the liberation of surviving mankind into Christ's glorious 1000 year reign!" (Watchtower, 1/5/1968)

They took up the timeframe advanced the previous year and in 1968 said:

“Eight years from the Autumn of 1967 would bring us to the Autumn of 1975, fully 6,000 years into God's seventh day, his rest day. (Watchtower, May 1, 1968 p. 271).

Again they said:

"Why Are You Looking Forward To 1975?" … "What about all this talk concerning the year 1975? Lively discussions, some based on speculation, have burst into flame during recent months among serious students of the Bible. Their interest has been kindled by the belief that 1975 will mark the end of 6,000 years of human history since Adam's creation. The nearness of such an important date indeed fires the imagination and presents unlimited possibilities for discussion." (Watchtower, Aug. 15, 1968, p. 494)

In the same issue:

"'Adam Created At Close Of 'Sixth Day' Are we to assume from this study that the battle of Armageddon will be all over by the autumn of 1975, and the long-looked-for thousand-year reign of Christ will begin by then? Possibly, but we wait to see how closely the seventh thousand-year period of man's existence coincides with the Sabbath-like thousand-year reign of Christ....It may involve only a difference of weeks or months, not years” (Watchtower, Aug. 15, 1968, p499).

This false prophecy and hysterical scenario seemed to spread to the White House administration, and not solely in 1968 either.

"I know enough of what is going on to assure you that, in fifteen years from today, this world is going to be too dangerous to live in." (Truth That Leads To Eternal Life, p 9, 1968 edition, Quoting USA Secretary of State Dean Acheson in 1960, [1981 edition deleted "in fifteen years from today" i.e. in 1975])

They also carried on the false system of the RCG. It seemed to be that they fed on one another’s false prophecy.

The JWs said:

"More recently, the book entitled "Famine-1975!" [by W. & P. Paddock, 1967, pp. 52,55,61.] said concerning today's food shortages: "Hunger is rampant throughout country after country, continent after continent around the undeveloped belt of the tropics and subtropics. Today's crisis can move in only one direction -toward catastrophe. Today hungry nations; tomorrow starving nations." … "By 1975 civil disorder, anarchy, military dictatorships, runaway inflation, transportation breakdowns and chaotic unrest will be the order of the day in many of the hungry nations." (The Truth That Leads To Eternal Life, p 88-89, 1968)

"1914 a marked year. Years in advance Bible Scholars realized that 1914 was to be a year of great significance. They expected great changes to take place, and the facts confirm that 1914 was, indeed, a marked year." (The Truth That Leads To Eternal Life, 1968, 40,000,000 ed., p. 91).

"The Bible speaks of the time in which we are living as the "last days" or the "time of the end." (2 Timothy 3: 1; Daniel 11: 40) The facts show that this is a limited period that has a definite beginning and a definite end. It began in 1914 when Jesus Christ was enthroned as king in the heavens. It will end when God destroys this present wicked system of things. … How soon will that be? God's own Son, Jesus Christ, gives the answer. After drawing attention to the many things that mark the period from 1914 onward as the "time of the end," Jesus said: "This generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur." (Matthew 24:34) Which generation did he mean? Jesus had just referred to persons who would "see all these things." "These things" are the events that have taken place since 1914 and those yet to occur down to the end of this wicked system. (Matthew 24:33) Persons born even as much as fifty years ago could not see "all these things." They came on the scene after the foretold events were already under way. But there are people still living who were alive in 1914 and saw what was happening then and who were old enough that they still remember those events. This generation is getting up in years now. A great number of them have already passed away in death. Yet Jesus very pointedly said: 'This generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur.' Some of them will still be alive to see the end of this wicked system. This means that only a short time is left before the end comes!" (Truth That Leads To Eternal Life, p. 94, 1968)

1968 "Just think, brothers, there are only about ninety months left before 6,000 years of mans existence on earth is completed... The majority of people living today will probably be alive when Armageddon breaks out, and there are no resurrection hopes for those who are destroyed then. So, now more than ever, it is vital not to ignore that spirit of wanting to do more." (Kingdom Ministry, March 1968, p. 4 [the calculation is based on 1968 + 90 months = 1975]).

1968 "During World War 1, God's people expected it to lead directly into Armageddon, but Jehovah prevented such a climax at that time. We didn't succumb to such an expectation during World War II. (Kingdom Ministry, Jan. 1968, p. 5)

1968 "But what about today? Today we have the evidence required, all of it. And it is overwhelming! All the many, many parts of the great sign of the last days are here, together with verifying Bible chronology." (Awake!, Oct. 8, 1968, p. 23)

1968 "True, there have been those in times past who predicted an "end" to the world, even announcing a specific date. Yet nothing happened. The 'end' did not come. They were guilty of false prophesying. Why? What was missing? Missing from such people were God's truths and the evidence that He was using and guiding them.'' (Awake, Oct. 8, 1968)

1969
The scenario was carried on into 1969 with the JWs developing the theme. It was from this year, as we will see, that the RCG began to develop their timeframes more explicitly.

"There is only a short time left before Jehovah will destroy this wicked system of things." (Watchtower, Jan. 15, 1969).

"in view of the short time left, a decision to pursue a career in this system of things is not only unwise but extremely dangerous....Many young brothers and sisters were offered scholarship or employment that promised fine pay. However, they turned them down and put spiritual interests first." (Kingdom Ministry, June 1969, p. 3)

1969 More recently earnest researchers of the Holy Bible have made a recheck of its chronology. According to their calculations the six millenniums of mankind's life on earth would end in the mid-seventies. Thus the seventh millennium from mans creation by Jehovah god would begin within less than ten years. Apart from the global change that present-day world condition indicate is fast getting near, the arrival of the seventh millennium of mans existence on earth suggests a gladsome change for war-stricken humankind. ...In order for the Lord Jesus Christ to be Lord even of the Sabbath day, his thousand-year reign would have to be the seventh in a series of thousand-year periods or millenniums. (Matt 12:8, AV) Thus it would be a sabbatic reign. Since early in the existence of mankind Satan the Devil has been on the loose, making the human family to toil in hard bondage, causing the earth to be filled with violence before the global flood of Noahs day and inducing the same old earth to be filled with even greater violence today. Soon now six millenniums of his wicked exploiting of mankind as his slaves will end, within the lifetime of the generation that has witnessed world events since the close of the gentile times in 1914 till now, according to the prophetic words of Jesus in Matthew 24:34. Would not, then, the end of six millenniums of mankind's laborious enslavement under Satan the Devil be the fitting time for Jehovah God to usher in a Sabbath millennium for all his human creatures? Yes, indeed! And his King Jesus Christ will be Lord of that Sabbath." (Watchtower, Nov. 15, 1969, p. 622, 623).

After 1969 Herbert Armstrong (by design or default) began to agree with the JWs and claim that Christ’s coming would be 1975 whereas, in the 1960s, he had claimed it would be 1972, as we see above.

The Claims of the 1970s
A bevy of strange and false prophecies and prophets were to emerge in the 1970s.

In early 1970's co-worker’s letters a number of prophetic claims began to emerge. Herbert Armstrong said that: “Prince Charles will become king of England & become the wicked prince prophesied in book of Isaiah.”

The Armstrong claims were that Germany would make a deal with the Soviets to take over Eastern Europe. However, it was the US that negotiated the Soviet withdrawal from East Europe in 1989-91.

The late Moses David (formerly David Berg) was the founder of the Christian religious group, The Children of God. He predicted that a comet would hit the earth, probably in the mid 1970's and destroy all life in the United States. One source indicated that he believed it would happen in 1973.

Tele-evangelist Arnold Murray taught an anti-Trinitarian belief about God, and Christian Identity. In the 1970's, he predicted that the Antichrist would appear before 1981.

1971
In 1971The JWs said:

"Shortly, within our twentieth century, the "battle in the day of Jehovah" will begin against the modern antitype of Jerusalem, Christendom." (The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah; 1971; 2nd ed.; p. 216).

1972
After Leonid Brezhnev became Soviet leader in 1964, nuclear tensions with the West dramatically eased. By 1972, Brezhnev, with Nixon, had inaugurated the era of superpower détente. This détente was at the very time that Herbert Armstrong and Herman Hoeh had for so long claimed America would be destroyed. It is almost as though they gave utterance to a deep desire of the demons that was not allowed to surface for some time to come.

As 1972 approached and the time came to flee to the “place of safety,” we heard all sorts of things from the Armstrong system. In 1972 Herbert Armstrong said:

"We do not set dates!... Yet in our human zeal and enthusiasm for getting this greatest mission on earth done, we have a few times come close to it or appeared to-and that we deeply regret...if we...appear to set a date, I feel I do not need to apologize!" (Herbert Armstrong, Tomorrow's World, Feb. 1972, p. 31.)

The JWs meanwhile were on the way to another embarrassing failure. In 1972 they said:

"Of course, it is easy to say that this group acts as a 'prophet' of God. It is another thing to prove it. The only way that this can be done is to review the record. What does it show?" (Watchtower April 1, 1972, p. 197)

"Does this admission of making mistakes stamp them [Watchtower] as false prophets? Not at all, for false prophets do not admit to making mistakes." (Watchtower, Nov. 1, 1972, p. 644)

"If it is his purpose to have this beautification of the whole earth accomplished by the end of his seventh creative day - Scripturally a period of seven thousand years, then the time is near at hand for the ruining of the earth by exploiters to be stopped by theocratic power and the blessed transformation to a delightsome garden to begin. Already, nearly six thousand years of man's existence from the close of the sixth creative day have run their dreary course. We must be approaching the threshold of that thousand-year-long reign of Jesus Christ, which must be accompanied by Paradise according to what Jesus promised the sympathetic evildoer on the stake there at Mount Calvary." (Paradise Restored to Mankind - By Theocracy, 1972; p. 18)

The newly named and articled Worldwide Church of God was to say from 1973 onwards, that Britain would leave the European Community. It is now thirty years and still no referendum is allowed to its people to leave.

In 1974 Herbert Armstrong claimed that:

• after Nixon's resignation, the United States would never again lead the world or be effective in war.

• the US would prove unwilling & unable to go to war to protect world oil supplies from the Persian Gulf.

There have been two wars in the Persian Gulf and Iraq and there is no sign of an end to the conflict.

In 1974 the JWs were still rationalising their prophetic error filled scenario.

"This remnant of anointed ones have identified themselves on the pages of history since 1914 C.E. Before this year members of this anointed remnant had been earnestly studying God's Word apart from Christendom. They put the Holy Bible ahead of man-made religious traditions. As early as 1876 they were publishing that the Gentile Times of 2,520 years would terminate in the year 1914. Events that have taken place from that year onward prove they were not wrong." (God's "Eternal Purpose" Now Triumphing For Man's Good, 1974, pp. 178-179);

"Yes, the end of this system is so very near! Is that not reason to increase our activity?...Reports are heard of brothers selling their homes and property and planning to finish out the rest of their days in this old system in the pioneer service. Certainly this is a fine way to spend the short time remaining before the wicked world's end." (Kingdom Ministry, May 1974, p. 3);

'It also tells us that this millennium must be preceded immediately by the most destructive war in all human history. We can now see the political rulers... being gathered... for that War of all wars....' (Watchtower, July 1, 1974, p 397).

In 1974 the Astronomers John Gribben & Stephen Plagemann predicted the Jupiter Effect. They wrote that when various planets were aligned on the same side of the sun, tidal forces would create solar flares, radio interruptions, rainfall and temperature disturbances and massive earthquakes. The planets did align in 1984, as they had done many times before in history. The alignment, as seen from the earth, saw nothing unusual happen.

1975
1975 came and the problems were the same as the JWs experienced with their false prophecy in 1925:

"The year 1925 came and went. Jesus' anointed followers were still on earth as a class. The faithful men of old time - Abraham, David and others - had not been resurrected to become princes in the earth. (Ps. 45:16) So, as Anna MacDonald recalls: '1925 was a sad year for many brothers. Some of them were stumbled; their hopes were dashed...Instead of it's being considered a 'probability,' they read into it that it was a 'certainty.' and some prepared for their loved ones with expectations of their resurrection." (Yearbook, 1975, p. 146)

In time, a direct contribution was made for the purpose of constructing a house in San Diego for brother Rutherford’s use. Concerning this property the 1939 book Salvation stated: 'At San Diego, California, there is a small piece of land, on which, in the year 1929, there was built a house, which is called and known as Beth Sarim. (Yearbook, 1975, p. 194)

"Does this mean, then, that mankind has now reached 6,000 years into the 7,000 year period that God blessed and made sacred as his rest day? ... No, It does not mean that." (Watchtower 1/10/1975 p. 579)

1975 However, suddenly, there came an end to World War 1. It did not lead on, as Bible students expected, into world revolution and anarchy or the battle of Armageddon. And the sincere worshippers of Jehovah who were in the new covenant with him through his Mediator Jesus Christ, found themselves still in the flesh on the earth. (Man's Salvation Out Of World Distress At Hand, 1975, p. 98)

Furthermore, the remnant of spiritual Israel had for decades, yes, since 1876, been looking forward to the ending of the Times of the Gentiles in the autumn of 1914. They were expecting God's Messianic Kingdom to be fully established in the heavens by then and also for the remnant of spiritual Israel to be glorified with Jesus Christ in the heavenly kingdom at that time. All understanding of the Holy Scriptures was slanted in that direction or adjusted to that idea. And when the year 1914 ended amid the flames of World War 1 and the remnant of spiritual Israel found themselves still here on the earth, then they were inclined to think that they would be glorified in the year 1918, three and a half years after the end of the Gentile Times. (Man's Salvation Out Of World Distress At Hand, 1975, p. 136).

But as usual it seemed to make no real difference to either them or the Worldwide Church of God. This was a great disappointment to both churches. Many people sold their property and gave the proceeds to the church expecting to be taken away to the place of safety in 1972. The properties were not returned. These problems had been experienced in 1844 with the Adventists, and in later times as we see above under the JWs. It appears that the homes were kept. Many lost everything.

A major point of note in this sequence is that after the 1972-1975 failure and the withdrawal of 1975 in Prophecy by the WCG, a number of definitions were rewritten. Herbert Armstrong revised his definition of what “spreading the gospel” meant to buy his way into brief meetings with leaders around the world.

Curiously, many of the leaders were toppled from office or even murdered (like President Allende of Chile) within a month of meeting him.

The accepted view of the Worldwide Church of God on that aspect was that: "Satan is removing these men before they can act on God's message." No one remarked that this interpretation made Satan out to be more powerful than God. The common sense "religious" interpretation might be that these people came under a curse for meeting Herbert Armstrong or listening to him in the first place. It is also possible that they became accountable for some reason, even though Herbert Armstrong himself could not have been given his performance.

The magnitude of the scale of false prophecy began to abate after this time as the leaders became too old and industrially senile to concoct scenarios of the same magnitude without altering their written background work. The others simply did not know enough.

We will now examine the post 1975 era next.

Wade Cox

Coordinator General

© Copyright 2005 Christian Churches of God, All Rights Reserved